Work Ethic And Idleness: An Exhortation

Fr. Dale Matson

“The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.” (Genesis 2:15)

There is something holy about work that sets it apart from other forms of activities. Not only did God create us to work. He gave us a job and this job gave us meaning and connectedness. Our bodies are made to work and become stronger in response to the work effort. Our muscles atrophy if we are not active. Humans were created as much ‘homo laborans’ as we were created ‘homo sapiens’. This part of human nature (laborans) was also corrupted in the fall. We were created for work but it has become toil.

According to article 35 of the 39 articles in the Anglican Church, the homilies were to be read by the clergy to their congregations. “…We judge them to be read in churches by the ministers, diligently and distinctly, that they may he understanded of the people.” [This Article is received in this Church, so far as it declares the Books of Homilies to be an explication of Christian doctrine, and instructive in piety and morals.]

The following is a brief excerpt from Homily 19 book II ‘Against Idleness’.

“For as much as man, being not born to ease and rest, but to labour and travail, is by corruption of nature through sin so far degenerated and grown out of kind, that he taketh idleness to be no evil at all, but rather a commendable thing, seemly for those that be wealthy; and therefore is greedily embraced of most part of men, as agreeable to their sensual affection, and all labour and travail is diligently avoided, as a thing painful and repugnant to the pleasure of the flesh; it is necessary to be declared unto you, that by the ordinance of God, which he hath set in the nature of man, every one ought, in his lawful vocation and calling, to give himself to labour; and that idleness, being repugnant to the same ordinance, is a grievous sin, and also for the great inconveniences and mischiefs which spring thereof, an intolerable evil [my emphasis] : to the intent that, when ye understand the same, ye may diligently flee from it, and on the other part earnestly apply yourselves, every man in his vocation, to honest labour and business, which as it is enjoined unto man by God's appointment, so it wanteth not his manifold blessings and sundry benefits.”

The preceding excerpt from homily 19 warns against idleness, which is the state of a fallen humanity that prefers idleness to working. Even in subsistence cultures this tendency toward idleness was evident. In 1609, John Smith exhorted the colonists of Jamestown; “You must obey this now for a law, that he that will not work shall not eat (except by sickness he be disabled). For the labors of thirty or forty honest and industrious men shall not be consumed to maintain a hundred and fifty idle loiterers.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/He_who_does_not_work,_neither_shall_he_eat

“A record high number of Americans — 91,541,000 — have left the U.S. labor force, making it the lowest worker participation rate since 1978. The participation rate is now at 62.8 percent. If the trend continues, the number of people not participating in the labor force will exceed the number of employed Americans in approximately four years. The Washington Post cites the government shutdown, retiring baby boomers, workers opting for school over jobs, and the number of workers increasingly going on disability insurance as opposed to unemployment as all contributing factors to the shrinking labor force. The smaller labor pool also suggests that the economy may be worse off than the official unemployment rate of 7.2 percent indicates, since unemployed figures do not include people who have left the labor market altogether.” (http://www.newsmax.com/US/work-force-numbers-leaving/2013/11/12/id/536166)

The default assumption today is that those who are not working cannot find work but there is also the corrupted part of human nature favoring idleness. The churches were well aware of this and taught about the obligation to work. St. Paul stated, “For we hear that some among you walk in idleness, not busy at work, but busybodies. Now such persons we command and encourage in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living.” (2 Thessalonians 3:11-12)

This is not intended just for those able bodied folks not seeking work. There is a huge cohort of retired folks and an additional large group who are about to retire. Retirement does not grant those individuals the right to idleness. It is for their own good and the good of society that they continue to offer service as volunteers and caregivers to others. It is their responsibility to the next generation to model a work ethic.

Work is not just an obligation. Humans need to work and have productive lives. They need to feel that they are contributing to the greater good. For Christians; it is part of their reasonable service to God. “And now, Father, send us out to do the work you have given us to do, to love and serve you as faithful witnesses of Christ our Lord.” (BCP P.366)

Bishop's Note: The Collect for the First Sunday after the Epiphany

Bishop Eric Menees

A happy and blessed Epiphany to you all! What an action packed few weeks we've had with the Feast of the Incarnation (Christmas), St. Stephen's Day, St. John's Day, the Feast of the Holy Innocents, The Feast of the Circumcision, The Feast of the Epiphany, and now, in this first Sunday after the Epiphany, we have the Baptism of Jesus.

