Trusting in the only one when all else fails

 ‘…Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfil his promises to her’ (Luke 1:45)

Luke 1:39-45 (8 September Year A: Birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary)

Trust is like glass – so easy to shatter in one instance and so difficult if not impossible to re-assemble. Trust is a sense that someone will deliver on their word – that someone will do the decent thing, the right thing. Trust is fragile. It is often broken and, tragically, some born into an environment where trust is very limited.  How to trust in these circumstances? Strictly speaking the holy scriptures do not advise the reader to trust others (but rather to love them even when they hurt and harm us). It tends to be silent on the question of trusting others. Sometimes, we are encouraged not to place our trust in ‘princes’ and the powers of this world. But, we are invited to trust in a higher power and love. This was the rock foundation of Mary’s life.

Today, Christians in many traditions including some of the reformed churches celebrate the birth of our sister in faith Mary the mother of Jesus and the theotokos – literally the ‘God-bearer’, ‘the Birth-Giver of God’ or ‘the one who gives birth to God’ in English from the Greek. In many places it is simply translated as ‘Mother of God’. In the Gaelic language the name of Mary, mother of Jesus (Muire), is treated differently to the name Mary (Máire). Muire is uniquely so as Máire is Mary for others.  Whatever the traditional appellation or the source of today’s feast celebrating her birth, the figure of Mariam, Muire, Mary is an important one in the Christian story over the centuries.  Mary is also found in the Koran where the people of that Book venerate her as they do Jesus (as a prophet). Some years ago the Economist ran a story on Mary with the cover showing an icon (an unlikely place to find such an icon ?). 

If Mary lived a trusting attitude throughout her life and thereby was open to a divine plan, a divine adventure than perhaps in today’s world we can see in Mary the model of someone who stands near very different people encouraging, watching, praying and listening? A sign of hope and trust in a broken world. Let us follow in this way and be born again on this birth day.