Catholic Faith
Legion of Mary
Ioannes Paulus PP. II
Redemptoris Mater
On the Blessed Virgin Mary
in the life of the Pilgrim Church
1987.03.25
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Blessing
Venerable Brothers and dear Sons and Daughters,
Health and the Apostolic Blessing.
INTRODUCTION
1. 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 Epistle Christi
Matri and subsequently in the Apostolic Exhortations Signum Magnum and
Marialis Cultus5 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.6 It is a fact that when "the fullness
of time" was definitively drawing near-the saving advent of Emmanuel-
he who was from 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; Zeph. 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 in 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 ever 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
(= Theotókos), 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 cancelling 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 and 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 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 Mary 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 shines 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 I - MARY IN THE MYSTERY OF CHRIST
1. 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 concerns 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 the
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 history 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" (kecharitoméne).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 Virgin 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 consubstantial 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 special 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 Letter 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 through 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 mystery 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 singularity 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
St. 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 a 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 salvation 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 of 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 sin, than all that
"enmity" which marks the history of man. In this history Mary remains a
sign of sure hope.
2. 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 kins woman 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 had 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
little "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 really 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 the 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 come 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. 1:32-33).
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 hack 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 liing" 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.
3. 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. One 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 at 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 that 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 also was 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 one
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 her 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 II - THE MOTHER OF GOD AT THE CENTER OF THE PILGRIM CHURCH
1. 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 forward 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. 23:1ff.). 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 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."55 And yet the essential character of her pilgrimage
is interior: it is a question of a pilgrimage through faith, by "the
power of the Risen Lord,"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 for ever; 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 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 and 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 his 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
he 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
2. 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 live 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 West76 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 is, 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 for 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, for our sake and for our
salvation, was himself 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 and 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 St. Cyril of Alexandria, and in
their turn they have celebrated it with a profuse poetic blossoming.81
The poetic genius of St. 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
Theotókos, St. 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 Virgin Mary, Mother of the Word made flesh.83
It does not surprise us therefore that Mary occupies a privileged place
in the worship or 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 Eucharistic Prayer of St. 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 moulded 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 wellknown
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 and 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
(Glykophilousa); 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 peoples of
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 live more
perfectly her "Magnificat."
3. 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 forth 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 modelled 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"91 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 Christian 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 every 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 is
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 III - MATERNAL MEDIATION
1. Mary, the Handmaid of the Lord
38. 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 divine pleasure. They
flow forth 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
The 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 a consent to motherhood is above all a result of her total
selfgiving 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
regard100 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 and 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 eternal 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 homeland."105 In this way Mary's motherhood
continues unceasingly in the Church as the mediation which intercedes,
and the Church expresses her faith in this truth by invoking Mary
"under the titles of Advocate, Auxiliatrix, Adjutrix and Mediatrix."106
41. Through her mediation, subordinate to that of the Redeemer, Mary
contributes in a special way to the union of the pilgrim Church on
earth with the eschatological and heavenly reality of the Communion of
Saints, since she has already been "assumed into heaven."107 The truth
of the Assumption, defined by Pius XII, is reaffirmed by the Second
Vatican Council, which thus expresses the Church's faith: "Preserved
free from all guilt of original sin, the Immaculate Virgin was taken up
body and soul into heavenly glory upon the completion of her earthly
sojourn. She was exalted by the Lord as Queen of the Universe, in order
that she might be the more thoroughly conformed to her Son, the Lord of
lords (cf. Rev. 19:16) and the conqueror of sin and death."108 In this
teaching Pius XII was in continuity with Tradition, which has found
many different expressions in the history of the Church, both in the
East and in the West.
By the mystery of the Assumption into heaven there were definitively
accomplished in Mary all the effects of the one mediation of Christ the
Redeemer of the world and Risen Lord: "In Christ shall all be made
alive. But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, then at his
coming those who belong to Christ" (1 Cor. 15:22-23). In the mystery of
the Assumption is expressed the faith of the Church, according to which
Mary is "united by a close and indissoluble bond" to Christ, for, if as
Virgin and Mother she was singularly united with him in his first
coming, so through her continued collaboration with him she will also
be united with him in expectation of the second; "redeemed in an
especially sublime manner by reason of the merits of her Son,"109 she
also has that specifically maternal role of mediatrix of mercy at his
final coming, when all those who belong to Christ "shall be made
alive," when "the last enemy to be destroyed is death" (1 Cor.
15:26)."110
Connected with this exaltation of the noble "Daughter of Sion"111
through her Assumption into heaven is the mystery of her eternal glory.
For the Mother of Christ is glorified as "Queen of the Universe."112
She who at the Annunciation called herself the "handmaid of the Lord"
remained throughout her earthly life faithful to what this name
expresses. In this she confirmed that she was a true "disciple" of
Christ, who strongly emphasized that his mission was one of service:
the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life
as a ransom for many" (Mt. 20:28). In this way Mary became the first of
those who, "serving Christ also in others, with humility and patience
lead their brothers and sisters to that King whom to serve is to
reign,"113 and she fully obtained that "state of royal freedom" proper
to Christ's disciples: to serve means to reign!
"Christ obeyed even at the cost of death, and was therefore raised up
by the Father (cf. Phil. 2:8-9). Thus he entered into the glory of his
kingdom. To him all things are made subject until he subjects himself
and all created things to the Father, that God may be all in all (cf. 1
Cor. 15:27-28)."114 Mary, the handmaid of the Lord, has a share in this
Kingdom of the Son.115 The glory of serving does not cease to be her
royal exaltation: assumed into heaven, she does not cease her saving
service, which expresses her maternal mediation "until the eternal
fulfillment of all the elect."116 Thus, she who here on earth "loyally
preserved in her union with her Son unto the Cross," continues to
remain united with him, while now "all things are subjected to him,
until he subjects to the Father himself and all things." Thus in her
Assumption into heaven, Mary is as it were clothed by the whole reality
of the Communion of Saints, and her very union with the Son in glory is
wholly oriented towards the definitive fullness of the Kingdom, when
"God will be all in all."
