Evangelize with humility, wisdom, and balance

If we give Mary her rightful place in our preaching, we will evangelize with humility. The evangelization of Mary is not by words, but by surrender to God with one’s whole being. It is this deep humility that will preserve our preaching from pride and arrogance. It is what will keep us from preaching ourselves instead of proclaiming Christ. All evangelization consists of a humble availability to the Word of God and the power of the Spirit; and so we can evangelize with the joy that radiates from us.

According to the Fathers of the Church, it is through Mary that the Church evangelizes with balance and wisdom, for it is she who overcomes all heresy. We invoke her, correctly, as the “Seat of Wisdom.” She helps maintain, within authentic Christianity, reserve and discretion with regard to supernatural interventions of the Lord.

Visited by the angel, favored by a most direct approach to God, she retains her balance, she does not forget to remember her poverty as a humble servant of the Lord. She peacefully comforts her cousin Elizabeth.

Mary is essential for the work of evangelization: she gives it humanity, humility, wisdom, and balance. The more the world groans in labor pains for the Reign of God, the more the Mother of Jesus carries the church as her child.