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Venerable Brothers and dear Sons and Daughters, Health and Apostolic
Blessing.
THE MOTHER OF THE REDEEMER has a precise place in the plan of
salvation, for "when the time had fully come, God sent forth his Son, born
of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so
that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has
sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying 'Abba! Father!'" (Gal
4:4-6).
With these words of the Apostle Paul, which the Second Vatican Council
takes up at the beginning of its treatment of the Blessed Virgin Mary, (1)
I too wish to begin my reflection on the role of Mary in the mystery of
Christ and on her active and exemplary presence in the life of the Church.
For they are words which celebrate together the love of the Father, the
mission of the Son, the gift of the Spirit, the role of the woman from
whom the Redeemer was born and our own divine filiation, in the mystery of
the "fullness of time." (2)
This "fullness" indicates the moment fixed from all eternity when the
Father sent his Son, "that whoever believes in him should not perish but
have eternal life" (Jn 3:16). It denotes the blessed moment when the Word
that "was with God . . . became flesh and dwelt among us" (Jn 1:1, 14),
and made himself our brother. It marks the moment when the Holy Spirit,
who had already infused the fullness of grace into Mary of Nazareth,
formed in her virginal womb the human nature of Christ. This "fullness"
marks the moment when, with the entrance of the eternal into time, time
itself is redeemed, and being filled with the mystery of Christ becomes
definitively "salvation time." Finally, this "fullness" designates the
hidden beginning of the Church's journey. In the liturgy the Church
salutes Mary of Nazareth as the Church's own beginning, (3) for in the
event of the Immaculate Conception the Church sees projected and
anticipated in her most noble member, the saving grace of Easter. And
above all, in the Incarnation she encounters Christ and Mary indissolubly
joined: he who is the Church's Lord and Head and she who, uttering the
first 'fiat' of the New Covenant, prefigures the Church's condition as
spouse and mother.
2. Strengthened by the presence of Christ (cf. Mt 28:20), the Church
journeys through time towards the consummation of the ages and goes to
meet the Lord who comes. But on this journey -- and I wish to make this
point straightaway -- she proceeds along the path already trodden by the
Virgin Mary, who "advanced in her pilgrimage of faith and loyally
persevered in her union with her Son unto the Cross."(4)
I take these very rich and evocative words from the Constitution "Lumen
Gentium," which in its concluding part offers a clear summary of the
Church's doctrine on the Mother of Christ whom she venerates as her
beloved Mother and as her model in faith, hope and charity.
Shortly after the Council, my great predecessor Paul VI decided to
speak further of the Blessed Virgin. In the Encyclical "Christi Matri" and
subsequently in the Apostolic Exhortations "Signum Magnum" and "Marialis
Cultus"(5) he expounded the foundations and criteria of the special
veneration which the Mother of Christ receives in the Church as well as
the various forms of Marian devotion -- liturgical, popular and private --
which respond to the spirit of faith.
3. The circumstance which now moves me to take up this subject once
more is the prospect of the year 2000, now drawing near, in which the
Bimillennial Jubilee of the birth of Jesus Christ at the same time directs
our gaze towards his Mother. In recent years, various opinions have been
voiced suggesting that it would be fitting to precede that anniversary by
a similar Jubilee in celebration of the birth of Mary.
In fact, even though it is not possible to establish an exact
chronological point for identifying the date of Mary's birth, the Church
has constantly been aware that Mary appeared on the horizon of salvation
history before Christ. It is a fact that when "the fullness of time" was
definitively drawing near -- the saving advent of Emmanuel -- she who was
from all eternity destined to be his Mother already existed on earth. The
fact that she "preceded" the coming of Christ is reflected every year in
the liturgy of Advent. Therefore, if to that ancient historical
expectation of the Savior we compare these years which are bringing us
closer to the end of the second Millennium after Christ and to the
beginning of the third, it becomes fully comprehensible that in this
present period we wish to turn in a special way to her, the one who in the
"night" of the Advent expectation began to shine like a true "Morning
Star" (Stella Matutina). For just as this star, together with the "dawn, "
precedes the rising of the sun, so Mary from the time of her Immaculate
Conception preceded the coming of the Savior, the rising of the "Sun of
Justice" in the history of the human race.(7)
Her presence in the midst of Israel -- a presence so discreet as to
pass almost unnoticed by the eyes of her contemporaries -- shone very
clearly before the Eternal One, who had associated this hidden "daughter
of Sion" (cf. Zeph 3:14; Zech 2:10) with the plan of salvation embracing
the whole history of humanity. With good reason then at the end of this
Millennium, we Christians who know that the providential plan of the Most
Holy Trinity is the central reality of Revelation and of faith feel the
need to emphasize the unique presence of the Mother of Christ in history,
especially during these last years leading up to the year 2000.
4. The Second Vatican Council prepares us for this by presenting its
teaching the Mother of God in the mystery of Christ and of the Church. If
it is true, as the Council itself proclaims (8) that "only in the mystery
of the Incarnate Word does the mystery of man take on light: then this
principle must be applied in a very particular way to that exceptional
"daughter of the human race," that extraordinary "woman" who became the
Mother of Christ. Only in the mystery of Christ is her mystery fully made
clear. Thus has the Church sought to interpret it from the very beginning:
the mystery of the Incarnation has enabled her to penetrate and to make
even clearer the mystery of the Mother of the Incarnate Word. The Council
of Ephesus (431) was of decisive importance in clarifying this, for during
that Council, to the great joy of Christians, the truth of the divine
motherhood of Mary was solemnly confirmed as a truth of the Church's
faith. Mary is the Mother of God (=Theotokos), since by the power of the
Holy Spirit she conceived in her virginal womb and brought into the world
Jesus Christ, the Son of God who is of one being with the Father. (9) "The
Son of God . . . born of the Virgin Mary . . . has truly been made one of
us, "(10) has been made man. Thus, through the mystery of Christ, on the
horizon of the Church's faith there shines in its fullness the mystery of
his Mother. In turn, the dogma of the divine motherhood of Mary was for
the Council of Ephesus and is for the Church like a seal upon the dogma of
the Incarnation, in which the Word truly assumes human nature into the
unity of his person, without canceling out that nature.
5. The Second Vatican Council, by presenting Mary in the mystery of
Christ, also finds the path to a deeper understanding of the mystery of
the Church. Mary, as the Mother of Christ, is in a particular way united
with the Church, "which the Lord established as his own body."(11) It is
significant that the conciliar text places this truth about the Church as
the Body of Christ (according to the teaching of the Pauline Letters) in
close proximity to the truth that the Son of God "through the power of the
Holy Spirit was born of the Virgin Mary." The reality of the Incarnation
finds a sort of extension in the mystery of the Church -- the Body of
Christ. And one cannot think of the reality of the Incarnation without
referring to Mary, the Mother of the Incarnate Word.
In these reflections, however, I wish to consider primarily that
"pilgrimage of faith" in which "the Blessed Virgin advanced, " faithfully
preserving her union with Christ.(12) In this way the "twofold bond" which
unites the Mother of God with Christ and with the Church takes on
historical significance. Nor is it just a question of the Virgin Mother's
life-story, of her personal journey of faith and "the better part" which
is hers in the mystery of salvation; it is also a question of the history
of the whole People of God, of all those who take part in the same
"pilgrimage of faith."
The Council expresses this when it states in another passage that Mary
"has gone before," becoming "a model of the Church in the matter of faith,
charity and perfect union with Christ."(13) This "going before" as a
figure or model is in reference to the intimate mystery of the Church, as
she actuates an accomplishes her own saving mission by uniting in herself
-- as Mary did -- the qualities of mother and virgin. She is a virgin who
"keeps whole and pure the fidelity she has pledged to her Spouse" and
"becomes herself a mother," for "she brings forth to a new and immortal
life children who are conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of God."(14)
6. All this is accomplished in a great historical process, comparable
"to a journey." The pilgrimage of faith indicates the interior history,
that is, the story of souls. But it is also the story of all human beings,
subject here on earth to the transitoriness, and part of the historical
dimension. In the following reflections we wish to concentrate first of
all on the present, which in itself is not yet history but which
nevertheless is constantly forming it, also in the sense of the history of
salvation. Here there opens up a broad prospect, within which the Blessed
Virgin continues to "go before" the People of God. Her exceptional
pilgrimage of faith represents a constant point of reference for the
Church, for individuals and for communities, for peoples and nations, and
in a sense for all humanity. It is indeed difficult to encompass and
measure its range.
The Council emphasizes that the Mother of God is already the
eschatological fulfillment of the Church: "In the most holy Virgin the
Church has already reached that perfection whereby she exists without spot
or wrinkle (cf. Eph 5:27)"; and at the same time the Council says that
"the followers of Christ still strive to increase in holiness by
conquering sin, and so they raise their eyes to Mary who shine forth to
the whole community of the elect as a model of the virtues."(15) The
pilgrimage of faith no longer belongs to the Mother of the Son of God:
glorified at the side of her Son in heaven, Mary has already crossed the
threshold between faith and that vision which is "face to face" (1 Cor
13:12). At the same time, however, in this eschatological fulfillment,
Mary does not cease to be the "Star of the Sea" (Maris Stella)(16) for all
those who are still on the journey of faith. If they lift their eyes to
her from their earthly existence, they do so because "the Son whom she
brought forth is he whom God placed as the first-born among many brethren
(Rom 8:29), "(17) and also because "in the birth and development" of these
brothers and sisters "she cooperates with a maternal love."(18)
Part One: Mary in the Mystery of Christ
Full of grace
7. "Blessed be the God and Father of Our Lord Jesus Christ who has
blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places"
(Eph 1:3). These words of the Letter to the Ephesians reveal the eternal
design of God the Father, his plan of man's salvation in Christ. It is a
universal plan, which con cerns all men and women created in the image and
likeness of God (cf. Gen 1:26). Just as all are included in the creative
work of God "in the beginning," so all are eternally included in the
divine plan of salvation, which is to be completely revealed, in the
"fullness of time," with the final coming of Christ. In fact, the God who
is the "Father of Our Lord Jesus Christ" -- these are the next words of
the same Letter -- "chose us in him before the foundation of the world,
that we should be holy and blameless before him. He destined us in love to
be his sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to
the praise of his glorious grace which he freely bestowed on us in the
Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of
our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace" (Eph 1:4-7).
The divine plan of salvation -- which was fully revealed to us with he
coming of Christ -- is eternal. And according to the teaching contained in
the Letter just quoted and in other Pauline Letters (cf. Col 1:12-14; Rom
3:24; Gal 3:13; 2 Cor 5:18-29), it is also eternally linked to Christ. It
includes everyone, but it reserves a special place for the "woman" who is
the Mother of him to whom the Father has entrusted the work of salvation.
