MARY, OUR MOTHER

REFUGE OF SINNERS

“For she is the brightness of eternal light and the unspotted mirror of God’s majesty, and the image of His goodness.” Wisdom 7:25.

I heard a story about a young mother taking her seven year-old daughter to a Passion Play during Lent. If you have seen the movie “The Passion of the Christ”, you know what a Passion Play is. During a tense moment in the Play when Judas was in despair after betraying Our Lord, he cries out:
“To whom shall I go? I am forsaken by everyone. Oh, to whom shall I go?”
The little girl was sitting on the edge of her seat, thinking everything was real. Turning to her mother at that very dramatic moment, she exclaimed in a clear voice heard throughout the audience:
“Mother, why doesn’t he go to Mary? She will help him, I know.”

“Out of the mouth of babes . . .” (Matt. 21: 16)

What the little girl said about Judas, the traitor, could be said to every one of us sinners: Why don’t we go to Mary? She will help us!

Mary, Our Mother, is the Refuge of Sinners; she has been called that for many centuries; she has proven herself to be the refuge of those who have offended Almighty God.

Today we celebrate this special Feast Day under the title, “Mary, Refuge of Sinners.” In the ’Old Testament’ we read about certain cities set up by the Israelites where men who were guilty of serious crimes, like murder, could find protection and safe refuge until their judge died and they were released from banishment. History also tells us that the Greeks and Romans and even Christianity had their cities of refuge.

In the Middle Ages there was the “right of sanctuary”, where men could find refuge in a church. This showing of mercy to criminals was not in itself a defiance of law and justice, it simply offered sanctuary and protection to those who had offended the law, but were being punished by vengeance. It prevented what we call a lynch mob, or taking the law into one’s own hands. There has been plenty of this horror throughout history, even here in the good old U.S.A.

Today we have the Heart of Our Blessed Mother as our refuge. To her we can fly for every need of repentance and sorrow and contrition and forgiveness.

1. Since Mary is the Mother of the Redeemer, the one Savior of all us sinners, we can expect her to be merciful to us sinners. Our Lady shared with Christ in the salvation of the world. From the crib at Bethlehem to the Cross on Calvary, Mary took part in the redemption as Co-redemptrix.
“Having suffered for the Church, Mary deserved to become the Mother of all the disciples of her Son, the Mother of their unity . . . In fact Mary’s role as Co-redemptrix did not cease with the glorification of her Son.” Pope John Paul II, 1985, Guayaquil, Ecuador.

Our Lady has Christ’s spirit of forgiveness and mercy, even to the worst offender. Now that she is in heaven, where her power is greater, where she is close to the throne of the Almighty, we can expect that she will continue to show this mercy upon us.

“Mary is powerful in heaven and on earth, and even those who are on the verge of despair she inspires with hope.” St. Peter Damian

2. Mary hates sin, but like Jesus, she loves the sinner, she loves the souls for whom Christ suffered and died, and she prays for us continually.
“There is no sinner so corrupt and sunk in vice that Mary will despise and reject him. If such a one seeks help with her, she will most certainly reconcile him with Jesus and obtain pardon for him.” St. Bonaventure.

3. There is another appeal in having a mother as a refuge. Sometimes out of fear children hesitate to go to their father, but every child runs to its mother. So we run to Mary, who is the Mother of God and our True Mother . I always said that if I found the front door to heaven closed, Mother Mary would open a back window for me to get in.

In this wacky and sinful world, where men are murdering each other, and God is betrayed through the disregard of His Commandments, why don’t we say what the little girl said about Judas:
“Why don’t he (they) go to Mary? She will help him (them), I know.” Amen.
[Adapted from a sermon by Father Arthur Tonne, Didde Printing Co.]