Blessed Mother, Mary

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ Jesus,

During this month of May, we celebrate the role of our Blessed

Mother, Mary, in God’s plan for our salvation! Our Catholic Church

teaches us that the Blessed Virgin Mary is our mother in the order of

Grace; that is, the Mother of God is also our mother! How can this

be? This week I share with you an article by Fr. William Most that

explains this beautiful reality.

“Mary our Mother: " As a r esult, she is our Mother in the or der

of grace." With these few words Vatican II (On the Church # 61)

gave us a brilliant theology of the Motherhood of Our Lady, and a

marvelous help to understand the motherhood of all Mothers. To

follow it, we need to read the two sentences that come before it: "The

Blessed Virgin, predestined from eternity along with the Incarnation

of the Divine Word, as the Mother of God, on this earth was the

gracious Mother of the Divine Redeemer, His associate more than

others, in a singular way, and the humble maid-servant of the Lord. In

conceiving Christ, in bringing Him forth, in nourishing Him, in

presenting Him to the Father in the Temple, in suffering with her Son

as He died on the cross, she cooperated in the work of the Savior, in

an altogether singular way, by obedience, faith, hope and burning

love, to restore supernatural life to souls. As a result, she is our

Mother in the order of grace."

"As a result, she is our Mother in the order of grace." An ordinary

Mother does two things to gain that glorious title: she shares in

bringing a new life into being, she takes care of that life so long as

she is needed, as long as she is willing and able.

Mary gives us supernatural life: We have seen in our discussion

of Mary's cooperation in the redemption how she shares in bringing

new life into being. And what a life that is! Compared to it mere

mortal life is as nothing. The Second Epistle of St. Peter (1:4) says

that in it we are made "sharers in the divine nature." And, we have

seen in our discussion of Mary's continuing mediation how she takes

care of our supernatural life.

Let us try to explore this mystery a bit. St. Paul says that in heaven

we will see God "face to face". Now of course, God does not have a

face. Nor do souls have mortal eyes. But the solid reality is far

beyond what the words can readily convey. When I look at another

person in this life, I do not take that one into my mind--no, I take in

an image. The person is finite, limited, and so a finite image can let

me know about that one.

But God is infinite. No image could begin to convey what He is like.

So the next, the inevitable step is staggering: it must be that the

divinity will join itself to the created human soul immediately,

without even an image in between, so that the soul can know Him

even as His Son knows Him, as He knows His Son. Within that

divinity there as it were flow infinite streams of knowledge and of

love. For the first chapter of John's Gospel tells us that in the

beginning the Father spoke the Word. That Word is not a ripple in the

air as our words are. No, it is substantial, it is the second Person of

the Holy Trinity. Between Father and Son there arises love--again, not the feeble reality we know, but it too is substantial, it is another

Divine Person, the Holy Spirit, proceeding by way of infinite love.

Only a being at least partly divine could as it were plug into these

infinite streams of knowledge and of love. Yet that is what it means

to be "sharers in the divine nature", which we are by the life of grace,

which she shared in gaining for us, at a cost so great that, as we said,

only God can comprehend it. So she really is our Mother in the order

of grace.

A Mother's Care: But a Mother has a second r ole to fulfill: to

take care of the new life, so long as she is willing, able, and needed.

In ordinary human affairs, there comes a time when the Mother is

not really much needed, for the child grows to adult stature. But in

the spiritual life ,we remain children - for unless we become as little

children we shall not inherit the kingdom. Or, to put it more clearly,

we always stand in the need of grace as long as we have not yet

entered the mansions of our Father. That grace, every grace, comes

to us through her, for, as Vatican II taught (62), she is the Mediatrix.

We said an ordinary Mother should give care as long as she is

willing and able. Sadly, some human mothers stop being willing. Not

so our Heavenly Mother. The children she brought into life by such

tremendous pain she will never forget. She is always willing.

Moreover, an ordinary mother may come to points at which she is

unable to help, howsoever pathetically she way wish to do so. Not so

our Mother in Heaven: Pope Benedict XV called her "suppliant

omnipotence". That is, all that God can do by His very inherent

power, she, with and through her Son, can obtain by asking Him for

it. And that she does.

From what we have said, we see that she brought us forth on

Calvary. Yet there is an a sense in which we can correctly say that she became our Mother even before that day. On June 19, 1947,

Pope Pius XII sent a message to the Marian Congress of Ottawa,

Canada. He said: "When the little maid of Nazareth uttered her fiat

to the message of the angel...she became not only the Mother of

God in the physical order of nature, but also in the supernatural

order of grace she became the Mother of all who...would be made

one under the Headship of her divine Son. The Mother of the Head

would be the Mother of the members. The Mother of the vine would

be the Mother of the branches."

The thought is obvious. Her Son is the Head of the Mystical Body,

of which we are members. She really could not become the Mother

of the Head without automatically, as it were, becoming the Mother

of the Members of Her Son. Of course, that was only begun at the

Annunciation. It was to be brought to light, with immense pain,

only on the hill of Calvary.

Ordinary mothers cannot of course be both virgin and mother. But

they can imitate, at a distance, her devotion to the Word of God, her

fidelity to His will, her carrying out of the role designed for her by

our Father's plan. Even when the need for physical care of their

sons dims, the sons still need spiritual care--and that the Mothers

should provide, even as she did.

St. Luke tells us that when young, Jesus went down to Nazareth and

was subject to his parents. He, in His strictly divine humility,

allowed Himself to be formed, humanly, by His Mother and St.

Joseph. Ordinary mothers can imitate this and should realize that to

form a new life in the likeness of Jesus or His Mother is far higher

than to be a business executive, a policewoman, a tram operator, or

whatever--it is far higher and nobler than the masterpieces of

Michaelangelo, who carved in marble--Mothers carve in human souls!”

Let us remember to thank God for Mary, our Mother!

Through the intercession of Mary, the Mother of God and our

Mother, St. Joseph, St. Paul and St. Michael, may the Holy Spirit

help us to grown in our devotion to our Heavenly Mother during this

month of May!

In Christ through Mary,

Fr. Kasel