Complete Confidence

     “The Blessed Virgin teaches us to believe in our vocation to sanctity, to divine intimacy. We did believe in it when God revealed it to us in the brightness of interior light, and the words of His minister confirmed it; but we should also believe in it when we find ourselves alone, in darkness, amid difficulties that tend to disturb and discourage us. God is faithful, and He does not do things by halves: He will finish His work in us, provided we have complete confidence in Him.”                       Fr. Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalen


     When Mary said “yes” to God to become the mother of His Son, she was not handed a playbook with all the details her “yes” would entail. Once the angel Gabriel departed, she did not receive any more divine visitations revealing life’s mysteries. Mary lived by faith—as we are called to do—in the ordinary day in and day out events of her life, as they unfolded.

     Because of Gabriel’s greeting to Mary, “Hail, full of grace,” we know that sanctity and intimacy with God was not something new to Mary. Mary was already known to God, and He to her. Great faith and trust played a vital role in her deep relationship with God. She did not have to have all the answers before giving her consent to God, but with humility and love, she declared her fiat!

     “Blessed are you who believed, that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled” (Lk 1:45).

     We too are called to believe, that through our vocation—our yes to God—we will reach sanctity and divine intimacy. To achieve that goal, we must remain faithful and steadfast, as our Mother Mary did.

     Remaining faithful and steadfast in our vocations is easy, when things are moving along smoothly. But when we move into the unknown, when uncertainties and worries are our companions, we begin to doubt. The sturdy rock on which we were standing firm, turns into quicksand. We struggle to reach solid ground, but in our struggle, we begin to sink. We do not have the capability to rescue ourselves. We are in desperate need of a savior.

     Our Lady was well aware of that fact. She depended upon God for everything. She did not always understand the way her life unfolded but continued to put her faith and trust in God. Faith in God was the firm foundation on which she stood, and she did no budge from that spot.

     Mary was certain of God’s great love for her and believed in it even when life’s events seemed to contradict it. Mary continued to grow in her great faith in God, because she believed in times of darkness, as well as in times of light.

     Unlike our Lady, we get stuck in the quicksand of life, when we insist on having all, or at least some of life’s answers from God. We sink into doubt when we forget that we are loved by God and His aim is forming us into saints. Sanctity does not come cheap and will cost us everything!

     Do we want to fulfill God’s will and carry out our vocation wholeheartedly and become saints? Or, disenchanted by life’s disappointments and challenges, do we want to just slack off and withdraw our “yes” to Him and muddle through life aimlessly?

     “Which of you wishing to construct a tower does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if there is enough for its completion? Otherwise, after laying the foundation and finding himself unable to finish the work the onlookers should laugh at him and say, ‘this one began to build but did not have the resources to finish.’ In the same way, every one of you who does not renounce all his possessions cannot be My disciple” (Lk 14:28-30,33).

     Let’s renew our confidence in the goodness of God, by recommitting ourselves to Him and our vocation to holiness. In this month of May, dedicated to our Lady, and with the great feast of Pentecost almost upon us, let us ask the Holy Spirit, and His sweet spouse, Mary, to obtain for us the grace to become the greatest saints of all time! We pray that they will visit us and pour down upon us, in great abundance, the graces we need to fulfill our vocation to holiness.

     “God is faithful, and He does not do thing by halves; He will finish His work in us, provide we have complete confidence in Him.”

     “Blessed is you who believed, that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled” (Lk 1: 45).