(19) As the Second Vatican Council says, "she is already prophetically
foreshadowed in that promise made to our first parents after their fall
into sin" -- according to the Book of Genesis (cf. 3:15). "Likewise she is
the Virgin who is to conceive and bear a son, whose name will be called
Emmanuel" -- according to the words of Isaiah (cf. 7:14).(20) In this way
the Old Testament prepares that "fullness of time" when God "sent forth
his Son, born of woman . . . . so that we might receive adoption as sons.
The coming into the world of the Son of God is an event recorded in the
first chapters of the Gospels according to Luke and Matthew.
8. Mary is definitively introduced into the mystery of Christ through
this event: the Annunciation by the Angel. This takes place at Nazareth,
within the concrete circumstances of the his tory of Israel, the people
which first received God's promises. The divine messenger says to the
Virgin: "Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you" (Lk 1:28). Mary "was
greatly troubled at the saying, and considered in her mind what sort of
greeting this might be" (Lk 1:29): what could those extraordinary words
mean and in particular the expression "full of grace" (kecharitomene).
(21)
If we wish to meditate together with Mary on these words, and
especially on the expression "full of grace," we can find a significant
echo in the very passage from the Letter to the Ephesians quoted above.
And if after the announcement of the heavenly messenger the Vir gin of
Nazareth is also called "blessed among women: (cf. Lk 1:42), it is because
of that blessing with which "God the Father" has filled us "in the
heavenly places, in Christ." It is a spiritual blessing which is meant for
all people and which bears in itself fullness and universality ("every
blessing"). It flows from that love which, in the HOly Spirit, unites the
consubstan tial Son to the Father. At the same time, it is a blessing
poured out through Jesus Christ upon human history until the end: upon all
people. This blessing however refers to Mary in a spe cial and exceptional
degree: for she was greeted by Elizabeth as "blessed among women."
The double greeting is due to the fact that in the soul of this
"daughter of Sion" there is manifested, in a sense, all the "glory of
grace," that grace which "the Father has given us in his beloved Son." For
the messenger greets Mary as "full of grace; " he calls her thus as if it
were her real name. He does not call her by her proper earthly name:
Miryam (=Mary), but by this new name: "full of grace." What does this name
mean? Why does the archangel address the Virgin of Nazareth in this way?
In the language of the Bible "grace" means a special gift, which
according to the New Testament has its source precisely in the Trinitarian
life of God himself, God who is love (cf. 1 Jn 4:8). The fruit of this
love is "the election" of which the Let ter to the Ephesians speaks. On
the part of God, this election is the eternal desire to save man through a
sharing in his own life (cf. 2 Pt 1:4) in Christ: it is salvation through
a sharing in supernatural life. The effect of this eternal gift, of this
grace of man's election by God, is like a seed of holiness, or a spring
which rises in the soul as a gift from God himself, who though grace gives
life and holiness to those who are chosen. In this way there is fulfilled,
that is to say there comes about, that "blessing" of man "with every
spiritual blessing," that "being his adopted sons and daughters . . . in
Christ," in him who is eternally the "beloved Son" of the Father.
When we read that the messenger addresses Mary as "full of grace," the
Gospel context, which mingles revelations and ancient promises, enables us
to understand that among all the "spiritual blessings in Christ" this is a
special "blessing." In the mys tery of Christ she is present even "before
the creation of the world," as the one whom the Father "has chosen" as
Mother of his Son in the Incarnation. And, what is more, together with the
Father, the Son has chosen her, entrusting her eternally to the Spirit of
holiness. In an entirely special and exceptional way, Mary is united to
Christ and similarly she is eternally loved in this "beloved Son," this
Son who is of one being with the Father, in whom is concentrated all the
"glory of grace." At the same time, she is and remains perfectly open to
this "gift from above" (cf. Jas 1:17). As the council teaches, Mary
"stands out among the poor and humble of the Lord, who confidently await
and receive salvation from him." (22).
9. If the greeting and the name "full of grace" say all this, in the
context of the angel's announcement they refer first of all to the
election of Mary as Mother of the Son of God. But at the same time the
"fullness of grace" indicates all the supernatural munificence from which
Mary benefits by being chosen and destined to be the Mother of Christ. If
this election is fundamental for the accomplishment of God's salvific
designs for humanity, and if the eternal choice in Christ and the vocation
to the dignity of adopted children is the destiny of everyone, then the
election of Mary is wholly exceptional and unique. Hence also the sin
gularity and uniqueness of her place in the mystery of Christ.
The divine messenger says to her: "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have
found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear
a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be
called the Son of the Most High" (Lk 1:30-32). And when the Virgin,
disturbed by that extraordinary greeting, asks: "How shall this be since I
have no husband?", she receives from the angel the confirmation and
explanation of the preceding words. Gabriel says to her: The Holy Spirit
will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you;
therefore, the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God" (Lk
1:35).
The Annunciation, therefore, is the revelation of the mystery of the
Incarnation at the very beginning of its fulfillment on earth. God's
salvific giving of himself and his life, in some way to all creation but
directly to man, reaches one of its high points in the mystery of the
Incarnation. This is indeed a high point among all the gifts of grace
conferred in the history of man and of the universe: Mary is "full of
grace," because it is precisely in her that the Incarnation of the Word,
the hypostatic union of the Son of God with human nature, is accomplished
and fulfilled. As the Council says, Mary is "the Mother of the Son of God.
As a result, she is also the favorite daughter of the Father and the
temple of the Holy Spirit. Because of this gift of sublime grace she far
surpasses all other creatures, both in heaven and on earth.(23)
10. The Letter to the Ephesians, speaking of "the glory of grace" that
"God the Father . . . has bestowed on us in his Beloved Son," adds: "In
him we have redemption through his blood" (Eph 1:7). According to the
belief formulated in solemn documents of the Church this "glory of grace"
is manifested in the Mother of God through the fact that she has been
"redeemed in a more sublime manner."(24) By virtue of the richness of the
grace of the beloved Son, by reason of the redemptive merits of him who
willed to become her Son, Mary was preserved from the inheritance of
original sin.(25) In this way, from the first moment of her conception --
which is to say of her existence -- she belonged to Christ, sharing in the
salvific and sanctifying grace and in that love which has its beginning in
the "Beloved," the Son of the Eternal Father, who through the Incarnation
became her own Son. Consequently, through the power of the Holy Spirit, in
the order of grace, which is a participation in the divine nature, Mary
receives life from him to whom she herself, in the order of earthly
generation, gave life as a mother. The liturgy does not hesitate to call
her "mother of her Creator"(26) and to hail her with the words which Dante
Alighieri places on the lips of Saint Bernard: "daughter of your Son."(27)
And since Mary receives this "new life" with a fullness corresponding to
the Son's love for the Mother, and thus corresponding to the dignity of
the divine motherhood, the angel at the Annunciation calls her "full of
grace."
11. In the salvific design of the Most Holy Trinity, the mystery of the
Incarnation constitutes the superabundant fulfillment of the promise made
by God to man after original sin, after that first sin whose effects
oppress the whole earthly history of man (cf. Gen 3:15). And so, there
comes into the world a Son, "the seed of the woman" who will crush the
evil of sin in its very origins: "he will crush the head of the serpent."
As we see from the words of the Protogospel, the victory of the woman's
Son will not take place without hard struggle, a struggle that is to
extend through the whole of human history. The "enmity," foretold at the
beginning, is confirmed in the Apocalypse (the book of the final events of
the Church and the world), in which there recurs the sign of the "woman,"
this time "clothed with the sun" (Rev 12:1).
Mary, Mother of the Incarnate Word, is placed at the very center of
that enmity, that struggle which accompanies the history of humanity on
earth and the history of humanity itself.
In this central place, she who belongs to the "weak and poor of the
Lord" bears in herself like no other member of the human race, that "glory
of grace" which the Father "has bestowed on us in his beloved Son," and
this grace determines the extraordinary greatness and beauty of her whole
being. Mary thus remains before God, and also before the whole of
humanity, as the unchangeable and inviolable sign of God's election,
spoken in Paul's Letter: "in Christ . . . he chose us . . . before the
foundation of the world, . . . He destined us . . . to be his sons" (Eph
1:4.5). This election is more powerful than any experience of evil and of
sin, than all that "enmity" which marks the history of man. In this
history Mary remains a sign of sure hope.
Blessed is she who believed
12. Immediately after the narration of the Annunciation, the Evangelist
Luke guides us in the footsteps of the Virgin of Nazareth towards "a city
of Judah" (Lk 1:39). According to scholars this city would be the modern
Ain Karim, situated in the mountains, not far from Jerusalem. Mary arrived
there "in haste," to visit Elizabeth her kinswoman. The reason for her
visit is also to be found in the fact that at the Annunciation, Gabriel
had made special mention of Elizabeth, who in her old age had conceived a
son by her husband Zechariah, through the power of God: "your kinswoman
Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth
month with her who was called barren. For with God nothing will be
impossible" (Lk 1:36-37). The divine messenger has spoken of what had been
accomplished in Elizabeth in order to answer Mary's question: "How shall
this be, since I have no husband?" (Lk 1:34). It is to come to pass
precisely through the "power of the Most High," just as it happened in the
case of Elizabeth, and even more so.
Moved by charity, therefore, Mary goes to the house of her kinswoman.
When Mary enters, Elizabeth replies to her greeting and feels the child
leap in her womb, and being "filled with the Holy Spirit" she greets Mary
with a loud cry: "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of
your womb!" (cf. Lk 1:40-42). Elizabeth's exclamation or acclamation was
subsequently to become part of the 'Hail Mary', as a continuation of the
angel's greeting, thus becoming one of the Church's most frequently used
prayers. But still more significant are the words of Elizabeth in the
question which follows: "And why is this granted me, that the mother of my
Lord should come to me?" (Lk 1:43). Elizabeth bears witness to Mary: she
recognizes and proclaims that before her stands the Mother of the Lord,
the Mother of the Messiah. The son whom Elizabeth is carrying in her womb
also shares in this witness: "The babe in my womb leaped for joy" (Lk
1:44). This child is the future John the Baptist, who at the Jordan will
point out Jesus as the Messiah.
While every word of Elizabeth's greeting is filled with meaning, her
final words would seem to have fundamental importance: "And blessed is she
who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her
from the Lord" (Lk 1:45).(28) These words can be linked with the title
"full of grace" of the angel's greeting. Both of these texts reveal an
essential Mariological content, namely the truth about Mary who has become
present in the mystery of Christ precisely because she "has believed." The
fullness of grace announced by the angel means the gift of God himself.
