ENCYCLICAL LETTER
REDEMPTORIS MATER
Second Part
PART II - THE
MOTHER OF GOD AT THE CENTER OF THE PILGRIM CHURCH
1. The Church, the
People of God present in all the nations of the earth
25. "The Church 'like a pilgrim in a
foreign land, presses forward amid the persecutions of the world
and the consolations of God,'52
announcing the Cross and Death of the Lord until he comes (cf. 1
Cor. 11:26)."53
"Israel according to the flesh, which wandered as an exile in
the desert, was already called the Church of God (cf. 2 Esd.
13:1; Num. 20:4; Dt. 23:1ff.). Likewise the new Israel...is also
called the Church of Christ (cf Mt 16:18). For he has bought it
for himself with his blood (Acts 20:28), has filled it with his
Spirit, and provided it with those means which befit it as a
visible and social unity. God has gathered together as one all
those who in faith look upon Jesus as the author of salvation
and the source of unity and peace, and has established them as
Church, that for each and all she may be the visible sacrament
of this saving unity."54
The Second Vatican Council speaks of the
pilgrim Church, establishing an analogy with the Israel of the
Old Covenant journeying through the desert. The journey also has
an external character, visible in the time and space in which it
historically takes place. For the Church "is destined to extend
to all regions of the earth and so to enter into the history of
mankind," but at the same time "she transcends all limits of
time and of space."55
And yet the essential character of her pilgrimage is interior:
it is a question of a pilgrimage through faith, by "the power of
the Risen Lord,"56
a pilgrimage in the Holy Spirit, given to the Church as the
invisible Comforter (parakletos) (cf. Jn. 14:26; 15:26; 16:7):
"Moving forward through trial and tribulation, the Church is
strengthened by the power of God's grace promised to her by the
Lord, so that...moved by the Holy Spirit, she may never cease to
renew herself, until through the Cross she arrives at the light
which knows no setting."57
It is precisely in this ecclesial journey
or pilgrimage through space and time, and even more through the
history of souls, that Mary is present, as the one who is
"blessed because she believed," as the one who advanced on the
pilgrimage of faith, sharing unlike any other creature in the
mystery of Christ. The Council further says that "Mary figured
profoundly in the history of salvation and in a certain way
unites and mirrors within herself the central truths of the
faith."58
Among all believers she is like a "mirror" in which are
reflected in the most profound and limpid way "the mighty works
of God" (Acts 2:11).
26. Built by Christ upon the Apostles, the
Church became fully aware of these mighty works of God on the
day of Pentecost, when those gathered together in the Upper Room
"were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in
other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance" (Acts 2:4).
From that moment there also begins that journey of faith, the
Church's pilgrimage through the history of individuals and
peoples. We know that at the beginning of this journey Mary is
present. We see her in the midst of the Apostles in the Upper
Room, "prayerfully imploring the gift of the Spirit."59
In a sense her journey of faith is longer.
The Holy Spirit had already come down upon her, and she became
his faithful spouse at the Annunciation, welcoming the Word of
the true God, offering "the full submission of intellect and
will...and freely assenting to the truth revealed by him,"
indeed abandoning herself totally to God through "the obedience
of faith,"60
whereby she replied to the angel: "Behold, I am the handmaid of
the Lord; let it be to me according to your word." The journey
of faith made by Mary, whom we see praying in the Upper Room, is
thus longer than that of the others gathered there: Mary "goes
before them," "leads the way" for them.61
The moment of Pentecost in Jerusalem had been prepared for by
the moment of the Annunciation in Nazareth, as well as by the
Cross. In the Upper Room Mary's journey meets the Church's
journey of faith. In what way?
Among those who devoted themselves to prayer in the Upper Room,
preparing to go "into the whole world" after receiving the
Spirit, some had been called by Jesus gradually from the
beginning of his mission in Israel. Eleven of them had been made
Apostles, and to them Jesus had passed on the mission which he
himself had received from the Father. "As the Father has sent
me, even so I send you" (Jn. 20:21), he had said to the Apostles
after the Resurrection. And forty days later, before returning
to the Father, he had added: "when the Holy Spirit has come upon
you...you shall be my witnesses...to the end of the earth" (cf.
