|
John
Paul II- on the Blessed Mother |
MARY'S MATERNAL LOVE
Homily of
H. H.
John Paul II
Fatima, Portugal
May 13, 1982
On Thursday, 13 May, the second day of Pope John Paul's
pilgrimage to Portugal, the Holy Father visited Fatima to
commemorate in a very special way the first anniversary of the
attempt on his life and the sixty-fifth anniversary of Our
Lady's first apparition at Fatima. During the Mass at the Shrine
the Holy Father delivered the following homily.
1. "And from that
hour the disciple took her to his own home" (Jn 19:27).
These are the
concluding words of the Gospel in today's liturgy at Fatima. The
disciple's name was John. It was he, John, the son of Zebedee,
the apostle and evangelist, who heard from the Cross the words
of Christ: "Behold, your mother". But first Christ had said to
his Mother: "Woman, behold, your son". This was a wonderful
testament.
As he left this
world, Christ gave to his Mother a man, a human being, to be
like a son for her: John. He entrusted him to her. And, as a
consequence of this giving and entrusting, Mary became the
mother of John. The Mother of God became the Mother of man.
From that hour
John "took her to his own home" and became the earthly guardian
of the Mother of his Master; for sons have the right and duty to
care for their mother. John became by Christ's will the son of
the Mother of God. And in John every human being became her
child.
The Mother's presence
2. The words "he
took her to his own home" can be taken in the literal sense as
referring to the place where he lived.
Mary's motherhood
in our regard is manifested in a particular way in the places
where she meets us: her dwelling places; places in which a
special presence of the Mother is felt.
There are many
such dwelling places. They are of all kinds: from a special
corner in the home or little wayside shrines adorned with an
image of the Mother of God, to chapels and churches built in her
honour. However, in certain places; the Mother's presence is
felt in a particularly vivid way. These places, sometimes
radiate their light over a great distance and draw people from
afar. Their radiance may ex tend over a diocese, a whole nation,
or at times over several countries and even continents. These
places. are the Marian sanctuaries or shrines.
In all these
places that unique testament of the Crucified Lord is
wonderfully actualized: in them man feels that he is entrusted
and confided to Mary; he goes there in order) to be with her as
with his Mother he opens his heart to her and speaks to her
about everything: he "takes her to his own home", that is to
say, he brings her into all his problems, which at times are
difficult. His own problems and those of others. The problems of
the family, of societies, of nations' and of the whole of
humanity.
Through God's mercy
3. Is not this
the case with the shrine at Lourdes, in France? Is not this the
case with Jasna Gora, in Poland, my own country's shrine, which
this year is celebrating its six hundredth anniversary?
There too, as in
so many other shrines of Mary throughout the world, the words of
today's liturgy seem to resound with a particularly authentic
force: "You are the great pride of our nation" (Jdt 15:9), and
also: "...when our nation was' brought low... you avenged our
ruin, walking in the straight path before our God" (Jdt 13:20).
At Fatima these
words resound; as one particular echo of the experiences not
only of the Portuguese nation but also of so many other.
countries and peoples on this earth: indeed, they echo the
experience of modern mankind as a whole, the whole of the human
family.
4. And so I come
here today because on this very day last year, in Saint Peter's
Square in Rome, the attempt on the Pope's life was made, in
mysterious coincidence with the anniversary of the first
apparition at Fatima, which occurred on 13 May 1917.
I seemed to
recognize in the coincidence of the dates a special call to come
to this place. And so, today I am here. I have come in order to
thank Divine Providence in this place which the Mother of God
seems to have chosen in a particular way. Misericordiae Domini,
quia non sumus consumpti (Through God's mercy we were spared-Lam
3:22), I repeat once more with the prophet.
I have come
especially in order to confess here the glory of God himself:
"Blessed be the Lord God, who created the heavens and the
earth', I say in the words of today's liturgy (Jdt 13:18).
And to the
Creator of heaven and earth I also raise that special hymn of
glory which is she herself, the Immaculate Mother of the
Incarnate Word:
"O daughter,
you are blessed by the Most High God above all women on
earth... your hope will never de part from the hearts of
men, as they remember the power of God. May; God grant this
to be a perpetual honour to you "(Jdt 18:20).
At the basis of
this song of praise, which the Church lifts up with joy here as
in so many other places on the earth, is the incomparable choice
of a daughter of the human race to be the Mother of God.
