One year on the night before Christmas eve, my mother-in-law fell and broke her leg. She was alone in her apartment until a friend wondered why she hadn’t come to breakfast in the morning and tried unsuccessfully to visit her. The friend called the fire department, whose men quickly arrived and broke her lock and took her to the E.R. where she waited to have her leg set by a surgeon.

Jack and I arrived on Christmas eve and went to the surgical waiting room. Quite soon a young woman came out of the surgery and smiling, said, “Don’t worry, your mother is in very good hands, and I will be here to answer any of your questions.” When she started to return to the surgery, she turned and said, “My name is Mary. You may ask for me at any time.”

To this day I believe that Mary probably doesn’t remember that Christmas eve at all, but I will never forget it, for I felt overwhelmingly that we were experiencing a real reminder of Christmas right there in the hospital, a reminder given to us in the person of Mary, who happened to be on duty on Christmas eve.

St. Augustine wrote, “The male sex is honored in the flesh of Christ; the female is honored in the mother of Christ. (sermon no. 190) the “honor” that Augustine mentions comes from God , who chose Mary and Joseph to be the parents of His son. Augustine saw in Mary a woman honored by God. I believe that the notion that Mary was honored by God was a powerful influence in the cultures of the world that accepted it. It was an affirmation of the value of women in the eyes of God, a theme that gradually improved the lot of women from being the legal property of men to being persons in themselves.

When Jesus was confronted by the teachers and Pharisees about a woman caught in adultery , a crime punishable by death to the woman, he simply said, “ Let any of you (men) without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” At this those who heard began to go away . . . until only Jesus was left. . . “Woman, where are they?Has no one condemned you?” “No one, Sir,” she said. “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. (John 8:7-11)

Mary, Jesus’ mother, said, From now on all generations will call me blessed. (Luke 1:48) That night in the hospital we were blessed by a young woman named Mary, but I believe all women and men have been blessed by the young woman named Mary who said “yes” to God.

Love in Him,

Prue