Whoever hears my Word and keeps it, that one is my Mother (Lk 8:19-21)

God loves us

One of the fundamental concerns of men and women has often been to ask themselves the question of God’s love for them. The Bible tells us in various ways and places that God loves us. The Jewish people suffered in the desert. Jesus too knew suffering. God is love, and yet suffering is a reality. So it is not because God loves me that I will never suffer again. Indeed, I must be grateful for the many times God has delivered me from suffering. How many times have I prayed and he has answered my prayer? ‘Father, blessed are you for the prayers you answer, whether strikingly or not.’ The Letter to the Hebrews tells us that Jesus prayed because he wished to be delivered from death, and God heard him. Yet he died. Apparently it was an unanswered prayer; apparently it was a failure. But his resurrection is a victory of prayer, a victory of love; it is a teaching that shows that even when God does not answer my prayer as I expect, it is good for me to trust that he will answer it according to his good will. But in a special way, the creation and the birth of the Virgin Mary are very striking signs of God’s love for us.

Signs of God’s love through Mary

September 8 was established by the Church as the celebration of the birth of the Virgin Mary. The creation of the Virgin Mary is a unique event because through her, the Immaculate one, a creature of God bears a special reflection of God since the fall of Adam and Eve. She reflects in a particular way the beauty of God. God loves me. The birth of the Virgin Mary is a sign of God’s love for us because through her, Jesus comes to us and saves us.

Perhaps in life we have had people who helped us solve a practical difficulty, such as enrolling a child in school, finding work, or receiving good care in a hospital. In such cases, it took this intermediary through whom we received help. Now, Jesus is the one mediator between God and mankind. He is the only Name by which we are saved (Acts 4:12). But it is thanks to the Virgin Mary that we have Jesus. The birth of Mary is therefore a very great sign of God’s love for us. Why not give him thanks for it?

The Virgin Mary is the one who said “yes” to God, and Jesus became incarnate in her. Through this event we rediscover our vocation, our calling in the Movement of the Incarnation. We live Mary’s vocation: to live the word of God and give it to the world. She is the icon of the Movement of the Incarnation. The one whom we must resemble, for she incarnated the word of God. ‘Whoever hears my Word and keeps it, that one is my mother’ (Lk 8:19-21).

Henri Bayemi