This day is especially important to me, in that I was baptized on this date at age 14 in 1975 (yes that puts me at age 52 today - half way to 104!). I prepared for baptism with four weeks of instruction from a truly-believing lay woman, who was the first person to disciple me in the faith. I invited my family and friends to come to church. There I was, dressed in a suit and sitting in the front row. The service was beautiful. We had communion, and I kept waiting for the priest to invite me up for the baptism. He didn't, and at the door as he was greeting people, I asked him if I had gotten the date wrong. His face reddened, and he called people back into the church, where about twenty of the faithful gathered around the font (which the Altar Guild had dutifully prepared) and I publicly renounced Satan and accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior! A bit anti-climatic, but there we go.

Fortunately, Archbishop Cranmer was much more intentional than Fr. Bob was about discipleship! Here is the collect for this Sunday:

Father in heaven, who at the baptism of Jesus in the River Jordan didst proclaim him thy beloved Son and anoint him with the Holy Spirit: Grant that all who are baptized into his Name may keep the covenant they have made, and boldly confess him as Lord and Savior; who with thee and the same Holy Spirit liveth and reigneth, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen.

The collect begins by affirming the biblical narrative found in the gospels of Matthew (Mt. 3:13-17), Mark (Mk 1:9-11), and Luke (Lk 3:21-23), where God declares Jesus to be his beloved Son, as well as in the gospel of John (Jn 1:29-33), in which John the Baptist testifies to the event. In an age where scripture is consistently challenged for accuracy, it is nice to know that Archbishop Cranmer had no doubt as to the truth of scripture. And this Sunday, as we pray this collect, the accuracy of the biblical story is reaffirmed!

Just as His baptism marked the beginning of Jesus' public ministry, so too our public ministry is affirmed in this collect. "Grant that all who are baptized into his Name may keep the covenant they have made..." Our public ministry begins and ends in obedience to the promises and vows made to God in our baptism...can you imagine what the church would look like if all baptized Christians really lived out that covenant? What is that covenant? Simply put: First, it is a clearly articulated faith in God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Secondly, it is a promise to continue in the Apostles teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of  bread, and in prayer. (Acts 2)

Archbishop Cranmer clearly stated that our right belief (Orthodoxy) will lead to right action (Orthopraxy), when the very next statement in the collect is: "...and boldly confess him [Jesus] as Lord and Savior." It is not enough to simply believe, but we must proclaim to the world the reality of Jesus as Lord and Savior. The world around us is quick to accept Jesus as an historical figure and a great teacher of peace. We affirm that belief, but we must go much further and state that he is God incarnate!

Of course, Archbishop Cranmer also recognized that this task is impossible without the Holy Spirit. In my baptism, even though Fr. Bob nearly forgot to do it, the Holy Spirit did not forget to show up loud and clear. My life changed after receiving the sacrament of baptism. What I had done privately - accept Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior - was now publicly affirmed. Equally important, the Church also promised to disciple me and support me in my public and private life in Christ! Through the power of the Holy Spirit and the support and discipline of the church, amazing things began to happen. My life has been transformed, as have been the lives of countless others, all because we affirm the biblical truth of Jesus' baptism and ministry, and Jesus' support of our own baptism and ministry!

Let us pray that the Church will take to heart this call to right belief and right action! And to that I say...AMEN!

Note: The "Notes to the church" articles are written by Bishop Menees for the Diocese of San Joaquin. I have posted them on Soundings with his permission for a wider audience. This is also the case for his "Why I am an Anglican" series. Dale+   

Hubris And Change In the Church Of England

Fr. Dale Matson

“They [Society for the Preservation of the Book of Common Prayer (SPBCP)] were correct when they said, as they did repeatedly and sometimes abrasively, that the theologies of the 1928 Book of Common Prayer and STU (Services for Trial Use. i.e., what was to become the 1979 book) were different. The SLC [Standing Committee on Liturgy] probably was strategically wise in not affirming this too loudly, but its members knew that the SPBCP was correct. There is a clear theological change." (Excerpted from "Education for Liturgy: An unfinished Symphony in Four Movements," Dean Urban T. Holmes of the School of Theology of the University of the South.)

