Before I give my small homily, let me tell you a little story   which I know that you all know it already.

One day, one beautiful girl was sitting in her small and very soundless room. / She was alone.  I don t know whether she was praying or thinking something / but suddenly a young man come to her room and said:Assalamualaikum, ya Maria “Penuh Nikmat” (The old way to pray Hail Mary in bahasa Indonesia).You must know the whole dialog and the end of the story.

What is impressed me is the answer of the young man  and the answer of the young the girl: The angel answered: to the question Mary asked:  How can this be since I do not know a man. 

And the Angel answer and said to her: “ The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you.Then Mary said, “ Behold the maidservant of the Lord!  Let it be to me according to you, Lord.

Ecce Ancilla Domini, Fiat Mihi Secundum Verbum Tuum.

My brothers and sisters, the theme of today s homily is Mary, a model for Catholic Charismatic Renewal.

Mary has an essential role in the church as well in the Charismatic Renewal. She is not just an additional to the charismatic movement, but the role model.  Mary, on the early presence of Charismatic Renewal seems to have been put aside, but now “returns” through the ecclesial Movements.  The presence of Mary in the charismatic has brought a lot of grace to the Charismatic Renewal and to more than a hundred of million of its member worldwide.

In the past 30 years or more, the charismatic experience in the Catholic Church has revealed the profoundly “Marian” soul of the Charismatic Renewal.  We can notice the “presence of Marian soul” in almost all Catholic Charismatic communities.  Aware of the role of Mary in charismatic, many communities have developed some talks on Mariology for their members and even admonish their members to always pray the rosary. Certainly, this is a very good development, even if lately some Christian churches have criticized that Catholic Charismatic is identical with Marian Charismatic./ There are reasons why we need to imitate Mary in Charismatic Renewal.

Mary is the first Charismatic according to the New Testament, as related in Matt 1 and Lk. 1 : She was conceived from the Holy Spirit, overpowered by the Holy Spirit, and Jesus incarnated in her. In the first Pentecost of the New Testament, Virgin Mary was filled with the power of the Holy Spirit.  And with Jesus within her, she did the two things that all good Charismatic members should do:

1. She went immediately to serve, to help her cousin Elisabeth who was six months pregnant at old age. (Lk. 1:36, 39-45). She didn t stay idle but went out and served others.
2. She joyfully sang the praises of the Lord in her Magnificat: My soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoiced in God my Savior. (Lk. 1:46-56). She strongly believed that God will fulfill His promise; therefore, she praised Him with Magnificat. /

More than just being a first Charismatic, there are many reasons why Mary should be the Model of Charismatic Renewal:

First of all, she is a Charismatic Mother,  in whom the Holy spirit dwells.

If we have Mary in our souls the Holy Spirit comes to us. Therefore, as Mary spoke, the Holy Spirit came on Elizabeth and on John the Baptist in Elizabeth s womb. St. Louis Marie de Montfort, who wrote much about Mary, tells us that when we have Mary,  we will also have her Spouse, the Holy Spirit; I quoted:

“When the Holy Spirit finds his Spouse in a soul, / he flies to that soul, to communicate himself to it, to fill it with his presence, in proportion as he discovers there the presence and the fullness of his Spouse. / One of the major reasons why the Holy Spirit does not now work blinding wonders of grace in our souls is that / he does not find in us a sufficiently strong union with Mary / his indissoluble Spouse.” (True Devotion to Mary Part 1, Chapter 1, article 2)

So when we have Mary in our lives / we will also have the Holy Spirit, just as the Holy Spirit fell on Elizabeth and John the Baptist when Mary spoke. / So we can say that the closer we are to Mary, / the closer we are to her Spouse, / the Holy Spirit, / and the closer we are to God. Mary leads us to God and when we have Mary in our souls the Holy Spirit comes to us.

Secondly, Mary is the model of an everlasting Pentecost in the Church.

The experience of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit over Mary in Jerusalem  was neither the first nor the only one. / St. Luke presents the Annunciation as a proto-Pentecost, particularly for Mary. Incidentally, the terms he uses for the two events are identical: at the Annunciation he says: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you” (Lk 1:35), and at Pentecost: When the Holy Spirit has come upon you” (Acts 1:8).

This similarity was underlined by Vatican II in Lumen Gentium (59) and Ad Gentes (4). Without doubt, Mary lived many other Pentecostal experiences during her earthly life, such as, when she was in the house of her cousin Elizabeth, where a new outpouring of the Holy Spirit was manifested in such obviously charismatic expressions, and it happened when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary that the babe leaped in her wombs; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit (Lk. 1:41). The first to experience the action of the Spirit (Lk. 1:35), the model of all those who long to be “baptized in the Spirit and in fire”, as promised by Jesus (Lk. 3:16; Acts 2:3). She has experienced the Pentecost even before the day of Pentecost. Mary is the prototype of a continual and never-ending Pentecost in the Church in view of the interiorizing of Christ and of the missionary announcement of the Church to the very ends of the earth (Acts 1:8).

Aside of being model for these aspects that are particularly only to the Charismatic Renewal, Mary, is an ultimate role model for all Christians:

Mary is also a Model of Faith. She is open to the words of God and trust in the Lord. She surrenders herself to the Lord. Surrender is one of the key word of Charismatic, especially during the baptism in the Spirit. Mary let the Lord uses her according to what He wants in the plan of salvation.

After being told what the Lord will do on her, her response to God s call was: :Fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum”. I am the handmaid of the Lord.” -- Let what you have said be done to me. She takes up the duty of becoming the mother of Jesus at all risk. In this case she is a model of Obedience and Humility.

We, members of Charismatic need to be obedient also to God and to our Mother Church. We need to respect the hierarchy of the Church because they are the representatives of Jesus on earth. Obedience, should be always the main spirit of charismatic.

Mary is also a model of Holiness. she was found blameless and perfect in front of God. As children of Mary, we, members of Charismatic, should also learn to live a holy life. Let that holiness emanates and be radiant to the world around us.

There are many aspects we can learn from Mary as Charismatic. And we need to believe that she is the real model of Charismatic.

Therefore, let us spend time in prayer with Mary during these days that she may implant her roots in our souls, and produce wonders of grace which she alone can produce and that her Spouse, the Holy Spirit, may come to us too, and fill us with his presence. We can understand why Pope John Paul II was very much influenced by the writing of St. Louis Marie de Montfort as I quoted before, and took his motto :Totus Tuus, O Maria.” “I am all yours, O Mary,”.

Let virgin Mary be our mother, and let ourselves be her sons or daughters.

Let us now bow our head and pray together Hail Mary…

Let us pray that each one, like the Virgin Mary, welcome the gift of the Spirit and be a witness to Christ where he lives. Amen. 

Lastly.. I have a prophecy:

By the Holy Spirit more than 2000 years ago Virgin Mary born,
By the Holy Spirit also, Vifgin Mary still Living in the mids of us.  And will grow tomorrow. Amen. /In the communities of Charismatic Renewal.

Bishop Mikhael Cosmas Angkur OFM, Bishop 0f Bogor