IN RAPHAEL’S PAINTING The Alba Madonna, Mary sits with the child Jesus on her lap. He is playing with a toy that has been made out of two sticks tied together in the form of a cross.
His mother looks beyond him; her eyes are fixed pensively on that cross.
Raphael reminds us that the hope of Israel and the child of Mary was born in order to die.
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SO, LET’S THINK about that for a few minutes. Mary’s whole life on earth was a journey of hope. She relied totally on the promises of God, but her hope was tested far beyond anything we can imagine.
Mary stood there watching her Son die a brutal death.
She stood there while her Son offered his sacrifice. Even then Mary did not fear but held to hope. Trusting God our Father.
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AS MARY STOOD beneath the cross, did she remember the words spoken to her by the angel years earlier? The words were God’s promises to her.
What Mary witnessed at the cross seemed to cancel all these promises.
God promised that Mary’s Son would be called great, but now He was dying in disgrace. God promised that her Son would sit on the throne of David His Father, but now he was rejected and thrown out of the city of David!
Mary was told by the angel that Jesus would be the very Son of God, but now God did not send 10,000 angels when His Son was being put to death.
It is impossible for us to imagine the magnitude of the testing of Mary’s hope. Was it all over? Would evil have the last word?
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MARY PERSEVERED IN HOPE, anchored securely in God’s promises. Mary trusted that God would do what He had promised. Mary’s anchor of hope did not break loose.
How can we apply all this to our own lives?
Hope protects us from becoming paralyzed by fear and discouragement. And this divine hope is not going to leave us disappointed.
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WHEN JESUS PREPARED the disciples for his coming death he told them that death is a kind of birth:
A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world. So with you: Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy. [John 16:21–22]
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OUR HOPE IS IN THE ONE who gives life, takes away life, and gives new life. Our hope is that one day we will be born — again — into the very life of God.
But for now, we await the coming of the Christ child, knowing even as we wait that Christ indeed has come. He lives within us, as he once lived within Mary, to give us hope.
Do not be afraid to hold this hope.
