Via Matrix
(With meditations taken from the book ‘Mary Mirror of the Church’ by Fr Raniero Cantalamessa- 1992)
Sr Chiara Benedicta
| INTRODUCTION Mary is not often referred to in the New Testament. Nevertheless we can notice that she was present at all the three of the events that form the Christian Mystery – The Incarnation; The Paschal Mystery and Pentecoste. The Incarnation, when the person of the Redeemer, God and Man, was formed; the Paschal Mystery, when he worked our redemption by destroying sin and renewing life; Pentecoste, when the Holy Spirit was given to make salvation the the Church operative and relevant. Mary was present at all the three of these events. She was present at the Incarnation because it came about in her womb. Her womb, said the Fathers of the Church was the loom, or workroom where the Holy Spirit wove the Word’s human form, the thalamus where God united Himself to humanity. She was present at the Paschal Mystery, because it is written, ‘Standing by the cross of Jesus was Mary his mother’ (Jn 19:25). And she was present at Pentecoste because it is written that the apostles ‘with one accord devoted themselves to prayer, with Mary, the mother of Jesus’ (Acts 1:14). Following Mary in each of these fundamental steps will help us to really and resolutely follow Christ so that we can live his entire mystery. |
VIA MATRIX
I
‘He is the one who is to save his people from their sins’ (Mt 1:21)
‘My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my saviour. Holy is His Name’ (Lk 1:46.49)
A reading from the Gospel of St. Matthew (1:18-24)
This is how Jesus Christ came to be born. His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph; but before they came to live together she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. Her husband Joseph; being a man of honour and wanting to spare her publicity, decided to divorce her informally. He had made up his mind to do this when the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, ‘Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because she has conceived what is in her by the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son and you must name him Jesus, because he is the one who is to save his people from their sins.’ Now all this took place to fulfil the words spoken by the Lord through the prophet: ‘The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son and they will call him Emmanuel, a name which means ‘God-is-with-us’. When Joseph woke up he did what the angel of the Lord had told him to do: he took his wife to his home
Meditation. At first glance, Mary’s act of faith was easy and could even be taken for granted. She was to become the mother of a king who would reign forever in the house of Jacob, mother of the Messiah! Wasn’t this the dream of every Hebrew girl? But this is a rather human and worldly way of reasoning. True faith is never a privilege or an honour: it means dying a little, and this was certainly true of Mary’s faith at that moment. First of all, God never deceives and never superstitiously extorts consent from his children by concealing the consequences from them of what they are taking on. We can see this in every great calling on God’s part. He forewarned Jeremiah, ‘They will fight against you,’ (Jer. 1:19) and to Ananias he said of Saul, ‘I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name’ (Acts 9:16). Would he have acted differently only with Mary for a mission such as hers? In the light of the Holy Spirit that accompanied God’s call, she certainly sensed that her path would be no different from that of all other ‘chosen ones’. In fact Simeon soon put this foreboding into words when he told her that a spear would pierce her soul. But even on a simply human level, Mary found herself in complete solitude. To whom could she explain what had taken place in her? Who would believe her when she said that the child she was carrying in her womb was the work of the Holy Spirit? This was something that had never taken place before and would never take place again. Undoubtedly Mary was well aware of what the law exacted if the signs of virginity were not found in a young woman at marriage: she would be brought to the door of her father’s house and be stoned to death by the men of her city. If believing is going forward along a path where all the warnings signs say, ‘Turn back, turn back,’ and if believing is doing something that will throw you completely in the arms of the absolute, then undoubtedly Mary was the believer ‘par excellence’ who can never be equalled. She really found herself completely thrown in the arms of the Absolute. She is the only one to have believed in a ‘situation of contemporaneity’ i.e. she believed while the event was taking place and prior to any confirmation by the event or by history. She believed in total solitude. Jesus said to Thomas, ‘Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe,’ (Jn. 20:29). Mary was the first to have believed without having seen.
‘He has come to the help of Israel His servant, mindful of his faithful love’ (Lk.1:54).
Gloria.
VIA MATRIX
II
‘…laid him in a manger because there was no room for them in the living-space’ (Lk 2:7)
‘My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my saviour. Holy is His Name’ (Lk 1:46.49)
A reading from the Gospel of St. Luke (2: 1-7)
Now it happened that at this time Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be made of the whole inhabited world. This census — the first — took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria, and everyone went to be registered, each to his own town. So Joseph set out from the town of Nazareth in Galilee for Judaea, to David’s town called Bethlehem, since he was of David’s House and line, in order to be registered together with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. Now it happened that, while they were there, the time came for her to have her child, and she gave birth to a son, her first-born. She wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger because there was no room for them in the living-space.
