Tuesday, February 02, 2016

Mary is at the heart of the battle



* February 2 – The Presentation of Jesus in the Temple  * Mary is at the heart of the battle  ----- A Moment with Mary --

Une Minute avec Marie
An initiative of the Mary of Nazareth Association
  

February 2 – The Presentation of Jesus in the Temple 

Mary is at the heart of the battle



"A sword will pierce your very soul," is what the aged Simeon predicted to Mary on the day of the presentation of Jesus in the Temple...

Mary is at the heart of the battle waged for or against her Son. The sword announced by Christ passes also through her, inviting us all to total abandonment. The more Mary lost her Son in a physical sense, the more she received him in faith. The next important episode after the presentation—the disappearance of Jesus, found in the Temple—illustrates this concept.

The more Mary becomes "the one who hears the word of God and puts it into practice," the more she is revealed as the Mother of God. The divine motherhood is not only a physical reality, it is above all a matter of faith. And when, before the crucified Christ, she physically lost her Son, she found him again, whole, as her glorious Son, present in the Church.

The law of the sword of Christ is the law by which we must lose in order to find. It is the law of total poverty in order to possess everything, to surrender ourselves in faith in order to be fully satisfied, comforted, and saved. Mary becomes, once again, the model of the perfect disciple, of the one who is faithful, and redeemed. 

Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi
President of the Pontifical Council for Culture
Excerpt from his homily for the feast of the Presentation, given on January 2, 2013 (Zenit.org)


Presentation at the Temple by Ambrogio Lorenzetti, 1342
(Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence). [Wikipedia]






No comments:

Post a Comment

Please no anonymous comments. I require at least some way for people to address each other personally and courteously. Having some name or handle helps.

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.