Mary's faith, proclaimed by Elizabeth at the Visitation, indicates how the
Virgin of Nazareth responded to this gift. 13. As the Council teaches,
"'The obedience of faith' (Rom. 16:26; cf. Rom. 1:5; 2 Cor. 10:5-6) must
be given to God who reveals, an obedience by which man entrusts his whole
self freely to God."[29] This description of faith found perfect
realization in Mary. The "decisive" moment was the Annunciation, and the
very words of Elizabeth: "And blessed is she who believed" refer primarily
to that very moment.[30] Indeed, at the Annunciation Mary entrusted
herself to God completely, with the "full submission of intellect and
will," manifesting "the obedience of faith" to him who spoke to her
through his messenger.[31] She responded, therefore, with all her human
and feminine "I," and this response of faith included both perfect
cooperation with "the grace of God that precedes and assists" and perfect
openness to the action of the Holy Spirit, who "constantly brings faith to
completion by his gifts."[32] The word of the living God, announced to
Mary by the angel, referred to her: "And behold, you will conceive in your
womb and bear a son" (Lk. 1:31). By accepting this announcement, Mary was
to become the "Mother of the Lord," and the divine mystery of the
Incarnation was to be accomplished in her: "The Father of mercies willed
that the consent of the predestined Mother should precede the
Incarnation."[33] And Mary gives this consent, after she has heard
everything the messenger has to say. She says: "Behold, I am the handmaid
of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word" (Lk. 1:38). This fiat
of Mary--"let it be to me"--was decisive, on the human level, for the
accomplishment of the divine mystery. There is a complete harmony with the
words of the Son, who, according to the Letter to the Hebrews, says to the
Father as he comes into the world: "Sacrifices and offering you have not
desired, but a body you have prepared for me . . . . Lo, I have come to do
your will, O God" (Heb. 10:5-7). The mystery of the Incarnation was
accomplished when Mary uttered her fiat: "Let it be to me according to
your word," which made possible, as far as it depended upon her in the
divine plan, the granting of her Son's desire. Mary uttered this fiat in
faith. In faith she entrusted herself to God without reserve and "devoted
herself totally as the handmaid of the Lord to the person and work of her
Son."[34] And--as the Fathers of the Church teach--she conceived this Son
in her mind before she conceived him in her womb: precisely in faith![35]
Rightly therefore does Elizabeth praise Mary: "And blessed is she who
believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from
the Lord." These words have already been fulfilled: Mary of Nazareth
presents herself at the threshold of Elizabeth and Zechariah's house as
the Mother of the Son of God. This is Elizabeth's joyful discovery: "The
mother of my Lord comes to me" ! 14. Mary's faith can also be compared to
that of Abraham, whom St. Paul calls "our father in faith" (cf. Rom.
4:12). In the salvific economy of God's revelation, Abraham's faith
constitutes the beginning of the Old Covenant; Mary's faith at the
Annunciation inaugurates the New Covenant. Just as Abraham "in hope
believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations"
(cf. Rom. 4:18), so Mary, at the Annunciation, having professed her
virginity ("How shall this be, since I have no husband?") believed that
through the power of the Most High, by the power of the Holy Spirit, she
would become the Mother of God's Son in accordance with the angel's
revelation: "The child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God"
(Lk. 1:35). However, Elizabeth's words "And blessed is she who believed"
do not apply only to that particular moment of the Annunciation. Certainly
the Annunciation is the culminating moment of Mary's faith in her awaiting
of Christ, but it is also the point of departure from which her whole
"journey towards God" begins, her whole pilgrimage of faith. And on this
road, in an eminent and truly heroic manner--indeed with an ever greater
heroism of faith--the "obedience" which she professes to the word of
divine revelation will be fulfilled. Mary's "obedience of faith" during
the whole of her pilgrimage will show surprising similarities to the faith
of Abraham. Just like the Patriarch of the People of God, so too Mary,
during the pilgrimage of her filial and maternal fiat, "in hope believed
against hope." Especially during certain stages of this journey the
blessing granted to her "who believed" will be revealed with particular
vividness. To believe means "to abandon oneself" to the truth of the word
of the living God, knowing and humbly recognizing "how unsearchable are
his judgments and how inscrutable his ways" (Rom. 11:33). Mary, who by the
eternal will of the Most High stands, one may say, at the very center of
those "inscrutable ways" and "unsearchable judgments" of God, conforms
herself to them in the dim light of faith, accepting fully and with a
ready heart everything that is decreed in the divine plan. 15. When at the
Annunciation Mary hears of the Son whose Mother she is to become and to
whom "she will give the name Jesus" (= Savior), she also learns that "the
Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David," and that "he
will reign over the house of Jacob for ever and of his kingdom there will
be no end" (Lk. 1:32-33). The hope of the whole of Israel was directed
towards this. The promised Messiah is to be "great," and the heavenly
messenger also announces that "he will be great"--great both by bearing
the name of Son of the Most High and by the fact that he is to assume the
inheritance of David. He is therefore to be a king, he is to reign "over
the house of Jacob." Mary had grown up in the midst of these expectations
of her people: could she guess, at the moment of the Annunciation, the
vital significance of the angel's words? And how is one to understand that
"kingdom" which "will have no end"? Although through faith she may have
perceived in that instant that she was the mother of the "Messiah-King,"
nevertheless she replied: "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it
be to me according to your word" (Lk. 1:38). From the first moment Mary
professed above all the "obedience of faith," abandoning herself to the
meaning which was given to the words of the Annunciation by him from whom
they proceeded: God himself. 16. Later, a little further along this way of
the "obedience of faith," Mary hears other words: those uttered by Simeon
in the Temple of Jerusalem. It was now forty days after the birth of Jesus
when, in accordance with the precepts of the Law of Moses, Mary and Joseph
"brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord" (Lk. 2:22). The
birth had taken place in conditions of extreme poverty. We know from Luke
that when, on the occasion of the census ordered by the Roman authorities,
Mary went with Joseph to Bethlehem, having found "no place in the inn,"
she gave birth to her Son in a stable and "laid him in a manger" (cf. Lk.
2:7). A just and God-fearing man, called Simeon, appears at this beginning
of Mary's "journey" of faith. His words, suggested by the Holy Spirit (cf.
Lk. 2:25-27), confirm the truth of the Annunciation. For we read that he
took up in his arms the child to whom-- in accordance with the angel's
command--the name Jesus was given (cf. Lk. 2:21). Simeon's words match the
meaning of this name, which is Savior: "God is salvation." Turning to the
Lord, he says: "For my eyes have seen your salvation which you have
prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the
Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel" (Lk. 2:30-32). At the same
time, however, Simeon addresses Mary with the following words: "Behold,
this child is set for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a
sign that is spoken against, that thoughts out of many hearts may be
revealed"; and he adds with direct reference to her: "and a sword will
pierce through your own soul also" (cf. Lk. 2:34-35). Simeon's words cast
new light on the announcement which Mary had heard from the angel: Jesus
is the Savior, he is "a light for revelation" to mankind. Is not this what
was manifested in a way on Christmas night, when the shepherds came to the
stable (cf. Lk. 2:8-20)? Is not this what was to be manifested even more
clearly in the coming of the Magi from the East (cf. Mt. 2:1-12)? But at
the same time, at the very beginning of his life, the Son of Mary, and his
Mother with him, will experience in themselves the truth of those other
words of Simeon: "a sign that is spoken against" (Lk. 2:34). Simeon's
words seem like a second Annunciation to Mary, for they tell her of the
actual historical situation in which the Son is to accomplish his mission,
namely, in misunderstanding and sorrow. While this announcement on the one
hand confirms her faith in the accomplishment of the divine promises of
salvation, on the other hand it also reveals to her that she will have to
live her obedience of faith in suffering, at the side of the suffering
Savior, and that her motherhood will be mysterious and sorrowful. Thus,
after the visit of the Magi who came from the East, after their homage
("they fell down and worshipped him") and after they had offered gifts
(cf. Mt. 2:11), Mary together with the child has to flee into Egypt in the
protective care of Joseph, for "Herod is about to search for the child, to
destroy him" (cf. Mt. 2:13). And until the death of Herod they will have
to remain in Egypt (cf. Mt. 2:15). 17. When the Holy Family returns to
Nazareth after Herod's death, there begins the long period of the hidden
life. She "who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was
spoken to her from the Lord" (Lk. 1:45) lives the reality of these words
day by day. And daily at her side is the Son to whom "she gave the name
Jesus"; therefore in contact with him she certainly uses this name, a fact
which would have surprised no one, since the name had long been in use in
Israel. Nevertheless, Mary knows that he who bears the name Jesus has been
called by the angel "the Son of the Most High" (cf. Lk. 1:32). Mary knows
she has conceived and given birth to him "without having a husband," by
the power of the Holy Spirit, by the power of the Most High who
overshadowed her (cf. Lk. 1:35), just as at the time of Moses and the
Patriarchs the cloud covered the presence of God (cf. Ex. 24:16; 40:34-35;
I Kings 8:10-12). Therefore Mary knows that the Son to whom she gave birth
in a virginal manner is precisely that "Holy One," the Son of God, of whom
the angel spoke to her. During the years of Jesus' hidden life in the
house at Nazareth, Mary's life too is "hid with Christ in God" (cf. Col.
3:3) through faith. For faith is contact with the mystery of God. Every
day Mary is in constant contact with the ineffable mystery of God made
man, a mystery that surpasses everything revealed in the Old Covenant.
From the moment of the Annunciation, the mind of the Virgin-Mother has
been initiated into the radical "newness" of God's self-revelation and has
been made aware of the mystery. She is the first of those "little ones" of
whom Jesus will say one day: "Father . . . you have hidden these things
from the wise and understanding and revealed them to babes" (Mt. 11:25).
For "no one knows the Son except the Father" (Mt. 11:27). If this is the
case, how can Mary "know the Son"? Of course she does not know him as the
Father does; and yet she is the first of those to whom the Father "has
chosen to reveal him" (cf. Mt. 11:26-27; 1 Cor. 2:11). If though, from the
moment of the Annunciation, the Son--whom only the Father knows
completely, as the one who begets him in the eternal "today" (cf. Ps.
2:7)--was revealed to Mary, she, his Mother, is in contact with the truth
about her Son only in faith and through faith! She is therefore blessed,
because "she has believed," and continues to believe day after day amidst
all the trials and the adversities of Jesus' infancy and then during the
years of the hidden life at Nazareth, where he "was obedient to them" (Lk.
2:51). He was obedient both to Mary and also to Joseph, since Joseph took
the place of his father in people's eyes; for this reason, the Son of Mary
was regarded by the people as "the carpenter's son" (Mt. 13:55). The
Mother of that Son, therefore, mindful of what has been told her at the
Annunciation and in subsequent events, bears within herself the radical
"newness" of faith: the beginning of the New Covenant. This is the
beginning of the Gospel, the joyful Good News. However, it is not
difficult to see in that beginning a particular heaviness of heart, linked
with a sort of "night of faith"--to use the words of St. John of the
Cross--a kind of "veil" through which one has to draw near to the
Invisible One and to live in intimacy with the mystery.[36] And this is
the way that Mary, for many years, lived in intimacy with the mystery of
her Son, and went forward in her "pilgrimage of faith," while Jesus
"increased in wisdom . . . and in favor with God and man" (Lk. 2:52).
