March 21, 2012
Dear Family of Mary!
"Dear children! I am coming among you because I desire to be your mother - your intercessor. I desire to be the bond between you and the Heavenly Father - your mediatrix. I desire to take you by the hand and to walk with you in the battle against the impure spirit. My children, consecrate yourselves to me completely. I will take your lives into my motherly hands and I will teach them peace and love, and then I will give them over to my Son. I am asking of you to pray and fast because only in this way will you know how to witness my Son in the right way through my motherly heart. Pray for your shepherds that, united in my Son, they can always joyfully proclaim the Word of God. Thank you." (March 18, 2012 Mirjana)
Our Lady uses two big words in the first part of this message, big words she doesn't usually use: intercessor and mediatrix. She uses them in the context of her desire to be our mother, the mother who connects us, bonds us, to the Father and who prays for us to Him. I like the short explanation of these two roles of Mary, found in the Encyclical Letter of Blessed John Paul II, Redemptoris Mater. Set in the context of John 2, the Wedding Feast at Cana, Blessed John Paul II says some beautiful things about our Mother!
(22.2)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.
(22.3)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).
(Blessed Pope John Paul II, Redemptoris Mater. March 25, 1987. n 22.2-3)
This mediation, this intercession, have we not experienced it in Medjugorje? Isn't this exactly what Our Lady is doing for us in her visitation there? We could say that in the Medjugorje events just as in the Cana event "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." Our Lady is coming to us in these days to put herself in the middle between us and her Son, so that she can intercede for us and draw us into His love.
We need Mary's intercession and mediation. Like the young couple at Cana, we probably don't even know what we lack! They didn't know the wine was running out, but Mary noticed. She notices everything. And so she will intercede for us according to what we really need, not just what we think we need! We are in very good hands, if she is praying for us. She wants to bring our entire lives under the covering of her Son.
I believe this is a special time in which we desperately need Mary's intercession and mediation. The world is in crisis. We need to be radically bonded and connected to our Father in heaven through Jesus and Mary. No other power will help us in these days, only God. And Mary is with us to help us to be bonded to the Father and stay bonded to Him. With Blessed John Paul II, let's live these words, Totus Tuus!
In Jesus, Mary and Joseph!
Cathy Nolan
PS. You can read the entire text of Redemptoris Mater at:
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