And therefore let
God above all be praised: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
May blessing and
veneration be given to Mary, the model of the Church, as the
"dwelling-place of the Most Holy Trinity".
Spiritual motherhood
5. From the time
when Jesus, dying on the Cross, said to John: "Behold, your
mother"; from the time when "the disciple took her to his own
home", the mystery of the spiritual motherhood of Mary has been
actualized boundlessly in history. Motherhood means caring for
the life of the child. Since Mary is the mother of us all, her
care for: the life of man is universal. The care of a mother
embraces her child totally. Mary's motherhood has its beginning
in her motherly care for Christ. In Christ, at the foot of the
Cross, she accepted John, and in John she accepted all of us
totally. Mary embraces us all with special solicitude in the
Holy Spirit. For as we profess in our Creed, he is "the giver of
life". It is he who gives the fullness of life, open towards
eternity.
Mary's spiritual
motherhood is therefore a sharing in the power of the Holy
Spirit, of "the giver of life". It is the humble service of her
who says of herself: "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord" (Lk
1:38).
In the light of
the mystery of Mary's spiritual motherhood, let us seek to
understand the extraordinary message, which began on 13 May,
1917 to resound throughout the world from Fatima, continuing for
five months until 13 October of the same year.
Convert and repent
6. The Church has
always taught and continues to proclaim that God's revelation
was brought to completion in Jesus Christ, who is the fullness
of that revelation, and that "no new public revelation is to be
expected before the glorious manifestation of our Lord" (Dei
Verbum, 4). The Church evaluates and judges private revelations
by the criterion of conformity with that single public
Revelation.
If the Church has
accepted the message of Fatima, it is above all because that
message contains a truth and a call whose basic content is the
truth and the call of the Gospel itself.
"Repent, and
believe in the gospel" (Mk 1:15): these are the first words that
the Messiah addressed to humanity. The message of Fatima is, in
its basic nucleus, a call to conversion and repentance, as in
the Gospel. This call was uttered at the beginning of the
twentieth century, and it was thus addressed particularly to
this present century. The Lady of the message seems to have read
with special insight the "signs of the times", the signs of our
time.
The call to
repentance is a motherly one, and at the same time it is strong
and decisive. The love that "rejoices in the truth" (cf. 1 Cor
13:) is capable of being clear-cut and firm. The call to
repentance is linked, as always, with a call to prayer. In
harmony with the tradition of many centuries, the Lady of the
message indicates the Rosary, which can rightly be defined as
"Mary's prayer": the prayer in which she feels particularly
united with us. She herself prays with us. The rosary prayer
embraces the problems of the Church, of the See of Saint Peter,
the problems of the whole world. In it we also remember sinners,
that they may be converted and saved, and the souls in Purgatory
The words of the
message were addressed to children aged from seven to ten.
Children, like Bernadette of Lourdes, are particularly
privileged in these apparitions of the Mother of God. Hence the
fact that also her language is simple, within the limits of
their understanding. The children of Fatima became partners in
dialogue with the Lady of the message and collaborators with
her. One of them is still living.
Recommends the Rosary
7. When Jesus on
the Cross said: "Woman, behold, your son" (Jn 19: 26), in a new
way he opened his Mother's Heart, the Immaculate Heart, and
revealed to it the new dimensions and extent of the love to
which she was called in the Holy Spirit by the power of the
sacrifice of the Cross.
In the words of
Fatima we seem to find this dimension of motherly love, whose
range covers the whole of man's path towards God; the path that
leads through this world and that goes, through Purgatory,
beyond this world. The solicitude of the Mother of the Saviour
is solicitude for the work of salvation: the work of her Son. It
is solicitude for the salvation, the eternal salvation, of all.
Now that sixty-five years have passed since that 13 May 1917, it
is difficult to fail to notice how the range of this salvific
love of the Mother embraces, in a particular way, our century.
In the light of a
mother's love we understand the whole message of the Lady of
Fatima. The greatest obstacle to man's journey towards God is
sin, perseverance in sin, and, finally, denial of God. The
deliberate blotting out of God from the world of human thought.
The detachment from him of the whole of man's earthly activity.
The rejection of God by man.
In reality, the
eternal salvation of man is only in God. Man's rejection of God,
if it becomes definitive, leads logically to God's rejection of
man (cf. Mt 7:23; 10:33), to damnation.
