ARCHDIOCESE OF PHILADELPHIA

Praised be Jesus Christ!

Mary, Treasured by Christ, A Gift to the Church

"Behold, your Mother." These beautiful words, which were recorded by Saint John the Evangelist, were uttered from the lips of our suffering Lord as He hung dying on the cross. In the final moments of His Passion, Our Lord turned His mind and heart to His Mother. She had been a great treasure to Him throughout His life, and now at His moment of suffering, she was there attending to Him, present in His final agony. The abiding and loving presence of Mary in the life of Jesus was certainly one of the constant joys in His life and ministry.

Our Lord’s love for us was so abundant that in the midst of excruciating physical pain and great mental anguish, Jesus gave to us, through His beloved disciple John, the one who was a great consolation to Him in this world: His own Mother. What a refuge and help we have in Mary! Pope Benedict XVI has re-affirmed Mary’s motherhood. He writes, "[Our Lord] made her [Mary] our Mother when he said to the disciple and to all of us: ‘Behold, your Mother!’ We have a Mother in Heaven" (Pope Benedict XVI, Homily on the Solemnity of the Assumption, 2005). Mary, who was chosen from among all women to be a chief cooperator with God and Mother of Jesus, can now rightly be called: Our Blessed Mother.

Our Blessed Mother accompanies and sustains us in all the moments of our life, especially those times made particularly difficult by sickness, suffering, and set-backs. What a treasure she was to Her Son in His life! What a treasure she is to us in our life! Today, we celebrate Mary’s unfailing motherly care for us, which Christ so earnestly desires for us.

It is a particular joy to be here at the Immaculate Heart of Mary Shrine, widely known as the Blue Army Shrine, which is dedicated to promoting devotion to Our Lady of Fatima. It is a personal privilege to be here during this jubilee year in which we commemorate the 90th anniversary of the apparitions of Our Lady to three shepherd children in Fatima. I am especially pleased to be with you, the dedicated members of The World Apostolate of Fatima/The Blue Army, as you mark its sixtieth anniversary.

Today our hearts are filled with joy as we recall the miraculous events which occurred in 1917 in a quiet place called the Cova da Iria in the small town of Fatima. May 13th of that year marked the first of what was to be a series of six apparitions of Our Lady to a ten-year-old girl named Lucia and her two younger cousins: Jacinto, age 8, and Francisco, age 7. The beautiful Lady identified herself to the children as "Our Lady of the Rosary." During the apparitions, Our Lady, showing her motherly and solicitous care for all God’s children, invited the children to pray for sinners and for themselves. She encouraged them to undertake penances in reparation for offenses against God’s majesty and to pray the rosary in order to overcome the ultimate consequence of evil: punishment in the fires of hell and a life separated from God.

During the second apparition, which occurred on this day 90 years ago, Our Lady instructed the children to pray the Fatima prayer, which for many has become a part of their private recitation of the rosary: "O my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of hell. Lead all souls to heaven, help especially those in most need of Thy mercy." This beautiful prayer is simply a petition for Divine Mercy. It is an appeal to the One—born of the Virgin—who came that He might save all.

Mary: The Fulfillment of a Promise and our Model in Faith

Mary’s role and importance in the Church and in our life is underscored when we realize that she had been willed by God from the beginning. Shortly after the fall, our parents Adam and Eve were the recipients of a promise of victory over sin and death. Mary is prophesied in this promise (cf. Gen 3:15; Lumen Gentium, 55). Just as the first woman, Eve, had a role in the bringing about our mortality through sin, so too it was fitting that Mary, the new Eve, the woman "full of grace," should have a role in man’s redemption and new life won through obedience. Therefore, Saint Irenaeus can write, "The knot of Eve’s disobedience was untied by Mary’s obedience: what Eve bound through disbelief, Mary loosened by her faith" (Saint Irenaeus, Adv. Haer, II, 22, 4: PG 7, 959A). Mary is rightly celebrated as our model of perfect obedience in faith. Mary’s response to the angel is none other than total faithful commitment to God: "Be it done unto me according to thy word" (Lk 1: 38).

Mary: Prefigured in the Old Testament and our Model in Charity

The gift that Mary was to be to Our Lord, to the Church, and to us personally and individually was an integral part of God’s wise and loving plan of salvation. Mary was prefigured in the Old Testament in the Meeting Tent, the Ark of the Covenant, and the Temple. When the Ark of the Covenant or the Meeting Tent was overshadowed by the Spirit of God, God’s glory was made manifest to His people. In the new dispensation, Mary is now the new Meeting Tent, the new Ark of the Covenant, and the new Tabernacle of the Lord. Recall the words of the angel Gabriel to Mary: "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God" (Lk 1: 35). Mary lovingly accepted Jesus into her womb and her heart, thereby becoming the first tabernacle of Jesus in this world. Likewise, the beautiful Temple, which was the dwelling place of God on earth, points to Mary, the definitive Temple of the Holy Spirit.

