Proclaiming “Be Done” in All Things
And Mary said, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; may it be done to me according to your word.” Luke 1:38
It was a beautiful, spring day in Colorado; not a cloud in the sky and the sun shining brightly. I was headed home after taking our second child, Claire, to her 6-month well-child check. With her and her older brother Aaron in the backseat, we happily drove home in anticipation of our play date and mommy time with my best friend and her children, who were the same ages as ours.
As I pulled into our driveway, Leeanne and her children were waiting for us. Aaron and Claire screamed with excitement when they saw their friends! My friend Leeanne, however, had a look of concern on her face. Before I could even ask she said,
“Have you listened to the news?”
“No, what’s going on?”
She replied, “There’s been a shooting at Columbine High School.”
“What?!?! I just drove by there on my way home!” I exclaimed.
I was in shock and speechless. My husband was the youth minister at the Catholic Church just a mile south of Columbine, and the majority of our teens were students there.
Leeanne knew all of this and suggested we go inside, get the kids settled and turn on the news to get more information. After watching the news, we looked at one another with tears in our eyes and speechless. It was much worse than we had imagined. We couldn’t believe this was happening in our safe and close-knit community. We decided we had seen enough and knew what we needed to do. We turned off the TV and began to pray. We knew we needed to particularly seek the intercession of our Blessed Mother who knew what the students, their parents and our community was going through. So, we gathered our children, got out our Rosaries and began to pray…” Hail Mary…”
The following weeks and months were sadly filled with planning and attending funerals and caring for our teens and their families who were physically, mentally and spiritually harmed by this horrific experience. But this event impacted us, too, and for a long time I ignored this fact. After all, we were the youth ministers and it was our job to minister to and care for our hurting youth and families.
Eventually, I had to confront this reality because it was causing me not just emotional pain, but deep spiritual desolation, as well. I felt far away from the Lord and began to doubt His love for me, as well as my vocation as wife and mother. I did not understand how this could be the Lord’s will for my husband and me? We had only been married 3 years - we were too young to handle such monumental loss and heartache!
As I began to pray through this, I was reminded of Mary’s “yes” to God’s call on her life.
When the angel Gabriel came to her and proclaimed she was to be the Mother of God, she said, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; may ‘it’ be done to me according to your word.” (Luke 1:38) Mary didn’t know what all “IT” would entail, but she loved God with her whole life and trusted in His goodness for her. She did not know suffering would be part of this “yes” until the Presentation of the Lord in the temple when Simeon spoke about Mary’s heart being pierced with a sword. Even then, it was just a hint of what was to come.
Yet, isn’t the reality of Mary’s “yes” true for all of us? Every single one of us HAS or WILL have the opportunity to suffer at some time in our life; in small and big ways, in our families, in our jobs and even in our churches. The past two years have been evidence of this. But no matter how big or small the suffering is, will we allow “IT” to be done in us? Will we trust the Lord, like Mary, that He will be with us and will use it to draw us deeper in to His heart? St. Therese, whose feast day is October 1st, said, “I realized that to become a saint one must suffer a great deal, always seek what is best, and forget oneself.”
This year’s Oklahoma Catholic Women’s Conference theme is “…be done”. We hope you will join us February 26 th , 2022 at the Embassy Suites in Norman for a day of inspiration from national Catholic speakers who will continue to unpack this theme to help strengthen you on your journey as you say “yes” to the Lord in ALL things!
This blog post was written by Meg Beckman, Oklahoma Catholic Women’s Conference Chairwoman.