God's predilection for him was manifested ever more clearly to people's
eyes. The first human creature thus permitted to discover Christ was Mary,
who lived with Joseph in the same house at Nazareth. However, when he had
been found in the Temple, and his Mother asked him, "Son, why have you
treated us so?" the twelve-year-old Jesus answered: "Did you not know that
I must be in my Father's house?" And the Evangelist adds: "And they
(Joseph and Mary) did not understand the saying which he spoke to them"
(Lk. 2:48-50). Jesus was aware that "no one knows the Son except the
Father" (cf. Mt. 11:27); thus even his Mother, to whom had been revealed
most completely the mystery of his divine sonship, lived in intimacy with
this mystery only through faith! Living side by side with her Son under
the same roof, and faithfully persevering "in her union with her Son," she
"advanced in her pilgrimage of faith," as the Council emphasizes.[37] And
so it was during Christ s public life too (cf. Mk. 3:21-35) that day by
day there was fulfilled in her the blessing uttered by Elizabeth at the
Visitation: "Blessed is she who believed." 18. This blessing reaches its
full meaning when Mary stands beneath the Cross of her Son (cf. Jn.
19:25). The Council says that this happened "not without a divine plan":
by "suffering deeply with her only-begotten Son and joining herself with
her maternal spirit to his sacrifice, lovingly consenting to the
immolation of the victim to whom she had given birth," in this way Mary
"faithfully preserved her union with her Son even to the Cross."[38] It is
a union through faith--the same faith with which she had received the
angel's revelation at the Annunciation. At that moment she had also heard
the words: "He will be great . . . and the Lord God will give to him the
throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob for
ever; and of his kingdom there will be no end" (Lk. I :32-33) And now,
standing at the foot of the Cross, Mary is the witness, humanly speaking,
of the complete negation of these words. On that wood of the Cross her Son
hangs in agony as one condemned. "He was despised and rejected by men; a
man of sorrows . . . he was despised, and we esteemed him not": as one
destroyed (cf. Is. 53:3-5). How great, how heroic then is the obedience of
faith shown by Mary in the face of God's "unsearchable judgments"! How
completely she "abandons herself to God" without reserve, "offering the
full assent of the intellect and the will"[39] to him whose "ways are
inscrutable" (cf. Rom. 11:33)! And how powerful too is the action of grace
in her soul, how all-pervading is the influence of the Holy Spirit and of
his light and power! Through this faith Mary is perfectly united with
Christ in his self-emptying. For "Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the
form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but
emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness
of men": precisely on Golgotha "humbled himself and became obedient unto
death, even death on a cross" (cf. Phil. 2:5-8). At the foot of the Cross
Mary shares through faith in the shocking mystery of this self-emptying.
This is perhaps the deepest "kenosis" of faith in human history. Through
faith the Mother shares in the death of her Son, in his redeeming death;
but in contrast with the faith of the disciples who fled, hers was far
more enlightened. On Golgotha, Jesus through the Cross definitively
confirmed that he was the "sign of contradiction" foretold by Simeon. At
the same time, there were also fulfilled on Golgotha the words which
Simeon had addressed to Mary: "and a sword will pierce through your own
soul also."[40] 19. Yes, truly "blessed is she who believed"! These words,
spoken by Elizabeth after the Annunciation, here at the foot of the Cross
seem to re-echo with supreme eloquence, and the power contained within
them becomes something penetrating. From the Cross, that is to say from
the very heart of the mystery of Redemption, there radiates and spreads
out the prospect of that blessing of faith. It goes right back to "the
beginning," and as a sharing in the sacrifice of Christ--the new Adam--it
becomes in a certain sense the counterpoise to the disobedience and
disbelief embodied in the sin of our first parents. Thus teach the Fathers
of the Church and especially St. Irenaeus, quoted by the Constitution
Lumen Gentium: "The knot of Eve's disobedience was untied by Mary's
obedience; what the virgin Eve bound through her unbelief, the Virgin Mary
loosened by her faith."[41] In the light of this comparison with Eve, the
Fathers of the Church--as the Council also says--call Mary the "mother of
the living" and often speak of "death through Eve, life through Mary."[42]
In the expression "Blessed is she who believed," we can therefore rightly
find a kind of "key" which unlocks for us the innermost reality of Mary,
whom the angel hailed as "full of grace." If as "full of grace" she has
been eternally present in the mystery of Christ, through faith she became
a sharer in that mystery in every extension of her earthly journey. She
"advanced in her pilgrimage of faith" and at the same time, in a discreet
yet direct and effective way, she made present to humanity the mystery of
Christ. And she still continues to do so. Through the mystery of Christ,
she too is present within mankind. Thus through the mystery of the Son the
mystery of the Mother is also made clear.
Behold your mother
20. The Gospel of Luke records the moment when "a woman in the crowd
raised her voice" and said to Jesus: "Blessed is the womb that bore you
and the breasts that you sucked!" (Lk 11:27). These words were an
expression of praise of Mary as Jesus' mother according to the flesh.
Probably the Mother of Jesus was not personally known to this woman; in
fact, when Jesus began his messianic activity Mary did not accompany him
but continued to remain at Nazareth. Once could say that the words of that
unknown woman in a way brought Mary out of her hiddenness.
Through these words, there flashed out in the midst of the crowd, at
least for an instant, the gospel of Jesus' infancy. This is the gospel in
which Mary is present as the mother who conceives Jesus in her womb, gives
him birth and nurses him: the nursing mother referred to by the woman in
the crowd. Thanks to this motherhood, Jesus, the Son of the Most High (cf.
Lk 1:32), is a true son of man. He is "flesh," like every other man: he is
"the Word (who) became flesh" (cf. Jn 1:14). He is of the flesh and blood
of Mary!(43)
But to the blessing uttered by that woman upon her who was his mother
according to the flesh, Jesus replies in a significant way: "Blessed
rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it" (Lk 11:28). He
wishes to divert attention from motherhood understood only as a fleshly
bond, in order to direct it towards those mysterious bonds of the spirit
which develop from hearing and keeping God's word.
This same shift into the sphere of spiritual values is seen even more
clearly in another response of Jesus reported by all the Synoptics. When
Jesus is told that "his mother and brothers are standing outside and wish
to see him," he replies: "My mother and my brothers are those who hear the
word of God and do it" (cf. Lk 8:20-21). This he said "looking around on
those who sat about him," as we read in Mark (3:34) or, according to
Matthew (12:49), "stretching out his hand towards his disciples."
These statements seem to fit in with the reply which the
twelve-year-old Jesus gave to Mary and Joseph when he was found after
three days in the Temple of Jerusalem.
Now, when Jesus left Nazareth and began his public life throughout
Palestine, he was completely and exclusively "concerned with his Father's
business" (cf. Lk 2:49). He announced the Kingdom: the "Kingdom of God"
and "his Father's business," which add a new dimension and meaning to
everything human, and therefore to every human bond, insofar as these
things relate to the goals and tasks assigned to every human being. Within
this new dimension, also a bond such as that of "brotherhood" means
something different from "brotherhood according to the flesh" deriving
from a common origin from the same set of parents. "Motherhood" too, in
the dimension of the Kingdom of God and in the radius of the fatherhood of
God himself, takes on another meaning. In the words reported by Luke,
Jesus teaches precisely this new meaning of motherhood.
Is Jesus thereby distancing himself from his mother according to the
flesh? Does he perhaps wish to leave her in the hidden obscurity which she
herself has chosen? If this seems to be the case from the tone of those
words, one must nevertheless note that the new and different motherhood
which Jesus speaks of to his disciples refers precisely to Mary in a very
special way. Is not Mary the first of "those who hear the word of God and
do it?" And therefore does not the blessing uttered by Jesus in response
to the woman in the crowd refer primarily to her? Without any doubt, Mary
is worthy of blessing by the very fact that she became the mother of Jesus
according to the flesh ("Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the
breasts that you sucked"), but also and especially because already at the
Annunciation she accepted the word of God, because she believed it,
because she was obedient to God, and because she "kept" the word and
"pondered it in her heart" (cf. Lk 1:38, 45; 2:19, 51) and by means of her
whole life accomplished it. Thus we can say that the blessing proclaimed
by Jesus is not in opposition, despite appearances, to the blessing
uttered by the unknown woman, but rather coincides with the blessing in
the person of this Virgin Mother, who called herself only "the handmaid of
the Lord"(Lk 1:38). If it is true that "all generations will call her
blessed" (cf. Lk 1:48), then it can be said that the unnamed woman was the
first to confirm unwittingly that prophetic phrase of Mary's Magnificat
and to begin the Magnificat of the ages.
If through faith Mary became the bearer of the Son given to her by the
Father through the power of the Holy Spirit, while preserving her
virginity intact, in that same faith she discovered and accepted the other
dimension of motherhood revealed by Jesus during his messianic mission.
One can say that this dimension of motherhood belonged to Mary from the
beginning, that is to say from the moment of the conception and birth of
her Son. From that time she was "the one who believed." But as the
messianic mission of her Son grew clearer to her eyes and spirit, she
herself as a mother became ever more open to that new dimension of
motherhood which was to constitute her "part" beside her Son. Had she not
said from the very beginning: "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let
it be to me according to your word" (Lk 1:38)? Through faith Mary
continued to hear and to ponder that word in which there became ever
clearer, in a way "which surpasses knowledge" (Eph 3:19), the
self-revelation of the living God. Thus in a sense Mary as Mother became
the first "disciple" of her Son, the first to whom he seemed to say:
"Follow me," even before he addressed this call to the Apostles or to
anyone else (cf. Jn 1:43).
21. From this point of view, particularly eloquent is the passage in
the Gospel of John which presents Mary at the wedding feast of Cana. She
appears there as the Mother of Jesus at the beginning of his public life:
"There was a marriage at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was
there; Jesus was also invited to the marriage, with his disciples" (Jn
2:1-2). From the text it appears that Jesus and his disciples were invited
together with Mary, as if by reason of her presence at the celebration:
the Son seems to have been invited because of his mother. We are familiar
with the sequence of events which resulted from that invitation, that
"beginning of the signs" wrought by Jesus -- the water changed into wine
-- which prompts the Evangelist to say that Jesus "manifested his glory;
and his disciples believed in him" (Jn 2:11).
Mary is present at Cana in Galilee as the Mother of Jesus and in a
significant way she contributes to that "beginning of the signs" which
reveal the messianic power of her Son. We read: "When the wine gave out,
the mother of Jesus said to him, 'They have no wine.' And Jesus said to
her, 'O woman, what have you to do with me? My hour has not yet come'"(Jn
2:3-4). In John's Gospel that "hour" means the time appointed by the
Father when the Son accomplishes his task and is to be glorified (cf. Jn
7:30; 8:20; 12:23, 27; 13:1; 17:1; 19:27). Even though Jesus' reply to his
mother sounds like a refusal (especially if we consider the blunt
statement "My hour has not yet come" rather than the question), Mary
nevertheless turns to the servants and says to them: "Do whatever he tells
you" (Jn 2:5). Then Jesus orders the servants to fill the stone jars with
water, and the water becomes wine, better than the wine which has
previously been served to the wedding guests.
