44. January 1, Mary, Mother of God

Meditations no. 39 (unofficial computer-aided translation)

Mary’s divine Motherhood: source of all her privileges.

Let us celebrate the Motherhood of the Blessed Virgin Mary and let us adore her Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. The Church invites us to consider the central mystery of Mary’s life: a gift more wonderful than words can describe, that of being the Mother of God. This is the source of all the prerogatives which God in his wisdom bestowed upon our Lady.

Like a vine I caused loveliness to bud, and my blossoms became glorious and abundant fruit. I am the mother of beautiful love, of fear, of knowledge, and of holy hope. The Church places these words from the Old Testament on Mary’s lips. They express amazement at the wonders God has worked. We too are filled with immense joy, and we exclaim with the Church: Mary gave birth to the king whose name is eternal; she united the joy of a mother with the honour of a virgin; such as this has never happened before, nor will it happen again.

Mary’s divine motherhood is a dogma of our Catholic faith. It was solemnly defined early in the Church’s history at the Council of Ephesus. On today’s feast we acknowledge Mary’s special dignity, which surpasses that of any other created person. We recognize her extraordinary privilege, and profess that the holy Virgin Mary is not only the Mother of Christ as Man, but also the Mother of God. Pope Pius XI wrote: Truly, since the Son of the Virgin Mary is God, she who bore him should rightly and deservedly be called Mother of God. Since the person of Jesus Christ is one and divine, surely Mary is to be called by all not only Mother of Christ the Man, but “Deipara”, or “Theotokos”, that is, Mother of God … Moreover, no one can reject this truth, handed down from the first ages of the Church, by saying that the Blessed Virgin Mary gave Jesus Christ a body, but did not engender the Word of the heavenly Father. For St Cyril in his day rightly and clearly answers that just as any other woman in whose womb a body, though not the soul, is engendered, is rightly called a mother, so Mary, by reason of the single person of her Son, is truly the Mother of God.

Our Father once said: I often had to prepare the commentary on the Gospel, especially in the early days of the Work. The Communion Antiphon of today’s Mass used to seem as sweet as honey to me: Beata viscera Marine Virginis quae portaverunt aeterni Patris Filium; blessed is the womb of the Virgin Mary which bore the Son of the eternal Father. It is an ancient acclamation, but it is still new. It may even seem in slightly poor taste, but it is splendid …

Aren’t you moved when you hear nice things said to your mother? Well, the same holds true with God. We cannot separate Jesus from his Mother.

The liturgy helps us contemplate this mystery hidden in God before all ages. As we admire her greatness, we say to our Lady: Blessed are you, Virgin Mary! You bore in your womb the Lord, the Creator of the world. You gave birth to him who made you, and you remain a virgin for ever.

Mary’s divine motherhood. How could she be more a Mother? Go to the Queen of heaven and earth - now in your personal prayer, and also later on throughout the day - and speak to the Mother and Lady of us all. You can say aspirations that recall the history and the prayer of the whole Work, and I would like you to repeat one aspiration in particular which seems harsh, but is really so gentle: Blessed be the Mother who brought you into the world!

The Blessed Virgin is Mother of Opus Dei and guides us on our way.

O God, you made Mary’s virginity fruitful, and so held out to mankind the reward of eternal salvation. Through her you gave us your Son to be the source of our life: grant that we may experience the power of her prayer for us.

The Collect of today’s Mass reminds us of the numerous graces God has given us through his Mother’s hands. Our Father spoke about this in a meditation he gave in 1964 on the feast of Mary’s divine Motherhood, which at that time was celebrated on 11 October. My children, you and I have often reflected on the fact that each step in the canonical journey of the Work has been taken under the protection of the Mother of God. Now, as we celebrate her divine Maternity, I cannot help recalling that the first time the Holy See officially laid its hands on the Work was on this feast day, many years ago.

I was very young, and your brother Álvaro, who was with me, said: “Father, you must be pleased that tomorrow is the feast of Our Lady of the Pillar.” And I replied: “All the feasts of the Blessed Virgin make me very happy; to me they’re all wonderful. But if I had to choose, I would prefer today’s, the feast of her Motherhood.” At that moment I was unaware that the Mother of God had interceded for this Work of God and that we had received our first approval.

Our Lady has shown such great care for Opus Dei! Throughout the life of the Work there has been an endless stream of graces and favours coming to us through her most powerful intercession. In me is all grace of the way and of the truth: in me is all hope of life and of virtue. Come to me, you who desire me, and eat your fill of my produce. For the remembrance of me is sweeter than honey, and my inheritance sweeter than the honeycomb. In all truth we can say that our Blessed Lady has been our great protector and our great recourse since 2 October 1928, and before that as well. Mother, we fly to your protection: sub tuum praesidium. Under that mantle - your mantle - we have grown, as little children grow in the arms of their mother.

