Profound Humility

The teaching on Mary's Profound Humility was given by our team member, Melinda:

The Bible defines Humility as the supernatural virtue by which one attains the correct
perception of one’s relationship with God.  Man himself was made in original justice and then
fell; now he has been redeemed in Christ.  The attitude of humility is “I am good only because
of God’s mercy.”  Humility counters pride and seeks to serve God and others, as Mary did.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church Glossary defines humility as the virtue by which a
Christian acknowledges that God is the author of all good.  Humility avoids inordinate ambition
or pride, and provides the foundation for turning to God in prayer.  Voluntary humility can be
described as “poverty of spirit”.
Some wise person once said that humility is simply seeing things as they really are.  In other
words, just knowing and living according to reality. This sounds simple, but we often distort
reality to fit our own ideas.
Many people have the false notion of humility that it involves some sort of self-condemning. 
They confuse it with the word humiliation.  They’re not the same thing.  That’s not to say that
coming to understand reality might not be a humiliation for us.  Sometimes it is but it doesn’t
have to be. 

A truly humble person accepts that God wants to do something great through her. Many people
might think it’s humility to say, ‘God wouldn’t do anything great through me, I’m not worthy,
I’m incapable of any good, I’m nobody.’ That’s not humility. That’s self condemning and having
little faith – and neither one of those does much for the kingdom of God. We must accept the
fact that God can do great things through us, if we have faith and give Him a chance.
Accepting that God could work a miracle through you is just as much humility because that’s
accepting the reality of God’s almighty power.  When you have a correct view of God and His
relationship with you then the balance will be struck between seeing yourself as worthless, and
seeing yourself capable of limitless perfection.

Let’s reflect on Mary.  At the Annunciation:  The angel Gabriel appeared to Mary, a virgin
betrothed to Joseph. He said, “Hail favored one! The Lord is with you.” But she was greatly
troubled at what was said and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. Then the angel
said to her “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. (Luke 1:26-30) 
Mary, though fearful and troubled by Gabriel’s praise at the Annunciation, replied with humility
saying: “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word”
(Lk1:38). Mary demonstrates complete trust.  She gave herself completely with no regard to
consequences.
Although Mary is praised for being the mother of the Lord and because of her belief, she reacts
as the servant in a psalm of praise, the Magnificat. (Bible p.1093)
 ‘And Mary said:
“My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord;
my spirit rejoices in God my savior.
 For he has looked upon his handmaid’s lowliness;
behold, from now on will all ages call me blessed.
The Mighty One has done great things for me,
and holy is his name.  Lk1: 46-50
Her whole song is all about how glorious God is, and all the great things He’s done for her. May
we have a similar humble outlook on our lives, realizing the great things that God has done for
us and giving Him due praise.
Mary did not exalt herself. She was to be the Mother of God!  She recognized that she was to
be called blessed because of what He did for her!
 Imagine Mary’s humility when she accepted a manger as the place to give birth to the Son of
God!  How would you have reacted?  Would you have demanded the best facility because, after
all, you were selected to be the Mother of the Son of God?  And yet, Mary accepted in humility
and trust the conditions available to her, with faith and obedience to God’s will.
Scripture says: “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” James 4:6   Mary is the
perfect example of resisting pride – and being blessed for all eternity!

Nadine Brown tells us in her book, Bathe Seven Times, “One of the greatest of all virtues is
humility. Humility is based on Jesus.  Humility is total dependence on God and is based on truth. 
Humility knows it is a child.  Humility knows that it is weak.  Humility knows it can do nothing
without Jesus.Two of the main fruits of humility are truth and obedience.  We can not really tell for sure if we are humble.  If a person says, “I think I am really growing in humility,” be careful.  But if a
person is saying, “I am listening more to the Holy Spirit; I am growing more submissive to God; I
am growing more in acceptance of His will for me, His plan, His way,” then that person is truly
growing in humility. When Our Lady said to the servants at Cana, “Do whatever He tells you
(Jn2:5), she is giving us the key to humility: obedience. Humility can only be recognized by its
fruit, and its main fruit will be obedience.Humility is truth. When we say “Oh, I will never do that again,” that is not really truth.  How do we know? We hope we will not do or say something again, but it depends on God’s grace. Becoming like a child is incredibly important because the Spirit will counsel us constantly on what to do and what to say, or not to say, if we will only stop, check it out and ask. That is humility.  Catherine Doherty of Madonna House in Canada often prayed, “Oh Lord, give me the heart of a child and the courage to follow it.” 

Another fruit of humility is gratitude. Are we grateful for all the little things that people do for
us all day long” Are we grateful for all the little and big things that God does for us all day long?
As we become aware of how much we have to be grateful for, we become aware of our
littleness and our poverty and God’s greatness and His generosity and His giftedness.  Our focus
starts to change.  Fr. Michael Gaitley, in his book 33 Days to Morning Glory tells us Mother
Teresa developed an “attitude of gratitude” by following the example of Mary who was always
“pondering in her heart” the “good things” that God had done for her that day and would
reflect on how she was or was not fully responding to his love. 
We need poverty of spirit and emptiness like Our Lady had when she received this gift and said
in her canticle, “The hungry He has filled with good things; the rich he has sent away empty.”
(Lk1:53)  The more we can be empty of self, empty of self-love, self-interest, and self-concern,
then the more we can be filled with good things. Jesus said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit; the
reign of God is theirs.” (Mt 5:3)  When we have totally surrendered our lives, our wills, and our
preferences into God’s hands, we are in total poverty.  In this surrender, The Kingdom, peace,
joy, love, presence, and comfort becomes ours.

