The Virgin Mary waited with perseverance

Jesus encourages us to remain faithful to him until the end. Let us wait for Him with perseverance. He will transform our difficulties, our fears and anxieties, even our fear of death, into a glorious resurrection. 

There are many saints who are examples of perseverance and witnesses of true expectation. I choose two of them: St. John, the forerunner, and the Virgin Mary, because they are the two pillars of the portal that Jesus passed through to enter human history.

Neither of them was waiting for something, but for someone. They were not trying to discern apocalyptic predictions in order to prepare for the future: they were waiting for nothing less than God (...)

The Virgin Mary was waiting for God. She knew that the angel had said to her: "The Holy One whom you bear will be called the Son of the Most High, and his kingdom will have no end" (Lk 1:31). But her expectation was not like that of John the Baptist who waited for "the unimaginable", and who went about brandishing fire, the ax and the winnowing shovel. She was waiting for a little child. But for a mother, isn't a child who is God something unimaginable? Would not this child come to "cast a fire upon the earth" and “a sword pierce his mother's heart”? 

Yet the Virgin Mary waited with perseverance; she welcomed Jesus into her, and gave to humanity (to each of us) someone "gentle and humble of heart", who would "not make his voice heard in the public square or put out the flickering wick" (Mt 11: 29; 12: 19). Mary also persevered in her journey with Christ, from Nazareth, where she conceived him by the work of the Holy Spirit, to Jerusalem, where Jesus released the Spirit and recreated the world.

Our heavenly Mother is therefore a model of excellence for us, showing us how we can and must witness. The end of time and the terrible signs that indicate it frighten us (...). What should we do? "Convert and do penance", John the Baptist tells us. "Carry Christ in ourselves for the sake of others," the Mother of God tells us. We must go from "me" to "you", to God.

Msgr. Francesco Follo (b. 1946)

Permanent Observer of the Holy See to UNESCO

Source: fr.zenit.org (translated)