"Parents and godparents no longer have to ‘repent sins’ and ‘reject the devil’ during christenings after the Church of England rewrote the solemn ceremony. The new wording is designed to be easier to understand – but critics are stunned at such a fundamental change to a cornerstone of their faith, saying the new ‘dumbed-down’ version ‘strikes at the heart’ of what baptism means.

In the original version, the vicar asks: ‘Do you reject the devil and all rebellion against God?’ Prompting the reply: ‘I reject them.’ They then ask: ‘Do you repent of the sins that separate us from God and neighbour?’, with the answer: ‘I repent of them.’ But under the divisive reforms, backed by Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby and already being practised in 1,000 parishes, parents and godparents are asked to ‘reject evil, and all its many forms, and all its empty promises’ – with no mention of the devil or sin.

The new text, to be tested in a trial lasting until Easter, also drops the word ‘submit’ in the phrase ‘Do you submit to Christ as Lord?’ because it is thought to have become ‘problematical’, especially among women who object to the idea of submission.” http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2533874/Welby-casts-sin-christenings-Centuries-old-rite-rewritten-language-EastEnders-modern-congregation.html

Once again there appears to be a pattern of changing theology under the guise of simply updating language. It is Lex Orandi, Lex Credendi (loosely, how we worship determines what we believe). As a psychologist I was trained to look below the presenting issue, which is usually a symptom of a greater problem. There is certain hubris here because this ‘trial’ Rite will probably become the new Rite for Baptism. The leadership believes that it knows what is right for the ‘pew sitters’ and wants them to unconsciously ease into a theology more suited to and compliant with a diverse and pluralistic contemporary culture.

++Justin Welby knows the underlying theological implications of this change and is complicit. The leadership of the CoE is simply too slick, hip and enlightened to be burdened with embarrassing past doctrine. It has demythologized the past to catch up with the present.

"The Bishop of Wakefield Stephen Platten, who chairs the commission, said repentance was implied in phrases urging people to ‘turn away from evil’, and defended the omission of the devil by saying it was ‘theologically problematic’."

Here is the problem as I see it. The CoE leadership does not view humans as suffering from original sin. Humans never made a deal with a devil who does not exist. For them, to personify evil is to look too simplistically at the complexities of human interaction. Sin has been reduced to the inappropriate behavior of intolerance and non-acceptance toward your neighbor. Sin is not a soul-destroying issue any longer for them.

If this new form of baptism is contrasted with baptism in the Roman Catholic Church, which includes exorcism, what does this say about the depth of sin in human existence versus the modern CoE understanding? Have humans evolved as a species to some enlightened and humane plane of existence that demands a new covenant with God? Or are humans still sinners praying the prayer of humble access in need of a Savior? Which is it?

It appears to me that the CoE leadership (except for a few trustworthy and noble individuals like Bishop Michael Nazil-Ali) is not even honest enough to offer informed consent forms to their parishioners for the changes they are making. They say that they are not changing theology, when they know in their hearts that they are doing just that. It seems to mirror the same dishonesty behind the 1979 prayer book revisions. Kyrie eleison

Salvation

Christmas Two Year A 2013

Fr. Dale Matson

Generally, when we use the term “Salvation” we are talking about our eternal destiny. “Are you saved?” Meaning, have you turned your life over to Jesus Christ. Will you go to Heaven when you die? In this sense then, the word Salvation refers to eternally saved, eternal life.

As I reviewed our readings for Sunday, there was a general theme that emerged. Beginning with the Collect. "...grant that we may share the divine life of Him who humbled Himself to share our humanity.God is the one Who saves, restores, redeems, shelters, shields, equips and bequeaths. It occurred that all of these ideas could still be grouped under a single word, salvation. The word “Salvation” comes from the Greek word “sodzo”, meaning to protect, preserve, heal, deliver, and become whole or to keep safe.