Meditation. The title ‘Mother of God’ speaks to us of God. What does this title of Mary’s tells us about God? It tells us first of all about God’s humility. God wanted to have a mother. And just think that the human mind has reached the point where certain scholars find it strange and almost offensive that a human being should have a mother because this means total dependence on someone else: it means that we are not self-made and cannot completely plan our existence ourselves. Man has always looked heavenward in search of God. He tries to build through his own ascetic or intellectual efforts a sort of pyramid, thinking that at the top of it he will find God or his equivalent, which in some religions is ‘nothingness’. And he doesn’t realize that God descended and overturned the pyramid; he placed himself at the base to take onto himself everything and everyone. God silently entered the womb of a woman. It is really the case to say that this is credible precisely because it is impossible; it is divine precisely because it is not what man would do. What a contrast to the God of the philosophers, what a comedown for human pride, and what an invitation to humility! God comes down into the very heart of matter, in the noblest sense indicating concreteness and reality. The God who became flesh in a woman’s womb is the same God who comes to us in the heart of matter, in the Eucharist. It is a unique economy and a unique style. St. Ireneaus was right in saying that he who doesn’t comprehend God’s birth of Mary cannot comprehend the Eucharist either. All of this proclaims better than any words could that the Christian God is grace and that his grace is received by gift and not by conquest.
‘He has come to the help of Israel His servant, mindful of his faithful love’ (Lk.1:54).
Gloria.
VIA MATRIX
III
‘…destined to be a sign that is opposed – and a sword will pierce your soul too’ (Lk 2:34-35)
‘My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my saviour. Holy is His Name’ (Lk 1:46.49)
A reading from the Gospel of St.Luke (2:22-38).
And when the day came for them to be purified in keeping with the Law of Moses, they took him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord observing what is written in the Law of the Lord: Every first-born male must be consecrated to the Lord- and also to offer in sacrifice, in accordance with what is prescribed in the Law of the Lord, a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons. Now in Jerusalem there was a man named Simeon. He was an upright and devout man; he looked forward to the restoration of Israel and the Holy Spirit rested on him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death until he had set eyes on the Christ of the Lord. Prompted by the Spirit he came to the Temple; and when the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the Law required, he took him into his arms and blessed God; and he said: Now, Master, you are letting your servant go in peace as you promised; for my eyes have seen the salvation which you have made ready in the sight of the nations; a light of revelation for the gentiles and glory for your people Israel. As the child’s father and mother were wondering at the things that were being said about him, Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, ‘Look, he is destined for the fall and for the rise of many in Israel, destined to be a sign that is opposed- and a sword will pierce your soul too — so that the secret thoughts of many may be laid bare.’
Meditation. In Jesus’ life, the Paschal Mystery did not begin when he was seized in the Garden, and its duration was not just the holy week. His whole life, from the moment John the Baptist greeted him as the Lamb of God, was a preparation for Easter. According to St. Luke’s Gospel, Jesus’ public life was a slow and relentless journey toward Jerusalem, where he would accomplish his exodus (Lk 9:31). The baptism in the Jordan anticipated Christ’s Passover because the Father’s word had then revealed to Jesus that he would be a suffering and rejected Messiah, just like the Servant of God mentioned in Isaiah. Parallel with the journey of the new obedient Adam, the journey of the new Eve developed. For Mary too, the Paschal Mystery began rather early. Simeon’s words on the sign of contradiction and the sword that would pierce her heart had already been a premonition, which Mary kept in her heart together with all the other words. Mary too had to go through her kenosis. Jesus’ kenosis consisted in this: instead of asserting his divine rights and prerogatives, he deprived himself, becoming a servant and appearing before all as a man just like any other man. Mary’s kenosis consisted in the fact that, instead of asserting her rights as the Messiah’s mother, she let herself be deprived and appeared before all as a woman just like any other woman. The fact that he was God’s son did not spare Christ all kinds of humiliations just as the fact of being God’s mother did not spare Mary all kinds of humiliations. Jesus said the ‘word’ is what God prunes with and cleans the branches. ‘You are made clean by the word’ (Jn. 15:3) and this is the way he ‘pruned’ his mother. Was this not, perhaps, precisely the sword that would one day pierce her heart, as Simeon had predicted?
‘He has come to the help of Israel His servant, mindful of his faithful love’ (Lk.1:54).
Gloria.
