saint of the week

Are We There Yet?

 

A couple of years ago my family and I drove to Missouri to visit my sister.  In the wee hours my husband and I gently carried our sleeping children to the van, loaded in the two dogs and silently began our journey.  We were hoping to get  through a good  chunk of the journey before our darlings awoke.  Just as we passed through the Fort Pitt tunnels, our daughter stirred.  Her eyes were as big as saucers.  She asked, "Are we there yet?"  Yes, we had been on the road for a mere twenty minutes.  Turns out that particular journey took nearly 18 hours.  I believe the number of "Are we there yet-s" numbered somewhere in the mid twenties.

 

So you can see that it took a strange kind of nuttiness to tackle such a trip again.

True our children are now two years older, but we have our new addition, a 7 month old Golden Retriever puppy. So again we loaded the sleeping children and 2 dogs into the van in the wee hours and silently made our way through the city.  Just as we passed through the tunnels, my daughter and I chorused to my husband the first shift driver, ARE WE THERE YET?  He smiled and said, "Yes, I think we just need to go around this bend."  Fourteen hours later, we arrived at my sister's house.

This week, I had a variety of notorious saints to choose from:  St. Joan of Arc, St. Augustine, St. Phillip Neri, and St. Bede.  Despite the huge contributions that these holy ones have made to our faith and the legendary examples they have become, they are all trumped by one.  May 31 is the feast of the Queenship of Mary.  Mary sits at the right hand of Jesus.  She is Queen of Angels, Mother of us all. In fact a more contemporary title for her is 'Lady of All Nations.'  She is the supreme example of obedience, humility and faith.  Many of our protestant brethren do not understand the Catholic relationship to Mary.  Maybe you have encountered this.  They may ask why we worship Mary.  Why we pray to Mary.  The answer I give you is this, we don't worship her, we worship God.  We honor Mary.  We venerate her as the Mother of God, but, we do not worship her.  We pray to her because the last thing that Jesus did, was give his Mother to John.  That symbolized His giving his mother to us.  Even at Cana, she saw what was needed and why, then went to Jesus.  He did what his mother asked.  Volumes have been written on this subject.  I urge you to check it out.  Sometimes though, maybe you just need a short answer to some of these complexities.  In that case, my answer is this:  Mary is like Mapquest (only more accurate) or OnStar.  She is the map that navigates us through daily life to Jesus. We really don't know what is around the next bend.  Sometimes we are the drivers, other times we are the passengers asking, "Are we there yet?"