The Mother of the Lord of the Sabbath
- MOTHER MARY FRANCIS, P.C.C.
Our Lady did not have that downward pull that we have, but she still had choices, and she could have wrong ones or right ones.
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She could have insisted after the finding in the Temple that Jesus explain what he meant. She could have said, "I am your Mother, and I have got to get this straight. I don't understand what you are talking about." But she preferred, she chose, to accept what was to her not understandable, and to return to her humble home and to go about her duties and to ponder these things in her heart. She made her own choice to allow him to fulfill all that was involved in his Passion. And she did not, when she met him on the way of the cross, lapse into hysterical sobbing, nor did she demand that this should be stopped.
She chose the will of God and she chose it freely — again, we say unencumbered by the downward pull of concupiscence that we know so well, but still a woman quite capable of doing right or wrong, or doing good or better or best.
It is very important that we do not allow our Lady to be distanced from us by her Immaculate Conception, but to be brought closer to us. She is the one to teach us poor sinners because she is called the Refuge of Sinners. Our Lord did not give her to Saint John and say, "Now I am giving her to you, and she is the Mother of all the flawlessly holy ones." But he gave her to be the Mother of all persons...and he knew what was in man, what is in each one of us, our weaknesses as well as strengths.
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Acknowledgement
Mother Mary Francis, P.C.C. "The Mother of the Lord of the Sabbath." excerpt from Come, Lord Jesus: Meditations on the Art of Waiting (San Francisco, Ca: Ignatius Press, 2010).
Reprinted with permission from Ignatius Press.
The Author
Mother Mary Francis, P.C.C. (1921-2006) was the abbess of the Poor Clare Monastery in Roswell, New Mexico. She was an accomplished author and writer of thirteen books, seven plays, and numerous poems. Among her books are: Come, Lord Jesus: Meditations on the Art of Waiting, But I Have Called You Friends: Reflections on the Art of Christian Friendship, A Right to Be Merry, Anima Christi, and Forth and Abroad. During her life she helped found four new Poor Clare monasteries, including one in Holland, and led the restoration of two others.