In this phase too Mary's maternal mediation does not cease to be
subordinate to him who is the one Mediator, until the final realization
of "the fullness of time," that is to say until "all things are united
in Christ" (cf. Eph. 1:10).
2. Mary in the life of the Church and of every Christian
42. Linking itself with Tradition, the Second Vatican Council brought
new light to bear on the role of the Mother of Christ in the life of
the Church. "Through the gift...of divine motherhood, Mary is united
with her Son, the Redeemer, and with his singular graces and offices.
By these, the Blessed Virgin is also intimately united with the Church:
the Mother of God is a figure of the Church in the matter of faith,
charity and perfect union with Christ."117 We have already noted how,
from the beginning, Mary remains with the Apostles in expectation of
Pentecost and how, as "the blessed one who believed," she is present in
the midst of the pilgrim Church from generation to generation through
faith and as the model of the hope which does not disappoint (cf. Rom.
5:5).
Mary believed in the fulfillment of what had been said to her by the
Lord. As Virgin, she believed that she would conceive and bear a son:
the "Holy One," who bears the name of "Son of God," the name "Jesus" (=
God who saves). As handmaid of the Lord, she remained in perfect
fidelity to the person and mission of this Son. As Mother, "believing
and obeying...she brought forth on earth the Father's Son. This she
did, knowing not man but overshadowed by the Holy Spirit."118
For these reasons Mary is honored in the Church "with special
reverence. Indeed, from most ancient times the Blessed Virgin Mary has
been venerated under the title of 'God-bearer.' In all perils and
needs, the faithful have fled prayerfully to her protection."119 This
cult is altogether special: it bears in itself and expresses the
profound link which exists between the Mother of Christ and the
Church.120 As Virgin and Mother, Mary remains for the Church a
"permanent model." It can therefore be said that especially under this
aspect, namely as a model, or rather as a "figure," Mary, present in
the mystery of Christ, remains constantly present also in the mystery
of the Church. For the Church too is "called mother and virgin," and
these names have a profound biblical and theological justification.121
43. The Church "becomes herself a mother by accepting God's word with
fidelity."122 Like Mary, who first believed by accepting the word of
God revealed to her at the Annunciation and by remaining faithful to
that word in all her trials even unto the Cross, so too the Church
becomes a mother when, accepting with fidelity the word of God, "by her
preaching and by baptism she brings forth to a new and immortal life
children who are conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of God."123 This
"maternal" characteristic of the Church was expressed in a particularly
vivid way by the Apostle to the Gentiles when he wrote: "My little
children, with whom I am again in travail until Christ be formed in
you!" (Gal. 4:19) These words of Saint Paul contain an interesting sign
of the early Church's awareness of her own motherhood, linked to her
apostolic service to mankind. This awareness enabled and still enables
the Church to see the mystery of her life and mission modelled upon the
example of the Mother of the Son, who is "the first-born among many
brethren" (Rom. 8:29).
It can be said that from Mary the Church also learns her own
motherhood: she recognizes the maternal dimension of her vocation,
which is essentially bound to her sacramental nature, in "contemplating
Mary's mysterious sanctity, imitating her charity and faithfully
fulfilling the Father's will."124 If the Church is the sign and
instrument of intimate union with God, she is so by reason of her
motherhood, because, receiving life from the Spirit, she "generates"
sons and daughters of the human race to a new life in Christ. For, just
as Mary is at the service of the mystery of the Incarnation, so the
Church is always at the service of the mystery of adoption to sonship
through grace.
Likewise, following the example of Mary, the Church remains the virgin
faithful to her spouse: The Church herself is a virgin who keeps whole
and pure the fidelity she has pledged to her Spouse."125 For the Church
is the spouse of Christ, as is clear from the Pauline Letters (cf. Eph.
5:21-33; 2 Cor. 11:2), and from the title found in John: "bride of the
Lamb" (Rev. 21:9). If the Church as spouse "keeps the fidelity she has
pledged to Christ," this fidelity, even though in the Apostle's
teaching it has become an image of marriage (cf. Eph. 5:23-33), also
has value as a model of total self-giving to God in celibacy "for the
kingdom of heaven," in virginity consecrated to God (cf. Mt. 19:11-12;
2 Cor. 11:2). Precisely such virginity, after the example of the Virgin
of Nazareth, is the source of a special spiritual fruitfulness: it is
the source of motherhood in the Holy Spirit.
But the Church also preserves the faith received from Christ. Following
the example of Mary, who kept and pondered in her heart everything
relating to her divine Son (cf. Lk. 2:19, 51), the Church is committed
to preserving the word of God and investigating its riches with
discernment and prudence, in order to bear faithful witness to it
before all mankind in every age.126
44. Given Mary's relationship to the Church as an exemplar, the Church
is close to her and seeks to become like her: "Imitating the Mother of
her Lord, and by the power of the Holy Spirit, she preserves with
virginal purity an integral faith, a firm hope, and a sincere
charity."127 Mary is thus present in the mystery of the Church as a
model. But the Church's mystery also consists in generating people to a
new and immortal life: this is her motherhood in the Holy Spirit. And
here Mary is not only the model and figure of the Church; she is much
more. For, "with maternal love she cooperates in the birth and
development" of the sons and daughters of Mother Church. The Church's
motherhood is accomplished not only according to the model and figure
of the Mother of God but also with her "cooperation." The Church draws
abundantly from this cooperation, that is to say from the maternal
mediation which is characteristic of Mary, insofar as already on earth
she cooperated in the rebirth and development of the Church's sons and
daughters, as the Mother of that Son whom the Father "placed as the
first-born among many brethren."128
She cooperated, as the Second Vatican Council teaches, with a maternal
love.129 Here we perceive the real value of the words spoken by Jesus
to his Mother at the hour of the Cross: "Woman, behold your son" and to
the disciple: "Behold your mother" (Jn. 19:26-27). They are words which
determine Mary's place in the life of Christ's disciples and they
express-as I have already said-the new motherhood of the Mother of the
Redeemer: a spiritual motherhood, born from the heart of the Paschal
Mystery of the Redeemer of the world. It is a motherhood in the order
of grace, for it implores the gift of the Spirit, who raises up the new
children of God, redeems through the sacrifice of Christ that Spirit
whom Mary too, together with the Church, received on the day of
Pentecost.