We are limited in every aspect of our lives, but God is not. He made us limited so we would
need Him. He wants to be needed. When we struggle because we cannot do something, we
should accept our limitations.  Accepting our weaknesses is the very act that invites God to
come into us in greater strength and power.  Humility will let us know that we need Him.
 We must put our complete trust in God. In Psalm 131:1, we read:
Lord, my heart is not proud;
nor my eyes haughty.
 I do not busy myself with great matters,
with things too sublime for me.
 I learn from this Psalm to trust in the Lord. Give up self-sufficiency; be “like a babe enjoying the
comfort of its mother’s lap.” 

For some time, I had been feeling an inner call to cut back on activities outside my home so that
I could dedicate myself more to my family and my church.  I had a deep hunger for spiritual
growth.  I began to resign membership to organizations and was about to do so with the last
one, when I let myself be talked into staying to help unite the divided group.  I bargained with
myself saying, “OK, I’ll just complete my term and then I will devote myself to my family and
spiritual growth.”  I will sacrifice myself for the good of the organization.  Sounds good, right? 
But what was my real motive?  Was it pride?  Mary is the perfect example of resisting pride –
and being blessed for all eternity!  James 4:6 tells us: God resists the proud, but gives grace to
the humble.” 
Was it flattery that I could be a uniting force in the organization? Was I exalting myself! 
Philippians 2:3-4 tells us: “Do nothing out of selfishness or out of vainglory: rather, humbly
regard others as more important than yourselves, each looking out not for his own interests,
but (also) everyone for those of others.”
I put my inner call on hold to pursue my pride!  What was I thinking? Psalms 18: 32-33 states,
“Truly, who is God except the Lord? Who but our God is the rock?  This God who girded me
with might, kept my way unerring.”  However, I was not obedient to God’s call, therefore I
erred! 
Certainly these motives are not substantial for success. I still felt the inner calling to devote
myself to my family and personal spiritual growth.  Wow, I was ignoring the stirrings of my
heart and soul because I thought I knew better?!  How prideful is that?
Needless to say, I did not succeed at uniting the group and I decided that the Holy Spirit had
given me a hard knock on the head to get my attention. I prayed about it and decided to resign. 
The moment I made my decision to resign, I felt peace, freedom and joy. These feelings let me
know I had made the right decision.
Although it took an embarrassing event to show me that pride and flattery had led me down
the wrong path, I was so relieved that the Holy Spirit had not given up on me.  I had distorted
reality to fit my own ideas. I had exalted myself.  Reality was that I could not be the savior.  I
was not acting in a virtuous manner. The Holy Spirit had tried to tell me to change direction and
I ignored Him. I must have thought I could do this myself, without help from the Lord. 
Once I humbled myself and listened to my inner stirrings, I felt peace, joy, and freedom.  I
learned that I cannot succeed when I ignore my inner feelings! 

How do we cultivate this important virtue of humility?  Some of the best ways are frequent
examination of conscience and confession of sin.  These are good ways to cultivate humility
because they help to understand ourselves better.  They force us to look at ourselves in a more
critical – but healthy – light.  Without examining our consciences, we are in the dark about who
we really are, and we might end up seeing ourselves in two alternate extremes: as perfect or as
worthless, depending on how our day in going.

Without this examination, we’re not acknowledging our sinfulness and our mistakes. If we don’t
take an honest look at those things, we’ll never get to a stage of true humility.  However, we
should also be aware that examination of conscience doesn’t have to focus only on the
mistakes we make.  Every night we can give time to our mistakes, but also give time to the good
things we’ve done. If we don’t think about the good things we do, we could start focusing too
much on the negative things.  We need to keep that balance.
Practices to Increase Humility
 Pray with a humble and contrite heart. Humility is the foundation of prayer. (CCC 2559)
 Frequent examination of conscience and confession of sin.
 Frequent reception of the Eucharist
 Give daily time to review the good things we have done
 Let go of anger and envy
 Practice forgiveness.

Mary is our Model of Virtues, especially Charity

Welcome to our Fall 2014 WOW session!  I am very excited that we will, again, be studying Mary and learning from her.  Last year, we studied and learned more about Our Lady of Sorrows and were truly blessed by what Mary has to teach us about suffering.  I want to take it to the next level this semester.  I believe that God is calling us to MODEL ourselves after Mary, Our Mother.  He wants us, as women especially, to be “little Marys” walking around this side of heaven, so that we may bring greater glory to Him.  

So these next 10 weeks we are getting SERIOUS about growing in virtue, and in particular, the virtues of Mary. I think that the discussion of virtue has been lost in the modern world.  We place so much emphasis on “feelings” and trying to find our purpose in life.  That’s all great, but we need to also focus on growing in virtue, because that is the WORK of holiness.  The Catechism tells us that ”Virtue is a habitual and firm disposition to do good”(1833). We will be looking to Mary to help us create habits in our life that will help us to choose to do good.  I sure do need this focus!

This is what the bishops from the Second Vatican Council (a large gathering of all bishops and the pope in the 1960’s) have to say about Mary as our Model of virtues: ”But while in the most holy Virgin the Church has already reached that perfection whereby she is without spot or wrinkle, the followers of Christ still strive to increase in holiness by conquering sin. And so they turn their eyes to Mary who shines forth to the whole community of the elect as the model of virtues. Piously meditating on her and contemplating her in the light of the Word made man, the Church becomes more like her (Mary)...and continually progresses in faith, hope and charity, seeking and doing the will of God in all things”  (Lumen Gentium 65)

This is what we are going to do over the next 10 weeks.  We are going to meditate and contemplate Mary’s virtues in light of the Word of God.  We will take scripture verses that show us about Mary, and we will draw out specific virtues from her life.  We will also examine other scripture verses that pertain to the given virtue we are studying that week.  So, we are studying the virtues of Mary, but we are also studying the virtues in general.  

