During the first four centuries of the Church, many heresies developed regarding Jesus Christ. Finally, at the Council of Chalcedon in 451 A.D., the bishops, united with the Pope, clarified the matter: “We teach…one and the same Christ, Son, Lord, Only-begotten, known in two natures, without confusion, without change, without division, without separation.”
Just twenty years prior, at the Council of Ephesus in 431 A.D., there came clarification regarding Our Lady. She was the Theotokos, the God-bearer and Mother of God!
In the Gospel passage from Luke (2:16-21), Venerable Archbishop Fulton Sheen (1895-1979) once described those present (the infant Jesus, Mary, Joseph, and Shepherds) as experiencing the exact opposite of our “directional” conception of heaven; namely, that heaven is up! Rather, for those gathered around the Christ child, as they gazed upon Him, heaven was down!
As Mary held Jesus in her arms, we cannot imagine the amount of responsibility she must have felt. For her yes to the Angel Gabriel meant that she had been entrusted to nurture not Jesus’ divinity, but his humanity. With a mother’s heart, she poured out her love upon her son, the Second Person of the Most Holy Trinity, who was also her Redeemer and Savior.
During those years, however, the words of Simeon must have continued to echo in her heart. For, after holding Jesus, it was Simeon who informed Mary (40 days after Jesus’ birth) that while his life was complete now that he had seen the Messiah, a very different future would unfold for her, one in which a sword would pierce her heart.
But Mary’s yes to God never wavered!
At the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry, at the Wedding at Cana, it was she who informed Jesus that there was not enough wine. And if we remember Jesus’ response to her: “Woman, how does this concern me,” we see that Jesus’ march toward Calvary had been set in motion. For Jesus had signaled that Mary was the new Eve. Where Eve had said no to God, Mary had said yes!
And at Calvary, at the foot of the Cross, Mary heard the words that Jesus spoke to John: “Behold your Mother.” Indeed, with Jesus having given His own mother to John (and each of us), Our Lady becomes THE model for how we should live our lives; by always responding to God with a powerful—yes!
Throughout his life, Venerable Archbishop Sheen made known his own devotion to the Blessed Mother and often recited a poem written by Mary Dixon Thayer entitled Lovely Lady Dressed in Blue…
Lovely Lady dressed in blue ——-
Teach me how to pray!
God was just your little boy,
Tell me what to say!
Did you lift Him up, sometimes,
Gently on your knee?
Did you sing to Him the way
Mother does to me?
Did you hold His hand at night?
Did you ever try
Telling stories of the world?
O! And did He cry?
Do you really think He cares
If I tell Him things ——-
Little things that happen?
And do the Angels’ wings make a noise? And can He hear
me if I speak low? Does He understand me now?
Tell me ——-for you know.
Lovely Lady dressed in blue ——-
Teach me how to pray!
God was just your little boy,
And you know the way.
