Blessed Virgin Mary, Our Model of Life – PREPARE OURSELVES AS LIVING TEMPLES OF GOD, AS MARY DID
Mary became a dwelling place for God.
Let us become living temples of the Most Holy God.
God’s dwelling place here on earth, is fulfilled in Mary. Mary became a dwelling place for God, by submitting to the will of God. God, Who became present here on earth, truly dwelt in Mary. Mary became His tent. Theotokos is the place where God lived, the living temple of God dwelt in the physical temple of God. Mary was prepared to be the perfect dwelling place for the God.
Mary prepared herself God’s dwelling here on earth; with her body and soul, she became his dwelling place and thereby opened the earth to heaven, by saying, “I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be done to me according to your word,” For the first time in the plan of salvation and because His Spirit had prepared her, the Father found the dwelling place where His Son and His Spirit could dwell among men”. “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God” (Lk. 1: 35)
Mary became God’s temple in an incomparable way, the new ark of the covenant. Mary was consecrated, made holy, to become the dwelling place of the Lord. “Full of grace, Mary is wholly given over to Him who has come to dwell in her and whom she is about to give to the world”. She had made room for the Lord in her soul, and thus really became, God-Bearer.
St. Augustine says, “Before conceiving the Lord in her body, she had already conceived him in her soul.”
God, the framer and sustainer of all of creation, takes up residence in us when we submit to His will and receive His grace. God within us! No wonder “all the powers of Heaven stand amazed!” It is for us to discover God’s way and God’s will for our happiness. It is for us to be the dwelling place for God’s abiding presence. Let us take time to prepare our hearts and our homes, physically and spiritually, to become fitting dwelling places for Emmanuel, the Christ who promises to be GOD-WITH-US, always and forever.
Our assurance is that the same miracle awaits us as well. Mary, as the bearer of God, is the image and prototype of what each of us can become, we bearers of God. We often see the icon of Mary with Christ within her. This is the icon of what we all can become both as individual bearers of God and together as His Body, the Church. Let us “commit ourselves and each other and all our life unto Christ our God,” that we, too, might become living temples of the Most Holy God. Mary became a dwelling place for God. Let us become living temples of the Most Holy God.
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