The presence of the Mother of God in our lives is closely
connected with the plan for sanctification and transformation
which the Father, in Christ, has for each of us. Christ’s words
“Behold your mother” (Jn 19, 27) are also the words of the
Father consigned with the Holy Spirit to every disciple.
The Blessed Virgin Mother has at heart our conversion which
naturally depends on a life of prayer which opens us to charity.
As at Cana, Mary intercedes for us as an Advocate of grace. In
the light of this episode like the servants we must be willing
to serve: we must bring our water to Jesus that He may change it
into wine. It is our nothingness, our poor humanity which
becomes “other”, richness of God multiplied to superabundance by
his almighty hand.
To change water into wine is not human it is divine. As at
Cana, for this “transforming miracle” to occur in our life the
presence of the Mother of Jesus is necessary. Mary was given to
us to welcome her into our heart like the beloved disciple who
took her into his home (cfr. Jn 19, 27b). Without this,
conscious, personal and growing presence of the Mother of the
Redeemer in our lives there can be no “miracle of Cana”, total
conversion to the Lord. The new wine, the best wine, which gives
a radically different taste to life, will only come if we accept
her intercession and do as Jesus tells us, doing it with Mary
who teaches us to have, as she did, full confidence in his Word.
Only then can we hear the whisper which illuminates our heart
with Mary’s legacy: “do whatever He tells you to do”.
Discreet and hidden, yet “powerful” is Mary’s presence on the
Heart of God in the “home” of every believer. This was
experienced by the Church from the beginning: Peter and the
others at Cana experienced the concern and love of that gaze and
those mysterious words (cfr. Jn 2, 3-5), between Christ and his
Mother; the apostles were aware of that perfect understanding,
that space of maternal mediation and never forgot its power.
They were both witnesses and guardians of an Event which the
Church continues to experience through the centuries: Mary’s
“powerful intercession”, her maternal mediation, which becomes
unceasing prayer for all our needs and everything obtains for
us, and more than anything, our authentic conversion, the
greatest miracle of our life, the most pleasing to God!
Mary’s maternity for every human person is an essential part
of Christianity which comes from the Heart of the Son who
confirmed it at the apex of the Redemption when, nailed to the
Cross with his last energy he cried out from his soul: “Behold
your mother”, and we, represented by John, are called to reply
“here I am Mother, I am yours”! In his historic comment on the
Gospel according to John Origin writes an unforgettable page on
the filial relationship with Jesus and Mary of the beloved
disciple and of every authentic Christian:«The first of all the
Scriptures are the Gospels, but the first of the Gospels is that
of John. It can be understood only by one who has rested on the
breast of Jesus and received from Jesus, Mary to be his mother.
So must we become if we wish to be another John whom - as with
John - Jesus can declare to be Jesus. If in fact… only Jesus is
the son of Mary, and Jesus says to his Mother: “Behold your
son”, it is as if he were saying: “Behold Jesus whom you
generated”. Since the perfect Christian lives no longer, Christ
lives in him; and if Christ lives in him, of every perfect
Christian we can say: “Behold Christ your son”».
Referring to Mary’s singular maternity in his homily during
Mass for the Solemnity of the Feast of Mary, Mother of God, Pope
Benedict XVI: “As Mother of Christ, Mary is also Mother of the
Church, which my venerable Predecessor, the Servant of God Paul
VI chose to proclaim on 21 November 1964 at the Second Vatican
Council. Lastly, Mary is the Spiritual Mother of all humanity,
because Jesus on the Cross shed his blood for all of us and from
the Cross he entrusted us all to her maternal care.” (1st
January 2007). (Agenzia Fides 17/1/2007, righe 50, parole 754)
