Behold
your mother
LETTER OF THE HOLY FATHER
POPE JOHN PAUL II
TO PRIESTS
FOR HOLY THURSDAY 1988
Dear Brothers in the Priesthood,
1. Today we all return to the Upper Room.
Gathering at the altar in so many places
throughout the world, we celebrate in a special
way the memorial of the Last Supper in the midst
of the community of the People of God whom we
serve. The words which Christ spoke on "the day
before he suffered" re-echo on our lips at the
evening liturgy of Holy Thursday as they do
every day; yet they do so in a particular way
since they refer back to that special evening
which is recalled by the Church precisely today.
Like our Lord, and at the same time in persona
Christi, we say the words: "Take this, all of
you, and eat it: this is my body....Take this,
all of you, and drink from it: this is the cup
of my blood." Indeed, the Lord himself commanded
us to do so, when he said to the apostles: "Do
this in memory of me" (Lk 22:19).
And as we do this, the whole mystery of the
Incarnation must be alive in our minds and
hearts. Christ, who on Holy Thursday announces
that his body will be "given up" and his blood
"shed," is the eternal Son, who "coming into the
world," says to the Father: "A body you prepared
for me....Behold, I come to do your will" (cf.
Heb 10:5-7).
It is precisely that Passover which is drawing
near, when the Son of God, as Redeemer of the
world, will fulfill the Father's will through
the offering and the immolation of his Body and
Blood on Golgotha. It is by means of this
sacrifice that he "entered once for all into the
Holy Place, taking...his own blood, thus
securing an eternal redemption" (Heb 9:12).
Indeed, this is the sacrifice of the "new and
everlasting" covenant. See how it is intimately
connected with the mystery of the Incarnation:
the Word who became flesh (cf. Jn 1:14)
immolates his humanity as homo assumptus in the
unity of the divine Person.
It is appropriate during this year, being lived
by the whole Church as a Marian Year, to recall
the reality of the Incarnation as it relates to
the institution of the Eucharist and also to the
institution of the Sacrament of the Priesthood.
The Incarnation was brought about by the Holy
Spirit when he came down upon the Virgin of
Nazareth and she spoke her fiat in response to
the angel's message (cf. Lk 1:38).
Hail, true Body, born of the Virgin Mary: you
truly suffered and were immolated on the cross
for man.
Yes, the same Body! When we celebrate the
Eucharist, through our priestly ministry there
is made present the mystery of the Incarnate
Word, the Son who is of one being with the
Father, who as a man "born of woman" is the Son
of the Virgin Mary.
2. There is no indication that the Mother of
Christ was present in the Upper Room at the Last
Supper. But she was present on Calvary, at the
foot of the cross, where as the Second Vatican
Council teaches, "she stood, in accordance with
the divine plan (cf. Jn 19:25), suffering
grievously with her only-begotten Son, uniting
herself with a maternal heart to his sacrifice,
and lovingly consenting to the immolation of
this victim which she herself had brought
forth."(1) How far the fiat uttered by Mary at
the annunciation had taken her!
When, acting in persona Christi, we celebrate
the sacrament of the one same sacrifice of which
Christ is and remains the only priest and
victim, we must not forget this suffering of his
Mother, in whom were fulfilled Simeon's words in
the Temple at Jerusalem: "A sword will pierce
through your own soul also" (Lk 2:35). They were
spoken directly to Mary forty days after Jesus'
birth. On Golgotha, beneath the cross, these
words were completely fulfilled. When on the
cross Mary's Son revealed himself fully as the
"sign of contradiction," it was then that this
immolation and mortal agony also reached her
maternal heart.
Behold the agony of the heart of the Mother who
suffered together with him, "consenting to the
immolation of this victim which she herself had
brought forth." Here we reach the high point of
Mary's presence in the mystery of Christ and of
the Church on earth. This high point is on the
path of the "pilgrimage of faith" to which we
make special reference in the Marian Year.(2)
Dear Brothers: who more than we has an absolute
need of a deep and unshakable faith-we, who by
virtue of the apostolic succession begun in the
Upper Room celebrate the sacrament of Christ's
sacrifice? We must therefore constantly deepen
our spiritual bond with the Mother of God who on
the pilgrimage of faith "goes before" the whole
People of God.
And in particular, when we celebrate the
Eucharist and stand each day on Golgotha, we
need to have near us the one who through heroic
faith carried to its zenith her union with her
Son, precisely then on Golgotha.