Why should we study the virtues of Mary, and not, say, for example, St. Paul, or any of the other great saints?  First off, Mary is the EMBODIMENT of all virtues.  We are focusing on specific virtues, but our list is not exhaustive.  Second, Mary has a unique capability that no other human has.  It is the ability, given to her by her Son, and through the power of the Holy Spirit, to SHARE WITH US these virtues.  When we sincerely ask Mary to help us grow in these virtues, she WILL ANSWER OUR PRAYER.  These virtues are SO GOOD, and us growing in these virtues will advance the mission of her Son, that she cannot deny us the request.  Of course, we cannot ask once for these virtues and expect them to magically, overnight, have the perfect grasp of them.  We have to participate with the grace that Mother wants to pour into our hearts.  

   

Let me put it this way: The Angel himself said Mary was, “full of grace”.  We can also say she is full of virtue, since all virtue first starts from grace born in our hearts. Because she is a “treasury” of virtues, we can say, she can SHARE these virtues (and grace) with us.  The SOURCE of all grace is Christ and Mary is the DISPENSER of all grace.  Jesus did the work of salvation, and Mary communicates this salvation to us.  And part of our journey to salvation, to heaven, is gaining virtue.  

There are have been times where I am tempted to think that Mary is “too perfect” and that I could NEVER be like her, especially since she is without sin.  Listen to this, though: "Mary is the refuge of sinners. She knows what sin is not by the experience of its falls, not by tasting its bitter regrets, but by seeing what it did to her Divine Son." Archbishop Fulton Sheen. Mary does not want us to be a slave to sin. She has SEEN, IN THE FLESH, what sin does.  It causes death.  She is SO CONCERNED with the state of our soul, she does not want to see us experience a spiritual death, and ultimately, lose heaven. VIRTUES CONQUER SIN and MARY CONQUERS SIN . Put the two together, and we are on the path to sainthood!

In the “33 Days to Morning Glory”, we learn that Mother Teresa would often pray, “Mary, lend me your heart”.  Well, the way I see it, these next 10 weeks, OUR main prayer will be, “Mary, lend me your VIRTUES.”  Last week, I was trying to put Clara to sleep.  She was fighting and not going to sleep easily, and I was getting very frustrated.  I mean, serious anger here.  I was ready to punch a wall!  After going back and forth to her room, putting her down in the crib, listening to her cry, picking her up, rocking her, with no success, I just about lost it.  I broke down crying.  In that moment, thanks be to God’s grace, I started praying to Mary.  I told her, “Ok, I cannot mother Clara right now.  You, Momma, CAN Mother her better than I can.  Please, take over for me.  I am going to go back in there, but I want it to be YOU Momma who calms her with your gentleness.”  I went back in the room, still fuming at the ears basically, and tried again.  I was still mad.  But I just kept talking to Mary through it.  I kept repeating, “Momma Mary, take over.  Mother Clara.”  And Clara fell asleep.  

Let’s now focus on our first virtue of Mary: Ardent Charity. What is charity? I think when a lot of us first think of “charity” we think of giving money or our time away to an organization.  But, in the sense of which we are speaking today, it goes much deeper.  Charity, in light of our faith, is synonymous with love. The Catechism says,  “Charity is the virtue by which we love God above all things for his own sake, and our neighbor as ourselves for the love of God (1822). ”Charity, or love for God and for others, should be the driving force between ALL the virtues.  

Mark 12:30-31 says, “One of the scribes,i when he came forward and heard them disputing and saw how well he had answered them, asked him, “Which is the first of all the commandments?” Jesus replied, “The first is this: ‘Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is Lord alone! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’j The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”k

Mary is really quite the epitome of this verse from Jesus.  As we examine Mary over the next few weeks, we will see that she, ultimately, is the best disciple of Jesus.  She loves God above all things and she loves US above all things.  Jesus later says, “No greater love is there than this: that man should lay down his life for his neighbor”. Mary, in suffering with her Son, took on His mission, and LAID DOWN HER LIFE FOR US AND OUR SALVATION.  She laid down HER SON’S LIFE for us.

Now, what makes Mary’s virtue of charity any different from anyone elses?  Let’s look at the verb “ardent”.  As a theology student, I love words and language.  Webster’s Dictionary defines “Ardent” as “ characterized by warmth of feeling typically expressed in eager zealous support or activity;  fiery, hot; shining, glowing.”

So, Mary’s love for God and for us can be characterized as “zealous”, “fiery”, “shining”.  Are those some of the first words you would use to describe Mary?  I think a lot of us have this image of Mary as “gentle” and “refined”, maybe even sort of soft spoken?  I do think Mary very well could exhibit those characteristics.  She is very gentle.  A gentle Mother.  But there are two examples of Mary from scripture that I think pertain to this.  

Luke 1:39-47 says, “During those days Mary set out and traveled to the hill country in haste to a town of Judah, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth.1When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the infant leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth, filled with the holy Spirit,s cried out in a loud voice and said, “Most blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.t And how does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord* should come to me? For at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed are you who believed* that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled.”u And Mary said:*“My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord;w my spirit rejoices in God my savior.”

