Becoming My Mama

In the past few years, one of the things that has become a constant observation in my family is this: I am becoming my mother. I have similar mannerisms as her. I talk like her. I host a party like her. I organize my desk and my home like she does. I find myself thinking and acting like her. But I don't consider this a bad thing. I consider it a huge compliment when people say that I am like her. In fact, in many ways, I have become like my mom not because of chance, but because I have strived to do so. Her example of being selfless, generous, devoted, and compassionate has made me want to be like her.

Recently, I prayed a Novena to Our Lady, Undoer of Knots. And though I took countless things from the devotion, one of the greatest things that it afforded to me was a greater love and appreciation for the Blessed Mother. I want to be like her. I want my life to be modeled after her example. I want to live as deeply abandoned and utterly faithful as did the Mother of God.

Like the Blessed Mother, I want to be a disciple that daily seeks for my own will to be overshadowed by the Lord's (Luke 1:35;38). I want to be a disciple who "ponders things in her heart" (Luke 2:19) who is committed to faithfulness by the grace of such a devout life of prayer. And by this interior disposition, I want to continue to be faithful even if "a sword will pierce", if persecution pervades, and if detachment is a necessity (Luke 2:35). I want to offer people the advice of "do whatever he tells you" (John 2:5) in the midst of emptiness and struggle, but only if that is the motto by which I live my own life. And I want my community to be "devoted...with one accord to prayer" as we are ever-focused on the call to be "witnesses....to the ends of the earth" (Acts 1:8; 14).

For these desires to come to fruition, though, I must acknowledge how she came to be this way. And for all of us who are striving to live by her example, we must see the way by which she was FORMED as our example. When Mary's cousin Elizabeth greeted her at the visitation, she did so by saying, "Hail, full of grace." Only by her being "full of grace" is Mary able to be our model. Only by her continual cry of "behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord, may it be done to me according to your word" (Luke 1:38) is she able to be such a witness to us.

God was able to manifest his power and goodness because of Mary's humble docility to him. Our Blessed Mother has become the quintessential example of how holiness, faithfulness, and joyful living are possible by the pouring out of the Spirit--a Spirit who welcomes himself into abandoned hearts such as hers. She is the example of what our lives could be like if we, too, recklessly abandoned ourselves to the Father's relentless pursuit of us. This week, as we reflect on the life of our Blessed Mother, may we ask for boldness to follow her example: to allow the Spirit to minimize our own desires that we might more fully follow the will of God and allow Jesus to dwell within us.