To believe is to surrender. To surrender is to walk unceasingly towards the Face of the Lord. To believe is to be always journeying.
The Mother was also a pilgrim. She walked the same roads that we used, and in her travels, there existed the typical characteristics of a pilgrimage: disturbances, confusion, perplexities, surprises, fear and fatigue. Above all, there were questions: what is this? is it true? and now what will we do? I don’t see anything. Everything is unclear.
In the same way as we, she was also discovering the mystery of Jesus Christ, with the attitude typical of the “poor of Yahweh:” one of surrender, humbly searching, always trusting. The Mother was also wandering among the dark and empty streets and valleys, step by step, searching for the face and the will of the Father. Just as we now do.
According with the Gospel Texts, we see that later Mary did not understand some things and wondered about others. That obscure and contradictory information is replete with human grandeur. And from that darkness, Mary emerges more brilliant than ever. The Mother was not a strange phenomenon who was half god and half woman. She was a creature like us: an exceptional human being, yes! But she was not less a creature for being exceptional. She had to travel all our human highways with all her own emergencies and crossroads.
Suddenly we also get involved painful emergencies surround us and twist around us like relentless serpents. It all seems like some mindless death. These are the times when one is tired of life. In such cases, it is up to act as Mary: with abandon, humble search, relying availability. The Mother would appear, and say to us: “Children of mine: I am the way. Follow me. Do what I did. Travel that same route of faith that I traveled and you will have a home with the fortunate ones: ¡Happy are those who, in the depths of the darkness of night, believed in the splendor of the Light!”.
Extracted from the book by Father Ignacio Larrañaga, The Silence of Mary.