3. Moreover, has Christ not left us a special
sign of this? See how during his agony on the
cross he spoke the words which have for us the
meaning of a testament: "When Jesus saw his
mother, and the disciple whom he loved standing
near, he said to his mother, 'Woman, behold,
your son!' Then he said to the disciple,
'Behold, your mother!' And from that hour the
disciple took her to his own home" (Jn
19:26-27).
That disciple, the Apostle John, was with Christ
at the Last Supper. He was one of the "Twelve"
to whom the Master addressed, together with the
words instituting the Eucharist, the command:
"Do this in memory of me." He received the power
to celebrate the Eucharistic sacrifice
instituted in the Upper Room on the eve of the
passion, as the Church's most holy sacrament.
At the moment of death, Jesus gives his own
Mother to this disciple. John "took her to his
own home." He took her as the first witness to
the mystery of the Incarnation. And he, as an
evangelist, expressed in the most profound yet
simple way the truth about the Word who "became
flesh and dwelt among us" (Jn 1:14), the truth
about the Incarnation and the truth about
Emmanuel.
And so, by taking "to his own home" the Mother
who stood beneath her Son's cross, he also made
his own all that was within her on Golgotha: the
fact that she "suffered grievously with her
only-begotten Son, uniting herself with a
maternal heart in his sacrifice, and lovingly
consenting to the immolation of this victim that
she herself had brought forth." All this-the
superhuman experience of the sacrifice of our
redemption, inscribed in the heart of Christ the
Redeemer's own Mother-was entrusted to the man
who in the Upper Room received the power to make
this sacrifice present through the priestly
ministry of the Eucharist.
Does this not have special eloquence for each of
us? If John at the foot of the cross somehow
represents every man and woman for whom the
motherhood of the Mother of God is spiritually
extended, how much more does this concern each
of us, who are sacramentally called to the
priestly ministry of the Eucharist in the
Church!
The reality of Golgotha is truly an amazing one:
the reality of Christ's sacrifice for the
redemption of the world! Equally amazing is the
mystery of God of which we are ministers in the
sacramental order (cf. 1 Cor 4:1). But are we
not threatened by the danger of being unworthy
ministers? By the danger of not presenting
ourselves with sufficient fidelity at the foot
of Christ's cross as we celebrate the Eucharist?
Let us strive to be close to that Mother in
whose heart is inscribed in a unique and
incomparable way the mystery of the world's
redemption.
4. The Second Vatican Council proclaims:
"Through the gift and role of her divine
motherhood, by which the Blessed Virgin is
united with her Son,...she is also intimately
united with the Church. As St. Ambrose taught,
the Mother of God is a 'type' of the Church in
the matter of faith, charity and perfect union
with Christ. For in the mystery of the Church,
herself rightly called mother and virgin, the
Blessed Virgin stands out in eminent and
singular fashion as exemplar of both virginity
and motherhood."(3)
The Council text goes on to develop this
typological analogy: "The Church, moreover,
contemplating Mary's mysterious sanctity,
imitating her charity and faithfully fulfilling
the Father's will, becomes herself a mother by
faithfully accepting God's word. For by her
preaching and by Baptism, she brings forth to a
new and immortal life children who are conceived
of the Holy Spirit and born of God. The Church
herself is a virgin, who keeps whole and pure
the fidelity she has pledged to her Spouse." The
Church, therefore, "imitating the Mother of her
Lord, and by the power of the Holy Spirit,
preserves with virginal purity an integral
faith, a firm hope and a sincere charity."(4)
At the foot of the cross on Golgotha, "the
disciple took to his own home" Mary, whom Christ
had pointed out to him with the words, "Behold,
your mother." The Council's teaching
demonstrates how much the whole Church has taken
Mary into "the Church's own home," how
profoundly the mystery of this Virgin Mother
belongs to the mystery of the Church, to the
Church's intimate reality.
All this is of fundamental importance for all
the sons and daughters of the Church. It has
special significance for us who have been marked
with the sacramental sign of the priesthood
which, while being "hierarchical," is at the
same time "ministerial," in keeping with the
example of Christ, the first servant of the
world's redemption.
If everyone in the Church - the people who by
Baptism participate in Christ's priestly
function - possesses the common "royal
priesthood" of which the Apostle Peter speaks
(cf. 1 Pt 2:9), then all must apply to
themselves the words of the Conciliar
Constitution just quoted. But these words refer
in a special way to us.
