May It Be Done To Me According To Your Word

May It Be Done To Me According To Your Word

These words that Mary speaks to the Angel Gabriel in assent to God’s plan for her and for the whole world are at once the simplest of phrases and the most difficult.  It is pure in clarity, pure in intent, yet fully aware of the difficulties that might lie ahead.  Gabriel has already assured Mary that God will be with her and she will conceive without having known a man.  I often wonder if a bit later, when she had had time to absorb the wonder of Gabriel’s visit and message, if thoughts and fears didn’t begin to creep in.  We do not know everything about the culture of her time, but we do know that women who had children before they had husbands were not kindly regarded and often stoned.  We do know that Joseph was at first hesitant to accept the message.  How much anxiety did Mary feel, even as she trusted in God, until Joseph received his reassurance from God and assented to God’s plan also?

What happened to Mary that day happens to us as well.  Each day God calls us to some task, asks us to endure a trial, not to test and punish us, but to strengthen us and teach us to rely on Him and Him alone.  Sometimes the trials we undergo are of human origin.  None of us is perfect, we all make mistakes.  We can hurt other people without intending to or even knowing that we did, just as we can be hurt by other people, even if they didn’t mean to hurt us and don’t know that they have done so.  The key here I think is to take our hurts and emotions to God through prayer and ask Him to help us sort out how we feel and how He wants us to handle the situation. 

Sometimes the event is accidental. Someone falls and breaks a bone, a car crashes and someone is injured. Another is given the diagnosis of a devastating illness.  The injured one must rely on other people for help, even if they do not like to do so.  Others must help, even when they can’t see how they can take care of one more person’s needs.  We do not know why these things happen.  We tend to question how a loving God can allow these bad things to happen to good people, to us who try to serve so faithfully.  It’s okay to ask the question, taking it to God in prayer.  But don’t allow the question to turn you away from God.  Seldom do we receive a direct answer about why we are undergoing a specific suffering or trial, but do we really need to know?  If we are holding onto God through His word and through prayer, we may find that we do not even that knowledge anymore.

Mary received grace from God that was sufficient for everything He asked her to do.  Even in the most difficult moments of her life, God was there, supporting her with grace.  He will support us too, in everything He asks us to do.  We may not understand why things are so difficult.  We may not have a clear understanding of exactly what it is He is asking of us.  That’s okay.  I think we are not meant to understand the deeper whys and wherefores of all the events of our lives.  We are called though, to understand that there is a deeper plan for our lives, one that only He knows, because only He can see the entire picture.  We are called to trust Him in His behind-the-scenes work as He, not we, brings those plans to fruition.  We are called to belief and trust.  He will give us the grace and strength to complete any task He calls us to, because it is His strength we are using, not our own.

May It Be Done To Me According To Your Word