Her motherhood is particularly noted and experienced by the Christian
people at the Sacred Banquet-the liturgical celebration of the mystery
of the Redemption-at which Christ, his true body born of the Virgin
Mary, becomes present.
The piety of the Christian people has always very rightly sensed a
profound link between devotion to the Blessed Virgin and worship of the
Eucharist: this is a fact that can be seen in the liturgy of both the
West and the East, in the traditions of the Religious Families, in the
modern movements of spirituality, including those for youth, and in the
pastoral practice of the Marian Shrines. Mary guides the faithful to
the Eucharist.
45. Of the essence of motherhood is the fact that it concerns the
person. Motherhood always establishes a unique and unrepeatable
relationship between two people: between mother and child and between
child and mother. Even when the same woman is the mother of many
children, her personal relationship with each one of them is of the
very essence of motherhood. For each child is generated in a unique and
unrepeatable way, and this is true both for the mother and for the
child. Each child is surrounded in the same way by that maternal love
on which are based the child's development and coming to maturity as a
human being.
It can be said that motherhood "in the order of grace" preserves the
analogy with what "in the order of nature" characterizes the union
between mother and child. In the light of this fact it becomes easier
to understand why in Christ's testament on Golgotha his Mother's new
motherhood is expressed in the singular, in reference to one man:
"Behold your son."
lt can also be said that these same words fully show the reason for the
Marian dimension of the life of Christ's disciples. This is true not
only of John, who at that hour stood at the foot of the Cross together
with his Master's Mother, but it is also true of every disciple of
Christ, of every Christian. The Redeemer entrusts his mother to the
disciple, and at the same time he gives her to him as his mother.
Mary's motherhood, which becomes man's inheritance, is a gift: a gift
which Christ himself makes personally to every individual. The Redeemer
entrusts Mary to John because he entrusts John to Mary. At the foot of
the Cross there begins that special entrusting of humanity to the
Mother of Christ, which in the history of the Church has been practiced
and expressed in different ways. The same Apostle and Evangelist, after
reporting the words addressed by Jesus on the Cross to his Mother and
to himself, adds: "And from that hour the disciple took her to his own
home" (Jn. 19:27). This statement certainly means that the role of son
was attributed to the disciple and that he assumed responsibility for
the Mother of his beloved Master. And since Mary was given as a mother
to him personally, the statement indicates, even though indirectly,
everything expressed by the intimate relationship of a child with its
mother. And all of this can be included in the word "entrusting." Such
entrusting is the response to a person's love, and in particular to the
love of a mother.
The Marian dimension of the life of a disciple of Christ is expressed
in a special way precisely through this filial entrusting to the Mother
of Christ, which began with the testament of the Redeemer on Golgotha.
Entrusting himself to Mary in a filial manner, the Christian, like the
Apostle John, "welcomes" the Mother of Christ "into his own home"130
and brings her into everything that makes up his inner life, that is to
say into his human and Christian "I": he "took her to his own home."
Thus the Christian seeks to be taken into that "maternal charity" with
which the Redeemer's Mother "cares for the brethren of her Son,"131 "in
whose birth and development she cooperates"132 in the measure of the
gift proper to each one through the power of Christ's Spirit. Thus also
is exercised that motherhood in the Spirit which became Mary's role at
the foot of the Cross and in the Upper Room.
46. This filial relationship, this self-entrusting of a child to its
mother, not only has its beginning in Christ but can also be said to be
definitively directed towards him. Mary can be said to continue to say
to each individual the words which she spoke at Cana in Galilee: "Do
whatever he tells you." For he, Christ, is the one Mediator between God
and mankind; he is "the way, and the truth, and the life" (Jn. 14:6);
it is he whom the Father has given to the world, so that man "should
not perish but have eternal life" (Jn. 3:16). The Virgin of Nazareth
became the first "witness" of this saving love of the Father, and she
also wishes to remain its humble handmaid always and everywhere. For
every Christian, for every human being, Mary is the one who first
"believed," and precisely with her faith as Spouse and Mother she
wishes to act upon all those who entrust themselves to her as her
children. And it is well known that the more her children persevere and
progress in this attitude, the nearer Mary leads them to the
"unsearchable riches of Christ"(Eph. 3:8). And to the same degree they
recognize more and more clearly the dignity of man in all its fullness
and the definitive meaning of his vocation, for "Christ...fully reveals
man to man himself."133
This Marian dimension of Christian life takes on special importance in
relation to women and their status. In fact, femininity has a unique
relationship with the Mother of the Redeemer, a subject which can be
studied in greater depth elsewhere. Here I simply wish to note that the
figure of Mary of Nazareth sheds light on womanhood as such by the very
fact that God, in the sublime event of the Incarnation of his Son,
entrusted himself to the ministry, the free and active ministry of a
woman. It can thus be said that women, by looking to Mary, find in her
the secret of living their femininity with dignity and of achieving
their own true advancement. In the light of Mary, the Church sees in
the face of women the reflection of a beauty which mirrors the loftiest
sentiments of which the human heart is capable: the self-offering
totality of love; the strength that is capable of bearing the greatest
sorrows; limitless fidelity and tireless devotion to work; the ability
to combine penetrating intuition with words of support and
encouragement.