The Council sees the Church's motherhood, which
is modelled on Mary's, in the fact that the
Church "brings forth to a new and immortal life
children who are conceived of the Holy Spirit
and born of God." Here we find echoed St. Paul's
words about "the children with whom I am again
in travail" (cf. Gal 4:19), in the same way as a
mother gives birth. When, in the Letter to the
Ephesians, we read about Christ as the Spouse
who "nourishes and cherishes" the Church as his
body (cf. 5:29), we cannot fail to link this
spousal solicitude on the part of Christ above
all with the gift of Eucharistic food, similar
to the many maternal concerns associated with
"nourishing and cherishing" a child.
It is worth recalling these scriptural
references, so that the truth about the Church's
motherhood, founded on the example of the Mother
of God, may become more and more a part of our
priestly consciousness. If each of us lives the
equivalent of this spiritual motherhood in a
manly way, namely, as a "spiritual fatherhood,"
then Mary, as a "figure" of the Church, has a
part to play in this experience of ours. The
passages quoted show how profoundly this role is
inscribed at the very center of our priestly and
pastoral service. Is not Paul's analogy on "pain
in childbirth" close to all of us in the many
situations in which we too are involved in the
spiritual process of man's "generation" and
"regeneration" by the power of the Holy Spirit,
the Giver of life? The most powerful experiences
in this sphere are had by confessors all over
the world-and not by them alone.
On Holy Thursday we need to deepen once again
this mysterious truth of our vocation: this
"spiritual fatherhood" which on the human level
is similar to motherhood. Moreover, does not God
himself, the Creator and Father, make the
comparison between his love and the love of a
human mother (cf. Is 49:15; 66:13)? Thus we are
speaking of a characteristic of our priestly
personality that expresses precisely apostolic
maturity and spiritual "fruitfulness." If the
whole Church "learns her own motherhood from
Mary,"(5) do we not need to do so as well? Each
of us, then, has to "take her to our own home"
like the Apostle John on Golgotha, that is to
say, each of us should allow Mary to dwell
"within the home" of our sacramental priesthood,
as mother and mediatrix of that "great mystery"
(cf. Eph 5:32) which we all wish to serve with
our lives.
5. Mary is the Virgin Mother, and when the
Church turns to Mary, figure of the Church, she
recognizes herself in Mary because the Church
too is "called mother and virgin." The Church is
virgin, because "she guards whole and pure the
faith given to the Spouse." Christ, according to
the teaching contained in the Letter to the
Ephesians (cf. 5:32), is the Spouse of the
Church. The nuptial meaning of redemption impels
each of us to guard our fidelity to this
vocation, by means of which we are made sharers
of the saving mission of Christ, priest, prophet
and king.
The analogy between the Church and the Virgin
Mother has a special eloquence for us, who link
our priestly vocation to celibacy, that is, to
"making ourselves eunuchs for the sake of the
kingdom of heaven." We recall the conversation
with the apostles, in which Christ explained to
them the meaning of this choice (cf. Mt 19:12)
and we seek to understand the reasons fully. We
freely renounce marriage and establishing our
own family, in order to be better able to serve
God and neighbor. It can be said that we
renounce fatherhood "according to the flesh," in
order that there may grow and develop in us
fatherhood "according to the Spirit" (cf. Jn
1:13), which, as has already been said,
possesses at the same time maternal
characteristics. Virginal fidelity to the
Spouse, which finds its own particular
expression in this form of life, enables us to
share in the intimate life of the Church, which,
following the example of the Virgin, seeks to
keep "whole and pure the fidelity she has
pledged to her Spouse."
By reason of this model-yes, of the prototype
which the Church finds in Mary-it is necessary
that our priestly choice of celibacy for the
whole of our lives should also be placed within
her heart. We must have recourse to this Virgin
Mother when we meet difficulties along our
chosen path. With her help we must seek always a
more profound understanding of this path, an
ever more complete affirmation of it in our
hearts. Finally, in fact, there must be
developed in our life this fatherhood "according
to the Spirit," which is one of the results of
"making ourselves eunuchs for the sake of the
kingdom of God."
From Mary, who represents the singular
"fulfillment" of the biblical "woman" of the
Proto-evangelium (cf. Gen 3:15) and of the Book
of Revelation (12:1), let us seek also a proper
relationship with women and the attitude toward
them shown by Jesus of Nazareth himself. We find
this expressed in many passages of the Gospel.