Can the Mother
who with all the force of the love that she fosters in the Holy
Spirit desires everyone's salvation keep silence on what
undermines the very bases of their salvation? No, she cannot.
And so, while the
message of Our Lady of Fatima is a motherly one, it is also
strong and decisive. It sounds severe. It sounds like John the
Baptist speaking on the banks of the Jordan. It invites to
repentance. It gives a warning. It calls to prayer. It
recommends the Rosary.
The message is
addressed to every human being. The love of the Saviour's Mother
reaches every place touched by the work of salvation. Her care
extends to every individual of our time, and to all the
societies nations and peoples. Societies menaced by apostasy,
threatened by moral degradation. The collapse of morality
involves the collapse of societies.
Meaning of consecration
8. On the Cross
Christ said: "Woman, behold, your son!" With these words he
opened in a new way his Mother's heart. A little later, the
Roman soldier's spear pierced the side of the Crucified One.
That pierced heart became a sign of the redemption achieved
through the death of the Lamb of God.
The Immaculate
Heart of Mary, opened with the words "Woman, behold, your son!",
is spiritually united with the heart of her Son opened by the
soldier's spear. Mary's Heart was opened by the same love for
man and for the world with which Christ loved man and the world,
offering himself for them on the Cross, until the soldier's
spear struck that blow.
Consecrating the
world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary means drawing near,
through the Mother's intercession, to the very Fountain of life
that sprang from Golgotha. This Fountain pours forth unceasingly
redemption and grace. In it reparation is made continually for
the sins of the world. It is a ceaseless source of new life and
holiness.
Consecrating the
world to the Immaculate Heart of the Mother means returning
beneath the Cross of the Son. It means consecrating this world
to the pierced Heart of the Saviour, bringing it beck 'to the
very source of its Redemption. Redemption is always greater than
man's sin and the "sin of the world." The power of the
Redemption is infinitely superior to the whole range of evil in
man and the world.
The Heart of the
Mother is aware of this, more than any other heart in the whole
universe, visible and invisible.
And so she calls
us. She not only calls us to be converted: she calls us to
accept her motherly help to return to the source of Redemption.
Love for all persons
9. Consecrating
ourselves to Mary means accepting her help to offer ourselves
and the whole of mankind to Him who is Holy, infinitely Holy; it
means accepting her help by having recourse to her motherly
Heart, which beneath the Cross was opened to love for every
human being, for the whole world in order to offer the: world,
the individual human being, mankind as a whole, and all the
nations to Him who is infinitely Holy. God's holiness showed
itself in the redemption of man, of the world, of the whole of
mankind, and of the nations: a redemption brought about through
the Sacrifice of the Cross. "For their sake I consecrate
myself", Jesus had said (Jn 17:19).
By the power of
the redemption the world and man have been consecrated. They
have been consecrated to Him who is infinitely Holy. They have
been offered and entrusted to Love itself, merciful Love.
The Mother of
Christ calls us, invites us to join with the Church of the
living God in the consecration of the world, in this act of
confiding by which the world, mankind as a whole, the nations,
and each individual person are presented to the Eternal Father
with the power of the Redemption won by Christ. They are offered
in the Heart of the Redeemer which was pierced on the Cross.
Rooted in the Gospel
10. The appeal of
the Lady of the message of Fatima is so deeply rooted in the
Gospel and the whole of Tradition that the Church feels that the
message imposes a commitment on her.
She has responded
through the Servant of God Pius XII (whose episcopal ordination
took place precisely on 13 May 1917): he consecrated the human
race and especially the Peoples of Russia to the Immaculate
Heart of Mary. Was not that consecration his response to the
evangelical eloquence of the call of Fatima?
In its Dogmatic
Constitution on the Church (Lumen Gentium) and its Pastoral
Constitution on the Church in the Modern World (Gaudium et Spes)
the Second Vatican Council amply illustrated the reasons for the
link between the Church and the world of today. Furthermore, its
teaching on Mary's special place in the mystery of Christ and
the Church bore mature fruit in Paul VI's action in calling Mary
Mother of the Church and thus indicating more profoundly the
nature of her union with the Church and of her care for the
world, for mankind, for each human being, and for all the
nations: what characterizes them is her motherhood.
This brought a
further deepening of understanding of the meaning of the act of
consecrating that the Church is celled upon to perform with the
help of the Heart of Christ's Mother and ours.