47. At the Council Paul VI solemnly proclaimed that Mary is the Mother
of the Church, "that is, Mother of the entire Christian people, both
faithful and pastors."134 Later, in 1968, in the Profession of faith
known as the "Credo of the People of God." he restated this truth in an
even more forceful way in these words: "We believe that the Most Holy
Mother of God, the new Eve, the Mother of the Church, carries on in
heaven her maternal role with regard to the members of Christ,
cooperating in the birth and development of divine life in the souls of
the redeemed."135
The Council's teaching emphasized that the truth concerning the Blessed
Virgin, Mother of Christ, is an effective aid in exploring more deeply
the truth concerning the Church. When speaking of the Constitution
Lumen Gentium, which had just been approved by the Council, Paul VI
said: "Knowledge of the true Catholic doctrine regarding the Blessed
Virgin Mary will always be a key to the exact understanding of the
mystery of Christ and of the Church."136 Mary is present in the Church
as the Mother of Christ, and at the same time as that Mother whom
Christ, in the mystery of the Redemption, gave to humanity in the
person of the Apostle John. Thus, in her new motherhood in the Spirit,
Mary embraces each and every one in the Church, and embraces each and
every one through the Church. In this sense Mary, Mother of the Church,
is also the Church's model. Indeed, as Paul VI hopes and asks, the
Church must draw "from the Virgin Mother of God the most authentic form
of perfect imitation of Christ."137
Thanks to this special bond linking the Mother of Christ with the
Church, there is further clarified the mystery of that "woman" who,
from the first chapters of the Book of Genesis until the Book of
Revelation, accompanies the revelation of God's salvific plan for
humanity. For Mary, present in the Church as the Mother of the
Redeemer, takes part, as a mother, in that monumental struggle; against
the powers of darkness"138 which continues throughout human history.
And by her ecclesial identification as the "woman clothed with the sun"
(Rev. 12:1),139 it can be said that "in the Most Holy Virgin the Church
has already reached that perfection whereby she exists without spot or
wrinkle." Hence, as Christians raise their eyes with faith to Mary in
the course of their earthly pilgrimage, they "strive to increase in
holiness."140 Mary, the exalted Daughter of Sion, helps all her
children, wherever they may be and whatever their condition, to find in
Christ the path to the Father's house.
Thus, throughout her life, the Church maintains with the Mother of God
a link which embraces, in the saving mystery, the past, the present and
the future, and venerates her as the spiritual mother of humanity and
the advocate of grace.
3. The meaning of the Marian Year
48. It is precisely the special bond between humanity and this Mother
which has led me to proclaim a Marian Year in the Church, in this
period before the end of the Second Millennium since Christ's birth, a
similar initiative was taken in the past. when Pius XII proclaimed 1954
as a Marian Year, in order to highlight the exceptional holiness of the
Mother of Christ as expressed in the mysteries of her Immaculate
Conception (defined exactly a century before) and of her Assumption
into heaven.141
Now, following the line of the Second Vatican Council, I wish to
emphasize the special presence of the Mother of God in the mystery of
Christ and his Church. For this is a fundamental dimension emerging
from the Mariology of the Council, the end of which is now more than
twenty years behind us. The Extraordinary Synod of Bishops held in 1985
exhorted everyone to follow faithfully the teaching and guidelines of
the Council We can say that these two events-the Council and the
synod-embody what the Holy Spirit himself wishes "to say to the Church"
in the present phase of history.
In this context, the Marian Year is meant to promote a new and more
careful reading of what the Council said about the Blessed Virgin Mary,
Mother of God, in the mystery of Christ and of the Church, the topic to
which the contents of this Encyclical are devoted. Here we speak not
only of the doctrine of faith but also of the life of faith, and thus
of authentic "Marian spirituality," seen in the light of Tradition, and
especially the spirituality to which the Council exhorts us.142
Furthermore, Marian spirituality, like its corresponding devotion,
finds a very rich source in the historical experience of individuals
and of the various Christian communities present among the different
peoples and nations of the world. In this regard, I would like to
recall, among the many witnesses and teachers of this spirituality, the
figure of Saint Louis Marie Grignion de Montfort,143 who proposes
consecration to Christ through the hands of Mary, as an effective means
for Christians to live faithfully their baptismal commitments. I am
pleased to note that in our own time too new manifestations of this
spirituality and devotion are not lacking.
There thus exist solid points of reference to look to and follow in the context of this Marian Year.
49. This Marian Year will begin on the Solemnity of Pentecost, on June
7 next. For it is a question not only of recalling that Mary "preceded"
the entry of Christ the Lord into the history of the human family, but
also of emphasizing, in the light of Mary, that from the moment when
the mystery of the Incarnation was accomplished, human history entered
"the fullness of time," and that the Church is the sign of this
fullness. As the People of God, the Church makes her pilgrim way
towards eternity through faith, in the midst of all the peoples and
nations, beginning from the day of Pentecost. Christ's Mother-who was
present at the beginning of "the time of the Church," when in
expectation of the coming of the Holy Spirit she devoted herself to
prayer in the midst of the Apostles and her Son's disciples-constantly
"precedes" the Church in her journey through human history. She is also
the one who, precisely as the "handmaid of the Lord," cooperates
unceasingly with the work of salvation accomplished by Christ, her Son.
Thus by means of this Marian Year the Church is called not only to
remember everything in her past that testifies to the special maternal
cooperation of the Mother of God in the work of salvation in Christ the
lord, but also, on her own part, to prepare for the future the paths of
this cooperation. For the end of the second Christian Millennium opens
up as a new prospect.