Mary went “in haste”, or in other words, in a hurry to see Elizabeth who was very pregnant.  Scripture goes on to tells us that Mary stayed with Elizabeth for 3 months to help her out.  Those words “in haste” really do speak to my heart.  She was IN A HURRY to serve her cousin Elizabeth.  Do I go “in haste” to serve my loved ones?  Or do I go “in haste” to help the homeless or the poor?  It really is quite an examination of our heart to think of this.  And, really, because she was carrying Jesus, her “charity” toward Elizabeth was also “shining” as she brought Elizabeth so much joy.  “How is it that the mother of my Lord should come to me?”  Our love for God should shine AS we are loving and charitable toward others.  

Another example of Mary’s charity is “The Presentation” account:  “When the days were completed for their purification* according to the law of Moses, they took him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord,h just as it is written in the law of the Lord, “Every male that opens the womb shall be consecrated to the Lord,”i and to offer the sacrifice of “a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons,” in accordance with the dictate in the law of the Lord” (Luke 22:22-24).  

Mary is “presenting” the most precious gift she has, her son, to the Father.  She is simply following the commandments of the Jewish tradition and she brings the two pigeons as a sacrifice to God.  It’s not much, but it’s the best she can give him.  She follows the commandments and gives her best gifts she possesses to God. In John 15:9-13 Jesus says, “As the Father loves me, so I also love you. Remain in my love .fIf you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and remain in his love.g “I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete.h This is my commandment: love one another as I love you.i * No one has greater love than this,j to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”  I could meditate on the scripture for so long!  It says so much.  Being able to “abide in Jesus’ love” has to do with keeping the commandments.  Keeping the commandments is a FORM OF CHARITY.  Following the commandments, OUT OF LOVE FOR GOD, will ensure that we “abide” in God’s love.  

The Catechism says again, “The practice of the moral life animated by charity gives to the Christian the spiritual freedom of the children of God. He no longer stands before God as a slave, in servile fear, or as a mercenary looking for wages, but as a son responding to the love of him who "first loved us": If we turn away from evil out of fear of punishment, we are in the position of slaves. If we pursue the enticement of wages, . . . we resemble mercenaries. Finally if we obey for the sake of the good itself and out of love for him who commands . . . we are in the position of children.”  The “Moral life” = doing what is good, doing the right thing; following the commandments.  If that is animated by “charity” and love, then we are in the position of children in relation to God.  Have you ever thought of following the commandments, or teachings of the Church, as a way to show God how much you love Him?  I really think this is a radical way of thinking!

So, this week, let’s us focus on growing in ARDENT charity. I find a lot of hope in looking to Mary as an example of the virtues.  From an objective viewpoint, Mary was just a simple girl with no extraordinary background.  She even said herself, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord”.  Often times, I feel like a “handmaid” to my children, my house, my husband, my job.  But so much of Mary’s life was hidden, not known.  I KNOW you can relate to that feeling, no matter what state in life you are in.  

Yet, it was not the outward circumstances that makes Mary great.  It was not her accomplishments.  It was her virtues, which are a reflection of her heart.  I have a simple heart, too, and I can unite it to Mary, and I can be a daughter who is pleasing to the Father.  With Mary’s help, she can share her virtues with me, and I CAN live a life that is pleasing to the Father, I CAN conquer sin through her Son, and I CAN abide in His love throughout my days. Let us pray: Mother Mary, Queen of Virtues, pray for us.

  

Mary's Maternal Mediation

John Paul II speaks a lot about Mary’s maternal mediation and Fr. Gaitley uses the term “Mediatrix of all graces”.  So, that’s what we are going to focus on tonight!

John 19:25-27 says, “Standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary of Magdala. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple there whom he loved, 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 into his home”. This is where Mary becomes OUR mother.  John is representing ALL humanity at this point.  Notice how there are no personal pronouns - it’s all very general, all encompassing terms that Jesus uses here.  We can put ourselves in John’s shoes, and imagine Jesus speaking to us personally, giving us His Mother.  Fr. Bob makes the point, that not only does Jesus give us the gift of HIMSELF on the Cross, but he also gives us his treasured gift of his mother. Mary’s mission to be the Spiritual Mother of all humanity is fulfilled here in this moment.  

But this Mission was not completely foreign to her when Jesus was on the Cross.  She was not caught off guard when Jesus gave her to John and thus the whole Church.  Remember, she “pondered” God’s will her whole life.  Her mission of Spiritual Motherhood really began at the Annunciation.  Dr. Mark Miravalle says, “The Blessed Virgin began her mission as Spiritual Mother of humanity with her ‘fiat’ at the Annunciation.  Her ‘let it be done’ (Lk. 1:38), leads her to becoming the Mother of Jesus, who is the Head of the Mystical Body (which is the Church), and also mysteriously begins her spiritual motherhood in relation to the rest of the Body of Christ which is mystically connected to Jesus the head.”  

If we turn back to the account of the Crucifixion, we see that Christ is stating a fact - almost a command!  “Behold your mother”.  “He does not passively invite us to accept Mary as Mother, rather he states the theological fact that Mary is the newly God-given Mother of each beloved disciple: our remaining question then should not be, “Is Mary our mother?” but more appropriately, “How do we properly behold this Mother, who is now our Mother?” (Miravalle).  

By physically giving birth to Jesus, Mary has MADE IT POSSIBLE for us to attain Salvation, for there is no salvation without Jesus.  I have mentioned before that there was no grace available to humans before Jesus’ Sacrifice on the Cross.  Grace was lost when sin entered this world.  Throughout the whole Old Testament, we see that the Chosen People (Israel) just COULD NOT get their act “together” and follow God as they ought.  They could not keep up their part of the covenant.  When Christ comes and gives himself to us on the Cross, then conquers sin and death through the Resurrection, he makes it possible for us to be united to the Father, through grace.  Grace is spiritual help from God to help us be holy; it gives us a share in the divinity of Christ and helps us be more like Him (who perfectly gives himself to the Father).  We need grace!  We all need grace to help us become saints and to make it to heaven.  We need grace so that we may be saved.  

