Posted by Spiritual Reflections by Fr Roderick Salazar SVD
Frank Sinatra is known not only for his decades-long
singing and acting career, but especially for carefully
enunciating the lyrics of his songs. But in his version
of Strangers in the Night, he either forgot the ending
words, or purposely omitted them to instead croon
“Doo Bee Doo Be Doo….”
Apo Hiking Society, on the other hand, had a hit song
with their purposely composed, “Doo Bee Doo Bee Doo”.
Long before Frank Sinatra and Apo, the Blessed Virgin
Mary, Mother of God, offered her life formula for loving
and following God, using the same syllables of the
afore-mentioned songs.
Her version, though, is DO BE DO BE DONE.
In her grammar of holiness, she was both PASSIVE and
ACTIVE in her relationship with God.
When the Archangel Gabriel announced that she was to
be the Mother of the Son of God who would be born as
Jesus, her reply to the difficult-to-comprehend message
was “Let It Be Done To Me According to your Word”.
This we find in Luke 1, 38.
This is the PASSIVE form of following God’s will:
“Let it Be. Let It Be Done Unto Me. I am His Handmaid.
In the Gospel of John, Chapter 2, we find the ACTIVE
form of following God’s will.
At the Wedding at Cana, when the wine was running out,
Mary told the now-grown-up Jesus about the embarrassing situation. Though Jesus initially said that the matter did not concern Him, as His hour had not yet come, Mary firmly and confidently told the waiters,
“DO WHATEVER HE TELLS YOU.”
Unable or unwilling to rebuff His Mother, Jesus told the
waiters to fill the jars with simple water and by the power
of that word of Jesus, the water turned to the best wine ever.
DO, on the one hand. LET IT BE DONE, on the other.
The Passive and Active Mary Way
of Loving and Following God.
May we follow: DO BE DO BE DONE.
