Questions I Would Like To Ask Mary

What did Mary know of her Immaculate Conception?

1. Did Mary know of her Immaculate Conception? I never thought to ask that question!

When did she know she was conceived without sin? I doubt whether she had consciousness of her Immaculate Conception the moment she was conceived. I doubt whether Joachim and Anne were aware of this marvelous privilege.

So when and how did Mary become aware of her Immaculate Conception? Was it during her lifetime? Or, was it only at the moment of her Assumption in heaven?

Any answers on my part would be purely speculative.

2. Before and after the Annunciation – What was Mary waiting for?

Before the Annunciation, what was she waiting for?

We can make some well-educated guesses about what Mary was waiting for. Joachim and Anne probably taught her to pray for the long-awaited Savior! A king who would turn the tables on their oppressor and rescue them.

But neither she nor her parents thought their Savior would begin in a stable and end on a cross.

• They never thought that his kingdom wourld be unlike the kingdoms of the world they knew – with some on top and others being oppressed.
• They never thought of a kingdom where all would not only be equal but each would be servants of the other.

The gospel read on the feast of the Immaculate Conception tells us her reactions – shock, questioning, trust, joy, and sharing with her cousin.

3. What did she expect as she was expecting?

She knew something marvelous was happening. Amid her joy of giving birth …

• did she have clear knowledge of what was to come?
• did she understand the prophet who told her that her own heart would be pieced with a sword?

Apparently not. She kept all these things in her heart.

4. What questions arose for her as Jesus grew in wisdom, age, and grace?

We so often miss that she too had a lifetime of growing in wisdom, age, and grace. “She pondered all these things in her heart”

Hers is a story about the process of moving from How can this be? to Let it be!

At each stage of her life, she probably asked, ”How can this be?”

4. Imagine her questions as a mother… as she kept all these things in her heart.

• How did she make sense of being entrusted with the ordinary trials of raising this young boy? (Yes, Jesus was once a young boy who had to grow… in wisdom, age and grace!)
• What did she feel when she found Jesus in the temple after a frantic search for him? “Your father and were searching for you.”
• Her mother’s heart may have been bursting with pride that he was drawing people to follow him as he preached the good news of the kingdom to her friends and neighbors.
• Did she sense there was something wrong on Palm Sunday when they proclaimed Jesus as their royal leader?
• Her mother’s heart broke as she watched him plotted against by the church of her day, unjustly accused, beaten mercilessly by the oppressors he was to save … and then nailed to a cross?
• What did she feel when she saw a confused bunch of men hiding in an upper room while trying to make sense of their disappointment?

She still longed,  but she also questioned … and yet believed and trusted!

What do you long for? How much do you trust?

Click below for an audio version of this Vincentian Mindwalk