Feast of the Annunciation

Reflection by Fr Frankie McAuliffe SPS

Mary, what did God find so attractive in you that made Him choose you, above all other women, to be the Mother of His Son?

What was so unique, so special about you? I believe that, above all else, it must have been your honesty, your truthfulness.  More than any other creature, you lived the truth of your creature-hood.      

You were created by God; at each moment you were held in being by Him; and how well you knew it! Your whole being was anchored in this truth – that everything, even your very existence, was gift. Your heart was so empty of self-pre-occupation that it could be filled with the fullness of God.

Yes, Mary – emptiness was your only ‘possession’; it was the only gift you could give to God. But how precious was that gift. It was the gift that allowed God to trust you with a treasure that no creature could ever dare to expect – nothing less than His very own Son.

Yes, Mary, God found in you such a delightful playground. He could be as vulnerable as He wished; He could entrust to you all the fullness of his Divinity and know that in you it was completely safe.

For you never tried to possess God, either in your mind or in your heart. The closer the bond grew between you and your Son, the more amazed and bewildered you became.

Never any thought of greatness or self-importance – just a continual advance into adoration and gratitude, as you pondered on the bewilderingly great thing that ‘He who is mighty had done in you’.

Nor was there any attempt to use your privileged position to gain recognition among your friends. No suggestion of letting your divine motherhood become a self-conscious thing, something you would use to mark yourself off as different from others, as better than them.

The more the temptation to be special grew, the more you returned to that truth in which your whole being was grounded – that all was gift.

O Jesus Living in Mary

O Jesus, living in Mary, come and live in Your servants, in Your spirit of holiness in the fullness of Your might, in the truth of Your virtues in the perfection of Your ways, in the communion of Your mysteries.  Overthrow all enemy power by Your Spirit, to the glory of Your Father. Amen