This theme is an important one in the life of
every priest, and the Marian Year impels us to
take it up again and to develop it in a special
way. By reason of his vocation and service, the
priest must discover in a new way the question
of the dignity and vocation of women both in the
Church and in today's world. He must understand
thoroughly what Christ intended to say to all of
us when he spoke to the Samaritan woman (cf. Jn
4:1-42); when he defended the adulteress
threatened with stoning (cf. Jn 8:1-11); when he
bore witness to her whose many sins were
forgiven because she had loved much (cf. Lk 7:6-
50); when he conversed with Mary and Martha at
Bethany (cf. Lk 10:38-42; Jn 11:1-44); and,
finally, when he conveyed to the women, before
others, "the Easter Good News" of his
resurrection (cf. Mt 28:9-10).
The Church's mission, from apostolic times, was
taken up in different ways by men and by women.
In our own times, since the Second Vatican
Council, this fact involves a new call addressed
to each one of us, if the priesthood which we
exercise in the different communities of the
Church is to be truly ministerial and by this
very fact effective and fruitful at the
apostolic level.
6. Meeting today, on Holy Thursday, at the
birthplace of our priesthood, we desire to read
its fullest meaning through the prism of the
Council teaching about the Church and her
mission. The figure of the Mother of God belongs
to this teaching in its entirety, as do the
reflections of the present meditation.
Speaking from the cross on Golgotha, Christ said
to the disciple: "Behold, your mother." And the
disciple "took her to his own home" as Mother.
Let us also take Mary as Mother into the
interior "home" of our priesthood. For we belong
to the "faithful in whose rebirth and
development" the Mother of God "cooperates with
a maternal love."(6) Yes we have, in a certain
sense, a special "right" to this love in
consideration of the mystery of the Upper Room.
Christ said: "No longer do I call you
servants..., but I have called you friends" (Jn
15:15). Without this "friendship" it would be
difficult to think that, after the apostles, he
would entrust to us the sacrament of his Body
and Blood, the sacrament of his redeeming death
and resurrection, in order that we might
celebrate this ineffable sacrament in his name,
indeed, in persona Christi. Without this special
"friendship" it would also be difficult to think
about Easter evening, when the Risen Lord
appeared in the midst of the apostles, saying to
them: "Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you
forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you
retain are retained" (Jn 20:22-23).
Such a friendship involves a commitment. Such a
friendship should instill a holy fear, a much
greater sense of responsibility, a much greater
readiness to give of oneself all that one can,
with the help of God. In the Upper Room such a
friendship has been profoundly sealed with the
promise of the Paraclete: "He will teach you all
things, and bring to your remembrance all that I
have said to you....He will bear witness to me,
and you also are witnesses" (Jn 14:26;
15:26-27).
We always feel unworthy of Christ's friendship.
But it is a good thing that we should have a
holy fear of not remaining faithful to it.
The Mother of Christ knows all this. She herself
has understood most completely the meaning of
the words spoken to her during his agony on the
cross: "Woman, behold, your son....Behold, your
mother." They referred to her and to the
disciple-one of those to whom Christ said in the
Upper Room: "You are my friends" (Jn 15:14);
they referred to John and to all those who,
through the mystery of the Last Supper, share in
the same "friendship." The Mother of God, who
(as the Council teaches) cooperates, with a
mother's love, in the rebirth and the training
of all those who become brothers of her Son-who
become his friends-will do everything in her
power so that they may not betray this holy
friendship. So that they may be worthy of it.
7. Together with John, the Apostle and
Evangelist, we turn the gaze of our soul towards
that "woman clothed with the sun," who appears
on the eschatological horizon of the Church and
the world in the Book of Revelation (cf.
12:1ff.). It is not difficult to recognize in
her the same figure who, at the beginning of
human history, after original sin, was foretold
as the Mother of the Redeemer (cf. Gen 3:15). In
the Book of Revelation we see her, on the one
hand, as the exalted woman in the midst of
visible creation, and on the other, as the one
who continues to take part in the spiritual
battle for the victory of good over evil. This
is the combat waged by the Church in union with
the Mother of God, her "model," "against the
world rulers of this present darkness, against
the spiritual hosts of wickedness," as we read
in the Letter to the Ephesians (6:12). The
beginning of this spiritual battle goes back to
the moment when man "abused his liberty at the
urging of personified Evil and set himself
against God and sought to find fulfillment apart
from God."(7) One can say that man, blinded by
the prospect of being raised beyond the measure
of the creature which he was (in the words of
the tempter: "you will become as God"; cf. Gen
3:5), has ceased to seek the truth of his own
existence and progress in Him who is "the
first-born of all creation" (Col 1:15), and has
ceased to give this creation and himself in
Christ to God, from whom everything takes its
origin. Man has lost the awareness of being the
priest of the whole visible world, turning the
latter exclusively towards himself.