50. As has already been mentioned, also among our divided brethren many
honor and celebrate the Mother of the Lord, especially among the
Orientals. It is a Marian light cast upon ecumenism. In particular, I
wish to mention once more that during the Marian Year there will occur
the Millennium of the Baptism of Saint Vladimir, Grand Duke of Kiev
[988]. This marked the beginning of Christianity in the territories of
what was then called Rus', and subsequently in other territories of
Eastern Europe. In this way, through the work of evangelization,
Christianity spread beyond Europe, as far as the northern territories
of the Asian continent. We would therefore like, especially during this
Year, to join in prayer with all those who are celebrating the
Millennium of this Baptism, both Orthodox and Catholics, repeating and
confirming with the Council those sentiments of joy and comfort that
"the Easterners...with ardent emotion and devout mind concur in
reverencing the Mother of God, ever Virgin."144 Even though we are
still experiencing the painful effects of the separation which took
place some decades later [1054], we can say that in the presence of the
Mother of Christ we feel that we are true brothers and sisters within
that messianic People, which is called to be the one family of God on
earth. As I announced at the beginning of the New Year "We desire to
reconfirm this universal inheritance of all the Sons and daughters of
this earth."145
In announcing the Year of Mary, I also indicated that it will end next
year on the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin into
heaven, in order to emphasize the "great sign in heaven" spoken of by
the Apocalypse. In this way we also wish to respond to the exhortation
of the Council, which looks to Mary as "a sign of sure hope and solace
for the pilgrim People of God." And the Council expresses this
exhortation in the following words: "Let the entire body of the
faithful pour forth persevering prayer to the Mother of God and Mother
of mankind. Let them implore that she who aided the beginning of the
Church by her prayers may now, exalted as she is in heaven above all
the saints and angels, intercede with her Son in the fellowship of all
the saints. May she do so until all the peoples of the human family,
whether they are honored with the name of Christian or whether they
still do not know their Savior, are happily gathered together in peace
and harmony into the one People of God, for the glory of the Most Holy
and Undivided Trinity."146
CONCLUSION
51. At the end of the daily Liturgy of the Hours, among the invocations addressed to Mary by the Church is the following:
"Loving Mother of the Redeemer, gate of heaven, star of the sea,
assist your people who have fallen yet strive to rise again.
To the wonderment of nature you bore your Creator!"
"To the wonderment of nature"! These words of the antiphon express that
wonderment of faith which accompanies the mystery of Mary's divine
motherhood. In a sense, it does so in the heart of the whole of
creation, and, directly, in the heart of the whole People of God, in
the heart of the Church. How wonderfully far God has gone, the Creator
and Lord of all things, in the "revelation of himself" to man!147 How
clearly he has bridged all the spaces of that infinite "distance" which
separates the Creator from the creature! If in himself he remains
ineffable and unsearchable, still more ineffable and unsearchable is he
in the reality of the Incarnation of the Word, who became man through
the Virgin of Nazareth.
If he has eternally willed to call man to share in the divine nature
(cf. 2 Pt. 1:4), it can be said that he has matched the "divinization"
of man to humanity's historical conditions, so that even after sin he
is ready to restore at a great price the eternal plan of his love
through the "humanization" of his Son, who is of the same being as
himself. The whole of creation, and more directly man himself, cannot
fail to be amazed at this gift in which he has become a sharer, in the
Holy Spirit: "God so loved the world that he gave his only Son" (Jn.
3:16).
At the center of this mystery, in the midst of this wonderment of
faith, stands Mary. As the loving Mother of the Redeemer, she was the
first to experience it: "To the wonderment of nature you bore your
Creator"!
52. The words of this liturgical antiphon also express the truth of the
"great transformation" which the mystery of the Incarnation establishes
for man. It is a transformation which belongs to his entire history,
from that beginning which is revealed to us in the first chapters of
Genesis until the final end, in the perspective of the end of the
world, of which Jesus has revealed to us "neither the day nor the hour"
(Mt. 25:13). It is an unending and continuous transformation between
falling and rising again, between the man of sin and the man of grace
and justice. The Advent liturgy in particular is at the very heart of
this transformation and captures its unceasing "here and now" when it
exclaims: "Assist your people who have fallen yet strive to rise again"!
These words apply to every individual, every community, to nations and
peoples, and to the generations and epochs of human history, to our own
epoch, to these years of the Millennium which is drawing to a close:
"Assist, yes assist, your people who have fallen"!
This is the invocation addressed to Mary, the "loving Mother of the
Redeemer," the invocation addressed to Christ, who through Mary entered
human history. Year alter year the antiphon rises to Mary, evoking that
moment which saw the accomplishment of this essential historical
transformation, which irreversibly continues: the transformation from
"falling" to "rising."
Mankind has made wonderful discoveries and achieved extraordinary
results in the fields of science and technology. It has made great
advances along the path of progress and civilization, and in recent
times one could say that it has succeeded in speeding up the pace of
history. But the fundamental transformation, the one which can be
called "original," constantly accompanies man's journey, and through
all the events of history accompanies each and every individual. It is
the transformation from "falling" to "rising," from death to life. It
is also a constant challenge to people's consciences, a challenge to
man's whole historical awareness: the challenge to follow the path of
"not falling" in ways that are ever old and ever new, and of "rising
again" if a fall has occurred.
As she goes forward with the whole of humanity towards the frontier
between the two Millennia, the Church, for her part, with the whole
community of believers and in union with all men and women of good
will, takes up the great challenge contained in these words of the
Marian antiphon: "the people who have fallen yet strive to rise again,"
and she addresses both the Redeemer and his Mother with the plea:
"Assist us." For, as this prayer attests, the Church sees the Blessed
Mother of God in the saving mystery of Christ and in her own mystery.
She sees Mary deeply rooted in humanity's history, in man's eternal
vocation according to the providential plan which God has made for him
from eternity She sees Mary maternally present and sharing in the many
complicated problems which today beset the lives of individuals,
families and nations; she sees her helping the Christian people in the
constant struggle between good and evil, to ensure that it "does not
fall," or, if it has fallen, that it "rises again."
I hope with all my heart that the reflections contained in the present
Encyclical will also serve to renew this vision in the hearts of all
believers.
As Bishop of Rome, I send to all those to whom these thoughts are
addressed the kiss of peace, my greeting and my blessing in our Lord
Jesus Christ. Amen.
Given in Rome, at Saint Peter's, on March 25, the Solemnity of the
Annunciation of the Lord, in the year 1987, the ninth of my Pontificate.