As our Father recalled years ago in a meditation: I had a little statue of the Blessed Virgin which the communists stole from me during the war in Spain. I called it Our Lady of the Kisses. In the first residence which we had, I never went in or out without going to the Director’s room, where the image was, so I could give it a kiss. I don’t think I ever did so mechanically. My kisses were human kisses, the kisses of a son who was afraid… But since I’ve said so often that I’m not afraid of anyone or anything, let’s not say I was afraid. They were kisses from a son who felt far too young and who sought from our Lady all her tenderness and her affection. All the strength I needed, I sought from God through the Blessed Virgin.

From her came the sweet fragrance that attracted people and aroused God’s love in them. And it led them to dedicate themselves to serving God in the middle of the world, in their ordinary work - in their profession, in their job - bearing witness to Christ and thereby serving the Church and all souls without exception.

As we consider Mary’s motherly care, and discover her untiring and loving watchfulness over the Work, we give voice to heartfelt acts of thanksgiving. May all of us give thanks today to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This thanksgiving, the poor gratitude of someone who is proud and humbled, thankful and sorrowful, should pass through the hands of our Lady, my most holy Mother, who is the Mother of God and the Mother of every person. In a particular way she is the Mother of Opus Dei, and in a very special way she is the Mother of each one of us. This consideration should make us love our Lady even more.

Mary is also our Mother.

Besides being the Mother of God and Mother of the Work, our Lady is the Mother of each one of us. Mary is a Mother who loves us madly, cares for us, consoles us and encourages us to return to the Father’s house whenever we feel we are far from God.

Egredietur virga de radice Iesse, et flos de radice eius ascendet: there shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. Even though these words of Holy Scripture are a poetic way of describing Mary’s divine maternity, they are also a very real way of saying that in the depths of our heart, amid all the turbulence of our passions, she has not only caused that branch to grow; she has also produced fruit in the form of deeds which are rooted in Love. For on the road of Love which makes up our life, we do everything for Love, with a Love which isn’t diminished by our personal shortcomings.

Et requiescet super eum Spiritus Domini. And the Spirit of God shall rest upon him. Do you see how, although we have a poor and only approximate idea of our spiritual life - if it were an exact idea, it would be even poorer - we nevertheless have good will and a desire to amend, often for mistakes of little consequence? Do you see how God makes his divine Spirit rest on each of his children in Opus Dei?

Mary is always at our side, ready to intercede before her Son when we don’t act as we should, provided we take refuge in her motherly affection. We appeal to our Lady in words taken from a hymn which Christians have addressed to her for centuries: Break the captives’ fetters, bring light to the blind, drive away our ills and ask every blessing for us. And we invoke her daily in the Preces: Recordare, Virgo Mater Dei, dum steteris in conspectu Domini, ut loquaris pro nobis bona. (Remember, Virgin Mother of God, while you stand in the sight of the Lord, to speak good things on our behalf. )

Our Father invites us to make a personal resolution: not to let anything human bother us, however serious it may appear, as long as we go to God through our Lady. And you know how we do so: through the Confidence and Confession. The result will be a haven of peace, and our Lord will smile at us, seeing the human way in which we act. And as he forgives us, he will think: this one has learned his lesson: now he’ll be more faithful to me.

Mary’s divine Motherhood: her special Motherhood towards the Work, and her very special Motherhood towards each of God’s children in Opus Dei. Gratias tibi, Deus, gratias tibi: vera et una Trinitas, una et summa Deitas, sancta et una Unitas. (Thank you, God, thank you: true and one Trinity, one God most high, holy and one Unity. )

If a little child does something wrong, breaking a valuable object, for instance, he sometimes tries to run away from his mother’s arms. He doesn’t realize that she doesn’t always want to catch him to spank him, but she wants to console him, to press him to her heart and smother him in kisses.

This is what I’m trying to tell you: trust God completely and make up your mind not to run away from him. The best sign that we’re not trying to escape is to be sincere in the Confidence, and clear in Confession. Don’t get all worked up when you have made a mistake - that wouldn’t be sorrow, but pride. Keep calm and return to your Father’s house; there we will always find the immense tenderness and understanding of our holy Mother Mary waiting for us.

Let us finish our prayer by thanking God once again through his Mother. Thank you, my God -Father, Son and Holy Spirit - because the piety, confidence and love which you have given us for the Mother of God, has met with a much greater response on her part. She knows the clay we are made of; she understands our defects; and after we have gone astray she has helped us, in that wonderfully gentle and affectionate manner of hers, to return to your Love.