(Fourth Sunday of Advent (B): This homily was given at St. Pius X Church, Westerly, R.I. on December 22, 1996 by Fr. Raymond Suriani. Read Luke 1: 26-38.)

"Facing the real Mary."

There are many false ideas that people have about the Blessed Mother. Some, for example, misunderstand the dogmas of the Immaculate Conception and Assumption. Some think that the Church believes that Mary is a kind of demigod. People have all kinds of crazy ideas about Mary. But when all is said and done, you can summarize the many false ideas that people have about the Blessed Mother in two simple statements. Number 1: "Mary is not at all like me." Number 2: "Mary is exactly like me."

That first statement ("Mary is not at all like me") summarizes the attitude of people in the Church who say they love Mary, but who want to live life by their own rules. "Oh yes,’ they will say, ‘Mary is wonderful. Our Blessed Mother is the epitome of virtue and holiness. Which means that she’s not at all like me. Why, I could never be anything like her. I could never hope to imitate her in any of her virtues. So I won’t even try. I’ll just do my own thing." (A classic ‘cop-out,’ to use the common expression.)

"She’s not at all like me" is also the attitude of those Catholics who want to put Mary on par with Jesus. I think we all know of Protestants who accuse us Catholics of worshipping the Blessed Mother. That, of course, is not what the Church teaches. According to Church teaching, the Blessed Mother is to be honored, not worshipped. But I must admit, my brothers and sisters, it’s easy to understand where this misconception comes from. Because there are many Catholics who act as if they believe that Mary is the fourth person of the Blessed Trinity. In fact, they sometimes act as if Mary is more important than Jesus. For example, when I do my personal prayer time here in the sanctuary on weekday mornings, I often see men and women come into our church, march down the side aisle, light a candle, kneel before the statue of the Blessed Mother, and then get up and walk right out the door. Now, none of that is bad, in and of itself. But you see, these individuals do it all without ever acknowledging Mary’s Savior (and their Savior), who happens to be present in the Blessed Sacrament on the other side of the church!!! Could they at least genuflect? Just once--I don’t think that’s too much to ask! I think Mary would approve. In fact, I know the Blessed Mother would approve. Since in the Magnificat she acknowledged God as her Savior, she certainly wants her children to do the same!

Then we have those who err in the opposite direction. The first group says, "The Blessed Mother is not at all like me." This group says, "The Blessed Mother is exactly like me. There’s no difference. She sinned as much as I do, as much as any person does. Consequently, she has nothing special to teach me. I can completely ignore her." Now I wish I could say that this is specifically a Protestant error, but it’s not. Some Catholics have also bought into it.

I have my own theory as to why these 2 errors are so common, and I’ll share it with you this morning: They’re common because it’s much easier to embrace one of them, than it is to face the real Mary. It’s much easier to believe that the Blessed Mother is not at all like me or exactly like me, than it is to face the Mary that we encounter in the Bible. Because that Mary--the real Mary--challenges us! She challenges us in every dimension of our lives. And it’s a difficult challenge to face! For example, Mary challenges us in our lives to do the right thing even if it’s the hard thing. In today’s gospel scene from Luke 1, the Lord, through Gabriel, asks Mary to take on an awesome responsibility. In essence he says, "Mary, will you be the mother of my Son? Will you bring my only begotten Son into this sinful, dangerous world and care for him as your own? Will you be responsible for his upbringing? Please say ‘yes.’ The salvation of the world depends on it." (Remember that Mary was probably only 13 or 14 years old when this happened.) The Lord was asking her to do a very hard thing--and Mary knew it. But it was the right thing--and so she did it. She didn’t take the easy way out. Do we?

The real Mary also challenges us to face the difficult situations of our lives with faith and complete trust in God. Consider for a moment the elements of Mary’s "difficult situation:" She was 13 or 14 years old. She was pregnant. She was unmarried (by our standards). She was relatively poor and uneducated. Now I dare say, if you presented that "case study" to many Americans today, (without using Mary’s name) they would respond by saying, "See, this is precisely why we need federal funding to provide abortions for poor women. This poor girl, whoever she is, is not capable of providing for a child--that’s obvious. She has very few material and emotional resources. For heaven’s sake, she’s just a child herself!" That’s what many of our modern pundits would say. Mary’s response? "Be it done unto me according to your Word, O Lord." In other words, "Heavenly Father, in this very difficult situation, I trust in you completely. As Gabriel himself just told me, ‘Nothing is impossible with you.’" Do you see why so many people want to ignore the real Mary?

This morning I won’t go into all the ways Mary challenges us. That would probably take all day. But I’ll mention a few others:

Mary challenges us to be pure in our hedonistic society.

Mary challenges us to be humble--to give God the glory in everything we do.

And she challenges us to be "giving people"--to think of others before we think of ourselves. When the Lord questioned her at the Annunciation, Mary could have said, "Hey God, you’re asking me to do you a very big favor. What’s in it for me?"

She could have said that, but she didn’t. She was much more concerned with what was in it for you, and for me, and for the rest of the world.

Which brings us at last to the attitude that we should have toward Our Lady. Remember the two errors: Mary is exactly like me. Mary is not at all like me. Well, the truth is, Mary is not exactly like me, because I’m a sinner. She never sinned. She’s not like me in that her "yes" to God was total. She was the perfect disciple. But she is like me in that she was a human person. And so she gives me hope--hope that I can be a better follower of Christ, if I allow God’s grace to transform me in my humanity as it transformed her in her humanity.

And so we pray, in the words of a beautiful song written a few years ago by a Carmelite nun from Barrington:

Father, make us like Mary. Father, fill us with grace. Make us open and empty--to receive your Word each day--to give birth to your Son--to give birth to your Jesus. To give birth to your Son, to give him to everyone. Amen.