Many going astray
11. Today John
Paul II, successor of Peter, continuer of the work of Pius,
John, and Paul, and particular heir of the Second Vatican
Council, presents himself before the Mother of the Son of God in
her Shrine at Fatima. In what way does he come?
He presents
himself, reading again with trepidation the motherly call to
penance, to conversion, the ardent appeal of the Heart of Mary
that resounded at Fatima sixty-five years ago. Yes, he reads it
again with trepidation in his heart, because he sees how many
people and societies—how many Christians—have gone in the
opposite direction to the one indicated in the message of
Fatima. Sin has thus made itself firmly at home in the world,
and denial of God has become widespread in the ideologies, ideas
and plans of human beings.
But for this very
reason the evangelical call to repentance and conversion,
uttered in the Mother's message, remains ever relevant. It is
still more relevant than it was sixty-five years ago. It is
still more urgent. And so it is to be the subject of next year's
Synod of Bishops, which we are already preparing for.
The successor of
Peter presents himself here also as a witness to the immensity
of human suffering, a witness to the almost apocalyptic menaces
looking over the nations and mankind as a whole. He is trying to
embrace these sufferings with his own weak human heart, as he
places himself before the mystery of the Heart of the Mother,
the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
In the name of
these sufferings and with awareness of the evil that is
spreading throughout the world and menacing the individual human
being, the nations, and mankind as a whole, Peter's successor
presents himself here with greater faith in the redemption of
the world, in the saving Love that is always stronger, always
more powerful than any evil.
My heart is
oppressed when I see the sin of the world and the whole range of
menaces gathering like a dark cloud over mankind, but it also
rejoices with hope as I once more do what has been done by my
Predecessors, when they consecrated the world to the Heart of
the Mother, when they consecrated especially to that Heart those
peoples which particularly need to be consecrated. Doing this
means consecrating the world to Him who is infinite Holiness.
This Holiness means redemption. It means a love more powerful
than evil. No "sin of the world" can ever overcome this Love.
Once more this
act is being done. Mary's appeal is not for just once. Her
appeal must be taken up by generation after generation, in
accordance with the ever new "signs of the times". It must be
unceasingly returned to. It must ever be taken up anew.
Faith of the Church
12. The author of
the Apocalypse wrote: "And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem,
coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned
for her husband and I heard a loud voice from the throne saying,
'Behold, the dwelling of God is with men. He will dwell with
them, and they shall be his people, and God himself will be with
them'" (Rev 21:2-3).
This is the faith
by which the Church lives. This is the faith with which the
People of God makes its journey.
"The dwelling of
God is with men" on earth even now. In that dwelling is the
Heart of the Bride and Mother, Mary, a Heart adorned with the
jewel of her Immaculate Conception. The heart of the Bride and
Mother which was opened beneath the Cross by the word of her Son
to a great new love for man and the world. The Heart of the
Bride and Mother which is aware of all the sufferings of
individuals and societies on earth.
The People of God
is a pilgrim along the ways of this world in an eschatological
direction. It is making its pilgrimage towards the eternal
Jerusalem, towards "the dwelling of God with men." God will
there "wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be
no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain any
more, for the former things have passed away"
But at present
"the former things are still in existence. They it is that
constitute the temporal setting of our pilgrimage.
For that reason
we look towards "him who sits upon the throne and says, 'Behold,
I make all things new"' (cf. Rev 21:5).
And together with
the Evangelist and Apostle we try to see with the eyes of faith
"the new heaven and the new earth"; for the first heaven and the
first earth have passed away.
But "the first
heaven and the first earth" still exist about us and within us.
We cannot ignore it. But this enables us to recognize what an
immense grace was granted to us human beings when, in the midst
of our pilgrimage, there shone forth on the horizon of the faith
of our times this "great portent, a woman" (cf. Rev 12:1).
Yes, truly we can
repeat: "O daughter, you are blessed by the Most High God above
all women on earth... walking in the straight path before our
God.. .you have avenged our ruin".
Truly indeed, you
are blessed.
Yes, here and
throughout the Church, in the heart of every individual and in
the world as a whole, may you be blessed, O Mary, our sweet
Mother.
Taken from:
L'Osservatore Romano
Weekly Edition in English
17 MAY, 1982
Return to Main Page: John Paul II on the
Blessed Mother>>>