VIA MATRIX
IV
‘So Joseph got up and taking the child and his mother with him left that night for Egypt’ (Mt2: 14-15)
‘My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my saviour. Holy is His Name’ (Lk 1:46.49)
A Reading from the Gospel of St. Matthew (2:1-23)
After Jesus had been born at Bethlehem in Judaea during the reign of King Herod, suddenly some wise men came to Jerusalem from the east asking, ‘Where is the infant king of the Jews? We saw his star as it rose and have come to do him homage.’ When King Herod heard this he was perturbed, and so was the whole of Jerusalem. He called together all the chief priests and the scribes of the people, and enquired of them where the Christ was to be born. They told him, ‘At Bethlehem in Judaea, for this is what the prophet wrote: And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, you are by no means the least among the leaders of Judah, for from you will come a leader who will shepherd my people Israel.’ Then Herod summoned the wise men to see him privately. He asked them the exact date on which the star had appeared and sent them on to Bethlehem with the words, ‘Go and find out all about the child, and when you have found him, let me know, so that I too may go and do him homage.’ Having listened to what the king had to say, they set out. And suddenly the star they had seen rising went forward and halted over the place where the child was. The sight of the star filled them with delight, and going into the house they saw the child with his mother Mary, and falling to their knees they did him homage. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh. But they were given a warning in a dream not to go back to Herod, and returned to their own country by a different way. After they had left, suddenly the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, ‘Get up, take the child and his mother with you, and escape into Egypt, and stay there until I tell you, because Herod intends to search for the child and do away with him.’ So Joseph got up and, taking the child and his mother with him, left that night for Egypt, where he stayed until Herod was dead. This was to fulfil what the Lord had spoken through the prophet: I called my son out of Egypt. Herod was furious on realising that he had been fooled by the wise men, and in Bethlehem and its surrounding district he had all the male children killed who were two years old or less, reckoning by the date he had been careful to ask the wise men. Then were fulfilled the words spoken through the prophet Jeremiah: A voice is heard in Ramah, lamenting and weeping bitterly: it is Rachel weeping for her children, refusing to be comforted because they are no more. After Herod’s death, suddenly the angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, ‘Get up, take the child and his mother with you and go back to the land of Israel, for those who wanted to kill the child are dead.’ So Joseph got up and, taking the child and his mother with him, went back to the land of Israel. But when he learnt that Archelaus had succeeded his father Herod as ruler of Judaea he was afraid to go there, and being warned in a dream he withdrew to the region of Galilee. There he settled in a town called Nazareth. In this way the words spoken through the prophets were to be fulfilled: He will be called a Nazarene.
Meditation. We must acknowledge the great development there has been in devotion to Mary. Before Vatican Council II the fundamental category through which Mary’s greatness was explained was that of privilege or exemption. It was thought that she had been exempted not only from original sin and corruption (privileges which the Church defined in the Dogmas on the ‘Immaculate Conception’ and the ‘Assumption’) but it was even believed that Mary had been exempted from the pangs of childbirth, from fatigue, doubt, temptations, ignorance, and worst still – even from death. In fact some believed that Mary did not even die before being assumed to heaven. All these, it was reasoned, are consequences of sin, but Mary was sinless. They did not realise that instead of associating Mary with Jesus, they were totally dissociating her from him who although he was without sin, had wanted to experience all these things: fatigue, sorrow, anguish, temptation and death for our sake. Since Vatican Council II we no longer try to explain Mary’s unique sanctity so much through privileges as through faith. Mary advanced in her pilgrimage of faith. This does not diminish Mary’s greatness; rather it increases it beyond measure. Before God, the spiritual greatness of a person in this life is not measured so much by what God gives, as by what God asks of the person. And God asked a lot of Mary, more than any other person, even more than he asked of Abraham. In the New Testament there are very powerful statements about Jesus. One of these says that, ‘we have not a high priest in heaven who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sinning’ (Heb. 4:15); another statement tells us that ‘although he was a son he learned obedience through what he suffered’ (Heb. 5:8). If Mary followed her son in his kenosis, these words, due distinctions made, apply to her also and are the key to understanding her life. Although she was the mother, Mary learned obedience through what she suffered. ‘Learn’ in this context means what ‘know’ generally means in the Bible, i.e. the practical meaning of ‘experiencing’ or ‘relishing’. Jesus practiced obedience and grew in it because of what he suffered. An ever-greater spirit of obedience was necessary to overcome ever-greater trials and temptations to the supreme trial of death. Mary too learned obedience and faith: she grew in them through what she suffered, so that with all confidence we may say of her that we have a mother who is able to sympathize with our weaknesses, our fatigue and our temptations, one who was tempted as we are, yet without sinning.
‘He has come to the help of Israel His servant, mindful of his faithful love’ (Lk.1:54).
Gloria.
VIA MATRIX
V
‘…why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?’ But they did not understand what he meant (Lk 2:49-50).