What deep understanding existed between Jesus and his mother? How can
we probe the mystery of their intimate spiritual union? But the fact
speaks for itself. It is certain that that event already quite clearly
outlines the new dimension, the new meaning of Mary's motherhood. Her
motherhood has a significance which is not exclusively contained in the
words of Jesus and in the various episodes reported by the Synoptics (Lk
11:27-28 and Lk 8:19-21; Mt 12:46-50; Mk 3:31-35). In these texts Jesus
means above all to contrast the motherhood resulting from the fact of
birth with what this "motherhood" (and also "brotherhood") is to be in the
dimension of the Kingdom of God, in the salvific radius of God's
fatherhood. In John's text on the other hand, the description of the Cana
event outlines what is actually manifested as a new kind of motherhood
according to the spirit and not just according to the flesh, that is to
say Mary's solicitude for human beings, her coming to them in the wide
variety of their wants and needs. At Cana in Galilee there is shown only
one concrete aspect of human need, apparently a small on and of little
importance ("They have no wine"). But it has a symbolic value: this coming
to the aid of human needs means, at the same time, bringing those needs
within the radius of Christ's messianic mission and salvific power. Thus
there is a mediation: Mary places herself between her Son and mankind in
the reality of their wants, needs and sufferings. She puts herself "in the
middle," that is to say she acts as a mediatrix not as an outsider, but in
her position as mother. She knows that as such she can point out to her
son the needs of mankind, and in fact, she "has the right" to do so. Her
mediation is thus in the nature of intercession: Mary "intercedes" for
mankind. And that is not all. As a mother she also wishes the messianic
power of her Son to be manifested, that salvific power of his which is
meant to help man in his misfortunes, to free him from the evil which in
various forms and degrees weighs heavily upon his life. Precisely as the
Prophet Isaiah had foretold about the Messiah in the famous passage which
Jesus quoted before his fellow townsfolk in Nazareth: "To preach good news
to the poor . . . to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of
sight to the blind . . ." (cf. Lk 4:18.
Another essential element of Mary's maternal task is found in her words
to the servants: "Do whatever he tells you." The Mother of Christ presents
herself as the spokeswoman of her Son's will, pointing out those things
which must be done so that the salvific power of the Messiah may be
manifested. At Cana, thanks to the intercession of Mary and the obedience
of the servants, Jesus begins "his hour." At Cana Mary appears as
believing in Jesus. Her faith evokes his first "sign" and helps to kindle
the faith of the disciples.
22. We can therefore say that in this passage of John's Gospel we find
as it were a first manifestation of the truth concerning Mary's maternal
care. This truth has also found expression in the teaching of the Second
Vatican Council. It is important to note how the Council illustrates
Mary's maternal role as it relates to the mediation of Christ. Thus we
read: "Mary's maternal function towards mankind in no way obscures or
diminishes the unique mediation of Christ but rather shows its efficacy,"
because "there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus"
(1 Tim 2:5). This maternal role of Mary flows, according to God's good
pleasure, "from the superabundance of the merits of Christ; it is founded
on his mediation, absolutely depends on it and draws all its efficacy from
it."(44). It is precisely in this sense that the episode at Cana in
Galilee offers us a sort of first announcement of Mary's mediation, wholly
oriented towards Christ and tending to the revelation of his salvific
power.
From the text of John it is evident that it is a mediation which is
maternal. As the Council proclaims: "Mary became "a mother to us in the
order of grace." This motherhood in the order of grace flows from her
divine motherhood. Because she was, by the design of divine Providence,
the mother who nourished the divine Redeemer, Mary became "an associate of
unique nobility, and the Lord's humble handmaid, " who "cooperated by her
obedience, faith, hope and burning charity in the Savior's work of
restoring supernatural life to souls."(45) And "this maternity of Mary in
the order of grace . . . will last without interruption until the eternal
fulfillment of all the elect."(46)
23. If John's description of the event at Cana presents Mary's caring
motherhood at the beginning of Christ's messianic activity, another
passage from the same Gospel confirms this motherhood in the salvific
economy of grace at its crowning moment, namely when Christ's sacrifice on
the Cross, his Paschal Mystery, is accomplished. John's description is
concise: "Standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother, and his mother's
sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his
mother, and the disciple whom he loved standing near, he said to his
mother: 'Woman, behold, your son!' Then he said to the disciple, 'Behold,
your mother!' And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home"
(Jn 19:25-27).
Undoubtedly, we find here an expression of the Son's particular
solicitude for his Mother, whom he is leaving in such great sorrow. And
yet the "testament of Christ's Cross" says more. Jesus highlights a new
relationship between Mother and Son, the whole truth and reality of which
he solemnly confirms. One can say that if Mary's motherhood of the human
race had already been outlined, now it is clearly stated and established.
It emerges from the definitive accomplishment of the Redeemer's Paschal
Mystery. The Mother of Christ, who stands at the very center of this
mystery -- a mystery which embraces each individual and all humanity -- is
given as mother to every single individual and all mankind. The man at the
foot of the Cross is John, "the disciple whom he loved."(47) But it is not
he alone. Following tradition, the Council does not hesitate to call Mary
"the Mother of Christ and mother of mankind": since she "belongs to the
offspring of Adam she is one with all human beings . . . Indeed she is
'clearly the mother of the members of Christ . . . since she cooperated
out of love so that there might be born in the Church the faithful.'"(48)
And so this "new motherhood of Mary," generated by faith, is the fruit
of the "new" love which came to definitive maturity in her at the foot of
the Cross, through her sharing in the redemptive love of her Son.
24. Thus we find ourselves at the very center of the fulfillment of the
promise contained in the Proto-gospel: the "seed of the woman . . . will
crush the head of the serpent" (cf. Gen 3:15). By his redemptive death
Jesus Christ conquers the evil of sin and death at its very roots. It is
significant that, as he speaks to his mother from the Cross, he calls her
"woman" and says to her: "Woman, behold your son!" Moreover, he had
addressed her by the same term at Cana too (cf. Jn 2:4). How can one doubt
that especially now, on Golgotha, this expression goes to the very heart
of the mystery of Mary, and indicates the unique place which she occupies
in the whole economy of salvation? As the Council teaches, in Mary "the
exalted Daughter of Sion, and after a long expectation of the promise, the
times were at length fulfilled and the new dispensation established. All
this occurred when the Son of God took a human nature from her, that he
might in the mysteries of his flesh free man from sin."(49)
The words uttered by Jesus from the Cross signify that the motherhood
of her who bore Christ finds a "new" continuation in the Church and
through the Church, symbolized and represented by John. In this way, she
who as the one "full of grace" was brought into the mystery of Christ in
order to be his Mother and thus the Holy Mother of God, through the Church
remains in that mystery as "the woman" spoken of by the Book of Genesis
(3:15) at the beginning and by the Apocalypse (12:1) at the end of the
history of salvation. In accordance with the eternal plan of Providence,
Mary's divine motherhood is to be poured out upon the Church, as indicated
by statements of Tradition, according to which Mary's "motherhood" of the
Church is the reflection and extension of the motherhood of the Son of
God.(50)
According to the Council, the very moment of the Church's birth and
full manifestation to the world enables us to glimpse this continuity of
Mary's motherhood: "Since it pleased God not to manifest solemnly the
mystery of the salvation of the human race until he poured forth the
Spirit promised by Christ, we see the Apostles before the day of Pentecost
continuing with one mind in prayer with the women and Mary the mother of
Jesus, and with his brethren' (Acts 1:14). We see Mary prayerfully
imploring the gift of the Spirit, who had already overshadowed her in the
Annunciation."(51)
And so, in the redemptive economy of grace, brought about through the
action of the Holy Spirit, there is a unique correspondence between the
moment of the Incarnation of the Word and the moment of the birth of the
Church. The person who links these two moments is Mary: Mary at Nazareth
and Mary in the Upper Room at Jerusalem. In both cases her discreet yet
essential presence indicates the path of "birth from the Holy Spirit."
Thus she who is present in the mystery of Christ as Mother becomes -- by
the will of the Son and the power of the Holy Spirit -- present in the
mystery of the Church. In the Church too she continues to be a maternal
presence, as is shown by the words spoken from the Cross: "Woman, behold
your son!"; "Behold, your mother."
Part Two: The Mother of God at the Center
of the Pilgrim Church
The Church, the People of God present in all the nations of the
earth
25. "The Church 'like a pilgrim in a foreign land, presses foward amid
the persecutions of the world and the consolations of God, '(52)
announcing the Cross and Death of the Lord until he comes (cf. 1 Cor
11:26)."(53) "Israel according to the flesh, which wandered as an exile in
the desert, was already called the Church of God (cf. 2 Esd 13:1; Num
20:4; Dt 23:1 ff.). Likewise the new Israel . . . is also called the
Church of Christ (cf. Mt 16:18). For he has bought it for himself with his
blood (Acts 20:28), has filled it with his Spirit, and provided it with
those means which befit it as a visible and social unity. God has gathered
together as one all those who in faith look upon Jesus as the author of
salvation and the source of unity and peace, and has established them as
the Church, that for each and all she may be the visible sacrament of this
saving unity."(54)
The Second Vatican Council speaks of the pilgrim Church, establishing
an analogy with the Israel of the Old Covenant journeying through the
desert. The journey also has an external character, visible in the time
and space in which it historically takes place. For the Church "is
destined to extend to all regions of the earth and so to enter into the
history of mankind," but at the same time "she transcends all limits of
time and of space."(56) a pilgrimage in the Holy Spirit, given to the
Church as the invisible Comforter (parakletos) (cf. Jn 14:26; 15:26;
16:7): "Moving forward through trial and tribulation, the Church is
strengthened by the power of God's grace promised to her by the Lord, so
that . . . moved by the Holy Spirit she may never cease to renew herself,
until through the Cross she arrives at the light which knows no
setting."(57)
It is precisely in this ecclesial journey or pilgrimage through space
and time, and even more through the history of souls, that Mary is
present, as the one who is "blessed because she believed," as the one who
advanced on the pilgrimage of faith, sharing unlike any other creature in
the mystery of Christ. The Council further says that "Mary figured
profoundly in the history of salvation and in a certain way unites and
mirrors within herself the central truths of the faith."(58) Among all
believers she is like a "mirror" in which are reflected in the most
profound and limpid way "the mighty works of God" (Acts 2:11).
26. Built by Christ upon the Apostles, the Church became fully aware of
these mighty works of God on the day of Pentecost, when those gathered
together in the Upper Room "were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began
to speak in other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance" (Acts 2:4).
From that moment there also begins that journey of faith, the Church's
pilgrimage through the history of individuals and peoples. We know that at
the beginning of this journey Mary is present. We see her in the midst of
the Apostles, in the Upper Room, "prayerfully imploring the gift of the
Spirit."(59)
In a sense her journey of faith is longer. The Holy Spirit had already
come down upon her and she became his faithful spouse at the Annunciation,
welcoming the Word of the true God, offering "the full submission of
intellect and will . . . and freely assenting to the truth revealed by
him," indeed abandoning herself totally to God through "the obedience of
faith, "(60) whereby she replied to the angel: "Behold, I am the handmaid
of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word." The journey of faith
made by Mary, whom we see praying in the Upper Room, is thus longer than
that of the others gathered there. Mary "goes before them," "leads the
way" for them.(61) The moment of Pentecost in Jerusalem had been prepared
for by the moment of the Annunciation in Nazareth, as well as by the
Cross. In the Upper Room Mary's journey meets the Church's journey of
faith. In what way?
