Mary the mother of Jesus - Mary's "Yes" and our "Yes"

The Lady Chapel, Ely Cathedral

The theme of this week's service was of Mary the mother of Jesus and the way in which this ordinary girl was called a by God to extraordinary motherhood.

However, events overtook the service and we decided to focus in the talk on the unrest of the past week. Thank you to all of you who shared with us your reactions and responses. Here is an extract from what I said. Further reactions, responses, suggestions welcome.

In one of his letters, St Paul likens the church to a human body. The idea is that in the Christian community everyone has a part to play and everyone is important. So he writes:

If one member suffers, all suffer together with them;
if one member is honoured, all rejoice together with them.
1 Corinthians 12

Another famous figure, John Donne, poet and one-time Dean of St Paul's Cathedral wrote the poem:

No man is an island,
Entire of itself.
Each is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less
As well as if a promontory were.
As well as if a manor of thine own
Or of thine friend's were.
Each man's death diminishes me,
For I am involved in mankind.
Therefore, send not to know
For whom the bell tolls,
It tolls for thee.

The idea of the "common good" is mentioned in one of the prayers used in church where we pray that all will "seek the common good". It is described by the RC Bishops of England and Wales in the following way:

Because we are interdependent, the common good is more like a multiplication sum, where if any one number is zero then the total is always zero. If anyone is left out and deprived of what is essential, then the common good has been betrayed.

English Catholic Bishops, Choosing the Common Good (2010)

What St Paul, and John Donne, and the idea of the common good are inviting us into is a society where everyone has a place and part to play, where everyone feels - and is - valued.

Hopefully this is the sort of community what we seek to be here in TFG - but it's also the sort of community we look for in our towns and cities and nations.

Just like Mary, the ordinary girl called to extraordinary motherhood, each one of us has a part to play in bringing about the common good. As French priest and poet Michel Quoist has God say in one of his poems: I need your 'yes' to continue saving the world.

Peter King