The beginning of the Blessed Virgin’s life, the life of the most perfect, the most noble and the most beloved of all creatures, is not recorded in history; it remains a kind of secret in the depths of our hearts as children of the Virgin Mary. And the end of Mary’s earthly pilgrimage also remains hidden. It is a silence that springs from God’s wisdom – this silence concerning both Mary’s birth and the end of her life…
In the light of God’s wisdom, this ought to mean something for us. We know that Mary is “betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the house of David.” But what we know through the angel Gabriel is beyond human history. The mystery of Mary remains outside of history, beyond what men can understand; it is hidden in God. The masterpiece of humanity, the greatest and most beautiful thing in all of creation, remains hidden from the gaze of historians, from the gaze of mankind. Only faith tells us that God willed this tiny human baby to exist, this tiny Mary, and that she be given to mankind as our treasure. In fact, she is really what is most precious in humanity; for, since Jesus is God, he is beyond – not within – the imminence of the human community.
The most precious thing in the human community to which we belong is invisible to the gaze of men… the one who is the masterpiece of God in the human family is set-aside for God as a secret of love…
Mary was living in vehement, loving expectation; the very deepest desires of humanity are found eminently in her heart, hidden in her heart. From the very beginning, Mary had such a great desire for God! She desired so much to meet Jesus again, to live for him and with him!
With Open Hands 