‘My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my saviour. Holy is His Name’ (Lk 1:46.49)
A reading from the Gospel of St. Luke (2:41-51)
Every year his parents used to go to Jerusalem for the feast of the Passover. When he was twelve years old, they went up for the feast as usual. When the days of the feast were over and they set off home, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem without his parents knowing it. They assumed he was somewhere in the party, and it was only after a day’s journey that they went to look for him among their relations and acquaintances. When they failed to find him they went back to Jerusalem looking for him everywhere. It happened that, three days later, they found him in the Temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them, and asking them questions; and all those who heard him were astounded at his intelligence and his replies. They were overcome when they saw him, and his mother said to him, ‘My child, why have you done this to us? See how worried your father and I have been, looking for you.’ He replied, ‘Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?’ But they did not understand what he meant. He went down with them then and came to Nazareth and lived under their authority. His mother stored up all these things in her heart.
Meditation. In emphasizing that Jesus was found after three days Luke was perhaps already alluding to the Paschal Mystery of the death and resurrection of Christ. At any rate, this was certainly the beginning of paschal mystery of deprivation for the mother. In fact, what did he say to her when they found him? ‘’Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?’’ What mother would not be able to understand what Mary felt in her heart at these words! Why were you looking for me; words that placed a different will between Jesus and Mary, an infinitely more important will, making every other relationship secondary even his filial relationship with her. Even after these harsh words and which Mary did not understand, it is written that Mary was silent and ‘kept all these things in her heart’ (Lk. 2:51). The fact that Mary kept silent does not signify that everything was easy for her and that she did not have to overcome struggles, difficulties and darkness. She was exempt from sin but not from the struggle and difficulty in believing. If Jesus had to struggle and sweat blood to get his human will to adhere fully to the Father’s will, is it surprising that Mary had to face agony too? One thing however is certain: under no circumstances whatsoever, would Mary have wanted to turn back. When certain souls, led by God, along similar paths, are asked if they want to pray for it to end and go back to being as they once were, they immediately answer No! No matter how perturbed they are and, even at times, on the verge of apparent desperation.
‘He has come to the help of Israel His servant, mindful of his faithful love’ (Lk.1:54). Gloria.
VIA MATRIX
VI
‘Do whatever he tells you’ (Jn. 2:5-6)
‘My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my saviour. Holy is His Name’ (Lk 1:46.49)
A reading from the Gospel of St. John (2:1-12).
On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee. The mother of Jesus was there, and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited. And they ran out of wine, since the wine provided for the feast had all been used, and the mother of Jesus said to him, ‘They have no wine.’ Jesus said, ‘Woman, what do you want from me? My hour has not come yet.’ His mother said to the servants, ‘Do whatever he tells you.’ There were six stone water jars standing there, meant for the ablutions that are customary among the Jews: each could hold twenty or thirty gallons. Jesus said to the servants, ‘Fill the jars with water,’ and they filled them to the brim. Then he said to them, ‘Draw some out now and take it to the president of the feast.’ They did this; the president tasted the water, and it had turned into wine. Having no idea where it came from — though the servants who had drawn the water knew — the president of the feast called the bridegroom and said, ‘Everyone serves good wine first and the worse wine when the guests are well wined; but you have kept the best wine till now.’ This was the first of Jesus’ signs: it was at Cana in Galilee. He revealed his glory, and his disciples believed in him. After this he went down to Capernaum with his mother and his brothers and his disciples, but they stayed there only a few days.
Meditation. Mary is mentioned at Cana in Galilee right at the beginning of Jesus’ public life. We know the facts. No matter how we try to explain these words they still sound harsh and mortifying. Once again they seem to place a distance between Jesus and his mother. Toward his mother Jesus behaved like a clear-minded and demanding spiritual director who, having sensed he is dealing with an exceptional soul, does not allow the soul to waste time or to dwell on a lower level amidst natural sentiments and consolations. If he too is a holy man, he draws the soul on without rest toward total deprivation in view of union with God. Jesus taught Mary self-denial. He directs all his followers in all centuries through his Gospel, but he directed his mother personally and orally. On the one hand he let himself be led by the Father by means of the Spirit wherever the Father wanted: into the desert to be tempted, onto the mountain to be transfigured, to Gethsemane to sweat blood. He said, ‘I always do what is pleasing to Him’ (Jn. 8:29). On the other hand Jesus led Mary in the same ‘race’ to do the Father’s will. That’s why now that she is glorified in Heaven with her son, Mary can stretch out her hand to us and lead us, small as we are, to follow her, and say with much more right that the Apostle could, ‘Be imitators of me as I am of Christ’ (1 Cor. 11:1).
‘He has come to the help of Israel His servant, mindful of his faithful love’ (Lk.1:54).
Gloria.