So, many great theologians, bishops and popes of our Church have taught us that Mary, in a mystical and spiritual way, is the Mother of all grace, since she is the Mother of Jesus.  Miravalle says again, “Mary, in giving birth to Jesus, truly communicated to us the supernatural life of grace that allows us to become children of God.”  I really like that phrase from Dr. Miravalle.  Mary communicated to us the life of supernatural grace.  Let’s look at the word “communicate”.  Webster’s dictionary defines it as “to convey knowledge of or information about :  make known”, “to reveal by clear signs” or “to cause to pass from one to another”.  Using these three definitions, we can see Mary’s role in our salvation:

    By giving birth to Jesus, who is the author of Salvation and Source of all Grace, Mary “makes known” to the world the life of grace; she “reveals” to us the life of grace, and by her physical motherhood, she causes grace to pass from her womb to the whole world.  Grace enters this world through Her, and then Jesus does the work of making it available to us all.  Jesus is the DOER of salvation, he is the FORCE behind grace.  Mary is the GIVER of grace, the dispenser of grace and supernatural life.  Think about it: she carried GOD inside of her, and THROUGH HER, God, in the person of Jesus Christ, entered this world.  

So, for these reasons, she is known as the “Mediatrix of all grace” and this is where John Paul II uses the term “maternal mediation”.  She is the “mediator” of grace.  Now, let’s turn to look at what “mediator” means.  Miravalle says, “A mediator, in general, is a person who intervenes between the two other persons for the goal of uniting two parties.  The task of the mediator is not to distance further, BUT TO RECONCILE, to bring together the two parties in question”.  

Now, it is true that St. Paul says, “For there is one God and there is one mediator between God and man: the person of Jesus Christ” (1 Tim. 2:5).  Jesus perfectly and wholly united us back to God the Father by his death and resurrection.  But the story doesn’t end there.  He entrusted a Church to the Apostles, who labored and worked to help bring Jesus to others.  And the rest is history, right?  Here we are, still trying to spread the Good News and trying to GIVE Jesus to others.  We offer prayers and sacrifices for others, trying everything we can to help bring people back to the Father, right?  In this sense, we all SHARE in the mediation of Christ.  So, yes, there is ONE PERFECT MEDIATOR.  But we all participate in his mediation.  

And Mary is in this equation, too.  John Paul II says, “Mary’s maternal mediation does not obscure the unique and perfect mediation of Christ…”  Miravalle says, “The term ‘mediatrix’ therefore, refers to Our Lady’s role as a secondary and subordinate participant in the one mediation of Jesus Christ, who acts with the same intention as her Divine Son, the one Mediator: to redeem and reconcile humanity with God.”  And her role is unique because she alone is the mother of Jesus and she alone participated in his objective work of Redemption.

In Summary, Mary’s Maternal Mediation is exercised in three ways:  

    1.) She uniquely and actively participated with Jesus in the work of Redemption.  Thus she is known as “Co-Redemptrix”.

    2.)  As “mediatrix” she distributes all grace.  All grace comes through her.  Again, there is the distinction that Christ merited/ won for us all grace, Mary is the distributer of that grace won by His Passion, Death and Resurrection.  

    3.) She is our advocate, presenting our needs before the King (remember the peasant analogy from St. Louis de Montfort?)

 

Mary Brings us to the Cross

Once again, I want to be able to connect last week’s readings to this week’s since we meet in the middle of a week.  Last week we read about St. Maximilian Kolbe’s wisdom regarding Mary and Consecration.  We learned about the Immaculate Conception,and I hope that you went away in AWE of God’s wonderful plan to include Mary in our Salvation.  Mary has a pre-eminent role in Salvation History and NEEDS to have a pre-eminent role in our own personal faith history as well.  That’s why we’re all here, right?!?

 

There are some things that Koble touches on that John Paul II will help us discover deeper.  What I want to highlight to “wrap up” Koble’s week is this:

    “We need to learn to LIVE this consecration to the Immaculata.  We need to ‘belong to her in an ever more perfect way.’  How do we do this?  Simple.  We learn to love the Immaculata.  How?  By relying on her powerful intercession, experiencing her tender care, speaking to her from our hearts, letting ourselves be led by her, having recourse to her in all things, and trusting her completely.”

   

 Then again, Kolbe tells us that we need to “help extend as far as possible the blessed kingdom of the most Sacred Heart of Jesus.”  So, as a summary, Kolbe encourages us to carry Mary in our hearts, internally, every single day, and then to share her with others so that we may grow the Kingdom of Jesus.  And this really is what Mother Teresa is going to help us see in such a beautiful way!  

    Kolbe tells us to let ourselves be led by Mary, trusting her completely.  Mother Teresa shows us that, when we let ourselves be led by Mary, she is ultimately going to lead us to her son’s Cross and to share in that Cross.  

