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Pope Benedict XVI- Homilies |
 "The
Smile of the Blessed Mother"
Homily Given at the Mass for the Sick
H.H. Benedict XVI
Apostolic Journey to Lourdes, France
For the 150th Anniversary of the Apparitions of the Blessed Virgin
Mary
September 15, 2008
www.zenit.org
Dear Brothers in
the episcopate and the priesthood,
Dear Friends who are sick, dear carers and helpers,
Dear Brothers and Sisters!
Yesterday we celebrated the Cross of Christ, the instrument of
our salvation, which reveals the mercy of our God in all its
fullness. The Cross is truly the place where God’s Compassion
for our world is perfectly manifested. Today, as we celebrate
the memorial of Our Lady of Sorrows, we contemplate Mary sharing
her Son’s compassion for sinners. As Saint Bernard declares, the
Mother of Christ entered into the Passion of her Son through her
compassion (cf. Homily for Sunday in the Octave of the
Assumption). At the foot of the Cross, the prophecy of Simeon is
fulfilled: her mother’s heart is pierced through (cf. Lk 2:35)
by the torture inflicted on the innocent one born of her flesh.
Just as Jesus cried (cf. Jn 11:35), so too Mary certainly cried
over the tortured body of her Son. Her self-restraint, however,
prevents us from plumbing the depths of her grief; the full
extent of her suffering is merely suggested by the traditional
symbol of the seven swords. As in the case of her Son Jesus, one
might say that she too was led to perfection through this
suffering (cf. Heb 2:10), so as to make her capable of receiving
the new spiritual mission that her Son entrusts to her
immediately before “giving up his spirit” (cf. Jn 19:30): that
of becoming the mother of Christ in his members. In that hour,
through the figure of the beloved disciple, Jesus presents each
of his disciples to his Mother when he says to her: Behold your
Son (cf. Jn 19:26-27).
Today Mary dwells in the joy and the glory of the Resurrection.
The tears shed at the foot of the Cross have been transformed
into a smile which nothing can wipe away, even as her maternal
compassion towards us remains unchanged. The intervention of the
Virgin Mary in offering succour throughout history testifies to
this, and does not cease to call forth, in the people of God, an
unshakable confidence in her: the Memorare prayer expresses this
sentiment very well. Mary loves each of her children, giving
particular attention to those who, like her Son at the hour of
his Passion, are prey to suffering; she loves them quite simply
because they are her children, according to the will of Christ
on the Cross. The psalmist, seeing from afar this maternal bond
which unites the Mother of Christ with the people of faith,
prophesies regarding the Virgin Mary that “the richest of the
people … will seek your smile” (Ps 44:13). In this way, at the
instigation of the inspired word of Scripture, Christians have
always sought the smile of Our Lady, this smile which medieval
artists were able to represent with such marvellous skill and to
show to advantage. This smile of Mary is for all; but it is
directed quite particularly to those who suffer, so that they
can find comfort and solace therein. To seek Mary’s smile is not
an act of devotional or outmoded sentimentality, but rather the
proper expression of the living and profoundly human
relationship which binds us to her whom Christ gave us as our
Mother.
To wish to contemplate this smile of the Virgin, does not mean
letting oneself be led by an uncontrolled imagination. Scripture
itself discloses it to us through the lips of Mary when she
sings the Magnificat: “My soul glorifies the Lord, my spirit
exults in God my Saviour” (Lk 1:46-47). When the Virgin Mary
gives thanks to the Lord, she calls us to witness. Mary shares,
as if by anticipation, with us, her future children, the joy
that dwells in her heart, so that it can become ours. Every time
we recite the Magnificat, we become witnesses of her smile. Here
in Lourdes, in the course of the apparition of Wednesday 3 March
1858, Bernadette contemplated this smile of Mary in a most
particular way. It was the first response that the Beautiful
Lady gave to the young visionary who wanted to know who she was.
Before introducing herself, some days later, as “the Immaculate
Conception”, Mary first taught Bernadette to know her smile,
this being the most appropriate point of entry into the
revelation of her mystery. In the smile of the most eminent of
all creatures, looking down on us, is reflected our dignity as
children of God, that dignity which never abandons the sick
person. This smile, a true reflection of God’s tenderness, is
the source of an invincible hope.
Unfortunately we know only too well: the endurance of suffering
can upset life’s most stable equilibrium, it can shake the
firmest foundations of confidence, and sometimes even leads
people to despair of the meaning and value of life. There are
struggles that we cannot sustain alone, without the help of
divine grace. When speech can no longer find the right words,
the need arises for a loving presence: we seek then the
closeness not only of those who share the same blood or are
linked to us by friendship, but also the closeness of those who
are intimately bound to us by faith. Who could be more intimate
to us than Christ and his holy Mother, the Immaculate One? More
than any others, they are capable of understanding us and
grasping how hard we have to fight against evil and suffering.
The Letter to the Hebrews says of Christ that he “is not unable
to sympathize with our weaknesses; for in every respect he has
been tempted as we are” (cf. Heb 4:15). I would like to say,
humbly, to those who suffer and to those who stru ggle and are
tempted to turn their backs on life: turn towards Mary! Within
the smile of the Virgin lies mysteriously hidden the strength to
fight against sickness, in support of life. With her, equally,
is found the grace to accept without fear or bitterness to leave
this world at the hour chosen by God.
