Mary and the 'More Excellent Way'

When Mary visited her cousin Elizabeth, she bore within her the Incarnate Word of God as a living tabernacle of love.

CHESAPEAKE, Va. (Catholic Online) - The Apostle Paul wrote to the Christians in Corinth: "But I shall show you a still more excellent way." If I speak in human and angelic tongues 2 but do not have love, I am a resounding gong or a clashing cymbal. And if I have the gift of prophecy and comprehend all mysteries and all knowledge; if I have all faith so as to move mountains but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away everything I own, and if I hand my body over so that I may boast but do not have love, I gain nothing. Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, (love) is not pompous, it is not inflated, it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury, it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails." (1 Cor. 12:31, 13)

When Mary visited her cousin Elizabeth, she bore within her the Incarnate Word of God as a living tabernacle of love. (Luke 1:38-45) Jesus, the Redeemer in the womb, was already saving the world and Mary, his chosen mother, was already His first disciple. This little Virgin from Nazareth not only experienced the great miracle but became herself a vehicle of grace for others. God was the center of her life, not an "add on" and she bacame a vessel of His love.

God should not simply be not an "add on" in our own life. Let's be honest. Do we live in a way in which He appears to be? Is he like the God we put on the shelf and take on and off when we feel we have need of Him? Or, do we live in the realization that He is the very foundation of life itself?

The living God is the Source and Summit of our life. Without Him, we would have no life at all. This is why true Spirituality is "inside out" rather than "outside in." There is a way, a pattern that all men and women are invited into - not just once, but daily, which becomes transformative. This way opens for each of us the deeper meaning of every human life and is the path to authentic peace and the portal of the mystery of meaning itself.

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It is what Christian Scripture calls the "more excellent way", the way of Love. St. Paul wrote about it in his beautiful first epistle to the Christians in the Greek City of Corinth. Mary understood this way and walked this way with extraordinary humility.

Is it any wonder that the early Christians painted her image in the catacombs during their moments of fear, persecution and doubt? They found great inspiration from this little woman of great faith. In her "yes" they came to understand that ordinary people can change human history. They were inspired to add their own "yes", their own "fiat" to hers.

Justin Martyr and many other early Christian apologists found in her "fiat", her obedient "yes" to the angel, the undoing of the "no--I will not serve" given by the first woman Eve. They called Mary "The Second Eve", the mother of a new creation. In her womb was carried the One whom the biblical authors would call the "New Adam", he was born from her as the first born of a new race of men and women who would find a new birth through His life, death and Resurrection.

That same Redeemer now resides within, and lives through, all those who respond to the invitation of Love like she did. Mary's choice, her response to the invitation of a God who always respects human freedom, is a singularly extraordinary event in all of human history.

However, it is meant to be much more. It is an invitation to each one of us to explore our own personal histories and to write them anew in Him.

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