Mother Teresa’s whole life centered around the gospel scene in John chapter 19:28: “After this, aware that everything was now finished, in order that the Scripture might be fulfilled, Jesus said, ‘I thirst”.  It is true that physically speaking, Christ was probably thirsty and needed a drink.  But, hanging there on the Cross, knowing he was about to leave this earth, and couple that with the fact that it was very difficult and painful for him to speak, his words were very purposeful.  There is so much meaning to this phrase!  Mother Teresa realizes that Christ here is speaking of his thirst for love, his thirst for souls to be united with Him in love.  He thirsts for US!  And I think Mother Teresa also is able to meditate on his humanity: in his suffering, in his weakest, darkest hour, he feels alone and rejected because of the weight of sin that he feels (our sins!).  He just thirsts for love in such a human way.  He wants to be comforted and consoled.  

 

 Mother Teresa was able to see in this her life mission to bring herself and others to the foot of the Cross to comfort the sweet Jesus, as he waits and thirsts for us.  

   

This is something that I could meditate on for quite awhile.  Two years ago, I read “Come Be My Light: The Private Writings of the Saint of Calcutta” a book which compiles all of Mother Teresa’s personal letters.  She talks SO MUCH about the fact that Christ thirsts for our love and for souls to be united with Him.  In the Catechism, it says, “The wonder of prayer is revealed beside the well where we come seeking water: there Christ comes to meet every human being.  It is he who first seeks us and asks us for a drink.  Jesus thirsts; his asking arises from the depths of God’s desire for us...God thirsts that we might thirst for Him…” (paragraph 2560).

  

  This image of Christ on the Cross, saying, “I thirst” is a reflection of the heart of God our Father.  The God of the universe, who created the universe, who knows everything, who is all powerful, who is eternal, THIRSTS for love.  It blows my mind to think about it!  How can God thirst? HE IS GOD!!  “God is love” and not only does He GIVE us love, he thirsts for love.  

   

When we are thirsty, aren’t we kind of desperate?  We get to such a vulnerable point, right?  Our whole self just thinks about getting a drink, we get fixated on quenching our thirst, and when we get a drink, it is so wonderful!  We enjoy that drink!  The same is with God.  He is so desperate for our love, so desperate that we might be thirsty for him...He is consumed in thinking about and desiring US…he is hanging on the Cross, in the most vulnerable state, wishing that we would satisfy his thirst and be with Him as he suffers.  

 

    And Mother Teresa does give herself to Jesus, she does everything she can to satisfy his thirst.  She realizes that not only is He thirsty for just her, but for ALL PEOPLE.  His thirst won’t be satisfied until all people are drawn to Him.  Have you ever had that realization?  “Gosh, Christ sure does love me, he sure is pursuing me everyday.  And he feels that way about EVERY SINGLE PERSON EVER!”  I will often find myself in a crowd, whether at the grocery store or mall or something like that, and I will have an “out of body” experience where, mentally, I just watch these individual people going by me and imagine how God feels about every one of them.  And I can feel so small in that moment.  The sadness I see in people eyes...they’re lost.  How can I comfort these people, how can I bring them to Jesus?  This is where Mother Teresa found her calling, to bring people to meet this Thirst of Jesus.

 

    She writes a letter to the women who are following her in the Missionaries of Charity and she says, “We are reminding the world of His thirst...I worry some of you still have not really met Jesus - one to one - you and Jesus alone.  We may spend time in the chapel - but have you seen with the eyes of your soul how He looks at you with love?  Do you really know the living Jesus - not from books but from being with Him in your heart?  Have you heard the loving words He speaks to you?  Ask for the grace, He is longing to give it.  Until you can hear Jesus in the silence of your own heart, you will not hear Him saying, ‘I thirst’ in the hearts of the poor’”  

 

    Then later she talks about how Mary was really the first person to understand Jesus’ cry of “I thirst”.  Think about it: Mary initiated Christ’s first miracle at the Wedding of Cana, where he turned water into wine...Mary initiated her Son to perform the work of quenching the thirst of others.  And she is there to see the cruelty and suffering inflicted on her Son and she sees how desperate He is to be with us.  So desperate that he will die for us.  

    MARY’S ROLE IS TO BRING US FACE TO FACE WITH THE SUFFERING JESUS.

 

    This past spring, during Lent, Women of the Word studied the 7 Sorrows of Mary (which can be found on our website).  Mary suffered immensely in her life as she “pondered” God’s will for her son and as she watched her own son be murdered.  She witnessed it.  She witnessed her own son’s murder.  Again, this blows my mind.  And not once did she ever fight it.  

 

    Personally, I have a 3 year old little boy.  He holds such a special place in my heart.  He is a Momma’s boy!  And i KNOW that through out his WHOLE LIFE, I will hold these memories of him as a baby and toddler in my heart and refer back to this image engrained in my heart.  He will always be my baby!!!

 

    Well, Jesus was Mary’s “Baby”.  If I ever knew that my son would be tortured and murdered...it is unfathomable.  I would say, “No, no no!”  I want to read to you a reflection that I wrote for one of our classes from our study this past spring on the 6th and 7th sorrows of Mary (Jesus was pierced and buried):

“We have wondered, Mary, did you know?  Did she know that it would be HER Son’s own blood and water that would mark every Christian throughout the centuries?  The lance “poured out” the precious blood and tears of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.  Was Mary herself the lance, going straight into Christ’s heart, offering salvation for the whole world? Was this lance the physical blow, the physical representation of what her heart had been going through the past 24 hours?  The blow was to Jesus’ body, but it was felt by Mary.  

 

And if we think about it, really, this act of the soldier piercing the heart of Christ to issue forth blood and water, can we see ourselves here?  It is our infirmities which break His heart, and it is His most precious heart that we seek to be in union with.  Oh Lord, that WE would be the lance, rushing straight to the Sacred Heart to receive His love and mercy, to be bathed and covered with His Most Precious Blood, to wash away our sins! And in uniting ourselves with the Sacred Heart, we must remember Our Lady’s Immaculate Heart as well.