VIA MATRIX
VII
‘Who is my mother, who are my brothers?’(Mt. 12:48)
‘My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my saviour. Holy is His Name’ (Lk 1:46.49)
A reading from the Gospel of St. Matthew (12:46-50)
He was still speaking to the crowds when suddenly his mother and his brothers were standing outside and were anxious to have a word with him. Someone said to him: Your mother and brothers are standing outside and want to speak to you. But to the man who told him this Jesus replied, ‘Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?’ And stretching out his hand towards his disciples he said, ‘Here are my mother and my brothers. Anyone who does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.’
Meditation. Mary’s divine maternity was also a human experience; there was a carnal aspect to it in the positive sense of the word. Jesus was her carnal son, her only treasure and her only support in life. But she had to renounce all that was humanly exciting in her calling. Her son himself saw to it that she gained no earthly benefit from her motherhood. Although she was his mother, she followed Jesus as if she were not. Once his ministry started, Jesus had nowhere to rest his head and Mary had nowhere to rest her heart. To her already material poverty Mary added a spiritual poverty to the highest degree. This spiritual poverty consisted in accepting total deprivation of all privileges, in not being able to count on anything, neither on the past nor the future nor relations nor promises, as if these were not her affair and had never taken place. St. John of the Cross called this the ‘Dark Night of the Memory’ and in talking about it he explicitly mentioned the Mother of God. It consists in forgetting oneself – or better, in being unable to recall the past, no matter how much one tries – and straining forward only toward God and living in pure hope. This is the true and radical poverty of spirit, which is rich only in God and even then is rich only in hope. St. Paul said it is living ‘forgetting what lies behind’ (Phil. 3:13).
‘He has come to the help of Israel His servant, mindful of his faithful love’ (Lk.1:54).
Gloria.
VIA MATRIX
VIII
‘Is not his mother the woman called Mary …’
and they would not accept him (Mt.13:55-56.57)
‘My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my saviour. Holy is His Name’ (Lk 1:46.49)
A reading from the Gospel of St. Matthew (13:53-58)
When Jesus had finished these parables he left the district; and, coming to his home town, he taught the people in their synagogue in such a way that they were astonished and said, ‘Where did the man get this wisdom and these miraculous powers? This is the carpenter’s son, surely? Is not his mother the woman called Mary, and his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Jude? His sisters, too, are they not all here with us? So where did the man get it all?’ And they would not accept him. But Jesus said to them, ‘A prophet is despised only in his own country and in his own house,’ and he did not work many miracles there because of their lack of faith.
Meditation. ‘Flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable’ (1 Cor. 15:50). The plan of grace is different from that of nature; what is eternal is different from what takes place in time. It is not possible to pass from one plan to the other painlessly and by straight forward evolution. There is an infinite leap in quality involved. This makes a break necessary, a death, so as to pass from one state to the other; something in the primary order must be disarranged to accede to this different and superior way of being. Mary’s maternity was also a temporal, very human experience that came about in flesh and blood. To become something eternal and spiritual, an event belonging only to the Kingdom, it had to pass through a death, as was the case of the sacred humanity of the Son before he was glorified and made a spiritual body. It is true that the spirit gives life, but it does so by first putting the flesh to death. Grace does not gently rest on nature like a lovely crown on the head. Nature must be re-moulded and spiritualized so as to be resurrected in grace. Jesus gave the example of the grain of wheat (Jn. 12:24). How has the grain of wheat sinned to deserve death in the earth? It hasn’t, but only by dying can it bear much fruit. Nature gives an even more striking example in the silkworm which is a formidable parable for spiritual life. When it has finished its work, the silkworm shrivels, locked in its cocoon, as if it were about to die. First the skin splits on its back; then amidst painful shudders and contractions, the worm gets rid of its old skin. With the skin all the rest cracks, the skullcap, jaws eyes, stomach. In the place of the worm there now appears an almond-shaped creature, round-shaped at one end and pointed at the other; this is the chrysalis, the stage between the worm and the moth. In about twenty days the enclosed insect is ready to escape. It makes an opening for itself by which the perfect moth comes fort, still moist and barely able to stand. It rests a little to gather strength, then pierces the cocoon and comes out into the light as a butterfly. What sin has the little silkworm committed to have to go through such a disaster? None at all. But first it crawled along the ground and now it flies; and in this delightful freedom it no longer even recalls its pain.
‘He has come to the help of Israel His servant, mindful of his faithful love’ (Lk.1:54).
Gloria.
