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See also: Out of the Wounds of Christ was born the Chaplet of Divine Mercy
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See also: The Image of Divine Mercy is a Living Image
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The Virgin of Nazareth |
The Virgin of Nazareth
“My God, my God, why have you forsaken Me?” Jesus cried out from the Cross. How many of us have experienced such a thought? The reality is that God never abandons (forsaken) us, we through our selfishness and sin abandon him. We must understand that sin creates a deep widening gulf between us and God. Sin is not just breaking the Ten Commandments, as many believe, but also by being totally selfish, full of pride, ignoring how our behaviour affects other people etc.
When Jesus was on the Cross, and being human in everyway except sin, he managed to take all the sins of the world, on himself and so experienced this abandonment, this gulf, through our fault not his. Many Saints, including Faustina, were allowed by God, to experience a period of the “dark night of the soul” where they felt abandoned by God, but were not.
This is a trial or test by God to increase one’s sacrifice, to empty oneself to his will and trust - all for the conversion of sinners. What must Mary have been thinking when she heard her Son cry out those words? It added to her sorrow and feeling of abandonment but she understood, through her faith, that God knew best and this was part of His plan for her Son, Jesus, who was also his Son.
Mary, Our Suffering Mother
Mary was not in despair at the foot of the Cross although overwhelmed by grief, she stood there in humble acceptance and adoration of the Divine Presence of God on the Cross, with hope in the promise of salvation because she understood her Son was God, the “Word made flesh”. She is the Mother of God. Mary’s intimacy with her Son reached its highest expression at Calvary.
Embracing his self-giving and self-sacrifice in her maternal heart, she revealed the true nature of discipleship. She showed that there can be no participation in Christ without suffering. “Unless a man takes up his Cross daily and follows me, he cannot be my disciple”. In accepting these words literally, Our Lady clarified her own function in God’s plan and also the function of every Christian. St Faustina’s spiritual director and confessor, Fr Michael Sopocko tells us that the best way in which we can show our love and reverence for our Mother is by “imitating her virtues, for she is a sublime example of perfection”.
Mother of Christ, Mother of the Church
Her stance at Calvary, consequently, was in the person of the Church. There she represented all the members of the Church, as Mother of the Church and Mother of Mercy, till the end of time and united them in herself with the Son of God who named her our mother from that moment onwards. Fr Sopocko tells us that at this moment, Mary is giving birth in “indescribable pain of soul and body to all mankind, whom she is bringing forth to heaven. She is now the Mother of Mercy and at once makes use of her new dignity to obtain for us the grace of contrition and the promise of Paradise”.
Did you know that every Saturday throughout the year is always dedicated to Mary? This stems from Holy Saturday, when Jesus descended to the dead on that day, Mary remained on earth as care-taker, in her new role as Mother of the Church, awaiting the coming of the risen Christ on Easter Sunday. In fact, every Sunday is celebrated as a little-Easter.
Self Ambition
The Cross is still a stumbling block to many people and is not a popular concept to us all. It clashes with the outlook that a person is entitled to satisfy their own ambition and pleasure regardless the cost. However, Mary’s solidarity with Jesus in his Passion is a powerful inspiration for the weak and sinful.
By being called back to basics, it reminds us that pain is redemptive, which means, it is an act of delivering us from a corrupted state and restoring us to a better condition, and that, when accepted for love’s sake, it has the capacity to enhance the image of God in us all by transforming us into a more perfect likeness of Christ. The Virgin of Nazareth’s silent witness in the Gospels, speaks more powerfully than words of the wisdom of God’s plan which works through human suffering and not separated from it.
Blessed Mary
If Mary was a woman blessed, it was because she was richly endowed with faith. By this gift, the Father drew her to himself and to his will. Her faith was part of the fullness of grace which resulted in God dwelling within her, occupying not only her womb but her mind and will too. By her full co-operation with the Holy Trinity in faithful obedience she dispels the darkness of the old age, allowing the light of the world to rise within her womb. St Paul refers to the birth of Jesus, of a woman in the fullness of time (Galatians 4:4).
This is the moment chosen by God from all eternity when his great design to reverse the sin of Adam would be revealed through his own Son. Mary is part of that fullness and she is fully included into the divine plan, as we are today, in that, we are also called to follow him in faith. Her presence marks the dawn of the new age which was to transform human history. Through the fullness of her pregnancy appears the one in whom dwells the fullness of God. Pope John Paul 11 compares Mary to “the morning star which heralds the dawn”.
Immaculate Conception
The Church and Mary are dedicated totally to God as spouse, and each bears children for the Kingdom. One difference distinguishes Mary from us, the people of God and that is she lives in the perfect fullness of the redemption, being delivered from a corrupt state in her mother’s womb, while we still struggle with temptation and sin.
Through Mary’s Immaculate Conception, where Mary’s soul was free from the stain of original sin from the moment of her soul’s conception in St. Anne’s womb. Mary’s conception, free from blemish, it was Immaculate, as Mary, through God’s providence, was conceived in her mother’s womb, sinless. This term is not to be mixed up with the conception of Jesus in Mary’s womb. Then at the Annunciation, where she conceived of the Holy Spirit and “the Word was made flesh...” known as the Incarnation, where God took human form as Jesus Christ in her womb.
At the Annunciation, His Church was constituted in the womb of Mary. True faith is accepting what is asked of the believer even before one understands what that will involve.
At the Annunciation, Mary had no idea of what being Mother of the Messiah would demand of her. Pope John Paul II speaks of a second annunciation. “The prophet Simeon, in the Temple, who prophesied the sword of sorrow that would pierce her heart. From the flight into Egypt to the hill of Calvary, Mary would gradually discover through the experience of intense hardship of mind and spirit, the cost of her role in the plan of God”. Mary understands the “dark night of the soul”.
While tradition rightly portrays Mary as a gentle soul, she was a strong willed woman that surrendered her will to God in humility and an ultimate example to us pilgrims passing through this earth. Never despair because God never abandons us.
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