Receivers and Givers of Help

He has helped his servant Israel, Luke 1: 54a

As I have shared before, I don't really do New Year's resolutions.  Instead, I think of a word that I try to carry with me throughout the new year as a sort of reminder of areas I want to focus more on.  This year, I was a bit torn as to what my word would be.  However, I decided on "HELP."  The way I think of this concept is two-fold: help, as in asking for help.  And help as in helping others.  So, when I read today's verse, I couldn't help but to pause on the word "helped."

I agree with what I read in a commentary saying, that Mary is expressing her trust in God's current actions for her as an individual in the light of God's faithfulness to His children throughout history.  God has helped her by giving her a sympathetic supporter in Elizabeth and a husband who is not going to abandon her in Joseph.  He has given her help in the form of strength so she can carry out her most holy mission.  He has helped her by giving her the ability to recall His blessings, including, the way God has helped His servant, Israel.  She is Israel and she claims His help for His chosen ones as one of them.  

On the same token, I wonder if she is also seeing the two-fold nature of God's help fulfilled in the baby who is miraculously forming in her womb?  I wonder if she comprehends the full extent of how she is part of that help Our Lord offers His servant Israel.  She is claiming the help, but she is also the vessel that God uses to dispense help.  

Like Mary, we are in that same position.  We are the blessed receivers of God's help, and we are the ones He calls to help our brothers and sisters.  That is the reason for the blessing: so we can bless others.

Mary was carrying the One...we carry Him too.

May the Holy Spirit manifest Himself through us and use us as vessels of His Light to end the darkness of this world today.  In the Precious Name of Jesus.  Amen!