Not only are there several meanings for the word salvation, there is the idea of past, present and future salvation. We were saved, we are being saved and we will be fully saved. The word "sodzo" is primarily used in the "present" tense, to describe our being presently preserved, kept safe from harm, and delivered from fears, doubts, and the power and domination of sin in our life.

Let’s go back to the angel speaking to Joseph in Matthew’s Gospel used for the fourth Sunday in Advent. “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” (1:20b-21) Have you ever puzzled over this statement? “…You shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” The name Jesus is an Anglicanized name for the Hebrew and Aramaic name “Yeshua”. Yeshua means Savior.

Do you ever think how radical an idea this was? We read in the Gospel of Luke that Jesus healed a man by pronouncing forgiveness. “And when he saw their faith, he said, “Man, your sins are forgiven you.” And the scribes and the Pharisees began to question, saying, “Who is this who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone?” Unfortunately they didn’t choose the correct answer, “B”. Christ forgave sins because He was in fact God.

So, it is our Savior Jesus who protects, preserves, heals, delivers, helps us to become whole and keeps us safe. If only…if only we went beyond reading this to inwardly digesting it. If only…if only we went from agreeing with it in principle to truly believing it in our hearts.

God’s salvation plan reminds me of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Those who don’t sign up for a health plan pay an annual penalty. For those who reject God’s plan, there is a penalty also. The Affordable Care Act has four plan options. They are the bronze, silver, gold and platinum plans. As you go up in levels, there is a higher monthly fee but a lower deductible. All plans must offer essential health benefits. God’s salvation plan only has a platinum level. God’s plan has a one-time fee but the deductible is very high. It will cost you your life. You will have to give up living your life for yourself and start living your life for Christ. If only…. if only we would inwardly digest the Good News of God’s Salvation Plan. If only we could be like Mary in today’s Gospel lesson and keep these things hidden in our hearts for safekeeping.

The problem is that we are often carried away by the tsunami waves of the cares of this world. If you are fortunate enough to own your home, there is always the monthly mortgage and things that need to be repaired or replaced. If God has blessed your marriage with children, you worry about their health, who they chose for friends, and what planet they now seem to live on. With grandchildren you worry that the parents will find the level of discipline that will curb their craziness without breaking their sprit. I said to Sharon recently that I was already feeling the pain of one grandson, knowing that he will be the target of bullies.

My older sister never married and lives alone. She will be 80 years old in April. I was unable to reach her for three days and worried that there was a problem. As it turned out, she had put her phone on mute accidentally so the phone didn’t ring. She said to me, “I was wondering why no one was calling me.” Have you ever gone from worry to anger under circumstances like that?  Like many elderly folks she is both suspicious and gullible. She forwards emails to me that contain viruses warning against viruses.

But Jesus tells us to be anxious for nothing. He tells us not to be anxious. When He was with Mary and Martha, Martha asked Jesus to tell her sister Mary to help with the chores. Martha, Jesus said, was "careful and troubled about many things." Martha was worried, distracted, hurried and disturbed in her mind. Jesus's solution was not to get Martha more help, but to remind Martha that she, too, needed to put first things first. The priority here was not serving the Lord, but sitting at the Lord's feet in order to be instructed by him. Aren’t we mostly Marthas? If only I could be more like Mary and just sit at His feet.
       

In a recent study reported in Reuters Health, that men and women with severe symptoms of anxiety may have a higher risk of stroke than relaxed folks. http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/12/27/us-anxiety-stroke-idUSBRE9BQ0BK20131227
“The greater your anxiety level, the higher your risks of having a stroke," "Assessment and treatment of anxiety has the potential to not only improve overall quality of life, but may also reduce the risk of cardiovascular diseases, such as stroke, later in life," Dr. Philip Muskin, a professor of psychiatry at Columbia University Medical Center in New York emphasized that the stroke risk identified in the study among overly anxious individuals was not vastly increased. "What the study is really saying is, you're a little more likely to have a stroke," said Muskin, who was not involved in the study. Still, he added, "I would like to be a little less likely (to have a stroke) in my life."