Acts 1:8). This mission of the Apostles began the moment they
left the Upper Room in Jerusalem. The Church is born and then
grows through the testimony that Peter and the Apostles bear to
the Crucified and Risen Christ (cf. Acts 2:31-34; 3:15-18;
4:10-12; 5:30-32).
Mary did not directly receive this
apostolic mission. She was not among those whom Jesus sent "to
the whole world to teach all nations" (cf. Mt. 28:19) when he
conferred this mission on them. But she was in the Upper Room,
where the Apostles were preparing to take up this mission with
the coming of the Spirit of Truth: she was present with them. In
their midst Mary was "devoted to prayer" as the "mother of
Jesus" (cf. Acts 1:13-14), of the Crucified and Risen Christ.
And that first group of those who in faith looked "upon Jesus as
the author of salvation,"62
knew that Jesus was the Son of Mary, and that she was his
Mother, and that as such she was from the moment of his
conception and birth a unique witness to the mystery of Jesus,
that mystery which before their eyes had been disclosed and
confirmed in the Cross and Resurrection. Thus, from the very
first moment, the Church "looked at" Mary through Jesus, just as
she "looked at" Jesus through Mary. For the Church of that time
and of every time Mary is a singular witness to the years of
Jesus' infancy and hidden life at Nazareth, when she "kept all
these things, pondering them in her heart" (Lk. 2:19; cf. Lk.
2:51).
But
above all, in the Church of that time and of every time Mary was
and is the one who is "blessed because she believed"; she was
the first to believe. From the moment of the Annunciation and
conception, from the moment of his birth in the stable at
Bethlehem, Mary followed Jesus step by step in her maternal
pilgrimage of faith. She followed him during the years of his
hidden life at Nazareth; she followed him also during the time
after he left home, when he began "to do and to teach" (cf. Acts
1:1) in the midst of Israel. Above all she followed him in the
tragic experience of Golgotha. Now, while Mary was with the
Apostles in the Upper Room in Jerusalem at the dawn of the
Church, her faith, born from the words of the Annunciation,
found confirmation. The angel had said to her then: "You will
conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his
name Jesus. He will be great...and he will reign over the house
of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there will be no end." The
recent events on Calvary had shrouded that promise in darkness,
yet not even beneath the Cross did Mary's faith fail. She had
still remained the one who, like Abraham, "in hope believed
against hope" (Rom. 4:18). But it is only after the Resurrection
that hope had shown its true face and the promise had begun to
be transformed into reality. For Jesus, before returning to the
Father, had said to the Apostles: "Go therefore and make
disciples of all nations . . . lo, I am with you always, to the
close of the age" (cf. Mt. 28:19-20). Thus had spoken the one
who by his Resurrection had revealed himself as the conqueror of
death, as the one who possessed the kingdom of which, as the
angel said, "there will be no end."
27. Now, at the first dawn of the Church,
at the beginning of the long journey through faith which began
at Pentecost in Jerusalem, Mary was with all those who were the
seed of the "new Israel." She was present among them as an
exceptional witness to the mystery of Christ. And the Church was
assiduous in prayer together with her, and at the same time
"contemplated her in the light of the Word made man." It was
always to be so. For when the Church "enters more intimately
into the supreme mystery of the Incarnation," she thinks of the
Mother of Christ with profound reverence and devotion.63
Mary belongs indissolubly to the mystery of Christ, and she
belongs also to the mystery of the Church from the beginning,
from the day of the Church's birth. At the basis of what the
Church has been from the beginning, and of what she must
continually become from generation to generation, in the midst
of all the nations of the earth, we find the one "who believed
that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from
the Lord" (Lk. 1:45). It is precisely Mary's faith which marks
the beginning of the new and eternal Covenant of God with man in
Jesus Christ; this heroic faith of hers "precedes" the apostolic
witness of the Church, and ever remains in the Church's heart
hidden like a special heritage of God's revelation. All those
who from generation to generation accept the apostolic witness
of the Church share in that mysterious inheritance, and in a
sense share in Mary's faith.
