“Mary stayed.” The way St. John tells the story of the first Easter morning there was a great deal of running around — even racing back and forth. The fact that Mary stopped running and instead “stayed” is a vivid illustration of an essential element in the spiritual life. As the Old Testament lesson from the Song of Songs puts it, all too often our search for God produces the feeling: I sought him but I did not find him. Our prayers go dry, our love seems unrequited, we experience God as a blank. The tempation at that point is to bail, to give up and figure the spiritual life is not for me. What Mary demonstrates is the virtue of staying, of hanging in there. Waiting on the Lord teaches us that we are not in control, that we can’t manipulate or compel God. Instead we receive everything as a gift. If we are willing to stay with the emptiness, in God’s time we will receive the blessing of knowing “God is with us.”
JULY222024
By Church Staff