JOHN PAUL II
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Dogmatic Constitution on the
Church Lumen Gentium, 52 and the whole of Chapter VIII, entitled "The
Role of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God, in the Mystery of
Christ and the Church."
2. The expression "fullness of time" (pleroma tou chronou) is parallel
with similar expressions of Judaism, both Biblical (cf. Gen. 29:21; 1
Sam. 7:12; Tob. 14:5) and extra-Biblical, and especially of the New
Testament (cf. Mk. 1:15; Lk. 21:24; Jn. 7:8; Eph. 1:10). From the point
of view of form, it means not only the conclusion of a chronological
process but also and especially the coming to maturity or completion of
a particularly important period, one directed towards the fulfillment
of an expectation, a coming to completion which thus takes on an
eschatological dimension. According to Gal. 4:4 and its context, it is
the coming of the Son of God that reveals that time has, so to speak,
reached its limit. That is to say, the period marked by the promise
made to Abraham and by the Law mediated by Moses has now reached its
climax, in the sense that Christ fulfills the divine promise and
supersedes the old law.
3. Cf. Roman Missal, Preface of 8 December, Immaculate Conception of
the Blessed Virgin Mary; Saint Ambrose, De Institutione Virginis, XV,
93-94: PL 16, 342; Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Dogmatic
Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium, 68.
4. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium, 58.
5. Pope Paul VI, Encyclical Epistle Christi Matri (15 September 1966):
AAS 58 (1966) 745-749, Apostolic Exhortation Signum Magnum (13 May
1967): AAS 59 (1967) 465:475; Apostolic Exhortation Marialis Cultus (2
February 1974): AAS 66 (1974) 113-168.
6. The Old Testament foretold in many different ways the mystery of
Mary: cf. Saint John Damascene, Hom. in Dormitionem 1, 8-9: S. Ch. 80,
103-107.
7. Cf. Insegnamenti di Giovanni Paolo II, VI/2 (1983) 225f.; Pope Pius
IX, Apostolic Letter Ineffabilis Deus (8 December 1854): Pii IX P. M.
Acta, pars I, 597-599.
8. Cf. Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World Gaudium et Spes, 22.
9. Ecumenical Council of Ephesus, in Conciliorum Oecumenicorum Decreta,
Bologna 1973, 41-44; 59-61: DS 250-264; cf. Ecumenical Council of
Chalcedon, o. c. 84-87: DS 300-303.
10. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World Gaudium et Spes, 22.
11. Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium, 52.
12. Cf. ibid., 58.
13. Ibid., 63, cf. Saint Ambrose, Expos. Evang. sec. Lucam, II, 7: CSEL
32/4, 45; De Institutione Virginis, XIV, 88-89: PL 16, 341.
14. Cf. Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium, 64.
15. Ibid., 65.
16. "Take away this star of the sun which illuminates the world: where
does the day go? Take away Mary, this star of the sea, of the great and
boundless sea: what is left but a vast obscurity and the shadow of
death and deepest darkness?": Saint Bernard, In Navitate B. Mariae
Sermo-De aquaeductu, 6: S. Bernardi Opera, V, 1968, 279; cf. In
laudibus Virginis Matris Homilia II, 17: ed. cit., IV, 1966, 34f.
17. Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium, 63.
18. Ibid., 63.
19. Concerning the predestination of Mary, cf. Saint John Damascene,
Hom. in Nativitatem, 7, 10: S. Ch. 80, 65; 73; Hom. in Dormitionem 1,
3: S. Ch. 80, 85: "For it is she, who, chosen from the ancient
generations, by virtue of the predestination and benevolence of the God
and Father who generated you (the Word of God) outside time without
coming out of himself or suffering change, it is she who gave you
birth, nourished of her flesh, in the last time...."
20. Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium, 55.
21. In Patristic tradition there is a wide and varied interpretation of
this expression: cf. Origen, In Lucam homiliae, VI, 7: S. Ch. 87, 148;
Severianus of Gabala, In mundi creationem, Oratio VI, 10: PG 56, 497f.;
Saint John Chrysostom (Pseudo), In Annunhationem Deiparae et contra
Arium impium, PG 62, 765f.; Basil of Seleucia, Oratio 39, In
Sanctissimae Deiparae Annuntiationem, 5: PG 85, 441-46; Antipater of
Bosra, Hom. II, In Sanctissimae DeiparaeAnnuntiationem, 3-11: PG 85,
1777-1783; Saint Sophronius of Jerusalem, Oratio 11, In Sanctissimae
Deiparae Annuntiationem, 17-19: PG 87/3, 3235-3240; Saint John
Damascene Hom. in Dormitionem, 1, 70: S. Ch. 80, 96-101; Saint Jerome,
Epistola 65, 9: PL 22, 628, Saint Ambrose, Expos. Evang. sec. Lucam,
II, 9: CSEL 32/4, 45f.; Saint Augustine, Sermo 291, 4-6: PL 38, 131
8f.; Enchiridion, 36, 11: PL 40, 250; Saint Peter Chrysologus, Sermo
142: PL 52, 579f.; Sermo 143: PL 52, 583; Saint Fulgentius of Ruspe,
Epistola 17, VI 12: PL 65 458; Saint Bernard, In laudibus Virginis
Matris, Homilia III, 2-3: S. Bernardi Opera, IV, 1966, 36-38.
22. Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium, 55.
23. Ibid., 53.
24. Cf. Pope Pius XI, Apostolic Letter Ineffabilis Deus (8 December
1854): Pii IX P.M. Acta, pars I, 616; Second Vatican Ecumenical
Council, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium, 53.
25. Cf. Saint Germanus of Constantinople, In Annuntiationem SS.
Deiparae Hom.: PG 98, 327f.; Saint Andrew of Crete, Canon in B. Mariae
Natalem, 4. PG 97, 1321f., In Nativitatem B. Mariae, I: PG 97, 81 1f.
Hom. in Dormitionem S. Mariae I: PG 97, 1067f.