Elizabeth's words "Blessed is she who believed" continue to
accompany the Virgin also at Pentecost; they accompany her from
age to age, wherever knowledge of Christ's salvific mystery
spreads, through the Church's apostolic witness and service.
Thus is fulfilled the prophecy of the Magnificat: "All
generations will call me blessed; for he who is mighty has done
great things for me, and holy is his name" (Lk. 1:48-49). For
knowledge of the mystery of Christ leads us to bless his Mother,
in the form of special veneration for the Theotokos. But this
veneration always includes a blessing of her faith, for the
Virgin of Nazareth became blessed above all through this faith,
in accordance with Elizabeth's words. Those who from generation
to generation among the different peoples and nations of the
earth accept with faith the mystery of Christ, the Incarnate
Word and Redeemer of the world, not only turn with veneration to
Mary and confidently have recourse to her as his Mother, but
also seek in her faith support for their own. And it is
precisely this lively sharing in Mary's faith that determines
her special place in the Church's pilgrimage as the new People
of God throughout the earth.
28. As the Council says, "Mary figured
profoundly in the history of salvation.... Hence when she is
being preached and venerated, she summons the faithful to her
Son and his sacrifice, and to love for the Father."64
For this reason, Mary's faith, according to the Church's
apostolic witness, in some way continues to become the faith of
the pilgrim People of God: the faith of individuals and
communities, of places and gatherings, and of the various groups
existing in the Church. It is a faith that is passed on
simultaneously through both the mind and the heart. It is gained
or regained continually through prayer. Therefore, "the Church
in her apostolic work also rightly looks to her who brought
forth Christ, conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the
Virgin, so that through the Church Christ may be born and
increase in the hearts of the faithful also."65
Today, as on this pilgrimage of faith we
draw near to the end of the second Christian Millennium, the
Church, through the teaching of the Second Vatican Council,
calls our attention to her vision of herself, as the "one People
of God...among all the nations of the earth." And she reminds us
of that truth according to which all the faithful, though
"scattered throughout the world, are in communion with each
other in the Holy Spirit."66
We can therefore say that in this union the mystery of Pentecost
is continually being accomplished. At the same time, the Lord's
apostles and disciples, in all the nations of the earth, "devote
themselves to prayer together with Mary, the mother of Jesus"
(Acts 1:14). As they constitute from generation to generation
the "sign of the Kingdom" which is not of his world,67
they are also aware that in the midst of this world they must
gather around that King to whom the nations have been given in
heritage (cf. Ps. 2:8), to whom the Father has given "the throne
of David his father," so that he "will reign over the house of
Jacob for ever, and of his kingdom there will he no end."
During this time of vigil, Mary, through
the same faith which made her blessed, especially from the
moment of the Annunciation, is present in the Church's mission,
present in the Church's work of introducing into the world the
Kingdom of her Son.68
This presence of Mary finds many different
expressions in our day, just as it did throughout the Church's
history. It also has a wide field of action. Through the faith
and piety of individual believers; through the traditions of
Christian families or "domestic churches," of parish and
missionary communities, religious institutes and dioceses;
through the radiance and attraction of the great shrines where
not only individuals or local groups, but sometimes whole
nations and societies, even whole continents, seek to meet the
Mother of the Lord, the one who is blessed because she believed
is the first among believers and therefore became the Mother of
Emmanuel. This is the message of the Land of Palestine, the
spiritual homeland of all Christians because it was the homeland
of the Savior of the world and of his Mother. This is the
message of the many churches in Rome and throughout the world
which have been raised up in the course of the centuries by the
faith of Christians. This is the message of centers like
Guadalupe, Lourdes, Fatima and the others situated in the
various countries. Among them how could I fail to mention the
one in my own native land, Jasna Gora? One could perhaps speak
of a specific "geography" of faith and Marian devotion, which
includes all these special places of pilgrimage where the People
of God seek to meet the Mother of God in order to find, within
the radius of the maternal presence of her "who believed," a
strengthening of their own faith. For in Mary's faith, first at
the Annunciation and then fully at the foot of the Cross, an
interior space was reopened within humanity which the eternal
Father can fill "with every spiritual blessing." It is the space
"of the new and eternal Covenant,"69
and it continues to exist in the Church, which in Christ is "a
kind of sacrament or sign of intimate union with God, and of the
unity of all mankind."70
In the faith which Mary professed at the
Annunciation as the "handmaid of the Lord" and in which she
constantly "precedes" the pilgrim People of God throughout the
