by Jessica Moran (student at Kincoppal-Rose Bay, Sydney)

Reflection on the Gospel (Luke1:26-38)

How can a liberated woman serve in a mainly male-dominated society such as today's? In the Gospel, Mary said: I am the Lord' s servant! Let it happen as you have said. For many women today, serving the Lord isn't number one on their priority list, nor is it something done with great enthusiasm. But why is this? Maybe it's because the idea of serving anyone scares a liberated woman. Maybe serving takes away a woman's sense of control. Having to do something without being given a choice. Mary had the choice, and she chose to serve God. For many women, the idea of jumping into this serving without having time to even gather their thoughts seems impossible to comprehend. Mary did take the risk agreeing to have God's Son without knowing what was ahead of her, but she wasn't totally alone in making her decision. Mary had the Spirit of the Lord with her and she took the challenge up in faith. This is not to say that Mary never questioned w hat she had done, for she was only human, and during her life she went through many hardships. Through all this, Mary continued to serve God.

Many people misinterpret what it means to serve God. Serving God isn't the same as serving anybody else. In serving God we are not asked to perform demeaning tasks. All God asks of us in serving Him is to love. To treat others as we would like to be treated. To respect God and those around us. Serving God also means being truly yourself. It means taking each day as it comes and making the most of it. Which is exactly what we see Mary do in the Gospel. Mary was given an opportunity which she accepted. On this occasion it was life-changing, but God really doesn't ask that much from us. After all, how hard can loving be?

Once I got to this point in preparing this homily, I realised that I needed to use an example from my own personal experience to further explain what I was talking about. But what example was I going to use? How could I relate serving God and Mater Admirabilis back to my own personal life? Now if I was at home instead of boarding it would be at this point that I would turn to my mother for help. But this time I didn't even have to ask Mum anything for her to help me with my dilemma. I think my mother is the perfect example of what I am trying to say. It was only yesterday that my mother braved the pouring rain after a long day of teaching to drive down to Sydney for Parent/Teacher interviews. Now the drive would have been less that enjoyable, and a day of primary school kids certainly tires a woman out, but nevertheless, Mum still came down for me. That has to be love.

And that's the sort of love and service that God asks of us. Which brings me back to my opening statement: How can a liberated woman serve? A liberated woman can serve out of love. And a woman who serves out of love is truly liberated for she has made the choice to serve, and choice is what liberation is all about.