26. Liturgy of the Hours of 15 August, Assumption of the Blessed Virgin
Mary, Hymn at First and Second Vespers; Saint Peter Damian, Carmina et
preces, XLVII: PL 145, 934.
27. Divina Commedia, Paradiso, XXXIII, 1; cf. Liturgy of the Hours,
Memomial of the Blessed Virgin Mary on Saturday, Hymn II in the Office
of Readings.
28. Cf. Saint Augustine, De Sancta Virginitate, III, 3: PL 40, 398; Sermo 25, 7: PL 46,
29. Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation Dei Verbum, 5
30. This is a classic theme, already expounded by Saint Irenaeus: "And,
as by the action of the disobedient virgin, man was afflicted and,
being cast down, died, so also by the action of the Virgin who obeyed
the word of God, man being regenerated received, through life, life....
For it was meet and Just...that Eve should be "recapitulated" in Mary,
so that the Virgin, becoming the advocate of the virgin, should
dissolve and destroy the virginal disobedience by means of virginal
obedience": Expositio doctrinae apostolicae, 33: S.Ch. 62, 83-86; cf.
also Adversus Haereses, V, 19, 1: 5. Ch. 153, 248-250.
31. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation Dei Verbum, 5.
32. Ibid., 5, cf. Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium, 56.
33. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium, 56.
34. Ibid., 56.
35. Cf. ibid., 53; Saint Augustine, De Sancta Virginitate, III, 3: PL
40, 398; Sermo 215, 4; PL 38, 1074; Sermo 196, I: PL 38, 1019; De
peccatorum meritis et remissione, I, 29, 57: PL 44, 142; Sermo 25, 7:
PL 46, 937-938; Saint Leo the Great, Tractatus 21, de natale Domini, I:
CCL 138, 86.
36. Ascent of Mount Carmel, 1. II, Ch. 3, 4-6.
37. Cf. Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium, 58.
38. Ibid., 58.
39. Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation Dei Verbum, 5.
40. Concerning Mary's participation or "compassion" in the death of
Christ, cf. Saint Bernard, In Dominica infra octavam Assumptionis
Sermo, 14: S. Bernardi Opera, V, 1968, 273.
41. Saint Irenaeus, Adversus Haereses III, 22, 4: S. Ch. 211, 438-444;
cf. Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium, 56, Note 6.
42. Cf. Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium, 56, and the Fathers quoted there in Notes 8 and 9.
43. "Christ is truth, Christ is flesh: Christ truth in the mind of
Mary, Christ flesh in the womb of Mary": Saint Augustine, Sermo 25
(Sermones inediti), 7: PL 46, 938.
44. Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium, 60.
45. Ibid., 61.
46. Ibid., 62.
47. There is a well-known passage of Origen on the presence of Mary and
John on Calvary: "The Gospels are the first fruits of all Scripture and
the Gospel of John is the first of the Gospels: no one can grasp its
meaning without having leaned his head on Jesus' breast and having
received from Jesus Mary as Mother": Comm. in loan., I, 6: PG 14, 31;
cf. Saint Ambrose, Expos. Evang. sec. Lucam, X, 129-131: CSEL 32/4,
504f.
48. Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium, 54 and 53; the
latter text quotes Saint Augustine, De Sancta Virginitate, VI, 6: PL
40, 399.
49. Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium, 55.
50. Cf. Saint Leo the Great, Tractatus 26, de natale Domini, 2: CCL 138, 126.
51. Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium, 59.
52. Saint Augustine, De civitate Dei, XVIII, 51: CCL 48, 650.
53. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium, 8.
54. Ibid., 9.
55. Ibid., 9.
56. Ibid., 8.
57. Ibid., 9.
58. Ibid., 65.
59. Ibid., 59.
60. Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation Dei Verbum, 5.
61. Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium, 63.
62. Cf. ibid., 9.
63. Cf. ibid., 65.
64. Ibid., 65.
65. Ibid., 65.
66. Cf. ibid., 13.
67. Cf. ibid., 13.
68. Cf. ibid., 13.
69. Cf. Roman Missal, formula of the Consecration of the Chalice in the Eucharistic Prayers.
70. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium, 1.
71. Ibid., 13.
72. Ibid., 15.
73. Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Decree on Ecumenism Unitatis Redintegratio, 1.
74. Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium, 68, 69. On Mary
Most Holy, promoter of Christian unity, and on the cult of Mary in the
East, cf. Leo XIII, Encyclical Epistle Adiutricem Populi (5 September
1985): Acta Leonis XV, 300-312.
75. Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Decree on Ecumenism Unitatis Redintegratio, 20.
76. Cf. ibid., 19.
77. Ibid., 14.
78. Ibid., 15.
79. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium, 66.
80. Ecumenical Council of Chalcedon, Definitio fidei: Conciliorum Oecumenicorum Decreta, Bologna 1973, 86 (DS 301).
81. Cf. the Weddase Maryam (Praises of Mary), which follows the
Ethiopian Psalter and contains hymns and prayers to Mary for each day
of the week. Cf. also the Matshafa Kidana Mehrat (Book of the Pact of
Mercy); the importance given to Mary in the Ethiopian hymnology and
liturgy deserves to be emphasized.
82. Cf. Saint Ephrem, Hymn. de Nativitate: Scriptores Syri, 82, CSCO, 186.
83. Cf. Saint Gregory of Narek, Le livre de prieres: S. Ch. 78, 160-163; 428-432.
84. Second Ecumenical Council of Nicaea: Conciliorurn Oecumenicorum Decreta, Bologna 19733, 135-138 (DS 600-609).
85. Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium, 59.
86. Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Decree on Ecumenism Unitatis Redintegratio, 19.
87. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium, 8.
88. Ibid., 9.
89. As is well-known, the words of the Magnificat contain or echo numerous passages of the Old Testament.
90. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation Dei Verbum, 2.