earth, the Church "strives energetically and constantly to bring
all humanity...back to Christ its Head in the unity of his
Spirit."71
2. The Church's journey and the unity of all Christians
29. "In all of Christ's disciples the
Spirit arouses the desire to be peacefully united, in the manner
determined by Christ, as one flock under one shepherd."72
The journey of the Church, especially in our own time, is marked
by the sign of ecumenism: Christians are seeking ways to restore
that unity which Christ implored from the Father for his
disciples on the day before his Passion: "That they may all be
one; even as you, Father, are in me, and I in you that they also
may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent
me" (Jn. 17:21). The unity of Christ's disciples, therefore, is
a great sign given in order to kindle faith in the world while
their division constitutes a scandal.73
The ecumenical movement, on the basis of a
clearer and more widespread awareness of the urgent need to
achieve the unity of all Christians, has found on the part of
the Catholic Church its culminating expression in the work of
the Second Vatican Council: Christians must deepen in themselves
and each of their communities that "obedience of faith" of which
Mary is the first and brightest example. And since she "shines
forth on earth,...as a sign of sure hope and solace for the
pilgrim People of God," "it gives great joy and comfort to this
most holy Synod that among the divided brethren, too, there are
those who live due honor to the Mother of our Lord and Savior.
This is especially so among the Easterners."74
30. Christians know that their unity will
be truly rediscovered only if it is based on the unity of their
faith. They must resolve considerable discrepancies of doctrine
concerning the mystery and ministry of the Church, and sometimes
also concerning the role of Mary in the work of salvation.75
The dialogues begun by the Catholic Church with the Churches and
Ecclesial Communities of the West76
are steadily converging upon these two inseparable aspects of
the same mystery of salvation. If the mystery of the Word made
flesh enables us to glimpse the mystery of the divine motherhood
and is, in turn, contemplation of the Mother of God brings us to
a more profound understanding of the mystery of the Incarnation,
then the same must be said for the mystery of the Church and
Mary's role in the work of salvation. By a more profound study
of both Mary and the Church, clarifying each by the light of the
other, Christians who are eager to do what Jesus tells them-as
their Mother recommends (cf. Jn. 2:5)- will be able to go
forward together on this "pilgrimage of faith." Mary, who is
still the model of this pilgrimage, is to lead them to the unity
which is willed by their one Lord and so much desired by those
who are attentively listening to what "the Spirit is saying to
the Churches" today (Rev. 2:7, 11, 17).
Meanwhile, it is a hopeful sign that these Churches and
Ecclesial Communities are finding agreement with the Catholic
Church on fundamental points of Christian belief, including
matters relating to the Virgin Mary. For they recognize her as
the Mother of the Lord and hold that this forms part of our
faith in Christ, true God and true man. They look to her who at
the foot of the Cross accepts as her son the beloved disciple,
the one who in his turn accepts her as his mother.
Therefore, why should we not all together look to her as our
common Mother, who prays for the unity of God's family and who
"precedes" us all at the head of the long line of witnesses of
faith in the one Lord, the Son of God, who was conceived in her
virginal womb by the power of the Holy Spirit?
31. On the other hand, I wish to emphasize
how profoundly the Catholic Church, the Orthodox Church and the
ancient Churches of the East feel united by love and praise of
the Theotokos. Not only "basic dogmas of the Christian faith
concerning the Trinity and God's Word made flesh of the Virgin
Mary were defined in Ecumenical Councils held in the East,"77
but also in their liturgical worship "the Orientals pay high
tribute, in very beautiful hymns, to Mary ever Virgin...God's
Most Holy Mother."78
The brethren of these Churches have
experienced a complex history, but it is one that has always
been marked by an intense desire for Christian commitment and
apostolic activity, despite frequent persecution, even to the
point of bloodshed. It is a history of fidelity to the Lord, an
authentic "pilgrimage of faith" in space and time, during which
Eastern Christians have always looked with boundless trust to
the Mother of the Lord, celebrated her with praise and invoked
her with unceasing prayer. In the difficult moments of their
troubled Christian existence, "they have taken refuge under her
protection,"79
conscious of having in her a powerful aid. The Churches which
profess the doctrine of Ephesus proclaim the Virgin as "true
Mother of God," since "our Lord Jesus Christ, born of the Father
before time began according to his divinity, in the last days,
for our sake and for our salvation, was himself begotten of
Mary, the Virgin Mother of God according to his humanity."80
The Greek Fathers and the Byzantine tradition contemplating the
Virgin in the light of the Word made flesh, have sought to
penetrate the depth of that bond which unites Mary, as the
Mother of God, to Christ and the Church: the Virgin is a
permanent presence in the whole reality of the salvific mystery.
