The Virgin Mary is our Mother (Jn 19:25-27)

God loves us

God created us out of love and graces us with all the other gifts. Saint Paul says in the Letter to the Romans that nothing can separate us from the love of God (cf. Rom 8:31-39). This is why hardships must not make us doubt the love of God. Everything that happens to us must be received from the loving hand of God.

The Virgin Mary, given as a gift

‘God loved us while we were still sinners’ (Rom 5:8). He gave us everything, even to the point of giving us his Son, whom we did not deserve. God the Father gave us the gift of his Son. Jesus gives the gift not only of his life, but of his mother. “Near the cross stood the holy women, among them Mary the mother of Jesus. Jesus, seeing Mary and the disciple whom he loved, said: ‘Woman, behold your son,’ and he said to John, ‘Behold your mother,’ and from that moment the disciple took Mary into his home” (Jn 19:25-27).

The Virgin Mary is the first disciple of Christ

To be a disciple of Christ is to follow him and to be in intimate union with him. By her Fiat at the Annunciation, the Virgin Mary is united to Jesus. She is the first disciple, before all the others. The Virgin Mary was prepared to be the mother of Christ. She is the Immaculate Conception: that is to say, she was conceived without sin. She accompanies her Son in his mission. Saint Luke recounts how the holy women accompanied Christ and helped him with their possessions, but also by their presence (cf. Lk 8:1-3). The Virgin Mary accompanies her Son to the cross, to the tomb, and even beyond the resurrection, for she was present when all began to speak in tongues, to praise the Lord and to proclaim his wonders at Pentecost. She is the disciple par excellence.

Devotion to the Virgin Mary

The life of the Church has been marked by apparitions of the Virgin Mary at Lourdes, Fatima, and elsewhere. The central message that the Virgin Mary often repeated during these apparitions was conversion, prayer, and penance, to help people go toward her Son. There are many saints who had a very great devotion to the Virgin Mary, such as Saint Louis Marie Grignion de Montfort, Saint Maximilian Kolbe, Saint Padre Pio, and many others. The Virgin Mary intercedes for us as she did at the wedding of Cana. Yet devotion to the Virgin Mary must lead us not only to pray to her, but to live as she did, to listen and to do what Christ says, because she tells us: “Do whatever he tells you” (Jn 2:5). The Fathers of the Church say that the Virgin Mary is honored above all not so much because she is the natural mother of Christ, but because she said “yes” to the will of God. Let us take enough time in this month of October to pray to the Virgin Mary.

Henri Bayemi