In today’s
Scriptures, 1 Samuel 1: 24-28 and Lk1: 46-56, we have the story of Hannah who brings
Samuel to the Temple to give him over to the service of the Lord and Mary’s
Magnificat in praise of “the greatness of the Lord,” who had made her the mother
of the Messiah, who, by the power of the Holy Spirit, was conceived in her womb
prior to her marriage to Joseph. Both
women’s wombs are made fertile. Both women consecrate the fruit of their wombs
to the Lord and let go of their first-born sons: Hannah in the Temple, Mary on
the cross when her Son surrenders to God’s will to pay the price for our
redemption. To what am I willing to die
believing that new life is possible? God’s
plan for our salvation always involves a dying. Believing that God will bring
life out of death always demands the faith of Mary, who said to the angel: “Nothing
is impossible for God.” Do I believe that, when all around me is darkness and
death, sacrifice and pain? Naturally speaking, darkness surrounded Mary when
she said “yes” to the will of God, as she could have been stoned to death if
she were found with child prior to her marriage to Joseph. The miraculous encounter between herself and
Elizabeth did not erase that possibility. It still existed until God
intervened. That intervention was still a future event and demanded a surrender
to the will of God, a dying to one’s fears and anxieties, a dying to anger and
frustration and a rising to new life that faith gives to all who trust the
Lord.
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