Perfect Faith - New Evangelizers

Isn’t it exhausting?  All that rule-keeping and striving to be good, doesn’t that just make you tired? The Church calls us to task about how we worship, act, think, pray and speak.  Just keeping track of all that stuff is enough to make you tired.  We aim toward perfection but never seem to even get close.

Then there is all of the guilt making. You know, the example of those saints who had it all together!  We look at them and just shake our head;  “I could never be like them, it’s too hard.”  The trust of Job, the bravery of Joan, the perseverance of Moses, the obedience of Joseph, the perfection of Mary!  Makes me a just a little jealous.  But, maybe the concept we have in our head of how the Saints lived and who they are is not that accurate?

In 2016, far away from the actual event of the nativity the Church and it’s members (us) have formed assumptions and opinions about how it was back then.  Mary in particular has taken on a persona that many see as without peer. She is the perfect believer who had a perfect existence because she was especially chosen by God himself.  All of us know that we are definitely not Mary.  That was a one-time event in the history of the world!

So what about Mary?  The Bible does not give great detail about her life but the bits that are there are tantalizing.   For instance, at the Annunciation, we know that she tells the angel that God can do as he wishes with her.  Earlier, in the encounter, though we see her questioning the heavenly messenger:

So, Mary is not quite the docile picture of perfection.  She has questions about how crazy this situation is and finally gives the angel “permission” to carry here ascent back to God.  If an angel appeared to you with a task from God, would you ask questions?  Mary clearly had a mind of her own.  As we follow the story we see that Mary’s life is no “bed of roses”;  with a newborn she is yanked out of her own country to travel a distance on a donkey, no less.  She has to establish a home in a foreign country where she does not even speak the language based on her husband’s crazy vision. After establishing a home she is asked to pick up roots one more time and return to the country that she fled.  She has to hear from relatives and friends that her son is really “crazy”.  After finding her lost child she is publicly embarrassed by the twelve-year-old when he sasses her at the reunion.

In addition, as a brand new mother, she heard mysterious prophecies of disaster and things that will change human kind for all of history from smelly shepherds who suddenly barged in right after the birth, eccentric astrologers on camels and and strangers at the Temple.  All she was trying to do was be a good believer and obey the Law.  But she was burdened with information that would play over and over in her mind for the rest of her life.

Last, she had to endure the ultimate sorrow in being a living witness to the ultimate cruelty and torture of her only child.  She watched the nails driven, the spear thrust and the last breath of her son. Then she physically experienced the receipt of his spittled, bloody, ravaged body.  The was same body that she held as a newborn.

Even in her perfection of attitude, faith and trust of God, Mary received no privilege, no breaks. Her perfection did not change the craziest circumstances of her life.  The one thing that never changed for her was her trust in God.  The ability to execute our faith perfectly has nothing to do with whether we will go to heaven or not as “Good Catholics”.  Our trust does.  When nothing else makes sense it’s our trust in God that moves us forward.  Do your best, that is the most that you can do.  Like Mary, though, cling to trust in God.  In the long run that’s the only thing that will fill in all the blanks