 

Then, Jesus is brought down from the Cross. He is handed to Mary.  She is finally able to hold him, to caress him, to console him, to speak to  Him.  We have imagined the suffering and separation she must have felt while watching her Son’s Passion and Death; we have ached with her as she so desperately wished she could end all the suffering or at least to console him.  

 

If Mary held back any display of her emotions up to this point in hopes to be that support and consolation for her son, then I can only imagine the scene of her holding her dead Son.  A quiet, but deep cry.  A sob.  In that moment, as the mockery, the violence was over, did Mary sense the mockery her Son would CONTINUE to endure throughout the upcoming centuries?  He would continue to be cursed, ignored, spat upon, stomped on, blatantly despised and rejected.  She wept for her son.

 

As Jesus, laying on the Cross, cried out, “My god, My god, why have you forsaken me?”, I wonder if this moment, when Mary finally gets to hold her son’s lifeless body, if she felt that same distance from the Father.  If she felt the darkness and ugliness of sin in her own body now, as she holds the heavy, blood soaked body of her son.  She continues to weep.

 

And she wept for us.  WE are the ones who ignore Jesus, who forget him.  Our sins pierce His most innocent, pure, loving heart.  In this moment, she is holding the death, the bloody physical death which sin causes, and she weeps for us.  She knows that we will not stop to see her Son.  We will not care.  We will be broken apart from her son; WE WILL BE LOST. And she weeps.  

Lamentations 1:12 says, “Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by?  Look and see if there is any sorrow like my sorrow, which was brought upon me, which the Lord inflicted…”

Again, does Mary remember some of Jesus’ last words, “I thirst”? She knows.  He thirsts for love; He thirsts for OUR LOVE.  He thirsts to be united with His children.  Does she vow to “quench” His thirst?  To bring His beloved children back to the Father?  Does she vow to work aimlessly to bring souls to Him? Her son’s death will not be in vain.  She will quench His thirst.”

 

There are many times that we ignore Jesus on the Cross; we ignore His suffering.  Or we don’t feel the heaviness of our own sins.  Fr. Gaitley says, “Thankfully, the one who has a sinless, perfect immaculate heart will help us.  She’ll give us her compassionate heart.  She’ll even let us live in her heart.”

 

Our Lady will not let her Son’s suffering “got to waste”.  So she is working with us to bring others to Him.  We are her “partners”.  I myself cannot reach out to ALL PEOPLES to help them to see Jesus.  But Mary, because of her vantage point in Heaven, CAN.  And that is what Mother Teresa understood.  We CANNOT KNOW what Jesus truly meant when he said “I thirst” without Our Lady’s help.  A title for Mary is, “Our Lady of Sorrows”.  

 

St. Albert the Great said, “that as we are under great obligations to Jesus for His Passion endured for our love, so also are we under great obligations to Mary for the martyrdom which She voluntarily suffered for our salvation in the death of Her Son.” He said “voluntarily (suffered), since, as St. Agnes revealed to St. Bridget, ‘our compassionate and benign Mother was satisfied rather to endure any torment than that our souls should not be redeemed.’” Mother Mary will bring us to our Redemption and help us bring others to Christ!

 

Let us invoke Blessed Mother Teresa’s intercession and thank God for the insights that she has given us as we continue to journey to knowing the Immaculate Heart of Mary and the Sacred Heart of Jesus.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Immaculate Conception

I want to try to connect St. Louis de Montfort’s week with our upcoming readings from St. Maximilian Kolbe.  

St. Louis de Montfort encourages us to give Mary EVERYTHING, especially our merits that we win from our sacrifices and our specific prayers.  At first, we are hesitant to do this, right?  How many of us read this and was taken aback?  I WAS! But I LOVE the analogy St. Louis gives us. He says, “It is as if a peasant, wishing to gain the friendship and benevolence of the king, went to the queen and presented her with a fruit which was his whole revenue, in order that she might present it to the king.  The queen, having accepted the poor little offering from the peasant, would place the fruit on a large and beautiful dish of gold, and so, on the peasant’s behalf, would present it to the king.  Then the fruit, however unworthy in itself to be a king’s present, would become worthy of his majesty because of the dish of gold on which it rested and the person who presented.”

Mary is never outdone in generosity.  When we give her our trust and our whole heart, she is going to take care of us and our loved ones, well beyond anything that we can imagine or pray for!

But I want to focus on this point that Mary is able to take the good things we give them and make them more perfect.  What is it about Mary that makes her able to perfect our offerings? SHE IS FREE FROM SIN.  Her soul is pure, beautiful, and free from the stain of sin; free from the stain of selfish motives, half-hearted prayers.  So, when she presents us and our intentions to God, God is pleased with them because he is pleased by her humility.  She is free from sin because of her Immaculate Conception.  Mary was conceived without the stain of original sin.  Once again, Mary is free from sin.  She never sinned.  But she was still a creature, subject to emotions and temptations, the difference is she just always chose to follow God perfectly.

Christ’s work of Salvation, the work that he performed through the events of Holy Week, was all a free gift bestowed to the whole human race. Sin entered the world through Adam and Eve and the possibility of heaven had been closed to humans.  Sin brought death; so Christ comes to give us the GIFT of himself so to conquer sin and death, making it possible for us to be united back to the Father.  

If Christ wants to bestow gifts upon us, how much more does he wish to bestow gifts on His Most Blessed Mother?  That is the nature of being a son - to honor your parents and gift them with your love and affection.  