All these salvific and sacred persons, events, and things of the Old Covenant find their deeper and fuller meaning in New Covenant established by Christ Jesus. Mary, promised and prefigured in the Old Testament, becomes for us a model of charity in her life which is witnessed by the Gospels. Let us look at three of many moments in Mary’s life which illustrate her life of charity. First, Scripture records that after learning of her elderly cousin Elizabeth’s condition, Mary set out in haste to the hill country to assist Elizabeth, who was with child (cf. Lk 1:39). Mary’s charitable response was service-oriented as recounted in the story of her Visitation. She set out to help another in need. Second, and later in time, at the Wedding Feast at Cana, Mary brings the needs of the young married couple to the Lord. She becomes, in a sense, the catalyst for Our Lord’s first public miracle: the miracle of turning the water in the jars into wine. The last words which Sacred Scriptures records of Mary’s are set at this Feast: "Do whatever He tells you" (Jn 2:5). Mary’s charity is ordered to doing the will of God. Third, in today’s Gospel, we witness Mary’s loving presence at the side of Our Lord during His Passion and Crucifixion. In these three moments—at the Visitation, at the Wedding Feast of Cana, and at the Cross—Mary is our model of Christian charity. Mary is chronicled in Scripture as the woman who attends to the needs of others.

Mary: A Woman of the New Order and our Model in Hope

In our first reading today, which is taken from the Book of Revelation, we read about a new heaven and new earth (cf. Rev. 21:1). The old is passing away. We also read about a new city—a new and holy Jerusalem. This city will be like a bride adorned for her bridegroom. The author of Revelation states that the One on the throne will say, "Behold I make all things new" (cf. Rev. 21:5). Indeed, the Lord is the One who makes all things new. The first recipient of God’s newness is Mary. Mary is now our new Eve; she is the new Meeting Tent; she is the new Ark of the Covenant; she is the new Temple. Mary, who follows Christ closely, is the first in the new order. In this new order, Mary can rightly be called both Virgin and Mother.

God’s grace has elevated Mary to a privileged place in salvation history. In the new order, Mary can be called the Immaculate Conception. As Pope Pius IX wrote: "The Most holy Virgin Mary was, in the first moment of her conception, by a unique gift of grace and privilege of Almighty God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Redeemer of mankind, preserved free from all stain of original sin" (Ineffabilis Deus [1854]). She is of the new order of men and woman who have been set free from sin by Christ’s redemption. As a consequence of her freedom from sin, Mary has been privileged to be assumed, body and soul, into heaven. As Pope Pius XII wrote: "Mary, the immaculate perpetually Virgin Mother of God, after the completion of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into the glory of heaven" (Munificentissimus Deus [1950]). She is our heavenly Mother who is preparing a place for her children in heaven. Thus, Mary is our guide in Christian hope.

Mary: Our Intercessor, Teacher and Mother

The Second Vatican Council taught: "The faithful must in the first place reverence the memory ‘of the glorious ever Virgin Mary, Mother of God and of our Lord Jesus Christ’" (LG 52). As the Mother of God, Mary transcends in dignity all created persons, both angels and men. The Council Fathers continue: "She is endowed with the high office and dignity of the Mother of the Son of God, and therefore she is also the beloved daughter of the Father and the temple of the Holy Spirit" (LG 53). Mary holds a pre-eminent role and profound importance in the life of Our Lord, in the life of the Church, and in our lives. Mary as our heavenly Mother is our powerful intercessor. Mary is also our sure moral guide. She is the one, who is "full of grace," and who through the exercise of the virtues of faith, hope and charity, teaches us the way to the Father through the Son and in the Holy Spirit. We can invoke and imitate her as Our Blessed Mother.

On this special jubilee day, as we recall with great joy the Marian apparitions at Fatima, we lift up our minds and hearts to our Lord Jesus Christ in heartfelt thanksgiving for the gift of our heavenly and Blessed Mother. Let us pray to Mary to assist us and to guide us daily in the way of prayer and penance, in the way of faith, hope and charity. And as an act of praise for God’s eternal plan to send us His Son conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary, I invite you on this day, dear friends, to renew in faith and love your own personal consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Mother of God and of our Lord Jesus Christ, and Mother of His Church. Amen.