Thy Will Be Done

Today is the feast day of the Annunciation, the night the angel spoke to Mary, and she said in response: Thy will be done.  And nine months later, Jesus was born on Christmas Day.  We so celebrate Christmas, but this was the night when the change really happened.  This was the start of a great change in the world, and the world would never be the same.

So often, we don’t really recognize the start of something important, but truly the start is a great thing in itself, the results, of which we often are so enamored with, just unfolds as it was meant to from the start.  God doesn’t make things happen in our lives; we are not His robots, but He did make our start.  Jesus was made a human for a reason.  We were born in this country at this time for a reason.  He gave us life, in part, so that we could be here, right now, to bring our purposes to fulfillment, as He did with His life.

Will this be our greatest hour?  Were we born to be here, right now, in this time of trial, because God needed people like us right now?

Tonight, in the chapel, I prayed the Sorrowful Mysteries of the rosary.  I hadn’t planned on that, but to my surprise when I looked into my folder for my rosary meditations, I did not find the meditations for the Joyful, Sorrowful, Glorious and Luminous Mysteries as I expected, but only found 4 copies of the Sorrowful Mystery meditations.  And so that is what I meditated upon, and I found my meditations were indeed sorrowful this night, for Jesus’ plight, and for ours.  I think I shall continue to pray these meditations each night during this crisis.

When I got to the 4^th Sorrowful Mystery of the rosary, the Carrying of the Cross, I read this meditation: “The heaviest weight is the loneliness.”  Jesus found it wasn’t the cross which was heavy, it was all the people who abandoned Him.  Those words gave me much to contemplate, alone in the chapel, or quarantined in my house.

Jesus, carrying His cross was alone, abandoned by all His friends --- except His mother.  She was there at His beginning --- the Annunciation we celebrate today, and there at His end.  That beginning was scary, but it made the end possible, the end of which was itself scary but which was also one of the greatest beginnings in the history of man: the gates of heaven would be open again.  God and man would be united again.  Things would again be as they were meant to be, and it started with Mary saying: Thy will be done.

In the chapel, I thought of the cross we are all now bearing, unwillingly.  Many of us, quarantined, are carrying it alone, as Jesus did.  People are dying in quarantined hospital rooms, alone.  Can we trust in the Father, even as Jesus did, and carry on?  Can we make no complaint, but trust that this for a greater reason?  Is this the time, the reason for which we were created?  And can we say, in our loneliness, in our sorrows, and perhaps in our pain and death, the words Mary said?  Her life was suddenly disrupted by the angel’s visit, her life set on a path beyond her control --- as ours now is --- and she said: Thy will be done. 

What do we say?

Lent is to be a time of willingly offering sacrifice, and it is to be a time of change.  Perhaps we had planned for no Lenten sacrifices this year, and this world condition was just thrust upon us --- like it or not --- but still, we can accept it, even as Jesus in His Passion repeated what His mother had said:  Thy will be done.  If there was ever anyone in the history of the world who did NOT have to accept pain and suffering, it was Him.  He was God!  And yet He did, for us, because He knew His sufferings were for a reason.

Turn off the computer, the phone, the television and in the quiet take time to consider what He did for us.  And then take time to consider what you might do.  You were created for this time; you were created for a reason.  Carry your cross, willingly.

The heaviest weight is the loneliness, but we can will to bear it.

Thank you, Mary, for saying: Thy will be done.

Hail Mary, full of grace
The Lord is with you.
Blessed are you among women,
And blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus.

Holy Mary, Mother of God,
Pray for us sinners, now,
And at the hour of our death.  Amen.

And please help us remember, dear mother, in this our time of sorrow, the other words which the angel also spoke to you that night: Nothing is impossible for God.

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It seems to me that there is a familiar parable which we could apply to this time of crisis.  The Prodigal Son took all the blessings his father gave him and went off to enjoy the world, taking advantage of everything he had, forgetting that it was a gift given to him.  But then, suddenly, his world changed.  He was in a terrible state, alone, with nothing to eat.  And afraid --- a lot like we are today.  All that he had in the past didn’t matter.  Today he was alone, and he had time to think.

The Prodigal Son remembered that his father was a loving father.  With humility he went home, searching for the father he had left, planning to beg for his mercy.

Are we the prodigal sons of today, who took all the blessings given us and went off to enjoy the world, forgetting about our Father, Who gave us those blessings?  Were we all caught up in things of the world, and now we suddenly, much to our surprise, find ourselves totally out of control of our lives?  The Prodigal Son was surprised to find his life out of his control, but then he remembered he had a father who loved him, and went begging for mercy.

Cannot we do the same?