Among those who devoted themselves to prayer in the Upper Room,
preparing to go "into the whole world" after receiving the Spirit, some
had been called by Jesus gradually from the beginning of his mission in
Israel. Eleven of them had been made Apostles, and to them Jesus had
passed on the mission which he himself had received from the Father. "As
the Father has sent me, even so I send you" (Jn 20:21), he had said to the
Apostles after the Resurrection. And forty days later, before returning to
the Father, he had added: "when the Holy Spirit has come upon you . . .
you shall be my witnesses . . . to the end of the earth" (cf. Acts 1:8).
This mission of the Apostles began the moment they left the Upper Room in
Jerusalem. The Church is born and then grows through the testimony that
Peter and the Apostles bear to the Crucified and Risen Christ (cf. Acts
2:31-34; 3:15-18; 4:10-12; 5:30-32).
Mary did not directly receive this apostolic mission. She was not among
those whom Jesus sent "to the whole world to teach all nations" (cf. Mt
28:19) when he conferred this mission on them. But she was in the Upper
Room, where the Apostles were preparing to take up this mission with the
coming of the spirit of Truth: she was present with them. In their midst
Mary was "devoted to prayer" as the "mother of Jesus" (cf. Acts 1:13-14),
of the Crucified and Risen Christ. And that first group of those who in
faith looked "upon Jesus as the author of salvation, "(62) knew that Jesus
was the Son of Mary, and that she was his Mother, and that as such she was
from the moment of his conception and birth a unique witness to the
mystery of Jesus, that mystery which before their eyes had been disclosed
and confirmed in the Cross and Resurrection. Thus from the very first
moment the Church "looked at" Mary through Jesus, just as she "looked at"
Jesus through Mary. For the Church of that time and of every time Mary is
a singular witness to the years of Jesus' infancy and hidden life at
Nazareth, when she "kept all these things, pondering them in her heart"
(Lk 2:19; cf. Lk 2:51).
But above all, in the Church of that time and of every time Mary was
and is the one who is "blessed because she believed; " she was the first
to believe. From the moment of the Annunciation and conception, from the
moment of his birth in the stable at Bethlehem, Mary followed Jesus step
by step in her maternal pilgrimage of faith. She followed him during the
years of his hidden life at Nazareth; she followed him also during the
time after he left home, when he began "to do and to teach" (cf. Acts 1:1)
in the midst of Israel. Above all she followed him in the tragic
experience of Golgotha. Now, while Mary was with the Apostles in the Upper
Room in Jerusalem at the dawn of the Church, her faith, born from the
words of the Annunciation, found confirmation. The angel had said to her
then: "You will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call
his name Jesus. He will be great . . . and he will reign over the house of
Jacob forever; and of his kingdom there will be no end." The recent events
on Calvary had shrouded that promise in darkness, yet not even beneath the
Cross did Mary's faith fail. She had still remained the one who, like
Abraham, "in hope believed against hope" (Rom 4:18). But it is only after
the Resurrection that hope had shown its true face and the promise had
begun to be transformed into reality. For Jesus, before returning to the
Father, had said to the Apostles: "Go therefore and make disciples of all
nations . . . lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age" (cf. Mt
28:19-20). Thus had spoken the one who by his Resurrection had revealed
himself as the conqueror of death, as the one who possessed the kingdom of
which, as the angel said, "there will be no end."
27. Now, at the first dawn of the Church, at the beginning of the long
journey through faith which began at Pentecost in Jerusalem, Mary was with
all those who were the seed of the "new Israel." She was present among
them as an exceptional witness to the mystery of Christ. And the Church
was assiduous in prayer together with her, and at the same time
"contemplated her in the light of the Word made man." It was always to be
so. For when the Church "enters more intimately into the supreme mystery
of the Incarnation," she thinks of the Mother of Christ with profound
reverence and devotion.(63) Mary belongs indissolubly to the mystery of
Christ and she belongs also to the mystery of the Church from the
beginning, from the day of the Church's birth. At the basis of what the
Church has been from the beginning, and of what she must continually
become from generation to generation, in the midst of all the nations of
the earth, we find the one "who believed that there would be a fulfillment
of what was spoken to her from the Lord" (Lk 1:45). It is precisely Mary's
faith which marks the beginning of the new and eternal Covenant of God
with man in Jesus Christ; this heroic faith of hers "precedes" the
apostolic witness of the Church, and ever remains in the Church's heart,
hidden like a special heritage of God's revelation. All those who from
generation to generation accept the apostolic witness of the Church share
in that mysterious inheritance, and in a sense share in Mary's faith.
Elizabeth's words "Blessed is she who believed" continue to accompany
the Virgin also at Pentecost; they accompany her from age to age, wherever
knowledge of Christ's salvific mystery spreads, through the Church's
apostolic witness and service. Thus is fulfilled the prophecy of the
Magnificat: "All generations will call me blessed; for he who is mighty
has done great things for me, and holy is his name" (Lk 1:48-49). For
knowledge of the mystery of Christ leads us to bless his Mother, in the
form of special veneration for the Theotokos. But this veneration always
includes a blessing of her faith, for the Virgin of Nazareth became
blessed above all through this faith, in accordance with Elizabeth's
words. Those who from generation to generation among the different peoples
and nations of the earth accept with faith the mystery of Christ, the
Incarnate Word and Redeemer of the world not only turn with veneration to
Mary and confidently have recourse to her as his Mother, but they also
seek in her faith support for their own. And it is precisely this lively
sharing in Mary's faith that determines her special place in the Church's
pilgrimage as the new People of God throughout the earth.
28. As the Council says, "Mary figured profoundly in the history of
salvation . . . Hence when she is being preached and venerated, she
summons the faithful to her Son and his sacrifice and to love for the
Father."(64) For this reason, Mary's faith, according to the Church's
apostolic witness, in some way continues to become the faith of the
pilgrim People of God: the faith of individuals an communities, of places
and gatherings and of the various groups existing in the Church. It is a
faith that is passed on simultaneously through both the mind and the
heart. It is gained or regained continually through prayer. Therefore,
"the Church in her apostolic work also rightly looks to her who brought
forth Christ, conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin, so that
through the Church Christ may be born and increase in the hearts of the
faithful also."(65)
Today, as on this pilgrimage of faith we draw near to the end of the
second christian Millennium, the Church, through the teaching of the
Second Vatican Council, calls our attention to her vision of herself, as
the "one People of God . . . among all the nations of the earth." And she
reminds us of that truth according to which all the faithful, though
"scattered throughout the world are in communion with each other in the
Holy Spirit."(66) We can therefore say that in this union the mystery of
Pentecost is continually being accomplished. At the same time, the Lord's
apostles and disciples, in all the nations of the earth, "devote
themselves to prayer together with Mary, the mother of Jesus" (Acts 1:14).
As they constitute from generation to generation the "sign of the Kingdom"
which is not of this world, (67) they are also aware that in the midst of
this world they must gather around that King to whom the nations have been
given in heritage (cf. Ps 2:8), to whom the Father has given "the throne
of David his father," so that he "will reign over the house of Jacob for
ever, and of his kingdom there will be no end."
During this time of vigil, Mary, through the same faith which made her
blessed, especially from the moment of the Annunciation, is present in the
Church's mission, present in the Church's work of introducing into the
world the Kingdom of her Son.(68)
This presence of Mary finds many different expressions in our day just
as it did throughout the Church's history. It also has a wide field of
action: through the faith and piety of individual believers; through the
traditions of Christian families or "domestic churches," of parish and
missionary communities, religious institutes and dioceses; through the
radiance and attraction of the great shrines where not only individuals or
local groups but sometimes whole nations and societies, even whole
continents, seek to meet the Mother of the Lord, the one who is blessed
because she believed, is the first among believers and therefore became
the Mother of Emmanuel. This is the message of the Land of Palestine, the
spiritual homeland of all Christians because it was the homeland of the
Savior of the world and of his Mother. This is the message of the many
churches in Rome and throughout the world which have been raised up in the
course of the centuries by the faith of Christians. This is the message of
centers like Guadalupe, Lourdes, Fatima and the others situated in the
various countries. Among them how could I fail to mention the one in my
own native land, Jasna Gora? One could perhaps speak of a specific
"geography" of faith and Marian devotion, which includes all these special
places of pilgrimage where the People of God seek to meet the Mother of
God in order to find, within the radius of the maternal presence of her
"who believed, " a strengthening of their own faith. For in Mary's faith,
first at the Annunciation and then fully at the foot of the Cross, an
interior space was reopened within humanity which the eternal Father can
fill "with every spiritual blessing." It is the space "of the new and
eternal Covenant, "(69) and it continues to exist in the Church, which in
Christ is "a kind of sacrament or sign of intimate union with God, and of
the unity of all mankind."(70)
In the faith which Mary professed at the Annunciation as the "handmaid
of the Lord" and in which she constantly "precedes" the pilgrim People of
God throughout the earth, the Church "strives energetically and constantly
to bring all humanity . . . back to Christ its Head in the unity of his
Spirit."(71)
The Church's journey and the unity of all Christians
29. "In all of Christ's disciples the Spirit arouses the desire to be
peacefully united, in the manner determined by Christ, as one flock under
one shepherd."(72) The journey of the Church, especially in our own time,
is marked by the sign of ecumenism: Christians are seeking ways to restore
that unity which Christ implored from the Father for his disciples on the
day before his Passion: "That they may all be one; even as you, Father,
are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world
may believe that you have sent me" (Jn 17:21). The unity of Christ's
disciples, therefore, is a great sign given in order to kindle faith in
the world, while their division constitutes a scandal.(73)
The ecumenical movement, on the basis of a clearer and more widespread
awareness of the urgent need to achieve the unity of all Christians, has
found on the part of the Catholic Church its culminating expression in the
work of the Second Vatican Council: Christians must deepen in themselves
and each of their communities that "obedience of faith" of which Mary is
the first and brightest example. And since she "shines forth on earth, . .
