“Well, my dear friends, you don’t need to have much imagination to imagine Our Lady in the seventh month, the eighth month, the ninth month, with life stirring within Her. As like all mothers-to-be, She was crocheting and knitting and preparing for the birth of the child. And then one morning, a selfish, moody, compulsive man who had authority from God, decided that his people should be enrolled. Joseph would go and do his duty; Mary would go with him. They arrived in a crowded city. Every door is closed; every face is hard. There is no room for them in the inn. They have to go into a stable to bring forth the Child. You know what the Franciscans have done with the crib. It is so romantic; it is so inspiring. What was the reality? Put yourself in Our Lady’s place. Where is the angel now? Where is God now? Was she forgotten, neglected, and abandoned because She had to bring forth a child in a stable? It did not make sense. But She believed. Isn’t that our problem? We always want things to make sense in our terms. We have to understand; we have to be able to fathom; we have to be on top of every situation. Our Lady is our model in Faith; in accepting by faith what She could not understand.
Well, She was about over that shock when She got in for another one. She had to take the Child to Egypt. If there was a bad word for the Jews, it was “Egypt,” because She knew what God had to do to get His people out of Egypt. And now send them back into Egypt?
It doesn’t make sense by our sophisticated standards. And She went; and She stayed; and She returned when the Angel told Joseph, “to Nazareth. “And She saw Him grow up through the difficult years of adolescence. She saw Him become 25, She saw Him become 30, doing nothing for the salvation of the world by our standards. And then He went out and surrounded Himself with people who did not understand Him; people who were obtuse, selfish, unthinking and ambitious.
At the end, one of them betrayed Him and died in despair at his own hand; another one denied Him and the rest ran away and left him to die alone.”
From the book: Reflections With Father Leo Clifford O.F.M.
Reality Meets Faith 