The Coptic and Ethiopian traditions were
introduced to this contemplation of the mystery of Mary by St.
Cyril of Alexandria, and in their turn they have celebrated it
with a profuse poetic blossoming.81
The poetic genius of St. Ephrem the Syrian, called "the lyre of
the Holy Spirit," tirelessly sang of Mary, leaving a still
living mark on the whole tradition of the Syriac Church.82
In his panegyric of the Theotókos, St. Gregory of Narek, one of
the outstanding glories of Armenia, with powerful poetic
inspiration ponders the different aspects of the mystery of the
Incarnation, and each of them is for him an occasion to sing and
extol the extraordinary dignity and magnificent beauty of the
Virgin Mary, Mother of the Word made flesh.83
It
does not surprise us therefore that Mary occupies a privileged
place in the worship or the ancient Oriental Churches with an
incomparable abundance of feasts and hymns.
32.
In the Byzantine liturgy, in all the hours of the Divine Office,
praise of the Mother is linked with praise of her Son and with
the praise which, through the Son, is offered up to the Father
in the Holy Spirit. In the Anaphora or Eucharistic Prayer of St.
John Chrysostom, immediately after the epiclesis the assembled
community sings in honor of the Mother of God: "It is truly just
to proclaim you blessed, O Mother of God, who are most blessed,
all pure and Mother of our God. We magnify you who are more
honorable than the Cherubim and incomparably more glorious than
the Seraphim. You who, without losing your virginity, gave birth
to the Word of God. You who are truly the Mother of God."
These praises, which in every celebration of the Eucharistic
Liturgy are offered to Mary, have moulded the faith, piety and
prayer of the faithful. In the course of the centuries they have
permeated their whole spiritual outlook, fostering in them a
profound devotion to the "All Holy Mother of God."
33. This year there occurs the twelfth
centenary of the Second Ecumenical Council of Nicaea (787).
Putting an end to the wellknown controversy about the cult of
sacred images, this Council defined that, according to the
teaching of the holy Fathers and the universal tradition of the
Church, there could be exposed for the veneration of the
faithful, together with the Cross, also images of the Mother of
God, of the angels and of the saints, in churches and houses and
at the roadside.84
This custom has been maintained in the whole of the East and
also in the West. Images of the Virgin have a place of honor in
churches and houses. In them Mary is represented in a number of
ways: as the throne of God carrying the Lord and giving him to
humanity (Theotokos); as the way that leads to Christ and
manifests him (Hodegetria); as a praying figure in an attitude
of intercession and as a sign of the divine presence on the
journey of the faithful until the day of the Lord (Deesis); as
the protectress who stretches out her mantle over the peoples (Pokrov),
or as the merciful Virgin of tenderness (Eleousa). She is
usually represented with her Son, the child Jesus, in her arms:
it is the relationship with the Son which glorifies the Mother.
Sometimes she embraces him with tenderness (Glykophilousa); at
other times she is a hieratic figure, apparently rapt in
contemplation of him who is the Lord of history (cf. Rev.
