LENTEN MEDITATIONS:
V. MARY, GOD’S SERVANT
THE JOURNEY OF LENT is a journey of conversion, penance, and reconciliation. The Fathers of the Church, all the saints invite us to change, metanoia, renewal. Among the saints, Mary, who is above all the saints and angels, calls us to be God’s servants, that is, to do God’s will.
In the context of Lent, let us reflect on the servanthood od Mary, of Jesus, and ours
MARY IS GOD’S SERVANT
Let us imagine the lovely scene of the Annunciation. Mary is praying. The angel Gabriel appears to her and tells her: “Rejoice… The Lord is with you… You are to conceive and bear a son, and you must name him Jesus…, Son of the Most High.” Mary asks the archangel: “How can this come about, since I have no knowledge of man?” Gabriel answers her: The Holy Spirit will come upon you… and so the child will be holy and will be called Son of God.” Mary said: I am the servant of the Lord; let it be done according to your word” (Lk 1: 26-38), that is, may God’s will be done.
Throughout her life, the Mother of God will serve God, will do God’s will: obediently (let it be), humbly (God “has looked with favor on his lowly servant”), lovingly (she hurried to bring Jesus to Elizabeth and serve her during her pregnancy), and prayerfully (Mary meditated on everything happening around her Son Jesus). The Mother of God is the closest to her Son, and also the suffering servant.
As God’s servant, our Mother and Lady invites us all to be servants of God, which is the best way to do his holy will. She calls us to follow her Son and our Redeemer.
Our special devotion to Mary (above our devotions to saints and angels), our filial love of her, leads us to Jesus, who is the end of all devotions to Mary, the saints and angels. (Cf. LG, 66). Mary is our best intercessor before Christ, and our model in following her Son, who is our Way to walk in our life.
JESUS INVITES US TO BE SERVANTS
Jesus is God’s Son and his servant: “The Son of man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mt 20:28). He does the will of God always. This is the reason why he took flesh from the Virgin Mary. He became man to do God’s will: “I always do what is pleasing to God” ((Jn 8: 29); “Not my will, but your will be done” (Lk 22:42). Jesus is the Suffering Servant who suffers and dies for the salvation of the world –of all, of each one of us. The Servant of Yahweh “never opened his mouth, like a lamb led to the slaughter-house, like a sheep dumb before the shearers, he never opened his mouth” (Acts 8:32; cf. Is 53:7). Yes, “like a silent lamb, but in reality, instead of a lamb we have a man, and in the man, Christ that contains everything” (Meliton of Sardis).
We are God’s creatures and children, and therefore his servants. The psalmist proclaims: “I am your servant” (Ps 9:3-6). Jesus said to the apostles – and tells us: “Anyone who wants to become great among you must be your servant, and anyone who wants to be first among you must be your slave” (Mt 20:26-27). Saint Paul confesses: we are “servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God” (1 Cor 4:1).
As brothers and sisters, we are servants in the Church, our mother and teacher: all members are servants and the authorities are servant-leaders and the Pope, servant of servants of God (servus servorum Dei). God created Adam and us not because He needed us but because he wants to give us salvation, eternal life. St. Irenaeus writes: This is man’s glory – to remain steadfast in the service of God.” He adds: God is merciful and “wishes to bestow blessings on those who persevere in his service.
The tenants in the parable of the wicked tenants, maltreat the landowner’s servants to the point of killing them, and of killing even his son (cf. Mt 21:33-46). The son of the landowner (God the Father) represents the Son of God, Jesus who is the servant of servants
Good servants of God do – after Jesus and Mary – the will of God(Mt 6:10).
THE SERVANT DOES GOD’S WILL
To do God’s will means “conformity to the will of God” which “consists in a loving, total and intimate submission and harmony of our will with the will of God in everything he disposes or permits in our regard” (Jordan Aumann). Doing God’s will implies holy abandonment to God’s will and indifference towards everything that is not God. Doing God’s will as his servants permeates our life with spiritual joy. We are God’s joyful servants. A great poet writes: I was sleeping and dreamed that life was joyful; I woke up and saw that life was service; I began to serve and saw that serving was joy (Rabindranath Tagore).
Doing the will of God is only possible with God’s grace and love. However, we have to cooperate with God’s grace and love. Writes St. Augustine: “Your will be done”- “Be it done by God’s grace, with solicitude and effort in our part”: “He who created thee without thee will not justify thee without thee.” Hence, the need of continuing conversion from sin to love.
What does God want from us? First, God wants to give us eternal life; second, He wants our obedience to the commandments, and third, God wishes the restoration of the original dignity of the human person (St. Thomas Aquinas). God wants as to be perfect: “Be perfect as your Father is perfect” (Mt 5:43; cf. Mt 5:4-8). Perfection, holiness, life, servanthood necessarily includes the cross: “If you wish to be my disciple,” Jesus says, “renounce yourself, take up your cross and follow me” (Mt 16:24).
United to God’s will - to his love -, carrying our individual cross, which is the cross of our salvation, we encounter Jesus: for all the saints, “when the cross comes, it is the Lord who comes.” Remember, “For the servant, God is always right” (Urs von Balthasar).
Doing the will of God as servants entails – as Our Lady shows us well - obedience, humility, love and prayer. We have to be obedient, that is do the will of God and be able to say – like servant Mary - “fiat, let it be, your will be done.”
To do the will of God, we must be humble: The greatest among you, Jesus says, must be your servant. Anyone who raises himself up will be humbled, and anyone who humbles himself will be raised up” (Mt 23:11-12). God said to St. Catherine of Siena: I am He-Who-Is, You are she who is not. An apparent strong saying of Jesus: When you have done all you have been told to do, say, ‘we are useless servants: we have done no more than our duty’ (Lk 17:10). Certainly, with our “work of service” (2 Cor 6:3), “we can be more useful and effective when we realize that we are useless before the Lord” (S. Pinckaers).
To do the will of God as his servants we need, above all, to love with God’s love - charity. Only love urges us to get out of ourselves, to empty ourselves, to love God and neighbor, to share with others, and to forgive always - unlike the unforgiving servant of the Gospel (cf. Lc 12:41-48).
As members of the Church, we have to give to the world beside justice (the main role of the State) “the service of love” which the world needs. A love which helps us “see with the eyes of Christ and give to others the look of love” (Benedict XVI, DCE). Pope Francis requested us: when we give something to the poor, we should look to their eyes with compassion. As servants of God, of Christ in the Holy Spirit, we have to serve others with merciful love, the love we ought to practice in our everyday life by giving something of ourselves to our neighbors: a joyful smile, a kind word, a silent presence, a warm greeting.
To do God’s will as servants, we need to pray. We believe in God, hope in him and love him and, therefore, we have to pray: faith, hope and love pray! Jesus tells us: “Pray always and never lose heart” (Lk 18:1). As servants and children of God – and as sinners-, we have to pray always. What is the world’s greatest prayer? Someone answered: “The world’s greatest prayer is ‘your will be done’” (W. Barclay). Cooperating with God’s grace and love will require from all of us to pray -constantly
CONCLUSION
Jesus: “I came to serve, not to be served, I came to do the will of the Father.” Mary our Lady: “I am the servant of the Lord, let it be done according to your word,” that is, according to your will.
St. Thomas More disobeyid the King (and as a result he was martyred). Why? Because he had to obey the Lord: “I am my King’s servant, but first God’s servant.”
We are God’s servants, servants after Jesus, our redeemer and friend; after Mary, our dear Mother. Good Lord, have mercy on us! (FGB)