Mary: Our Model Evangelizer

 Mary is not counted among the apostles. She is not a Doctor of the Church. She did not write a book in scripture. Despite these, she is our great example of discipleship, faithfulness, and evangelization. She was the first to say yes to the call of bringing the good news to the world. In a most literal sense, she carried the Good News for nine months in her womb. She remained at the foot of the cross while the apostles fled in fear. After her time on earth, she has come back in different times and places with one mission, to call people to her son.

           

More than anyone, Mary’s life is focused on pointing the world to the message of Christ. She follows Paul’s command “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord” (1 Cor. 1:31). Unfortunately, throughout Church history, people have been attracted to Mary and stopped there. They have admired her role as the Mother of God, but have forgotten her purpose. In her revelations around the world, her continual message is for people to turn to her son, to worship him, and to believe in his everlasting mercy.

            

At the wedding at Cana, when the servants did not know what to do about the wine she told them, “Do whatever he tells you” (John 2:5). With that declaration she set into motion Christ’s public ministry. This strength to submit to God’s will and cooperate with Christ’s mission of salvation for all did not come from quick decisions. Several times we are given of glimpse of how she lived out her faith and was able to trust in events unfolding during her life on earth. As events to place she “treasured all these things, pondering them in her heart” (Luke 2:19, 51). She hid Gods word in her heart (Psalm 119:11) and through that was able to witness to the world with “gentleness and reverence” (1 Peter 3:15).

            

What does this all mean for us? How does it affect our faith journeys? We are all called in baptism to be priests, prophets, and kings. As we look at Mary’s role as the great evangelizer, we are given an example of our role as prophets. Whether we are sent to proclaim the Good News on a street corner, or quietly writing letters to friends who may not yet believe, we are all called to always point to Christ. Learn to say yes to God, trust in his provisions to help us in the mission he gives, and declare through our lives the reason for our hope.

**This article was written for Today's Disciple (a magazine published by my parent's church in Orlando, FL: St. Mary Magdalen Catholic Church).