Virgin of Courage
Mary’s bravery changed the course of history
When the Angel Gabriel showed up and started talking to Mary, she was startled. He greeted her with great respect and told her not to be afraid of him. That probably didn’t do much to calm her fear, but she did listen to what Gabriel had to say.
He had come to her with an idea that quite frankly sounded radical and ridiculous, and to top it off, this was apparently God’s idea. Not only did God come up with this notion, but he wanted Mary to be the one impregnanted.
The craziest part of this whole thing in my mind is that Mary actually considered this proposal. After all, there was not much in it for her except ridicule, gossip, embarrassment, hardship, and probably a very public and shameful death.
Despite all of this, Mary said yes to God. She has many titles, and has been revered and hated throughout history, but I think Virgin of Courage is definitely also appropriate. Just like they messed with many other great things, the Protestants also stopped a lot of Marian devotion.
Sometimes I think they did it merely because it went against the Catholics. But maybe I’m just being petty. I’m not Catholic, and yet I don’t fit with the Protestants either.
Mary was a strong, courageous, and amazing woman. After hearing Gabriel out, and knowing what it would do to her socially, she consented to the arrangement. As strong as she was, she became vulnerable in her yes to God. If Mary even lived after her fiance found out, her life would never be the same.
Legally, Joseph could have had her publicly executed via stoning, but he was a decent enough man to not want to put her through such a traumatic death. Although he did not want to marry her, he also did not want to have her put to death, or be subject to the horrors of the consequences of being an unmarried, pregnant woman in those times.
This means that Joseph himself was a decent man, he obviously was a holy and righteous man. It seems that he didn’t believe Mary when she tried to explain it, and even men in modern times wouldn’t believe it. We really can’t blame the guy. Just like Mary, though, when a messenger came to Joseph, he listened.
Joseph discovered that Mary was actually telling the truth, which means that although he hadn’t believed her, he did believe God when God spoke. Joseph too was then pulled into the crazy scheme, and he too was obedient to God.
God came to Mary and Joseph and asked them to do something that went against everything society expected of them, and they did it. They knew the cruelty that would come their way, and yet they saw the bigger picture. God was at work doing something huge, and he wanted them as part of it.
When God wants something done, he often comes to the people we would least expect, the ones that are open to going against popular opinion, or popular ideas of what success is. In fact, God’s ideas of success are very different to the ideas of society and that’s why the Kingdom of God has such very different values.
Mary, Virgin of Courage, decided that the values, ideas, and agenda of God’s were worth risking her entire life. She essentially took a bet that could have been fatal, and she did it anyway. Mary saw that there were bigger things happening, that she was going to be part of a greater purpose, and she said yes.
With Mary’s yes to God, she went down in history not just as a saint, but as someone who let herself be used to change the entire spiritual landscape. God used one courageous woman, someone who had such little value in the environment she was in, to bring Jesus into the world.
One ordinary woman saw something bigger than herself worth being part of even though she didn’t fully understand it. Mary chose to submit to God’s plan. She conceived Jesus together with the Holy Spirit, and it was the incarnation of Jesus that changed absolutely everything.
Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for me that I choose to be courageous and follow God all the days of my life.
