616. December 3, Novena of the Immaculate Conception (IV)

Meditations no. 543 (unofficial computer-aided translation)

Mary constantly cares for the Church.

Today is the fourth day of the novena. We have been trying to stay very close to our Lady by putting special care into the Marian norms and renewing our apostolic eagerness. As our Father wrote, devotion to our Lady… awakens in Christians a supernatural desire to act as members of God’s household (Eph 2: 19).

Seeing how so many Christians express their affection for the Virgin Mary, you too surely feel more a part of the Church, closer to those brothers and sisters of yours.

It is like a family reunion. Grown-up children, whom life has separated, come back to their mother for some family anniversary. And even if they have not always got on well together, today things are different; they feel united, sharing in the same affection.

Our Lady has always attracted the hearts of Christians like a powerful magnet, uniting them closely to one another and drawing them to Jesus. Her quiet presence can be detected in every event in Christ’s life. It is easy to imagine how she would have prepared the items her Son needed for his apostolic journeys along the roads of Palestine in the company of the Twelve. Later on, when the drama of Calvary unfolded in all its bitter reality, Mary was present to help Jesus during his last moments on this earth. And her unshakable faith and hope brought strength to the apostles when the Body of her Son lay in the tomb.

Let’s turn now to the days between the ascension and Pentecost. As a result of the triumph of Christ’s resurrection, the disciples are full of faith; they eagerly await the promised Holy Spirit. They want to stay close to one another and we find them with Mary, the mother of Jesus (cf Acts 1: 14), praying as a single family.

It was St Luke who related this fact, the evangelist who gave us the longest account of Jesus’ childhood. It is as though he wished us to understand that even as Mary had a major role in the incarnation of the Word, she was intimately involved in the beginning of the Church, the Body of Christ.

Holy Mary teaches us to be concerned about others.

Mary continually builds up the Church and keeps it together. It is difficult to have devotion to our Lady and not feel closer to the other members of the mystical body and more united to its visible head, the Pope. That’s why I like to repeat: omnes cum Petro ad Iesum per Mariam!, may all of us go with Peter to Jesus through Mary! By seeing ourselves as part of the Church and united to our brothers in the faith, we understand more deeply that we are brothers of all mankind, for the Church has been sent to all of the peoples of the earth (cf Mt 28: 19).

The ideal of universal brotherhood, a dream for many here on this earth, has already been made a reality by Christ. By taking on our human nature in its entirety, along with all its limitations and weaknesses except for sin, our Lord has united himself to all mankind and to each individual, as the Fathers of the Church liked to stress. Christ’s incarnation, death and resurrection cured the deep wound inflicted on human nature by original sin, which is the ultimate cause of all disunion and enmity. Our Lord has done away with all the differences separating men from one another, making us through Baptism children of God and sharers in the divine sonship that he possesses in all of its fullness. There is no longer room for hatred or spite between men. For we are all truly brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus and children of holy Mary; we are bound together by ties of supernatural brotherhood much stronger than any purely natural bonds.

If we draw close to holy Mary as a small child, we won’t be able to think just about ourselves alone and our own problems. Selfish personal problems will find no place in our mind. Mary brings us to Jesus, and Jesus is the firstborn among many brothers (Rom 8: 29). And so, if we know Jesus, we realize that we can only live fully by giving ourselves to the service of others. A Christian can’t be caught up in personal problems; he must be concerned about the universal Church and the salvation of all souls.

Concern for one’s own spiritual improvement is not really a personal thing, for sanctification is completely bound up with apostolate. We must, therefore, develop our interior life and the Christian virtues with our eyes upon the good of the whole Church. We cannot do good and make Christ known, if we’re not making a sincere effort to live the teachings of the Gospel.

If we are imbued with this spirit, our conversations with God, even though they may begin on an apparently personal level, always reach out to the needs of those around us. And if we take our Lady’s hand, she will make us realize more fully that all men are our brothers-because we are all sons of the God whose daughter, spouse and mother she is.

Our neighbours’ problems must be our problems. Christian fraternity should be something very deep in the soul, so that we are indifferent to no one. Mary, who brought up Jesus and accompanied him through his life and is now beside him in heaven, will help us recognize Jesus as he crosses our path and makes himself present to us in the needs of our fellow men.

During these days Mary obtains special graces for our apostolic efforts.

Since all men and women form part of God’s family and have become his children in Christ Jesus, we cannot turn our backs on the needs of any of our brothers or sisters.

This is the example Jesus gives us in the Gospel. But we must open our eyes to this reality, and above all ask Christ’s help to imitate him. When we are truly sons of Mary, we understand this attitude of our Lord, and our heart expands and becomes tender. We feel the sufferings, doubts, loneliness and sorrow of all men, our brothers. And we urgently want to help them and speak to them about God, so that they can treat him as their father and understand the motherly care which Mary is offering them.

We cannot leave aside our apostolic concern even for a moment. It must always be the life of our life, our heart’s constant desire. Filling the world with light, being salt and light (Mt 5: 13-14)-that was how our Lord described the mission of his disciples. To bring to the ends of the earth the good news of God’s love. All of us Christians should devote our life to doing this, in one way or another.

I’ll go further than that. We have to yearn not to be alone. We have to encourage others to help in this divine task of bringing joy and peace to men’s hearts. As St Gregory the Great says: “Insofar as you progress, attract others to go along with you, desire to have companions on the road to the Lord” (Hom. in Evang. 6, 6).

Today is a good day for renewing our apostolic zeal and for refocusing the specific goals we set for ourselves at the start of the novena. Our Father reminds us of our Lord’s parable: the sower of weeds came while men slept (Mt 13: 25). We so easily allow ourselves to be carried away by the torpor of selfishness and superficiality, getting wrapped up in thousands of passing experiences, that we avoid coming to grips with the real meaning of the world and of life. A bad thing that lethargy, which smothers man’s dignity and makes him a slave of sadness!

There is one case that should especially hurt us: namely, that of Christians who could do more and don’t. Christians who could live all of the consequences of their vocation as children of God, but refuse to do so through lack of generosity. We are partly to blame, for the grace of faith has not been given us to hide but to share with other men (cf Mt 5: 15-16). We cannot forget that the happiness of these people, in this life and in the next, is at stake. The Christian life is a divine wonder with immediate promises of satisfaction and serenity-but on condition that we know how to recognize the gift of God (cf Jn 4: 10) and be generous, not counting the cost.

So we have to awaken the people who have fallen into the dangerous sleep our Lord mentioned. We must remind them that life is not something to play with-it is a divine treasure which must grow. We must also show the way to those who have good will and good desires, but don’t know how to put them into practice. Christ urges us. We each have to be not only an apostle, but an apostle of apostles, who draws others, encouraging them to make Jesus Christ known to everyone.

Let us place these desires of ours in Mary’s hands, and ask her help to put them into practice.