VIA MATRIX
IX
Not even his brothers had faith in him (Jn. 7:5-6)
‘My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my saviour. Holy is His Name’ (Lk 1:46.49)
A reading from the Gospel of St. John (7:1-7)
After this Jesus travelled round Galilee; he could not travel round Judaea, because the Jews were seeking to kill him. As the Jewish feast of Shelters drew near, his brothers said to him, ‘Leave this place and go to Judaea, so that your disciples, too, can see the works you are doing; no one who wants to be publicly known acts in secret; if this is what you are doing, you should reveal yourself to the world.’ Not even his brothers had faith in him. Jesus answered, ‘For me the right time has not come yet, but for you any time is the right time. The world cannot hate you, but it does hate me, because I give evidence that its ways are evil.
Meditation: How did Mary react to the way the son and God himself dealt with her? We note that never was there the slightest hint of her will being in contrast with God’s; of objection or self-justification on Mary’s part; there was no attempt ever to get Jesus to change his mind. There was absolute docility. Here we see the unique personal holiness of the Mother of God, the highest marvel of grace. To realize this all we have to do is make a comparison with St. Peter. When Jesus informed Peter that in Jerusalem rejection, passion and death awaited him, Peter rebuked him and said, ‘God forbid Lord, this ahll never happen to you,’ (Mt. 16:22). He was worried about Jesus but also about himself. Mary wasn’t worried about herself. Mary remained in silence. Her answer to everything was her silence. Not a silence of withdrawal and sadness; there is in fact a silence which, in the inner self where God alone hears, is a din made by the old self. Mary’s silence was of another quality.
‘He has come to the help of Israel His servant, mindful of his faithful love’ (Lk.1:54). Gloria.
VIA MATRIX
X
‘Blessed the womb that bore you and the breast that fed you’ (But he replied, ‘More blessed still are those who hear the word of God and keep it) (Lk. 11:27-28)
‘My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my saviour. Holy is His Name’ (Lk 1:46.49)
A reading from the Gospel of St. Luke (11:27-28)
It happened that as he was speaking, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said, ‘Blessed the womb that bore you and the breast that fed you’. But he replied, ‘More blessed still are those who hear the word of God and keep it.’
Meditation. St.Luke relates of the woman who raised her voice in an enthusiastic outburst towards Jesus, excaliming, ‘‘Blessed the womb that bore you and the breast that fed you’. A compliment that would be enough on its own to make any mother happy, but Mary, if she was present or came to hear about it, could not dwell on these words long enough to relishe them because Jesus hastened to correct the woman at once and said, ‘‘More blessed still are those who hear the word of God and keep it.’ Are we therefore to think that Mary’s life was one constant affliction, a dismal life? On the contrary. Judging it in accordance with the life of the saints we must say that day by day Mary discovered a new kind of joy, with respect to the maternal joys of Bethlehem or Nazareth, when she pressed Jesus to her breast and he pressed himself to her breast. The joy of not doing her own will. The joy of believing. The joy of giving to God what is the most precious thing, just as, also in relation to God, there is greater joy in giving than in receiving. The joy of discovering a God whose ways are inaccessible and whose thoughts are not our thoughts but who, because of this, makes himself known for what he really is: God the Holy One. ‘Truly thou art a God who hidest himself, o God of Israel the Saviour’ (Is 45:15). You are a hidden and mysterious God! How well Mary must have understood this, and perhaps bowed her head in assent whenever she heard the Prophet’s words being procalimed in the synagogue or at home!
‘He has come to the help of Israel His servant, mindful of his faithful love’ (Lk.1:54). Gloria.
VIA MATRIX
XI
‘Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother’ (Jn. 19:25)
‘My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my saviour. Holy is His Name’ (Lk 1:46.49)
A reading from the Gospel of St. John (19:23-25).
When the soldiers had finished crucifying Jesus they took his clothing and divided it into four shares, one for each soldier. His undergarment was seamless, woven in one piece from neck to hem; so they said to one another, ‘Instead of tearing it, let’s throw dice to decide who is to have it.’ In this way the words of scripture were fulfilled: They divide my garments among them and cast lots for my clothes. That is what the soldiers did. Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Cleopas, and Mary of Magdala.