5:9-14).85
It
is also appropriate to mention the icon of Our Lady of Vladimir,
which continually accompanied the pilgrimage of faith of the
peoples of ancient Rus'. The first Millennium of the conversion
of those noble lands to Christianity is approaching: lands of
humble folk, of thinkers and of saints. The Icons are still
venerated in the Ukraine, in Byelorussia and in Russia under
various titles. They are images which witness to the faith and
spirit of prayer of that people, who sense the presence and
protection of the Mother of God. In these Icons the Virgin
shines as the image of divine beauty, the abode of Eternal
Wisdom, the figure of the one who prays, the prototype of
contemplation, the image of glory: she who even in her earthly
life possessed the spiritual knowledge inaccessible to human
reasoning and who attained through faith the most sublime
knowledge. I also recall the Icon of the Virgin of the Cenacle,
praying with the Apostles as they awaited the Holy Spirit: could
she not become the sign of hope for all those who, in fraternal
dialogue, wish to deepen their obedience of faith?
34. Such a wealth of praise, built up by
the different forms of the Church's great tradition, could help
us to hasten the day when the Church can begin once more to
breathe fully with her "two lungs," the East and the West. As I
have often said, this is more than ever necessary today. It
would be an effective aid in furthering the progress of the
dialogue already taking place between the Catholic Church and
the Churches and Ecclesial Communities of the West.86
It would also be the way for the pilgrim Church to sing and to
live more perfectly her "Magnificat."
3. The "Magnificat"
of the pilgrim Church
35. At the present stage of her journey,
therefore, the Church seeks to rediscover the unity of all who
profess their faith in Christ, in order to show obedience to her
Lord, who prayed for this unity before his Passion. "Like a
pilgrim in a foreign land, the Church presses forward amid the
persecutions of the world and the consolations of God,
announcing the Cross and Death of the Lord until he comes."87
"Moving forward through trial and tribulation, the Church is
strengthened by the power of God's grace promised to her by the
Lord, so that in the weakness of the flesh she may not waver
from perfect fidelity, but remain a bride worthy of her Lord;
that moved by the Holy Spirit she may never cease to renew
herself, until through the Cross she arrives at the light which
knows no setting."88
The
Virgin Mother is constantly present on this journey of faith of
the People of God towards the light. This is shown in a special
way by the canticle of the "Magnificat," which, having welled up
from the depths of Mary's faith at the Visitation, ceaselessly
re-echoes in the heart of the Church down the centuries. This is
proved by its daily recitation in the liturgy of Vespers and at
many other moments of both personal and communal devotion.
"My soul magnifies the Lord,
and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for he has looked on his servant in her lowliness.
For behold, henceforth all generations
will call me blessed;
for he who is mighty has done great things for me,
and holy is his name:
and his mercy is from age to age
on those who fear him.
He has shown strength with his arm,
he has scattered the proud-hearted,
he has cast down the mighty from their thrones,
and lifted up the lowly;
he has filled the hungry with good things,
sent the rich away empty.
He has helped his servant Israel,
remembering his mercy,
as he spoke to our fathers,
to Abraham and to his posterity for ever." (Lk.1 :46-55)
36. When Elizabeth greeted her young
kinswoman coming from Nazareth, Mary replied with the Magnificat.
In her greeting, Elizabeth first called Mary "blessed" because
of "the fruit of her womb," and then she called her "blessed"
because of her faith (cf. Lk. 1:42, 45). These two blessings
referred directly to the Annunciation. Now, at the Visitation,
when Elizabeth's greeting bears witness to that culminating
moment, Mary's faith acquires a new consciousness and a new
expression. That which remained hidden in the depths of the
"obedience of faith" at the Annunciation can now be said to
spring forth like a clear and life-giving flame of the spirit.
The words used by Mary on the threshold of Elizabeth's house are
an inspired profession of her faith, in which her response to
the revealed word is expressed with the religious and poetical
exultation of her whole being towards God. In these sublime
words, which are simultaneously very simple and wholly inspired
by the sacred texts of the people of Israel,89
Mary's personal experience, the ecstasy of her heart, shines
forth. In them shines a ray of the mystery of God, the glory of
his ineffable holiness, the eternal love which, as an
irrevocable gift, enters into human history.
