This year, 2019, on Cycle C, the 23rd
Sunday in Ordinary Time falls on the Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed
Virgin Mary, September 8. It is exactly 9 months after the day of the
Immaculate Conception, December 8 of the previous year.
Though the 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time
and the Feast of Mary’s Nativity may not seem related to each other, there is
something to connect these two. In fact, Mary’s life reflects important points
of the Gospel reading for the 23rd Sunday (Cycle C), Luke 14:25-33.
These points are:
- God is the prime object of our love in our discipleship (v.26). cf. Matthew 10:27
- We need to be able to endure trials in keeping our faith in Christ as disciples of Christ (v.27).
- Our discipleship must be strategic with the priority of our love on God and in denouncing all obstacles in our efforts to love God more than anyone else so that we can even sacrifice our own lives for God (vv. 26-33).
Now think of Mary’s life in light of the above
points of Luke 14:25-33.
As she accepted and submitted herself to the will of
God for her to serve Him as the Theotokos,
it was made clear that Mary’s priority of her love is God: she loved God more
than Joseph, her husband. Had she loved Joseph more than God, she could have
rejected God’s will out of her fear that being pregnant with a child other than
Joseph’s would damage her relationship with him. Mary overcame this fear by simply surrendering
her total self to the will of God (Luke 1:38), thus God became the priority of
her love over Joseph. In the meantime, God also reach out to Joseph to accept
Mary’s virgin conception of His Son and love her as his wife (Matthew 1:18-24)
as it is his way to love God more than anyone else. Thus, the marriage of Mary
and Joseph was saved as both of them loved God more than each other. In fact,
Jesus, the Son of God, was born in this context of love: both Mary and Joseph
put their priority of love on God. Consequently, Mary and Joseph loved their
Son, Jesus, more than themselves and each other in raising him.
Upon her acceptance of God’s will for her,
submitting her total self to God’s will for her, namely, making God as her love’s
priority, selfless Mary rushed to see Elizabeth, who became pregnant in her
advanced age by God’s will, supporting this elder cousin of hers (Luke
1:39-45). In her selfless state upon making God as the priority of her love
through submitting herself to the will of God, Mary’s soul was magnified with
joy of blessedness (Luke 1:46-56).
Because she let God become the priority object of
her love – above Joseph, her husband, being totally obedient to God’s will for her,
Mary has to carry her cross, as reflected in the Sorrowful Mysteries of the Holy
Rosary, fulfilling Simeon’s prophesy on Mary’s suffering because of her
priority love object: God the Son (Luke 2:33-35).
Mary’s strategy was to make a total surrender of
herself to the will of God for her so that she became able to love God more
than anyone else – even more than her husband, Joseph. Though she had to carry
her cross and suffered greatly, as a result of prioritizing God as her primary
love, upon offering her up totally to God, God reworded her with the Queenship
of Heaven and All Saints in heaven.
See how Mary’s selfless life of prioritizing her
love with God makes sense in Luke 14:25-33.
In our veneration of Mary as the Theotokos and our Mother on this
birthday of hers, on the 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle C, let
us reflect how we can love God more than anyone else upon strategically
becoming selfless as Mary did. Let our souls be magnified, like Mary's, by making God as the priority of our love, upon growing in selflessness, and becoming able to carry our cross.
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