Meditation. In Psalm 22 uttered by Jesus on the cross, the psalmist says at a certain point, ‘Yet thou art who took me from the womb, thou didst keep me safe upon my mother’s breast’. How impressive it is to think that perhaps Jesus murmured these words to himself on the cross as the mother on whose breast he had safely rested stood there before him! It is true that Mary is mentioned where the cross and death of Jesus are concerned. But no mention is made of her at the resurrection. There is no trace in the Gospel of an apparition of the Risen Christ to his mother. It is John the Evangelist who told us of Mary beneath the cross. Now what does the cross of Christ and Calvary represent in St. John’s Gospel? The well-known answer is that it represents His Hour, the hour in which the Son of Man would be glorified; the hour for which he came into the world; he said to the Father, ‘Father, the hour has come, glorify thy son,’ (Jn. 17:1). And referring to his own death he said, ‘When you have lifted the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He’ (Jn. 8:27). The moment of death was, therefore, the moment in which the full glory of Christ and his divine sovereignty were revealed and he appears as the one who grants his spirit. In fact it is written, ‘For as yet the Spirit had not been given because Jesus was not yet glorified,’ (Jn. 7:39). Seen in this light the fact that the Fourth Gospel says nothing of an apparition of the Risen Christ to his mother does not seem relevant or odd. The Apostles discovered the resurrection of Christ at the dawn of the third day, but Mary had already discovered it when the resurrection dawned on the cross, when it was really ‘still dark’. Therefore in presenting Mary to us beneath the cross, John places her at the very centre of the Paschal Mystery. She was not only present at her son’s defeat and death, but also at his glorification. ‘We have seen his glory’ John exclaimed in the prologue, referring principally to the glory of the cross. Mary could have said the same; she too saw his glory, a glory so different, so new, with respect to any other humanly imaginable type of glory – she saw God’s glory, which is LOVE.
‘He has come to the help of Israel His servant, mindful of his faithful love’ (Lk.1:54). Gloria.
VIA MATRIX
XII
‘Woman this is your son …this is your mother’.
And from that hour the disciple took her into his home (Jn. 19:25-27)
‘My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my saviour. Holy is His Name’ (Lk 1:46.49)
A reading from the Gospel of St. John (19:25-27).
Seein his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing near her, Jesus said to his mother, ‘Woman, this is your son’. Then to the disciple he said, ‘This is your mother’. And from that hour the disciple took her into his home.
Meditation. Mary passed the last years of her life with John. What the Fourth Gospel says of Mary at Cana in Galilee and beneath the cross was written by someone who actually lived in the same house and it would be impossible not to admit the close relationship, if not the same identity, that existed between the disciple Jesus loved and the author of the Fourth Gospel. The words, ‘And the Word became flesh’ were written by someone living under the same roof as mary in whose womb this miracle had been fulfilled, or at least by someone who knew her and lived in the same environment with her. Who can tell what it meant to the disciple Jesus loved to have Mary with him in his home day and night, to eat with her, to have her listen to him when he spoke to his diciples, to celebrate the mystery of the Lord with her? Is it credible that Mary lived within the circle of the disciple Jesus loved without having had the slightest influence on the slow, intense and thorough work of meditation that went into the compilation of the Fourth Gospel? It seems that in ancient times Origen at least sensed the secret that lies behind this fact. In fact Origen wrote, ‘John’s is the first flowering of the Gospels, and anyone who has not rested his head on the heat of Jesus and had not been given mary as his mother could not grasp its meaning and depth. Whoever is to become a perfect disciple like John must become such, to be chosen, as it were, like John who is Jesus. If in fact, in the opinion of the well-meaning peple there is no other son of Mary besides Jesus, and yet Jesus said to his mother, ‘Behold your son,’ and not, ‘behold, this too is your son’, what does this mean if not, ‘This is Jesus whom you brought forth?’ In fact he who is perfect no longer lives, but Christ lives in him (Gal 2:20). And as Christ lives in him, when he is spoken of to Mary, it is said, ‘Behold your son’ meaning Christ’. This texts demonstrates that Origen, on the basis of the doctrine of the mystical body and the perfect Christian, who is another Christ, interpreted the words uttered by Jesus dying on the cross as having been addressed not only to John but to every diciple.
‘He has come to the help of Israel His servant, mindful of his faithful love’ (Lk.1:54). Gloria.
VIA MATRIX
XIII
‘It is fulfilled’ and bowing his head he gave up his spirit’ (Jn. 19:30)
‘My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my saviour. Holy is His Name’ (Lk 1:46.49)
A reading from the Godpel of St. John (19:28-30)
After this, Jesus knew that everything had now been completed and, so that the scripture should be completely fulfilled, he said: I am thirsty. A jar full of sour wine stood there; so, putting a sponge soaked in the wine on a hyssop stick, they held it up to his mouth. After Jesus had taken the wine he said, ‘It is fulfilled’; and bowing his head he gave up his spirit.