How true was the insight of that great French spiritual writer,
Dom Jean-Baptiste Chautard, who in "L’âme de tout apostolat,"
proposed to the devout Christian to gaze frequently “into the
eyes of the Virgin Mary”! Yes, to seek the smile of the Virgin
Mary is not a pious infantilism, it is the aspiration, as Psalm
44 says, of those who are “the richest of the people” (verse
13). “The richest”, that is to say, in the order of faith, those
who have attained the highest degree of spiritual maturity and
know precisely how to acknowledge their weakness and their
poverty before God. In the very simple manifestation of
tenderness that we call a smile, we grasp that our sole wealth
is the love God bears us, which passes through the heart of her
who became our Mother. To seek this smile, is first of all to
have grasped the gratuitousness of love; it is also to be able
to elicit this smile through our efforts to live according to
the word of her Beloved Son, just as a child seeks to elicit its
mother’s smile by doing what pleases her. And we know what
pleases Mary, thanks to the words she spoke to the servants at
Cana: “Do whatever he tells you” (cf. Jn 2:5).
Mary’s smile is a spring of living water. “He who believes in
me”, says Jesus, “out of his heart shall flow rivers of living
water” (Jn 7:38). Mary is the one who believed and, from her
womb, rivers of living water have flowed forth to irrigate human
history. The spring that Mary pointed out to Bernadette here in
Lourdes is the humble sign of this spiritual reality. From her
believing heart, from her maternal heart, flows living water
which purifies and heals. By immersing themselves in the baths
at Lourdes, how many people have discovered and experienced the
gentle maternal love of the Virgin Mary, becoming attached to
her in order to bind themselves more closely to the Lord! In the
liturgical sequence of this feast of Our Lady of Sorrows, Mary
is honoured under the title of Fons amoris, “fount of love”.
From Mary’s heart, there springs up a gratuitous love which
calls forth a response of filial love, called to ever greater
refinement. Like every mother, and better than every mother,
Mary is the teacher of love. That is why so many sick people
come here to Lourdes, to quench their thirst at the “spring of
love” and to let themselves be led to the sole source of
salvation, her son Jesus the Saviour.
Christ imparts his salvation by means of the sacraments, and
especially in the case of those suffering from sickness or
disability, by means of the grace of the sacrament of the sick.
For each individual, suffering is always something alien. It can
never be tamed. That is why it is hard to bear, and harder still
– as certain great witnesses of Christ’s holiness have done – to
welcome it as a significant element in our vocation, or to
accept, as Bernadette expressed it, to “suffer everything in
silence in order to please Jesus”. To be able to say that, it is
necessary to have travelled a long way already in union with
Jesus. Here and now, though, it is possible to entrust oneself
to God’s mercy, as manifested through the grace of the sacrament
of the sick. Bernadette herself, in the course of a life that
was often marked by sickness, received this sacrament four
times. The grace of this sacrament consists in welcoming Christ
the healer into ourselves. However, Christ is not a healer in
the manner of the world. In order to heal us, he does not remain
outside the suffering that is experienced; he eases it by coming
to dwell within the one stricken by illness, to bear it and live
it with him. Christ’s presence comes to break the isolation
which pain induces. Man no longer bears his burden alone: as a
suffering member of Christ, he is conformed to Christ in his
self-offering to the Father, and he participates, in him, in the
coming to birth of the new creation.
Without the Lord’s help, the yoke of sickness and suffering
weighs down on us cruelly. By receiving the sacrament of the
sick, we seek to carry no other yoke that that of Christ,
strengthened through his promise to us that his yoke will be
easy to carry and his burden light (cf. Mt 11:30). I invite
those who are to receive the sacrament of the sick during this
Mass to enter into a hope of this kind. The Second Vatican
Council presented Mary as the figure in whom the entire mystery
of the Church is typified (cf. Lumen Gentium 63-65). Her
personal journey outlines the profile of the Church, which is
called to be just as attentive to those who suffer as she
herself was. I extend an affectionate greeting to those working
in the areas of public health and nursing, as well as those who,
in different ways, in hospitals and other institutions, are
contributing to the care of the sick with competence and
generosity. Equally, I should like to say to all the
hospitaliers, the brancardiers and the carers who come from
every diocese in France and from further afield, and who
throughout the year attend the sick who come on pilgrimage to
Lourdes, how much their service is appreciated. They are the
arms of the servant Church. Finally, I wish to encourage those
who, in the name of their faith, receive and visit the sick,
especially in hospital infirmaries, in parishes or, as here, at
shrines. May you always sense in this important and delicate
mission the effective and fraternal support of your communities!
And in this connection, I also greet and thank especially my
brothers in the episcopate, the French bishops, the foreign
bishops and the priests, all of whom are accompanying the sick
and suffering men of this world. Thank you for your service with
the suffering Lord.
The service of charity that you offer is a Marian service. Mary
entrusts her smile to you, so that you yourselves may become, in
faithfulness to her son, springs of living water. Whatever you
do, you do in the name of the Church, of which Mary is the
purest image. May you carry her smile to everyone!
To conclude, I wish to join in the prayer of the pilgrims and
the sick, and to pray with you a passage from the prayer to Mary
that has been proposed for this Jubilee celebration: “Because
you are the smile of God, the reflection of the light of Christ,
the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit, Because you chose
Bernadette in her lowliness, because you are the morning star,
the gate of heaven and the first creature to experience the
resurrection, Our Lady of Lourdes”, with our brothers and
sisters whose hearts and bodies are in pain, we pray to you!
© Copyright 2008 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana
Look
at the One they Pierced!
This page is the work of the Servants of the Pierced Hearts of Jesus and
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