91. Cf. for example Saint Justin, Dialogus cum Tryphone ludaeo, 100:
Otto II, 358; Saint Irenaeus, Adversus Haereses III, 22, 4: S. Ch. 211,
439-445; Tertullian, De carne Christi, 17, 4-6: CCL 2, 904f.
92. Cf. Saint Epiphanius, Panarion, III, 2; Haer. 78, 18: PG 42, 727-730.
93. Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Instruction on Christian Freedom and Liberation (22 March 1986), 97.
94. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium, 60.
95. Ibid., 60.
96. Cf. the formula of mediatrix "ad Mediatorem" of Saint Bernard, In
Dominica infra oct. Assumptionis Sermo, 2: S. Bernardi Opera, V, 1968,
263. Mary as a pure mirror sends back to her Son all the glory and
honor which she receives: Id., In Nativitate B. Mariae Sermo-De
Aquaeductu, 12: ed. cit., 283.
97. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium, 62.
98. Ibid., 62.
99. Ibid., 61.
100. Ibid., 62.
101. Ibid., 61.
102. Ibid., 61.
103. Ibid., 62.
104. Ibid., 62.
105. Ibid., 62; in her prayer too the Church recognizes and celebrates
Mary's "maternal role": it is a role "of intercession and forgiveness,
petition and grace, reconciliation and peace" (cf. Preface of the Mass
of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother and Mediatrix of Grace, in Collectio
Missarum de Beata Maria Virgine, ed. typ. 1987, I, 120).
106. Ibid., 62.
107. Ibid., 62; cf. Saint John Damascene, Hom. in Dormitionem, I, 11;
II, 2, 14; III, 2: S. Ch. 80, 111f.; 127-131; 157-161; 181-185; Saint
Bernard, In Assumptione Beatae Mariae Sermo, 1-2: S. Bernardi Opera, V,
1968, 228-238.
108. Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium, 59; cf. Pope
Pius XII, Apostolic Constitution Munificentissimus Deus (1 November
1950): AAS 42 (1950) 769-771; Saint Bernard presents Mary immersed in
the splendor of the Son's glory: In Dominica infra oct. Assumptionis
Sermo, 3; S. Bernardi Opera, V, 1968, 263f.
109. Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium, 53.
110. On this particular aspect of Mary's mediation as implorer of
clemency from the "Son as Judge," cf. Saint Bernard, In Dominica infra
oct. Assumptionis Sermo, 1-2: S. Bernardi Opera, V, 1968, 262f; Pope
Leo XIII, Encyclical Epistle Octobri Mense (22 September 1891): Acta
Leonis, XI, 299-315.
111. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium, 55.
112. Ibid., 59.
113. Ibid., 36.
114. Ibid., 36.
115. With regard to Mary as Queen, cf. Saint John Damascene, Hom. in
Nativitatem, 6; 12; Hom. in Dormitionem, 1, 2, 12, 14; II, 11;III, 4:
S. Ch. 80, 59f.; 77f.; 83f.; 113f.; 117; 151f.; 189-193.
116. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council. Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium, 62.
117. Ibid., 63.
118. Ibid., 63.
119. Ibid., 66.
120. Cf. Saint Ambrose, De Institutione Virginis, XIV, 88-89: PL 16,
341, Saint Augustine, Sermo 215, 4: PL 38, 1074; De Sancta Virginitate,
II, 2; V, 5; VI, 6: PL 40, 397-398f.; 399; Sermo 191, II, 3: PL 38,
1010f.
121. Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Centium, 63.
122. Ibid., 64.
123. Ibid., 64.
124. Ibid., 64.
125. Ibid., 64.
126. Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Dogmatic Constitution on
Divine Revelation Dei Verbum, 8; Saint Bonaventure, Comment. in Evang.
Lucae, Ad Claras Aquas, VII, 53, No. 40, 68, No. 109.
127. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium, 64.
128. Ibid., 63.
129. Cf. ibid., 63.
130. Clearly, in the Greek text the expression "eis ta idia" goes
beyond the mere acceptance of Mary by the disciple in the sense of
material lodging and hospitality in his house; it indicates rather a
communion of life established between the two as a result of the words
of the dying Christ: cf. Saint Augustine, In loan. Evang. tract. 119,
3: CCL 36, 659: "He took her to himself, not into his own property, for
he possessed nothing of his own, but among his own duties, which he
attended to with dedication."
131. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium, 62.
132. Ibid., 63.
133. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World Gaudium et Spes, 22.
134. Cf. Pope Paul VI, Discourse of 21 November 1964: AAS 56 (1964) 1015.
135. Pope Paul VI, Solemn Profession of Faith (30 June 1968), 15: AAS 60 (1968) 438f.
136. Pope Paul VI, Discourse of 21 November 1964: AAS 56 (1964) 1015.
137. Ibid., 1016.
138. Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World Gaudium et Spes, 37.
139. Cf. Saint Bernard, In Dominica infra oct. Assumptionis Sermo: S. Bernardi Opera V, 1968, 262-274.
140. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium, 65.
141. Cf. Encyclical Letter Fulgens Corona (8 September 1953): AAS 45
(1953) 577-592. Pius X with his Encyclical Letter Ad Diem Illum (2
February 1904), on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the dogmatic
definition of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, had
proclaimed an Extraordinary jubilee of a few months; Pii X P. M. Acta,
I, 147-166.
142. Cf. Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium, 66-67.
143. Saint Louis Marie Grignion de Montfort, Traite de la varie
devotion a la sainte Vierge. This saint can rightly be linked with the
figure of Saint Alfonso Maria de' Liguori, the second centenary of
whose death occurs this year; cf. among his works Le glorie di Maria.
144. Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium, 69.
145. Homily on 1 January 1987.
146. Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium, 69.
147. Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Dogmatic Constitution on
Divine Revelation Dei Verbum, 2: "Through this revelation...the
invisible God...out of the abundance of his love speaks to men as
friends...and lives among them..., so that he may invite and take them
into fellowship with himself."