Now, doesn’t that make you anxious folks less anxious? In fact, it makes you more anxious because you didn’t know before that you could get a stroke because you were anxious. This proves the point that there is no news that’s good news…. unless we are talking about the Gospel…. the Good News of Jesus Christ. In Him we were saved, are being saved and will be saved. Amen

The Collects - Second Sunday of Christmas

Bishop Eric Menees

This Sunday is January 5th, the 12th and last day of Christmas - did your true love give you twelve drummers drumming? Neither did my true love. However, on December 30th we managed to make it over to the coast to celebrate our 24th wedding anniversary - what a blessing!

Anyhow, back to the task at hand: the collect for the Second Sunday of Christmas. To the best of my knowledge, which is not much,  Archbishop Cranmer did not write a collect for the Second Sunday of Christmas, trusting that the two collects for the Feast of the Incarnation - which he required to be read on each of the twelve days of Christmas - would suffice. Thus, the following collect was added to the 1928 BCP: ALMIGHTY God, who hast poured upon us the new light of thine incarnate Word; Grant that the same light enkindled in our hearts may shine forth in our lives; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. The 1979 BCP changed the collect again.  I cannot speculate upon why they changed the collect, but one can see that with the 1979 BCP, a subtle but significant change in the theology of the Episcopal Church USA began to take shape. Rather than an emphasis upon the Birth of Jesus, the 1979 BCP places the emphasis on a restored dignity of humanity - moving the emphasis away from God and on to us. Here is the collect for this Sunday in the 1979 BCP:

Second Sunday after Christmas Day

O God, who wonderfully created, and yet more wonderfully restored, the dignity of human nature: Grant that we may share the divine life of him who humbled himself to share our humanity, your Son Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Amen.

It is true that God created all humanity (Genesis 1:26-27) in his "image and likeness," and that thus all people are deserving of respect and dignity. Respect for human life and dignity of every human being is a hallmark characteristic of Christianity, and not necessarily of other religions. However, it is important to remember that WE are NOT God, but only created in his likeness. Theologians have long pondered what it means to be created in the image and likeness of God, and most have come to the conclusion, as have I, that this means we are endowed by our Creator with certain attributes that come from God and separate us from the rest of creation. This list is in no way exhaustive, but for example: the ability to create - not just to build things, but artistic creation; intelligence - the ability to think of someone else beyond ourselves and to understand God's creation around us as he reveals it to us; self-sacrifice - giving of ourselves for a greater good, being willing to go beyond our families and kindred to sacrifice even our very lives for others who are innocent (think of the police officer or firefighter who runs into harms way for people they do not know); and perhaps most importantly, the ability to love as the Lord defined it in 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 "Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things."

In so far as this collect leads us towards the fulfillment of what it means to be created in the image of God, I rejoice. However, I am also a bit fearful, because what many mainline denominations are leading toward is the false belief that we are divine, which is just not true. There is a Creator and the created, and we are part of the created - it is absolutely crucial for our salvation and our own human dignity to remember that fact. Yes, scripture teaches us that our bodies can be "the temple of the Holy Spirit" (1 Corinthians 6:19) for those who invite God the Holy Spirit in, but that is very different from being divine - the desire for which is at the root of the fall of both our first parents and ourselves. (Genesis 3)

 My prayer for you and myself this Second Sunday of Christmas, is that we will so embrace the Holy Spirit and the birth of Jesus, that our lives will daily reflect the Love, Grace, and Redemption found in that little child who was born so that he may die, and whose death was for our birth.

Note: The "Notes to the church" articles are written by Bishop Menees for the Diocese of San Joaquin. I have posted them on Soundings with his permission for a wider audience. This is also the case for his "Why I am an Anglican" series. Dale+   

The Preface Of The Incarnation: Jesus Christ Son Of God And Son Of Mary

Fr. Dale Matson

The biggest mystery in Christianity is the Incarnation. How could God be fully God and fully human? The doctrine of the two natures of Christ in one person is as important as the doctrine of the Trinity. What the Athanasian Creed is to the doctrine of the Trinity, the Council of Chalcedon (451) is to the divine and human natures of Christ.

