Oct. 19, 2013

I have such vivid memories of my father as he worked in the garden of my family home. It was his hobby and his passion, things about him I only wish I could pursue. He was meticulous about his work in the garden and the results showed. My mother was always by his side as the whole family enjoyed his effort.

Gardening is hard work. Trees and bushes and plants and flowers grow on their own, but a “garden” is intentional. It takes planning and effort; it takes design and purpose; it takes care and nurturing. And the results of all this attention -- and intention -- are beautiful and satisfying as we look at the fruits of our labor.

The image of a garden is a very appropriate one to use when speaking of “family.” All the things that apply to gardening, apply to raising, growing and caring for a family. And, so, we take as the theme for our pilgrimage this year “The Family as the Garden of Faith.”

We all know that at the heart of the family is a loving husband and wife, a loving father and mother.  If children learn anything -- if children really learn and grow to love their faith -- they do so because of their parents and their words and example, their witness to faith.  Although sometimes both parents are not present, parents begin the family and a father or mother do their best to love and nurture it, to hand on the faith through Baptism, the sacraments and a Catholic life.

Just as a father and mother are the heart of a family, so, too, in the family of faith we know as the Church  Today, we thank God our Father for the grace of that family life and we draw our attention to the presence of Mary, our mother.

We have heard Luke’s narrative of the Annunciation so often in the Church’s celebration of Mary, the Mother of God and Mother of the Church. Today that word is proclaimed once more, as we gather here in Mary’s House, in the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, our nation’s Church, and our attention is drawn to the consequence of this Gospel. Mary, as the Church has taught, "sinless from the first moment of her conception," accepts the message of God spoken by Gabriel and the salvation Christ would bring by his Death was conceived in her. What a beautiful relationship between her own destiny at the time of her conception and that of the Church at the time of her conception.

As we read, as we listen to the Gospel of Luke, we can only imagine what it must have been like for this young woman — barely a woman, really — to hear the words "you have found favor with God … you shall conceive a son, Jesus … to be called Son of the Most High." Amazed, startled, "deeply troubled" as Luke tells us, Mary "wondered" what this was all about. "How can this be?" was her simple reply. Not a doubt, not a protest, but an expression of wonder. Mary "wondered” what his greeting meant.

In her own mind and experience, her life was ordinary. She lived her life without much difference from her peers at the time. And yet our faith tells us, hers was a "life of love that never knew sin," far from ordinary and quite different than any other human being who ever lived. "How can this be?" The grace of God, the presence of the Holy Spirit, the power of the Most High. And, in the experience of "wonder," Mary’s question was followed her marvelous statement of faith, "I am the maidservant of the Lord. Let it be done to me."

What had happened in her own regard, in her own conception now was to bear witness to what would be as she conceived. And as she conceived Christ in her womb, the Church was conceived, we were conceived.

Quite simply, our pilgrimage here today to Mary’s House is an opportunity for us to reflect upon our own faith. Unlike Mary, we have been touched by sin. And yet, like Mary, we have also experienced the grace and power of God in our lives, drawing us beyond weakness, moving us closer to him. When we are tempted, our weakness prevails. When we sin, we diminish our own destiny. At those times -- at any time when we encounter human frailty -- we must hear the Angel Gabriel’s announcement of salvation. How can we remain strong? How can we overcome? How can this be? The answer for us is always the same: the grace and power of God. And in our faith, like Mary, we hand ourselves over to God, to Christ remembering that "nothing is impossible with God," that in him and only in him, the impossible is possible. The unconceivable is conceived. "I am the servant of the Lord, let it be done to me."

Today, Mary’s faith touches us deeply once again. Today we pray a prayer for our family to live in the “garden of faith.” Mary had a faith that your Holy Spirit prepared … trace in our families the lines of her love, and in our hearts, her readiness of faith.