Mary, model in faith

The great privilege which she enjoyed, as the immaculate Mother of Christ, does not make her an exception to the basic law to which every Christian on earth is subject  the gradually maturing spiritual life of faith. According to the fundamental law, applicable to Mary and to every Christian, faith is nourished by contact, in belief, hope and love, with the living reality of salvation.

Mary’s faith was always coming up against contradictions. The prophets foretold that the Messiah would be a king and that the government would be upon his shoulders; yet he was born to Mary in subhuman conditions. What is more, she was obliged to seek refuge in Egypt with that Child whose future was to mean so much for Israel. The final contradiction for Mary was to see her son, who was to be king, go to ‘an inglorious death on the Cross. Mary had no idea how everything would eventually turn out, but she continued to believe and to trust in the message, hoping against hope.

Faith is necessary in everything that concerns the supernatural world. It is always possible when we approach that delicate and narrow zone which divides the temporal from the eternal, nature from grace, the human from the supernatural, that doubt, not necessarily any serious objection, may begin to trouble us. Mary experienced such difficulties, but she always believed, accepted and obeyed.