Commemorating the Blessed Virgin

Yesterday at Good Shepherd we observed the feast of the Blessed Virgin Mary. I did something I don't usually do, I "free-texted." Don't anathematize me yet! I love the Magnificat, but that beautiful hymn of the Blessed Virgin is not the only confession that she makes about her adorable Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ. Just as beautiful, though not as poetic, is her faith in her holy Son at the wedding feast at Cana: "Do whatever He tells you." This is a beautiful teaching of the Blessed Virgin. It flies directly in the face of that view of her as intercessor or mediatrix. She is not interested in turning His head. She is not interested in manipulating His will for His people. She trusts that He will work for good for His people. She doesn't know how He will do it. She doesn't know when He will do it and she doesn't know if He will do it the way she wills. She simply trusts that doing what He tells us will be to our blessing.

And it always is! Christ is always interested in our blessing. We may not always recognize it, but it is true. Mary knows this and she teaches us to trust this truth as well. He whom she held in her motherly arms, He whom she cradled and nursed, He whom she cared for as an infant will care for her and us more thoroughly than we can ever imagine. Had He not changed the water into wine, He still would have given Mary and the wedding guests what they truly needed.

Mary does not turn the head of her Son any more than any other saint for whom He has shed His holy and precious blood, but she is indeed blessed amongst women, for she trusts in her holy Son for all good things. What a blessing the faith of the Virgin Mother is to us! We listen to her as our Mother as well and do whatever her precious Son tells us to do, trusting that His loving-kindness and mercy is more than sufficient for our eternal comfort and peace.