The words of the Proto-evangelium at the
beginning of the Scriptures and the words of the
Book of Revelation at the end refer to the same
battle in which man is involved. In the
perspective of this spiritual battle which takes
place in history, the Son of the woman is the
Redeemer of the world. The redemption is
accomplished through the sacrifice in which
Christ-the Mediator of the new and eternal
covenant-"entered once for all into the Holy
Place...with his own blood," making room in the
"house of the Father"-in the bosom of the Most
Holy Trinity-for all "those who are called to
the eternal inheritance" (cf. Heb 9:12, 15). It
is precisely for this reason that the crucified
and risen Christ is "the high priest of the good
things to come" (Heb 9:11) and his sacrifice
means a new orientation of man's spiritual
history towards God-the Creator and Father,
towards whom the first-born of all creation
leads all in the Holy Spirit.
The priesthood, which has its beginning in the
Last Supper, enables us to share in this
essential transformation of man's spiritual
history. For in the Eucharist we present the
sacrifice of redemption, the same sacrifice
which Christ offered on the cross "with his own
blood." Through this sacrifice we too, as its
sacramental dispensers, together with all those
whom we serve through its celebration,
continually touch the decisive moment of that
spiritual combat which, according to the Books
of Genesis and Revelation, is linked with the
"woman." In this battle she is entirely united
with the Redeemer. And therefore our priestly
ministry too unites us with her: with her who is
the Mother of the Redeemer and the "model" of
the Church. In this way all remain united with
her in this spiritual battle which takes place
throughout the course of human history. In this
battle we have special part by virtue of our
sacramental priesthood. We fulfill a special
service in the work of the world's redemption.
The Council teaches that Mary advanced in her
pilgrimage of faith through her perfect union
with her Son unto the cross and goes before,
presenting herself in an eminent and singular
way to the whole People of God, which follows
the same path, in the footsteps of Christ in the
Holy Spirit. Should not we priests unite
ourselves with her in a special way, we who as
pastors of the Church must also lead the
communities entrusted to us along the path which
from the Upper Room of Pentecost follows Christ
throughout human history?
8. Dear Brothers in the Priesthood: as we come
together today with our Bishops in so many
different places on earth, it has been my wish
to develop in this annual letter precisely the
motif which also seems to me particularly linked
with the subject of the Marian Year.
As we celebrate the Eucharist at so many altars
throughout the world, let us give thanks to the
Eternal Priest for the gift which he has
bestowed on us in the Sacrament of the
Priesthood. And in this thanksgiving may there
be heard the words which the Evangelist puts on
Mary's lips on the occasion of her visit to her
cousin Elizabeth: "The Almighty has done great
things for me, and holy is his name" (Lk 1:49).
Let us also give thanks to Mary for the
indescribable gift of the priesthood, whereby we
are able to serve in the Church every human
being. May gratitude also reawaken our zeal! Is
it not through our priestly ministry that there
is accomplished what the next verses of Mary's
Magnificat speak of? Behold, the Redeemer, the
God of the cross and of the Eucharist, indeed
"lifts up the lowly" and "fills the hungry with
good things." He who was rich, yet for our sake
became poor, so that by his poverty we might
become rich (cf. 2 Cor 8:9), has entrusted to
the humble Virgin of Nazareth the admirable
mystery of his poverty which makes us rich. And
he entrusts the same mystery to us too through
the Sacrament of the Priesthood.
Let us unceasingly give thanks for this. Let us
give thanks with the whole of our lives. Let us
give thanks with all our strength. Let us give
thanks together with Mary, the Mother of
priests. "How can I repay the Lord for his
goodness to me? The cup of salvation I will
raise; I will call on the Lord's name" (Ps
115/116:12-13).
With fraternal charity I send to all my brothers
in the priesthood and in the episcopate, for the
day of our common celebration, my heartfelt
greetings and my Apostolic Blessing.
From the Vatican, on March 25, the Solemnity of
the Annunciation of the Lord, in the year 1988,
the tenth of my Pontificate.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NOTES
(1) Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen
Gentium, n. 58.
(2) Cf. Encyclical Letter Redemptoris Mater, n.
33: AAS 79 (1987), p. 402.
(3) Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen
Gentium, n. 63.
(4) Ibid., n. 64.
(5) Cf. Encyclical Letter Redemptoris Mater, n.
43: AAS 79 (1987), p. 420.
(6) Cf. Dogmatic Constitution of the Church,
Lumen Gentium, n. 63.
(7) Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the
Modern World, Gaudium et Spes, n. 13.
This page is the work of the Servants of the Pierced Hearts of Jesus and
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