617. December 4, Novena of the Immaculate Conception (V)

Meditations no. 544 (unofficial computer-aided translation)

The spirit of the Work and spiritual childhood.

Before God, who is eternal, you are a smaller child than, in your sight, a two-year-old toddler is before you.

And besides being a child, you are a child of God. Don’t forget it.

The nearness of holy Mary’s great feast day invites us to consider once again this profound reality, since our Lady played an important role in our own birth to the life of grace. When Jesus talks to Nicodemus by night and says to him, Unless one is born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God, he is referring to a new birth that is brought about by grace and that makes us children of God. But Nicodemus fails to understand our Lord’s words and asks, How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born? This mysterious birth can only be understood in divine terms. It does not mean a loss of human maturity, but rather produces a spiritual maturity that leads to intimate union with God. The way of childhood. Abandonment. Spiritual childhood. All this is not utter nonsense, but a sturdy and solid Christian life, our Father wrote. Spiritual childhood is not spiritual foolishness or softness; it is a sane and forceful way which, due to its difficult easiness, the soul must begin and follow led by the hand of God.

One who sees himself as a child before God, realizes that he can do nothing on his own. The mystery of God’s paternity leads him to an unbounded trust in God and to a mistrust in his own powers. He abandons himself completely in God’s hands, which frees him from the complicated web woven by pride and makes him simple and open, and therefore better disposed for drawing close to God. Our Father wrote, Divine filiation is the foundation of the spirit of Opus Dei. All men are children of God. But a child can look upon his father in many ways. We must try to be children who realize that the Lord, by loving us as his children, has taken us into his house, in the middle of the world, to be members of his family, so that what is his is ours, and what is ours is his, and to develop that familiarity and confidence which prompts us to ask him, like children, for the moon!

A child of God treats the Lord as his Father. He is not obsequious and servile, he is not merely formal and well-mannered: he is completely sincere and trusting. Men do not scandalize God. He can put up with all our infidelities. Our Father in heaven pardons any offence when his child returns to him, when he repents and asks for pardon. The Lord is such a good Father that he anticipates our desire to be pardoned and comes forward to us, opening his arms laden with grace.

Filial conversation with holy Mary teaches us to be little and leads us to Jesus.

The mystery of Mary helps us see that to approach God we must become little. As Christ said to his disciples, Believe me, unless you become like little children again, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven (Mt 18: 3).

God has given us a mother in heaven so as to make the path of spiritual childhood easier for us. Holy Mary did not simply live on this earth for a short span of years, leaving later generations the memory of her exceptional destiny. Our Lady lives both in body and soul. She is the mother of our Christian life, the life we have received in Baptism. She is a mother whom we constantly need. We should go to her with complete trust, since on our own we are powerless in the supernatural life. We can do nothing without grace, which God gives us through Mary’s hands. In speaking of our Lady’s assumption St Bernard says, Our earth gave heaven a precious gift. Thus the human and the divine, the earthly and the heavenly, the lowly and the sublime were joined in friendly concord by giving and receiving. For the sublime fruit of the earth ascended to a place from which the most precious and perfect gifts descend.

Rising on high, the glorious Virgin dispenses blessings to men. How could she fail to do so. She lacks neither the power nor the will, since she is the queen of heaven and of mercy. Moreover, she is the mother of the only-begotten Son of God. Nothing can provide a better idea of her greatness, power and mercy than the thought of Mary’s heart being steeped in exquisite charity, since God’s own love rested bodily near it for nine months.

We will never penetrate deeply enough into the mystery of Mary’s motherly heart. From heaven she never ceases to watch over us. St John Damascene places on Mary’s lips the words, Even though I must go, I will not abandon you. I will help you even more through my intercession before God. With the assurance that we can count on our Mother’s help, we tread the road of life with confident steps. When close to her we more strongly experience our own divine sonship. Our awareness that we are Mary’s children and hence brothers of the incarnate Word is an inexhaustible source of calm, confidence and joy. And it is a pledge of the perfect union with Jesus that awaits us in heaven.

Our Father teaches us, If we want to understand Mary’s role in the Christian’s life and to feel attracted to her, to be in her company, we don’t need to go into the theological theory, even though it is an inexhaustible mystery that she is the Mother of God.

The Catholic faith sees Mary as a sign of God’s special love. God calls us his friends; his grace acts in us, winning us from sin, enabling us to reflect in some way the features of Christ, even though we are still wretched dirt. We are not stranded people whom God has promised to save. His salvation is already at work in us. In our relationship to God, we are not blind men yearning for light and crying in anguished darkness. We are children who know that our Father loves us.

Let us contemplate the Virgin Mary as she lovingly listens to us from heaven. What better way is there to reach Jesus? Who is there like our Mother to teach us to become little children before God?

Care in the Marian norms and customs.

“The beginning of the way, at the end of which you will find yourself completely carried away by love for Jesus, is a trusting love for Mary.” I wrote that many years ago, in the introduction to a short book on the rosary, and since then I have often experienced the truth of those words. I am not going to complete that thought here with all sorts of reasons. I invite you to discover it for yourself, showing your love for Mary, opening your heart to her, confiding to her your joys and sorrows, asking her to help you recognize and follow Jesus.

Ever since we first received our vocation to the Work we have learned how to draw close to our Lady as her children. We have so many devotions to our Lady spread throughout the day, from morning to night! our Father says. The Marian norms provide us with so many occasions to be with our Lady: contemplating the mysteries of the rosary, saying the Angelus, glancing at Mary’s picture and greeting her, praying aspirations and the three Hail Marys at night. These expressions of filial piety and affection are like those any good child would show his mother on earth. There are many other Marian devotions which I needn’t mention here. A Christian doesn’t need to live them all. (Growing in supernatural life is not a matter of piling one devotion on top of another. ) I would say, however, that anyone who doesn’t live some of them, who doesn’t express his love for Mary in some way, does not possess the fullness of the faith.

Those who think that devotions to our Lady are a thing of the past seem to have lost sight of the deep Christian meaning they contain. They seem to have forgotten the source from which they spring: faith in God the Father’s saving will; love for God the Son who really became man and was born of a woman; trust in God the Holy Spirit who sanctifies us with his grace.

During the novena to the Immaculate Conception we have an excellent opportunity for asking ourselves about how we fulfill the Marian norms in our plan of life. Do we live them devoutly and unhurriedly? Do we try to put love into each of them? Do we look for our Mother while we pray the Hail Marys of the rosary and while we contemplate the joys, sorrows and glories of her life? Do we fight against routine when we greet our Lady at midday, using the same words the archangel spoke at Nazareth?

During these days we will try to be more faithful to our Father’s advice: Stay very close to your Mother when you live the norms and customs, when you put our spirit into practice, when you carry out your apostolate and strive to spread your proselytistic fire. You should always be united to God, but seek union with God at your blessed Mother’s side. Our personal examination can lead to a renewed resolve to take better care of some particular Marian norm during the novena. Then we will be able to present a nice gift to our Mother on her feast day, offering it to her as a small child.