Marian Mondays: Hope

Marian Mondays is a weekly post focusing on Our Blessed Mother, Mary, Queen of Heaven and Earth. In this post, we explore her life, her special mission, her sanctity, and the Biblical bases for the beliefs of the Church.


We pray with Mary. We experience her practically, emotionally, and rationally. We feel confident in the truth of her existence. We realize that she is unique, chosen for a special purpose by the Lord. We recognize the importance of her name. But what of her Christian virtues? We hold Mary, the Mother of God, up as the first disciple of Christ, as in her agreeing to serve as the vessel of the Incarnation, she became the first Christian. She believed in her Son. And as we will see, she lived His teachings, even before He taught them, such was her connection to the Lord. She exhibited fully the three theological virtues of faith, hope, and charity.

Last week, we briefly looked at the great faith of Our Blessed Mother, Mary. As we continue our preliminary exploration of the virtues of the Mother of God, we turn to hope, the consummated will of the Lord.

For we are saved by hope. But hope that is seen is not hope. For what a man seeth, why doth he hope for? But if we hope for that which we see not, we wait for it with patience (Romans, 8:24-25).

Hope and faith are intrinsically connected-- Faith being the belief in the power and presence of God, and hope being the confidence that the Lord can accomplish all things. We can have faith, but lose hope. And similarly, we can hope without great belief or faith. The world tempts us to both of these options, and this is likely the case for Mary, as well. Throughout the New Testament, we see numerous opportunities for doubt on the part of Mary, as well as opportunities for her to lose hope in the promise of God that she was called to. In each of these moments we sense her human suffering, her confusions, and her lack of complete understanding of the words of her Son:


Upon finding the child Jesus in the temple:
48When his parents saw him, they were astonished. His mother said to him, "Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you."
49"Why were you searching for me?" he asked. "Didn't you know I had to be in my Father's house?" 50But they did not understand what he was saying to them. (Luke 2:48-50)

At the Wedding in Cana:
"Woman, why do you involve me?" Jesus replied, "My time has not yet come." (John 2:4)

During His ministry:
31Then Jesus' mother and brothers arrived. Standing outside, they sent someone in to call him. 32A crowd was sitting around him, and they told him, "Your mother and brothers are outside looking for you."
33"Who are my mother and my brothers?" he asked.
34Then he looked at those seated in a circle around him and said, "Here are my mother and my brothers! 35Whoever does God's will is my brother and sister and mother." (Mark 3:33)

and

27As Jesus was saying these things, a woman in the crowd called out, "Blessed is the mother who gave you birth and nursed you."
28He replied, "Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it." (Luke 11:28)

These words directed from Son to mother, given a cursory glance, must seem harsh and even hurtful to Mary. We can imagine how we might respond if a family member of friend spoke to us in the same manner. And in those moments, that is when we look to Mary, as a model of virtue. Despite her human confusion at these events, at the words of Jesus, at the course her life had taken—Despite all of this, she never loses hope in the Lord. She comes back time and time again, placing her life, her meaning, and her purpose in the Lord, and doing so with confidence. Her hope never wanes—not during the childhood of Jesus, the start of His ministry, the Passion and crucifixion of Our Lord, not during the days He laid in the tomb. Mary’s continued journey with Jesus to His cross reveals a profound hope in the Resurrection, in the rebirth of all people through Jesus.