A Mary Moment Monday post
I had to go to the back of the church to nurse the baby, so I had a clear view of the front of the church after Father’s homily on Holy Thursday last week. He invited everyone forward to have their feet washed.
“It’s a gift you give me,” he said, with a look that I now recognize. It’s a look of love for each of us and of gratitude for his vocation.
This year, I noticed something: the children were the leaders, the first responders to the generosity of the invitation, and they didn’t hold anything back. They were at the head of the line with open arms, wide smiles, and unabashed enthusiasm.
My six-year-old, who has been asking all year long when this Mass would be (it’s one of her favorites too), leapt up and was first in line. She was followed closely by my ten-year-old niece, who asked to miss her volleyball practice so that she could come to this Mass.
I ended up in the middle of the line, and I couldn’t help but reflect on how awkward I felt standing there. Then, when I was in the chair and Father leaned over to kiss my just-washed foot, I had the same conflicting thoughts I have every year: “Ewww, gross! Awww, how sweet!”
That night, my six-year-old, who related to Daddy in great detail everything about the Mass, from the foot washing to the procession to repose the Blessed Sacrament in the church basement, turned to me suddenly.
“Why did he kiss my foot?” she asked. “That’s GROSS!”
“Yes, it is.”
“Why would he do something so GROSS?”
“He’s showing us that when we love someone, we will even do gross things.”
Parenthood is full of moments of showing love and embracing gross, but I’ve also dealt with it in my role as sister, daughter, and friend. When you love, you serve.
Mary stands as a model for me of serving as loving. When she was asked to bear the Messiah, she said Yes, beginning her service to the world. Upon hearing that her aged cousin Elizabeth was six months pregnant, she dropped everything and traveled the 80 miles. When she saw that the young couple ran out of wine at Cana, she turned to Jesus with complete confidence.
Did Jesus learn his gentle ways from her? Could it be that when he looked the Samaritan woman in the eye, that he saw the scorn his mother must have endured from the people who just saw her as an unwed mother? Was Jesus’ love for us a product, in some way, of the love he saw every day during the hidden years?
Our faith gives us this gift of tangibility, of things we can touch and see and smell. It also gives us the gift of love: the love we give and the love we receive. As we rejoice over Easter, join me in smiling while you do those gross things that show your love.
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image credit: jotachito2003 on Flickr
You asked if Jesus’ love for us was the product of what he saw every day during the hidden years. I know you are not truly seeking an answer but I wanted to share my idea on this.
I don’t think Jesus’ love for us is a product of what He saw in the hidden years, rather, because Jesus is God in human Flesh, He embodies God’s love at all times. He was able to share that great love so deeply and more fully with his mother on earth,(more than with anyother human) because his mother, was in the disposition of being formed Immaculate, and being His Tabernacle. His love was not learned, and then given to others, rather a natural condition, that always was, even before His birth. He was the greatest, took a low form, lower than His own angels, to teach us that God’s love exsists. Once we know and experience that Love, then it is only natural to live in that love and by doing so it is shared to others around us. Jesus said that we cannot love without God loving us first. This was not the case with Jesus, because Jesus is God who always existed with no beginning. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, is the Trinity that always was, the three Persons, in one God. Because of Jesus’ great humility, by living in His human form, it is easy for us, to overlook the fact of His ability to have always loved us infinitely. Like wise, just as He took human form, He raises our human form into God’s unity. A very special place to be.
Good thoughts, Dawn. Thanks for sharing them.
I can’t help but think that the love Jesus saw throughout his life made an
impact on him. You bring out some great considerations…thanks again!
Hello Sarah. Again I comment here. I have heard similar impressions from other people, not just you, of the belief that Jesus could not know about love as a child or baby because he was a child or Baby. So after I commented you the first time, I did a little search. I wanted to know what the Church teaches on this. Well what I found was an article on the EWTN website written by Gerard Gaskin. The Title is Jesus Christ the Person. In the article he says that a belief that is challenged even today is that Jesus knew that he was God. Some say that Jesus grew in the knowledge that He was God. “The only real objection to this belief is based on the human idea that a baby is born knowing virtually nothing. How, people ask, could Jesus be a baby and yet know that He is God? The answer is that it is just as easy for God to be a baby as it is for Him to be an adult man. In each case, the infinite God takes on a limited, weak human nature at the same time that He is infinite God.” (part 3; 2nd Para)
The article continues with a reference where Pope Pius XII taught in his encyclical “The Mystical Body of Christ” the following: “He is gifted with those supernatural powers that accompany the hypostatic union, since the Holy spirit dwells in Him with a fulness of grace than which no greater can be imagined. To Him has been given “power over all flesh”; [79] “all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are in Him”[80] abundantly. The knowledge which is called “vision” He possesses with such clarity and comprehensiveness that it surpasses similar celestial knowledge found in all the saints of heaven. So full of grace and truth is He that of His inexhaustible fullness we have all received. [81] ” the vision of which Jesus possesed is the Beatific Vision” which is the sight of God. The sight of God which no man can imagine, and Jesus had this at all times, before taking on Human Flesh, at the moment of His conception as human, and still to this day. Jesus has never lost this sight of God. Therefore, I have to say, that since no man can ever out do God in His Grace and Love, it was Jesus as a baby, as a young boy, as an adult, who impressed the Love of God on others, not the love of other people on Jesus. When Jesus became man, died and rose to heaven, He joined Man to Heaven and to Himself. The specialty of God becoming man is diminished when one says, Jesus’ love is the product of man’s love, or even of His mother’s love. Jesus was God, his mother was not.
I think we agree, Dawn, and I appreciate you taking the time to leave such a thoughtful response! You (and your cited material) have given me much food for thought. Many blessings to you!