. as a sign of sure hope and solace for the pilgrim People of God," "it
gives great joy and comfort to this most holy Synod that among the divided
brethren, too, there are those who give due honor to the Mother of Our
Lord and Savior. This is especially so among the Easterners."(74)
30. Christians know that their unity will be truly rediscovered only if
it is based on the unity of their faith. They must resolve considerable
discrepancies of doctrine concerning the mystery and ministry of the
Church and sometimes also concerning the role of Mary in the work of
salvation.(75) The dialogues begun by the Catholic Church with the
Churches and Ecclesial Communities of the West(76) are steadily converging
upon these two inseparable aspects of the same mystery of salvation. If
the mystery of the Word made flesh enables us to glimpse the mystery of
the divine motherhood and if, in turn, contemplation of the Mother of God
brings us to a more profound understanding of the mystery of the
Incarnation, then the same must be said of the mystery of the Church and
Mary's role in the work of salvation. By a more profound study of both
Mary and the Church, clarifying each by the light of the other, Christians
who are eager to do what Jesus tells them -- as their Mother recommends
(cf. Jn 2:5) -- will be able to go forward together on this "pilgrimage of
faith." Mary, who is still the model of this pilgrimage, is to lead them
to the unity which is willed by their one Lord and so much desired by
those who are attentively listening to what the "Spirit is saying to the
Churches" today (Rev 2:7, 11, 17).
Meanwhile, it is a hopeful sign that these Churches and Ecclesial
Communities are finding agreement with the Catholic Church on fundamental
points of Christian belief, including matters relating to the Virgin Mary.
For they recognize her as the Mother of the Lord and hold that this forms
part of our faith in Christ, true God and true man. They look to her who
at the foot of the Cross accepts as her son the beloved disciple, the one
who in his turn accepts her as his mother.
Therefore, why should we not all together look to her as our common
Mother, who prays for the unity of God's family and who "precedes" us all
at the head of the long line of witnesses of faith in the one Lord, the
Son of God, who was conceived in her virginal womb by the power of the
Holy Spirit?
31. On the other hand, I wish to emphasize how profoundly the Catholic
Church, the Orthodox Church and the ancient Churches of the East feel
united by love and praise of the Theotokos. Not only "basic dogmas of the
Christian faith concerning the Trinity and God's Word made flesh of the
Virgin Mary were defined in Ecumenical Councils held in the East, "(77)
but also in their liturgical worship "the Orientals pay high tribute, in
very beautiful hymns, to Mary ever Virgin . . . God's Most Holy
Mother."(78)
The brethren of these Churches have experienced a complex history, but
it is one that has always been marked by an intense desire for Christian
commitment and apostolic activity, despite frequent persecution, even to
the point of bloodshed. It is a history of fidelity to the Lord, an
authentic "pilgrimage of faith" in space and time, during which Eastern
Christians have always looked with boundless trust to the Mother of the
Lord, celebrated her with praise and invoked her with unceasing prayer. In
the difficult moments of their troubled Christian existence "they have
taken refuge under her protection, ":(79) conscious of having in her a
powerful aid. The Churches which profess the doctrine of Ephesus proclaim
the Virgin as "true Mother of God" since "Our Lord Jesus Christ, born of
the Father before time began according to his divinity, in the last days
he himself, for our sake and for our salvation, was begotten of Mary the
Virgin Mother of God according to his humanity."(80) The Greek Fathers and
the Byzantine tradition, contemplating the Virgin in the light of the Word
made flesh, have sought to penetrate the depth of that bond which unites
Mary, as the Mother of God, to Christ an the Church: the Virgin is a
permanent presence in the whole reality of the salvific mystery.
The Coptic and Ethiopian traditions were introduced to this
contemplation of the mystery of Mary by Saint Cyril of Alexandria, and in
their turn they have celebrated it with a profuse poetic blossoming.(81)
The poetic genius of Saint Ephrem the Syrian, called "the lyre of the Holy
Spirit," tirelessly sang of Mary, leaving a still living mark on the whole
tradition of the Syriac Church.(82)
In his panegyric of the Theotokos, Saint Gregory of Narek, one of the
outstanding glories of Armenia, with powerful poetic inspiration ponders
the different aspects of the mystery of the Incarnation, and each of them
is for him an occasion to sing and extol the extraordinary dignity and
magnificent beauty of the Virgn Mary, Mother of the Word made flesh.(83)
It does not surprise us therefore that Mary occupies a privileged place
in the worship of the ancient Oriental Churches with an incomparable
abundance of feasts and hymns.
32. In the Byzantine liturgy, in all the hours of the Divine Office,
praise of the Mother is linked with praise of her Son and with the praise
which, through the Son, is offered up to the Father in the Holy Spirit. In
the Anaphora or Eucharisitc Prayer of Saint John Chrysostom, immediately
after the epiclesis the assembled community sings in honor of the Mother
of God: It is truly just to proclaim you blessed, O Mother of God, who are
most blessed, all pure and Mother of Our God. We magnify you who are more
honorable than the cherubim and incomparably more glorious than the
Seraphim. You who, without losing your virginity, gave birth to the Word
of God. You who are truly the Mother of God."
These praises, which in every celebration of the Eucharistic Liturgy
are offered to Mary, have molded the faith, piety and prayer of the
faithful. In the course of the centuries they have permeated their whole
spiritual outlook, fostering in them a profound devotion to the "All Holy
Mother of God."
33. This year there occurs the twelfth centenary of the Second
Ecumenical Council of Nicaea (787). Putting an end to the well-known
controversy about the cult of sacred images, this council defined that,
according to the teaching of the holy Fathers and the universal tradition
of the Church, there could be exposed for the veneration of the faithful,
together with the Cross, also images of the Mother of God, of the angels
and of the saints, in churches and houses and at the roadside.(84) This
custom has been maintained in the whole of the East and also in the West.
Images of the Virgin have a place of honor in churches and houses. In them
Mary is represented in a number of ways: as the throne of God carrying the
Lord and giving him to humanity (Theotokos); as the way that leads to
Christ and manifests him (Hodegetria); as a praying figure in an attitude
of intercession ad as a sign of the divine presence on the journey of the
faithful until the day of the Lord (Deesis); as the protectress who
stretches out her mantle over the peoples (Pokrov), or as the merciful
Virgin of tenderness (Eleousa). She is usually represented with her Son,
the child Jesus, in her arms: it is the relationship with the Son which
glorifies the Mother. Sometimes she embraces him with tenderness
(Glyophilousa); at other times she is a hieratic figure, apparently rapt
in contemplation of him who is the Lord of history (cf. Rev 5:9-14).(85)
It is also appropriate to mention the icon of Our Lady of Vladimir,
which continually accompanied the pilgrimage of faith of the people of the
ancient Rus'. The first Millennium of the conversion of those noble lands
to Christianity is approaching: lands of humble folk, of thinkers and of
saints. The Icons are still venerated in the Ukraine, in Byelorussia and
in Russia under various titles. They are images which witness to the faith
and spirit of prayer of that people who sense the presence and protection
of the Mother of God. In these Icons the Virgin shines as the image of
divine beauty, the abode of Eternal Wisdom, the figure of the one who
prays, the prototype of contemplation, the image of glory: she who even in
her earthly life possessed the spiritual knowledge inaccessible to human
reasoning and who attained through faith the most sublime knowledge. I
also recall the Icon of the Virgin of the Cenacle, praying with the
Apostles as they awaited the Holy Spirit: could she not become the sign of
hope for all those who in fraternal dialogue, wish to deepen their
obedience of faith?
34. Such a wealth of praise, built up by the different forms of the
Church's great tradition, could help us to hasten the day when the Church
can begin once more to breathe fully with her "two lungs," the East and
the West. As I have often said, this is more than ever necessary today. It
would be an effective aid in furthering the progress of the dialogue
already taking place between the Catholic Church and the Churches and
Ecclesial communities of the West.(86) It would also be the way for the
pilgrim Church to sing and to love more perfectly her "Magnificat."
The "Magnificat" of the pilgrim Church
35. At the present stage of her journey, therefore, the Church seeks to
rediscover the unity of all who profess their faith in Christ, in order to
show obedience to her Lord, who prayed for this unity before his Passion.
"Like a pilgrim in a foreign land, the Church presses forward amid the
persecutions of the world and the consolations of God, announcing the
Cross and death of the Lord until he comes."(87) "Moving forward through
trial and tribulation, the Church is strengthened by the power of God's
grace promised to her by the Lord so that in the weakness of the flesh she
may not waver from perfect fidelity but remain a bride worthy of her Lord;
that moved by the Holy Spirit she may never cease to renew herself, until
through the Cross she arrives at the light which knows no setting."(88)
The Virgin Mother is constantly present on this journey of faith of the
People of God towards the light. This is shown in a special way by the
canticle of the "Magnificat" which, having welled up from the depths of
Mary's faith at the Visitation, ceaselessly re-echoes in the heart of the
Church down the centuries. This is proved by its daily recitation in the
liturgy of Vespers and at many other moments of both personal and communal
devotion.
My soul magnifies the Lord,
and my spirit rejoices in
God my Savior,
for he has looked on his servant in her lowliness.
For behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed;
for
he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name;
And his mercy is from age to age on those who fear him.
He has
shown strength with his arm,
he has scattered the proud-hearted,
he has cast down the mighty from their thrones,
and lifted up
the lowly;
he has filled the hungry with good things,
sent the
rich away empty.
He has helped his servant Israel,
remembering
his mercy,
as he spoke to our Fathers,
to Abraham and to his
posterity for ever" (Lk 1:46-55)
36. When Elizabeth greeted her young kinswoman coming from Nazareth,
Mary replied with the Magnificat. In her greeting, Elizabeth first called
Mary "blessed" because of "the fruit of her womb," and then she called her
"blessed" because of her faith (cf. Lk 1:42, 45). These two blessings
referred directly to the Annunciation. Now at the Visitation, when
Elizabeth's greeting bears witness to that culminating moment, Mary's
faith acquires a new consciousness and a new expression. That which
remained hidden in the depths of the "obedience of faith" at the
Annunciation can now be said to spring froth like a clear and life-giving
flame of the spirit. The words used by Mary on the threshold of
Elizabeth's house are an inspired profession of her faith, in which her
response to the revealed word is expressed with the religious and poetical
exultation of her whole being towards God. In these sublime words, which
are simultaneously very simple and wholly inspired by the sacred texts of
the people of Israel, (89) Mary's personal experience, the ecstasy of her
heart, shines forth. In them shines a ray of the mystery of God, the glory
of his ineffable holiness, the eternal love which, as an irrevocable gift,
enters into human history.
Mary is the first to share in this new revelation of God and within the
same, in this new "self-giving" of God. Therefore she proclaims" "For he
who is mighty has done great things for me and holy is his name." Her
words reflect a joy of spirit which is difficult to express: "My spirit
rejoices in God my Savior." Indeed, "the deepest truth about God and the
salvation of man is made clear to us in Christ, who is at the same time
the mediator and the fullness of all revelation."(90) In her exultation
Mary confesses that she finds herself in the very heart of this fullness
of Christ. She is conscious that the promise made to the fathers, first of
all "to Abraham and to his posterity for ever," is being fulfilled in
herself. She is thus aware that concentrated within herself as the Mother
of Christ is the whole salvific economy, in which "from age to age" is
manifested he who, as the God of the Covenant, "remembers his mercy."
