Mary - episode 2

Look, my mother and my brothers!

In this second Special we conclude the presentation of the “path of Faith” Mary walked in; it is indeed a bright example for every Christian believer.
With Jesus’ adult life, Mary is in middle of the conflict between her son and a part of the people. Jesus is considered a swindler: «There was much murmuring among the crowds concerning him. Some said, “He is a good man.” Others said, “Not so, but he leads the crowd astray.”» (John 7,12); a blasphemer: «Why does this man speak like that? He is blaspheming; who can forgive sins but God alone?» (Mark 2,7); a possessed man: «He has Beelzebul and by the prince of the demons he casts out the demons» (Mark 3,22); a mad man: «He is out of his mind» (Mark 3,20). Mary has in front of her a radical choice: she can decide to become disciple of a son who is behaving like God on earth (see Mark 2,1-12), bringing forgiveness and healing to Israel outcasts (lepers and every kind of sick people, prostitutes, dishonest tax collectors), who seems not to marry and have children (to the Hebrew society it is disobedience to God and a refuse of His blessing: see Gen 1,28), who commands to love the enemies (Matt 5,43-48), who often clashes with the religious authorities because «he taught [the people] as having authority» and in a «new» manner (see Mark 1,22; 2,22; Matt 23), or she can consider Him «out of his mind», like all the other relatives do, trying to stop those scandalous behaviors.
Jesus’ Word becomes flesh and blood in His mother’s life: «Do not think that I came to send peace on the earth. I did not come to send peace, but a sword. For I came to set a man at odds against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a man’s foes will be those of his own household» (Matt 10,34-36). Even Mary, at the beginning, does not understand Jesus’ originality: the gospel of Mark describes well the situation. Jesus’ relatives go to Him, who is surrounded by the people listening to His Word, «to seize him» (Mark 3,21; the Greek verb is the same Mark uses for His arrest in the Gethsemane: see 14,46), thinking He is mad. «And he [Jesus] answered them, saying, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” And looking around at those who sat around him, he said, “Look, my mother and my brothers! For whoever does the will of God, the same is my brother, and my sister, and mother.”» (Mark 3,33-35). There is now a new family: they are the persons who listen to the Master’s Word and who put it in practice in their lives (see the same event narrated in Luke 8,19-21). Is Mary willing to accept it?
We know her decision: she preferred Jesus’ Word over the family, over her respectability, over the religion of her fathers and her personal beliefs. The Gospel does not present us the details of that choice, but it describes for us again her character in a dramatic moment: under her son’s cross. «But there were standing by the cross of Jesus his mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Cleopas, and Mary Magdalene» (John 19,25). Mary is there, «standing», it is not mentioned any weeping: more than the desperate mother she is the faithful disciple, who chose and followed her Master till the end, when even the apostles fled away with fear (see Mark 14,50). In that moment she really became Mother in the Spirit, Mother of all the believers in the sense Jesus meant.
Mary is absent in the stories of the Resurrected’s manifestations: the Gospel does not mention that Christ showed Himself to her after His victory over death. Maybe this is a sign that her Faith is now mature: those events, in facts are intended to the incredulous and the doubtful ones (see Luke 24,25.38 «O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken!», «Why are you troubled? Why do doubts arise in your hearts?»). From Mary’s faith, instead, the believers’ community restarts, renovated by the Holy Spirit (Acts 1,14; 2,1-4): «All these with one accord continued steadfastly in prayer, along with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers»; «Now when the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. Suddenly there came from the sky a sound like the rushing of a mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. Tongues like fire appeared and were distributed to them, and one sat on each of them. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit».



Mary’s life did not have advantages in the efforts of the Faith in the Gospel; it is indeed an example for all who want to be Jesus’ disciples. She always renewed her “yes” to God’s Project and to the Word of Life that pierced her soul (see Luke 2,35): «Blessed is she who believed, for there will be a fulfillment of the things which have been spoken to her from the Lord!» (Luke 1,45).