Shining Bright | ✓

( 02. ) Mary

The noontime sun plagued the land with its unyielding rays of light as a group of women travelled back from the village's well carrying heavy jars filled with water. Amongst these women, Mary strained under the weight of her cargo, balancing it on her left shoulder. Every step she took made its contents slosh around in the jar, teasing her with its proximity. Her saliva glands worked hard to keep her mouth moist, exacerbating her thirst.

By her sides were her two younger sisters— Tehilah and Miriam— accompanied by their mother, Hannah. Though they showed no visible signs of any similar struggle that Mary was experiencing, she knew that such tasks made everyone uncomfortable, yet it was one of the rare responsibilities that diverted them from their otherwise uneventful routine at home.

Recently, however, her family had been very busy organizing and overseeing her union to Joseph, son of Jacob the carpenter. Mary herself barely knew her fiancé, having seen him briefly on three separate occasions, but was resolved to marrying him as it was her duty. Fortunately, the man to whom she was promised had an exceptionally good reputation among the people of Nazareth, having earned the title of tsaddik—'righteous one'.

As they neared their household, Hannah abruptly stopped in her tracks and motioned her daughters to do the same. Confused by this, Mary walked up next to her mother, tightly holding her jar. She looked up at her and followed her gaze until her own eyes landed on the threat; two Roman soldiers perversely ogling the women that had gone back with them from the well.

The Roman authorities had a tendency to severely mistreat Jews like them, inflicting unnecessary pain to those who so happen to cross their way. Neither women nor men were spared from their unjustified wrath; to escape it would be a cultural suicide, as one would have to assimilate to the Roman way of life.

The soldiers stood at a miscellaneous corner inside a residential quarter, a place where guards would usually never be. Mary saw that their cheeks were brightly flushed and their movements uncoordinated; they were drunk. Realizing this only heightened her fear, instinctively reaching for her mother's arm with her free hand.

"Girls," Hannah's clear voice resonated in her ears, "follow my lead."

The women quickly walked past the guards, making sure not to make any eye-contact with those barbaric Romans. The soldiers however, filled to the brim with alcohol, did not shy away from making crude comments at them in Latin, a language Mary barely knew but easily recognized.

Once in the safety of their house, she remembered how to breathe again. Looking at her sisters setting down their water jugs and anxiously glancing back at what could have been a dangerous encounter, Mary had never been more thankful to God for granting her such a blessed family.

In them, she found her main earthly solace.

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