This union between Christ and Mary is similar, but also very different from the average mother/son union.  Christ, being God, dwelling in existence in the Trinity before He became flesh, had the unique ability to CHOOSE his Mother; to choose the woman who would bear Him to the world.  

You see, the Son existed before His mother and he was able to choose the mother that would be best for him.  Further, he was able to bestow on this woman all the gifts he would wish as well; there is no limit to God’s giving power.  

One of the gifts that Christ gave to his Mother was at her conception: it is known as the Immaculate Conception.  Many people think this refers to Christ’s conception in the Virginal womb of Mary; but indeed it refers to MARY who was conceived naturally by her parents, Anne and Joachim.  Christ chose to give his gift of salvation to His mother at the moment of her conception - she was “conceived without sin”.  When her soul was created, Christ, in union with His Heavenly Father, kept her free from Original Sin (the sin that we inherit from Adam and Eve; all humans are born with this sin on our soul).  

This teaching of the Church, that Mary was conceived without sin, also applies to her whole life.  She was sin-less. In the gospel account of the Angel appearing to Mary and announcing that she would conceive a son , the Angel first greets Mary as “full of grace.”  “Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you” (Luke 1:28). These words refer to an abundance of grace that is apart of Mary’s very nature.  A theologian and professor at Franciscan University of Steubenville, Mark Miravalle, says, “It is true that no person with a fallen nature could possess a fullness of grace, a perfection of grace appropriate only for the woman who was to give God the son an identical, immaculate human nature” (emphasis added).  

With the Original sin by Adam and Eve, our human nature tends toward sin. That first sin also lost grace, which was then won for us on the Cross by Jesus.  He opened up the floodgates of grace, which is help from God to be like Him. Sin and grace do not exist with each other; when we sin, we lose grace.  St. Paul says, “What shall we say then? Are we to continue to sin that grace may abound? By no means!...For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.” (Romans 6:1-2, 14). So if Mary is full of grace, then there is no room in her soul for sin. This points to, really, the great mercy of God!  In her Magnificat, Mary’s says, “My soul rejoices in God my Savior”.  “To save men from their sins is a great mercy, but to save one woman from ever sinning is an even greater mercy.  Not only that, sinless as she was...she was still a member of a fallen race, a race to which heaven was closed.  The Savior’ redeeming act opened heaven up for her as well.” (F.J. Sheed).  

Mary was kept sinless so that Christ could dwell in her.  She was the first Tabernacle, destined to hold God-made man.  And the Holy Spirit, also God, would overshadow her and impregnate her.  She was a worthy dwelling for both the Christ and the Spirit as she was free from sin.  

Fr. Gaitley briefly mentions that Mary appeared to St. Bernadette in Lourdes, France and proclaimed “I am the Immaculate Conception”.  I want to give you the brief story of St. Bernadette and this apparition. Bernadette Soubirous was a poor 14 year old girl in France when she received visions of a woman dressed in white with a blue sash around her waist.  This woman spoke of the importance of prayer for sinner and penitence of behalf of sinners.  The townspeople thought Bernadette was crazy; even her parish priest had a hard time believing her.  Eventually, this woman appeared to Bernadette and asked her to unearth a very live, powerful spring underneath the Earth.  Still, people thought she was mad. At one apparition in particular, Bernadette asked this woman her name (b/c that’s how poor and uneducated Bernadette was, she didn’t even know to think it was Mary) and that is when the woman said, “I am the Immaculate Conception”. This teaching was declared by the Pope only four years earlier, so there is no way that Bernadette could’ve known the depth and significance of Mary being referred to as the Immaculate Conception.  When she took this to her parish priest, he wept, because he knew, he had no doubt, that it was Mary.

So this is where St. Maximilian is coming from - this is a very new teaching to the Church in his time, and it blows him away to think about it and dwell upon it.  He committed his whole life to meditating on it.  

Why didn’t Mary refer to herself as having been immaculately conceived? This is where he realized there is a CREATED Immaculate Conception - Mary, and an UNCREATED Immaculate conception - The Holy Spirit.  

The Holy Spirit is God - He is one of the three persons of God.  The Trinity is God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit is the love that is shared between the Father and the Son.  In our Creed that we say at Mass every week, we refer to Jesus as, “begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father.”  The word “begotten” means “to come forth from”, but it does not mean the same as “created.”  Jesus comes forth from the Father in an uncreated way.  To say someone/thing was created, denotes they were once not existing; that they had a beginning. God is ETERNAL, with no beginning and no end.   “Consubstantial” means, “with the same substance”, so Jesus is one in substance with the Father. We can say the same thing about the Holy Spirit, “begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father AND  the Son”. This is why the Holy Spirit is the UNCREATED Immaculate Conception.

And Mary is the Spouse of the Holy Spirit - so just as a woman identifies so much with her husband and their union, she takes on his name, so Mary takes on the name of the Holy Spirit.  Mary and the Holy Spirit are ONE, in union with each other in a non-sexual way, to bring forth Jesus to this world.  

 

“If among human beings the wife takes the name of her husband because she belongs to him, is one with him, becomes equal to him and is, with him, the source of new life, with how much greater reason should the name of the Holy Spirit, who is the divine Immaculate Conception, be used as the name of her in whom he lives as uncreated Love, the principle of life in the whole supernatural order of grace?”  (Maximilian Kolbe).  So, this is why Mary declares herself as THE Immaculate Conception.

Let us thank Christ for having offered His Mother such a sweet gift of Salvation, and thank Mary for having said “Yes” with her full will and consent, to become the Spouse of the Spirit, so that, now, she may present us before God as a worthy offering!