The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1930-10-11
BY WILLIAM d. GILROY, d. D.
Fdifnr of the Cnnrrecafinnalisi

NONOEIN1ING MARY, b41S 04Otll6I
~ of Jesus, we do not know a
great deal in actual fact and de-
tail, but we can come to very real
conclusions from the narrative OF
the New Testament.
We have, first of all, the circum-
stances of the birth Of Jesus-a
story with all the beauty Of mother
ly devotion and suggestive in every
way of the quality of Mary's ex-
perience.
The strange events might easily
have created in her a spirit OF self
pride, but apparently their only
effect was to quicken within her
all the instincts Of gentleness and
goodness and the aspiration for
Righteousness. The record of her
reaction to these experiences is
very simple, yet very expressive.
"She kept all these things and
pondered them in her heart"
Then there is very little detail
in the record until the loss Of the
child Jesus and the discovery of
Him in the temple disputing with
the doctors. When Mary is re-
proachful toward the boy, we sense
the keeness of her fears and her
10y at His recovery. But how her
heart must have beaten at the
strangeness and mystery of His
words, "Wist ye not that must
be about My Fathers business !
We can easily understand the
strangeness of the experience that
must have developed through the
years.
Many Responsibilities
If the indications of Scripture,
and the assumptions based upon
various references, are correct,
other children came into the home
at Nazareth, and Mary had other
responsibilities; but back Of all her
motherIy experience and beneath
all the care of the home, manifest
ly there was this mystery of the
child whose spiritual genius she
must have perceived and whose
place of destiny she must have
sensed though she did not know
what was going to happen.
Then one can imagine her
thoughts and her feelings as Jesus
began His public ministry, as she
felt the beauty of His thoughts and
of His words but felt also deep
misgiving and fear in her soul, as
she saw Him compelled, even in
His first public words at Nazareth,
to flee for safety from those who
would have prosecuted Him for
blaspheny.
The experiences of the few years
of that earthly ministry must have
been fraught with deep JOY and
with deep sadness for Mary. Then
came the clilnay which, more than
anything else, reveals the greatness
of Mary-her courage, her devotion
and the persistency Of her mother
love and faith.
The simple reference is so i'm
bedded in the narrative that prob
ably few people read it with intel
Igent thought or with any dramatic
sense of all that it implied, but in
the story of the Crucifixion, in de-
scribing those who were present at
the last agony of our Lord, we
have the simple statement, There
stood by the cross of Jesus His
mother"
What Courage!
How much that tells us about
Mary! We think of the power of
that mother love that gave her
strength to follow all the way to
the cross that she might be near
her son in His sufferings and in
His dying hour.
What courage she must have pos
seSsed, for a weaker woman would
have collapsed under the strain. It
may be that she did not realize the
meaning of Calvary for the world.
1t may be that her faith was over
whelmed in that sad hour, but she
knew with poignant reality the
meaning of Calvary for her.
She experienced what mother
hood has again and again suffered,
and in that hour of Crucif1xion
it is we'll to remember not only the
Christ on the cross but His mother,
who stood nearby and who bore all
the pangs of the cross in her own
soul.
Can one think of such an ex-
perience even in its sadness with
out the consciousness of glory-like
the greatness that attaches to Jesus
The wonder of His goodness, and
the reality of His Power to save. are
all associated with the mother who
bore Him, who nursed Him, who
laugh Him to speak and to pray.
who led Him to the treasures of
religion, and who followed with Him
all the way to His triumphant death
that she might share in the worlds
redemption and in the triumph of
His resurrection.