J.M.J.
An Anniversary
Saint John Paul II wrote one encyclical
specifically about Our Lady, Redemptoris
Mater, dated March 25, 1987.
On this the thirtieth anniversary of its
publication, we especially recall The
Mother of the Redeemer for its
connection to the Marian Year of 1987.
Another important aspect of this
encyclical is its explanation of Marian mediation.
The Pontiff wrote: “In effect, Mary’s
mediation is intimately linked with her motherhood. It possesses a specifically
maternal character, which distinguishes it from the mediation of the other
creatures who in various and always subordinate ways share in the one mediation
of Christ, although her own mediation is also a shared mediation. In fact, while it is true that ‘no creature
could ever be classed with the Incarnate Word and Redeemer,’ at the same time ‘the
unique mediation of the Redeemer does not exclude but rather gives rise among
creatures to a manifold cooperation which is but a sharing in this unique
source.’ And thus ‘the one goodness of God is in reality communicated diversely
to his creatures.’” (38)
Being aware
of Our Lady’s motherhood and meditation allows us to understand better our need
to entrust ourselves to the Virgin-Mother. Again, the Bishop of Rome: “The
Marian dimension of the life of a disciple of Christ is expressed in a special
way precisely through this filial entrusting to the Mother of Christ, which
began with the testament of the Redeemer on Golgotha. Entrusting himself to
Mary in a filial manner, the Christian, like the Apostle John, ‘welcomes’ the
Mother of Christ ‘into his own home’ and brings her into everything that makes
up his inner life, that is to say into his human and Christian ‘I’: he ‘took
her to his own home.’ Thus the Christian seeks to be taken into that ‘maternal
charity’ with which the Redeemer’s Mother ‘cares for the brethren of her Son,’ ‘in whose birth and development she
cooperates’ in the measure of the
gift proper to each one through the power of Christ’s Spirit. Thus also is
exercised that motherhood in the Spirit which became Mary’s role at the foot of
the Cross and in the Upper Room.” (45)
Continuously,
we ask Mary to pray for us and for those entrusted to us. She is our Mother.
She is our Mediatrix. She is spes nostra—our
hope and that of the Mystical Body of Christ.
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