Reflection - The Feast of Immaculate Conception of Mary

“Let it Be” is one of the Beatles most memorable songs. Paul McCartney wrote the words:

When I find myself in times of trouble,
mother Mary comes to me,
speaking words of wisdom:
“Let it be.”

And in my hour of darkness,
She is standing right in front of me,
Speaking words of wisdom:
“Let it be.”

It was his own mother, not the Mother of Jesus that McCartney had in mind when he wrote those words.

But many of us, do seek words of wisdom from Mary, who is our mother, when we find ourselves in times of trouble. These are certainly times of trouble with the Pandemic, times of trouble for many of our families and for the families who have lost income and are facing the loss of their home.

Mary offers us words of wisdom when she says to the angel, “let it be. “ God asked Mary to be the mother of His son and she responded, “Let be done according to your word.”

There’s wisdom in her words, but those words are not easy for us to speak when we find ourselves in times of trouble. Most of us want to be in control. We want to make things happen--fix the problem when we or someone we love is in a time of trouble.

But there are some things in life that we just can’t control. We can’t control the virus. There are hurts in our families, in our hearts that we can’t heal. There are troubles we can’t escape. We lose sleep worrying about them. And there are times we feel like just banging our heads against a wall because we are so frustrated with a situation we can’t control.

Unlike Mary, we don’t find easy to say “Let it be.” We don’t find it easy to surrender our will to the will of God.

Surrender does not mean just throwing our hands up and saying let God do it all. It doesn’t mean doing nothing when an injustice needs to be corrected. It doesn’t mean saying nothing when forgiveness needs to be offered or a hurt needs to be healed.

Mary’s surrender did not mean she surrendered her responsibility as a wife and mother. Nor should we surrender our responsibilities to our families and our community.

But there are times when things in life are not clear to us. In those moments we need to trust in God. Let God be God and not try to control because there are some things that only God can do; some things only God understands.

Those are times for surrender.

There are times when parents must surrender control over their children and trust them to God.

Surrendering in times of illness and death means trusting God with our future. It also means when burdens are too heavy for us to carry, we need to hand them over for God to carry, trusting that God will carry us during those times.

Mary was able to trust God with her future because she was Full of Grace. That was how the angel greeted Mary saying, “Hail, full of grace.”

The Italian Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini said that grace is knowing that “you have been loved for a very long time.” The angel was telling Mary that she had been loved for a very long time—from the moment of her conception which is what we celebrate on this day of her Immaculate Conception.

Mary lived out that belief, the belief that she was loved by God. Knowing that she was loved by God enabled her to say “Let it be.” Fear can rob us of the belief that we are loved. Fear of sickness, fear of death, fear of the virus, fear in so many ways makes us question if we are loved. When we are fearful, we want to be in control.

The more we live in the belief, like Mary, that we are loved by God, the freer we will be to say “let it be.” The more we live in the belief that we have been loved for a long time, the more we will be able to surrender our will to God’s will, the more able we will be able to give ourselves to God and others.

This feast of Mary reminds us:

When you find yourself in times of trouble,
mother Mary comes to you,
speaking words of wisdom:
“Let it be.”