Meditation. There is no mention of Mary bewailing and lamenting beneath the cross, as there is of the women who accompanied Jesus along the way to Calvary. No words of hers have been transmitted to us, as for the finding in the Temple or at Cana in Galilee. Only her silence is transmitted to us. In Luke’s Gospel Mary was silent at the moment of the birth of Jesus and in John’s Gospel she was silent at the moment of the death of Jesus. In his first letter to the Corinthians St. Paul compared ‘the word of the cross and the wisdom of the world; i.e. the language of the cross and the language of human wisdom. The difference lies in the fact that the wisdom of the world is expressed through words and fine discourses, whereas the language of the cross is expressed through silence. The language of the cross is silence. Silence keeps the odours of sacrifice for God alone. It prevents suffering being dissipated and seeking for and finding its reward on this earth. The last thing Jesus did on the cross when he exclaimed ‘Father into thy hands I commit my spirit’ was to lovingly adore the Father’s will before passing into the darkness of death. Mary knew she must follow him even in this and so she too adored God’s inscrutable and Holy will before a dreadful solitude came upon her. A time comes in life when we need Mary’s faith and hope. When God no longer seems to listen to our supplications, when he seems to belie Himself and his promises, when he lets us experience defeat after defeat and the powers of darkness seem to triumph all around us and all becomes dark within, like the darkness that day ‘ever all the land’ (Mt. 27:45). When you are facing this hour remember Mary’s faith and you too cry out as others have done, ‘Father I no longer understand you, but I trust in you’. Perhaps God is asking us right now to sacrifice ‘our Isaac’ like Abraham. This is the occasion God is offering us to show him that he is dearer still, more so than his gifts, even than the work we are engaged in for him. God put Mary to the test on Calvary as he tested his people in the desert to know what was in their hearts (Dt. 8:2). And in Mary’s heart he discovered the same yes, amen, she uttered on the day of the annunciation, unshaken and even stronger. May he at such moments find our hearts ready to say yes and amen to him. As Mary stood close by the cross of Jesus, it’s as if by her actions she were continually repeating in silence ‘here I am my God, I am always here for you’. Humanly speaking there was every reason for Mary to cry out to God, ‘You have deceived me!’ or as the prophet Jeremiah one day cried out, ‘O Lord thou hast deceived me, and I was deceived’ (Jer. 20:7) and escape from Calvary. Instead she did not run away but remained there, standing, in silence and she thus became in a very special way a martyr of faith, a supreme testimony of trust in God after her son.
‘He has come to the help of Israel His servant, mindful of his faithful love’ (Lk.1:54). Gloria.
VIA MATRIX
XIV
With one heart all these joined constantly in prayer together with some women,
including Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers (Acts 1:14)
‘My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my saviour. Holy is His Name’ (Lk 1:46.49)
A reading from the Acts of the Apostles (1:12-14).
So from the Mount of Olives, as it is called, they went back to Jerusalem, a short distance away, no more than a Sabbath walk; and when they reached the city they went to the upper room where they were staying; there were Peter and John, James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot, and Jude son of James. All these joined in continuous prayer, together with several women, including Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.
Meditation: From the letters of the Apostles and especially from the greetings they end with, we know many of the men and women, their names and what they did, of the first Christian Community. We know Lydia, Aquila and Priscilla. Once a certain Mary is even referred to, but she was not the Lord’s mother. Of Mary, the mother of Jesus, there is no mention. She has sunk into the deepest silence. Mary, I like to say, was the first cloistered woman in the Church. Her life is now ‘hid with Christ in God’ (Col 3:3). Mary opened the way to the second calling in the Church, the hidden vocation of prayer, side by side with the Apostolic and active vocation. When the apostle received the Holy Spirit, they immediately went into the squares preaching: then they departed to found and guide Churches; they held trials, and even called a council. Of Mary there is no mention. Ideally she stayed in the cenacle with the women in prayer, thereby showing that activity, even if done for the Kingdom, is not everything in the Church and that it cannot do without those who pray and support it. Mary is the prototype of the praying Church. We do not know what Mary’s prayer life was like, but we can sense something of it from the knowledge of spiritual things we find in the lives of the saints. The saints, and especially the mystics, have described what happens in a soul when it has gone through the dark night of faith and has been completely transformed in Christ. The soul becomes a flame of love. According to St. Augustine life becomes just one holy desire. St. John of the Cross wrote a little poem called ‘The Canticle of the Soul Consumed with the Desire to see God’. Each verse of this canticle ends with the same refrain: ‘I die because I do not die’. At this point separation from God is much more painful and difficult for the soul to bear than separation from the body. An ancient Syrian mystic, expressing the same sentiments as St. John of the Cross said, ‘I am not fainting for the banquet but because I desire the spouse’. He meant that the soul does not year for heaven to receive its reward but simply out of pure love for God. Such is the longing and need at this point to be reunited with God and to possess Him totally that, as these saints said, it becomes a true martyrdom to go on living on this earth. The soul no longer understands why God wants to keep it distant from him in exile, as if he had completely forgotten it, while knowing it cannot go on living without him….. AMEN.
‘He has come to the help of Israel His servant, mindful of his faithful love’ (Lk.1:54). Gloria.