Homily for Saturday, 14 June 2014‒ Our Lady's Saturday

Saturday of the 10th Week in Ordinary Time

Votive Mass of Mary, Mother of God

Readings of the day: 1 Kings 19:19-21; Psalm 16:1b-2a, 5, 7-8, 9-10; Matthew 5:33-37

Have you experienced or do you know someone who has experienced a difficult, even distressing, moment in your or their life, and yet maintains deep serenity, prayer, and trust in God?

I imagine the author of today’s Psalm composing this Psalm amid a difficult time in his life. And yet this Psalm and our response is one of trust in God’s presence and providence: “In you I take refuge… O LORD, my allotted portion and cup; you it is who hold fast my lot… Therefore my heart is glad and my soul rejoices; my body, too, abides in confidence… You are my inheritance, O Lord.”

On this, Our Lady’s Saturday, we may remember each week our Blessed Mother, the model for us of trust in God even in times of trouble; times of difficulty; even times of distress. Her having brought the Son of God Jesus Christ into our world was one of these difficult situations for both Mary and Joseph, to whom she was betrothed to be married. And yet at the incarnation, Jesus’ becoming human in her womb, Mary trusted in God: “May it be done to me according to your word.” These words are similar to those of our Psalmist in how they express trust in God: “In you I take refuge… You are my inheritance, O Lord.”

When she visited Elizabeth, who was pregnant with John the Baptist, Mary prayed the prayer we know as the Magnificat: “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord…”

“My heart is glad and my soul rejoices; my body, too, abides in confidence,” the Psalmist prays.

Mary’s heart remained glad and as it pondered God’s plan for her and for the salvation of all of us in Christ. This plan included Christ being born and living among us as a human being, dying, and rising for us. This plan included the joyous, the sorrowful, the glorious, and the luminous mysteries. Throughout Jesus’ life, the heart, soul, and body of Mary his mother; our mother abided “in confidence” with God.

When we face times of difficulty or even of distress, or when we are joyful and all is well in our lives, God invites us to pray as Mary did and as the Psalmist did with trust in God’s presence and providence: “In you I take refuge… O LORD, my allotted portion and cup; you it is who hold fast my lot… Therefore my heart is glad and my soul rejoices; my body, too, abides in confidence… You are my inheritance, O Lord.”