37. The Church, which from the beginning has modeled her earthly
journey on that of the Mother of God, constantly repeats after her the
words of the Magnificat. From the depths of the Virgin's faith at the
Annunciation and the Visitation, the Church derives the truth about the
God of the Covenant: the God who is Almighty and does "great things" for
man: "holy is his name." In the Magnificat the Church sees uprooted that
sin which is found at the outset of the earthly history of man and woman,
the sin of disbelief and of "little faith" in God. In contrast with the
"suspicion" which the "father of lies" sowed in the heart of Eve the first
woman, Mary, whom tradition is wont to call the "new Eve" and the true
"Mother of the living, "(92) boldly proclaims the undimmed truth about
God: the holy and almighty God who from the beginning is the source of all
gifts, he who "has done great things" in her, as well as in the whole
universe. In the act of creation God gives existence to all that is. In
creating man, God gives him the dignity of the image and likeness of
himself in a special way as compared with all earthly creatures. Moreover,
in his desire to give, God gives himself in the Son, notwithstanding man's
sin: "He so loved the world that he gave his only Son" (Jn 3:16). Mary is
the first witness of this marvelous truth, which will be fully
accomplished through "the works and words" (cf. Acts 1:1) of her son and
definitively through his Cross and Resurrection.
The Church, which even "amid trials and tribulations" does not cease
repeating with Mary the words of the Magnificat, is sustained by the power
of God's truth, proclaimed on that occasion with such extraordinary
simplicity. At the same time, by means of this truth about God the Church
desires to shed light upon the difficult and sometimes tangled paths of
man's earthly existence. The Church's journey, therefore, near the end of
the second Millennium, involves a renewed commitment to her mission.
Following him who said of himself: "(God) has anointed me to preach good
news to the poor" (cf. Lk 4:18), the Church has sought from generation to
generation and still seeks today to accomplish that same mission.
The Church's love of preference for the poor is wonderfully inscribed
in Mary's Magnificat. The God of the Covenant, celebrated in the
exultation of her spirit by the Virgin of Nazareth, is also he who "has
cast down the mighty from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly, . . .
filled the hungry with good things, sent the rich away empty . . .
scattered the proud hearted . . . and his mercy is from age to age on
those who fear him." Mary is deeply imbued with the spirit of the "poor of
Yahweh," who in the prayer of the Psalms awaited from God their salvation,
placing all their trust in him (cf. Pss 25; 31; 35; 55). Mary truly
proclaims the coming of the "Messiah of the poor" (cf. Is 11:4; 61:1).
Drawing from Mary's heart, from the depth of her faith expressed in the
words of the Magnificat, the Church renews ever more effectively in
herself the awareness that the truth about God who saves, the truth about
God who is the source of ever gift, cannot be separated from the
manifestation of his love of preference for the poor and humble, that love
which, celebrated in the Magnificat, is later expressed in the words and
works of Jesus.
The Church is thus aware -- and at the present time this awareness ia
particularly vivid -- not only that these two elements of the message
contained in the Magnificat cannot be separated, but also that there is a
duty to safeguard carefully the importance of "the poor" and of "the
option in favor of the poor" in the word of the living God. These are
matters and questions intimately connected with the Christian meaning of
freedom and liberation. "Mary is totally dependent upon God and completely
directed towards him, and, at the side of her Son, she is the most perfect
image of freedom and of the liberation of humanity and of the universe. It
is to her as Mother and Model that the Church must look in order to
understand in its completeness the meaning of her own mission."(93)
Part Three: Maternal Mediation
Mary, the Handmaid of the Lord
The Church knows and teaches with Saint Paul that there is only one
mediator: "For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and
men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all" (1 Tim
2:5-6). "The maternal role of Mary towards people in no way obscures or
diminishes the unique mediation of Christ, but rather shows its
power:"(94) it is mediation in Christ.
The Church knows and teaches that "all the saving influences of the
Blessed Virgin on mankind originate . . . from the superabundance of the
merits of Christ, rest on his mediation, depend entirely on it and draw
all their power from it. In no way do they impede the immediate union of
the faithful with Christ. Rather, they foster this union." (95) This
saving influence is sustained by the Holy Spirit, who just as he
overshadowed the Virgin Mary when he began in her the divine motherhood,
in a similar way constantly sustains her solicitude for the brothers and
sisters of her Son.
In effect, Mary's mediation is intimately linked with her motherhood.
It possesses a specifically maternal character, which distinguishes it
from the mediation of the other creatures who in various and always
subordinate ways share in the one mediation of Christ, although her own
mediation is also a shared mediation.(96) In fact, while it is true that
"no creature could ever be classed with the Incarnate Word and Redeemer,"
at the same time "the unique mediation of the Redeemer does not exclude
but rather gives rise among creatures to a manifold cooperation which is
but a sharing in this unique source." And thus "the one goodness of God is
in reality communicated diversely to his creatures."(97)
This teaching of the Second Vatican Council presents the truth of
Mary's mediation as "a sharing in the one unique source that is the
mediation of Christ himself." Thus we read: "The Church does not hesitate
to profess this subordinate role of Mary. She experiences it continuously
and commends it to the hearts of the faithful, so that encouraged by this
maternal help they may more closely adhere to the Mediator and
Redeemer."(98) This role is at the same time special and extraordinary. It
flows from her divine motherhood and can be understood and lived in faith
only on the basis of the full truth of this motherhood. Since by virtue of
divine election Mary is the earthly Mother of the Father's consubstantial
Son and his "generous companion" in the work of redemption, "she is a
mother to us in the order of grace."(99) This role constitutes a real
dimension of her presence in the saving mystery of Christ and the Church.
39. From this point of view we must consider once more the fundamental
event in the economy of salvation, namely the Incarnation of the Word at
the moment of the Annunciation. It is significant that Mary, recognizing
in the words of the divine messenger the will of the Most High and
submitting to his power, says: "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let
it be to me according to your word" (Lk 1:38). The first moment of
submission to the one mediation "between God and men" -- the mediation of
Jesus Christ -- is the Virgin of Nazareth's acceptance of motherhood. Mary
consents to God's choice, in order to become through the power of the Holy
Spirit the Mother of the Son of God. It can be said that this consent to
motherhood is above all a result of her total self-giving to God in
virginity. Mary accepted her election as Mother of the Son of God, guided
by spousal love, the love which totally "consecrates" a human being to
God. By virtue of this love, Mary wished to be always and in all things
"given to God," living in virginity. The words "Behold, I am the handmaid
of the Lord" express the fact that from the outset she accepted and
understood her own motherhood as a total gift of self, a gift of her
person to the service of the saving plans of the Most High. And to the
very end she lived her entire maternal sharing in the life of Jesus
Christ, her Son, in a way that matched her vocation to virginity.
Mary's motherhood, completely pervaded by her spousal attitude as the
"handmaid of the Lord," constitutes the first and fundamental dimension of
that mediation which the Church confesses and proclaims in her regard(100)
and continually "commends to the hearts of the faithful," since the Church
has great trust in her. For it must be recognized that before anyone else
it was God himself, the Eternal Father, who entrusted himself to the
Virgin of Nazareth, giving her his own Son in the mystery of the
Incarnation. Her election to the supreme office and dignity of Mother of
the Son of God refers, on the ontological level, to the very reality of
the union of the two natures in the person of the Word (hypostatic union).
This basic fact of being the Mother of the Son of God is from the very
beginning a complete openness to the person of Christ, to his whole work,
to his whole mission. The words "Behold I am the handmaid of the Lord"
testify to Mary's openness of spirit: she perfectly unites in herself the
love proper to virginity and the love characteristic of motherhood, which
are joined and as it were fused together.
For this reason Mary became not only the "nursing mother" of the Son of
Man but also the "associate of unique nobility"(101) of the Messiah and
Redeemer. As I have already said, she advanced in her pilgrimage of faith,
and in this pilgrimage to the foot of the Cross there was simultaneously
accomplished her maternal cooperation with the Savior's whole mission
through her actions an sufferings. Along the path of this collaboration
with the work of her Son, the Redeemer, Mary's motherhood itself underwent
a singular transformation, becoming ever more imbued with "burning
charity" towards all those to whom Christ's mission was directed. Through
this "burning charity," which sought to achieve, in union with Christ, the
restoration of "supernatural life to souls, "(102) Mary entered, in a way
all her own, into the one mediation "between God and men" which is the
mediation of the man Christ Jesus. If she was the first to experience
within herself the supernatural consequences of this one mediation -- in
the Annunciation she had been greeted as "full of grace" -- then we must
say that through this fullness of grace and supernatural life she was
especially predisposed to cooperation with Christ, the one Mediator of
human salvation. And such cooperation is precisely this mediation
subordinated to the mediation of Christ.
In Mary's case we have a special and exceptional mediation, based upon
her "fullness of grace," which was expressed in the complete willingness
of the "handmaid of the Lord." In response to this interior willingness of
his Mother, Jesus Christ prepared her ever more completely to become for
all people their "mother in the order of grace." This is indicated, at
least indirectly, by certain details noted by the Synoptics (cf. Lk 11:28;
8:20-21; Mk 3:32-35; Mt 12:47-50) and still more so by the gospel of John
(cf. 2:1-12; 19:25-27), which I have already mentioned. Particularly
eloquent in this regard are the words spoken by Jesus on the Cross to Mary
and John.
40. After the events of the Resurrection and Ascension, Mary entered
the Upper Room together with the Apostles to await Pentecost, and was
present there as the Mother of the glorified Lord. She was not only the
one who "advanced in her pilgrimage of faith" and loyally persevered in
her union with her Son "unto the Cross," but she was also the "handmaid of
the Lord," left by her Son as Mother in the midst of the infant Church:
"Behold your mother." Thus there began to develop a special bond between
this Mother and the Church. For the infant Church was the fruit of the
Cross and Resurrection of her Son. Mary, who from the beginning had given
herself without reserve to the person and work of her Son, could not but
pour out upon the Church, from the very beginning, her maternal
self-giving. After her Son's departure, her motherhood remains in the
Church as maternal mediation: interceding for all her children, the Mother
cooperates in the saving work of her Son, the Redeemer of the world. In
fact, the Council teaches that the "motherhood of Mary in the order of
grace . . . will last without interruption until the fulfillment of all
the elect."(103) With the redeeming death of her Son, the maternal
mediation of the handmaid of the Lord took on a universal dimension, for
the work of redemption embraces the whole of humanity. Thus there is
manifested in a singular way the efficacy of the one and universal
mediation of Christ "between God and men." Mary's cooperation shares, in
its subordinate character, in the universality of the mediation of the
Redeemer, the one Mediator. This is clearly indicated by the Council in
the words quoted above.
"For," the text goes on, "taken up to heaven, she did not lay aside
this saving role, but by her manifold acts of intercession continues to
win for us gifts of eternal salvation, "(104) With this character of
"intercession," first manifested at Cana in Galilee, Mary's mediation
continues in the history of the Church and the world. We read that Mary
"by her maternal charity, cares for the brethren of her Son who still
journey on earth surrounded by dangers and difficulties, until they are
led to their happy |