Mary is the first to share in this new
revelation of God and, within the same, in this new
"self-giving" of God. Therefore she proclaims: "For he who is
mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name." Her
words reflect a joy of spirit which is difficult to express: "My
spirit rejoices in God my Savior." Indeed, "the deepest truth
about God and the salvation of man is made clear to us in
Christ, who is at the same time the mediator and the fullness of
all revelation."90
In her exultation Mary confesses that she finds herself in the
very heart of this fullness of Christ. She is conscious that the
promise made to the fathers, first of all "to Abraham and to his
posterity for ever," is being fulfilled in herself. She is thus
aware that concentrated within herself as the mother of Christ
is the whole salvific economy, in which "from age to age" is
manifested he who as the God of the Covenant, "remembers his
mercy."
37. The Church, which from the beginning
has modelled her earthly journey on that of the Mother of God,
constantly repeats after her the words of the Magnificat. From
the depths of the Virgin's faith at the Annunciation and the
Visitation, the Church derives the truth about the God of the
Covenant: the God who is Almighty and does "great things" for
man: "holy is his name." In the Magnificat the Church sees
uprooted that sin which is found at the outset of the earthly
history of man and woman, the sin of disbelief and of "little
faith" in God. In contrast with the "suspicion" which the
"father of lies" sowed in the heart of Eve the first woman,
Mary, whom tradition is wont to call the "new Eve"91
and the true "Mother of the living,"92
boldly proclaims the undimmed truth about God: the holy and
almighty God, who from the beginning is the source of all gifts,
he who "has done great things" in her, as well as in the whole
universe. In the act of creation God gives existence to all that
is. In creating man, God gives him the dignity of the image and
likeness of himself in a special way as compared with all
earthly creatures. Moreover, in his desire to give God gives
himself in the Son, notwithstanding man's sin: "He so loved the
world that he gave his only Son" (Jn. 3:16). Mary is the first
witness of this marvelous truth, which will be fully
accomplished through "the works and words" (cf. Acts 1:1) of her
Son and definitively through his Cross and Resurrection.
The Church, which even "amid trials and
tribulations" does not cease repeating with Mary the words of
the Magnificat, is sustained by the power of God's truth,
proclaimed on that occasion with such extraordinary simplicity.
At the same time, by means of this truth about God, the Church
desires to shed light upon the difficult and sometimes tangled
paths of man's earthly existence. The Church's journey,
therefore, near the end of the second Christian Millennium,
involves a renewed commitment to her mission. Following him who
said of himself: "(God) has anointed me to preach good news to
the poor" (cf. Lk. 4:18), the Church has sought from generation
to generation and still seeks today to accomplish that same
mission.
The Church's love of preference for the poor is wonderfully
inscribed in Mary's Magnificat. The God of the Covenant,
celebrated in the exultation of her spirit by the Virgin of
Nazareth, is also he who "has cast down the mighty from their
thrones, and lifted up the lowly, ...filled the hungry with good
things, sent the rich away empty, ...scattered the
proud-hearted...and his mercy is from age to age on those who
fear him." Mary is deeply imbued with the spirit of the "poor of
Yahweh," who in the prayer of the Psalms awaited from God their
salvation, placing all their trust in him (cf. Pss. 25; 31; 35;
55). Mary truly proclaims the coming of the "Messiah of the
poor" (cf. Is. 11:4; 61:1). Drawing from Mary's heart, from the
depth of her faith expressed in the words of the Magnificat, the
Church renews ever more effectively in herself the awareness
that the truth about God who saves, the truth about God who is
the source of every gift, cannot be separated from the
manifestation of his love of preference for the poor and humble,
that love which, celebrated in the Magnificat, is later
expressed in the words and works of Jesus.
The Church is thus aware-and at the
present time this awareness is particularly vivid-not only that
these two elements of the message contained in the Magnificat
cannot be separated, but also that there is a duty to safeguard
carefully the importance of "the poor" and of "the option in
favor of the poor" in the word of the living God. These are
matters and questions intimately connected with the Christian
meaning of freedom and liberation. "Mary is totally dependent
upon God and completely directed towards him, and at the side of
her Son, she is the most perfect image of freedom and of the
liberation of humanity and of the universe. It is to her as
Mother and Model that the Church must look in order to
understand in its completeness the meaning of her own mission."93
This page is the work of the Servants of the Pierced Hearts of Jesus and
Mary
Copyright © 2006 SCTJM
