Like Mary

The texts today of the Roman Catholic Lectionary raise the question of how we should model Mary, as people who desire to respond to the call of God for greater intimacy. The texts tell of the promise made to the people in the Book of the Prophet Isaiah that a sign would be given of a virgin bearing a son who would testify to all that the Covenant is that "God is with us". Tradition holds that Mary was aware and learned about the Law and Prophets. Friar Jude Winkler adds some linguistic research into the translation of the Greek in the text from the Gospel of Luke in which the "future tense" of the verb is used by the angel who declares Mary as "one who has found favour with God" (full of Grace). Winkler teaches that this choice of tense indicates something true today which had always been true. Mary has always been full of the Grace of God. Does this make our imitation of Mary more difficult? In what way can our intimacy with God be deepened? Our invitation as Christians is to hear Jesus call "Follow Me". The physical and temporal Presence of Jesus in the world is in the Body of Christ, living humanity who, like Mary, carry Jesus in their being. We may meditate about our "state of grace" and worthiness to be in the role of Mary. It is the Letter to the Hebrews which gives us the consolation that our unworthiness and the lack of the use of the "future tense" in the translation of our position before God is not relevant to our "yes". The Life of Jesus, His Passion, Death and Resurrection are the actions of God towards humanity through which God enables for all people, for all time to say "Yes" as "Christophers" who carry Christ into the world every day.