As I read and reflected on the lectionary readings, the Collect and the Proper Preface for the first Sunday after Christmas, I was struck by the Rite I Preface. (This is similar to the Preface for Christmas Day in the 1662 Book of Common Prayer.) The Proper Preface (part of the Great Thanksgiving prayer) for the first Sunday after Christmas reads:

“Because thou didst give Jesus Christ, thine only Son, to be born for us; who, by the mighty power of the Holy Ghost, was made very Man of the substance of the Virgin Mary his mother; that we might be delivered from the bondage of sin, and receive power to become thy children.”

This captivated me. God has a way of quickening a particular word or phrase to make them stand out. The word “substance”, in particular really started me thinking. Wasn’t that same word used in a phrase from the Nicene Creed? (p 327 BCP) “Very God of very God, begotten not made, being of one substance with the Father. Jesus Christ is not ‘like’ God He is God. Jesus Christ is not ‘like’ humans He is human.

What does it mean that Jesus Christ was fully human? He is the product of a lineage begun with God’s promise to Eve that the redeemer would come from her lineage. That is also the point in the beginning of St. Matthew’s Gospel in chapter one verse one where he states, “The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham."  St. Paul states in Galatians, “Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, 'And to offspring’s,' referring to many, but referring to one, 'And to your offspring', who is Christ.” (Galatians 3:16) Jesus Christ, to be fully human meant that He was the product of both God and Mary.

Mary was not simply a container that held the baby Jesus until He was born. Jesus had Mary’s DNA. To be fully human, the genetic material that made up Jesus had to come from Mary also. Mary was chosen by God not just to contain and deliver Jesus into this world, but also to contribute genetically and behaviorally to the man that Jesus would become. Jesus would be the Son of God but He would also be his mother’s Son.

Coming back to the idea that the Father and Son are of the same substance, Jesus said to Philip, "Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'? (John 14:9)

And I would add, to know Jesus better, let’s now look at his mother Mary. I believe that God chose her not only because she was a virgin but it would also mean both a miraculous birth and one that was prophesied in the Old Testament. She also had the disposition and characteristics that would help Jesus, as he developed into a man.  Only Mary had the ‘right stuff’ as we would say today. Jesus would be the new Adam. As St. Paul states in 1^st Corinthians, “So it is written: 'The first man Adam became a living being'; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit.” (15:45) Mary would become the new Eve. Eve was the mother of all humans after the flesh but Mary is the spiritual mother of all those who are in Christ. Revelations, states, “Then the dragon was angry with the woman, and went off to make war on the rest of her offspring, on those who keep the commandments of God and bear testimony to Jesus. And he stood on the sand of the sea.”

Let’s look at some of Mary’s Characteristics. In Luke, we hear the Angel say to Mary “Hail full of grace the Lord is with you.” (1:28, RSVCE). In John’s Gospel we hear, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (1:14)

Again from Luke, we hear Mary say, “And Mary said, ‘Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.’ And the angel departed from her.” In this case we see both the fact that she saw herself as a servant of God. It was a submissive obedience and a willingness to trust God. In short, she was a woman of faith. Jesus states, “For who is greater, the one who is at the table or the one who serves? Is it not the one who is at the table? But I am among you as one who serves.” (Luke 22:27) This also reflects the prophesy in Isaiah 53 of the suffering servant.

When Mary states, “Let it be to me according to your word.” There is an acceptance of God’s will. When Christ was in the Garden of Gethsemane He stated, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.” (Luke 22: 42).

In the Magnificat also called the “Song of Mary”, Mary begins by saying, “My soul doth magnify the Lord. And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior. Because he hath regarded the humility of his handmaid.” And in the case of Jesus we hear St. Paul state in Philippians, “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”

Mary modeled obedience. Her Son Jesus performed His first public miracle at the wedding feast of Cana by turning the water into wine. His mother asked Him to do it, and in obedience to and out of respect for her, He performed the miracle. He did this reluctantly because He was not yet ready to reveal His true nature. What Mary told the servants, she would tell all Christians. “Do whatever He tells you.”

So with Mary, we have the qualities of humility, grace, faithfulness, trust, obedience, submission and the heart of a servant. Her Son Jesus reflected those qualities that were her genetic and behavioral endowment to Him. I wonder when He listed the beatitudes in His sermon on the mount if He was also reflecting on at least some of these qualities in His own mother. Jesus Christ Son of God and Son of Mary.