by Mr. Titus Menezes
May the name of our Lady be blessed through all generations and may she continue to intercede for the salvation of all mankind.
I believe my personal experience of the Lord was more through the intercession of our blessed mother. It was way back in the early 90s I had the opportunity of touring South India for an official trip and I found myself the grace to be at Vailankanni on August 15th – the feast of the Assumption, a month later I was in a retreat which was to foster a new relationship with her Son.
If there is one area in which the sects pounce upon us Catholics, it is the devotion to our Lady. They have a standard set of questions and when asked, we are not in a position to defend. While we know they have a wrong understanding on the subject, I can say the same about us. Both are at the two extremes. With so much of devotion happening to our Lady in the city, it seems she has overtaken reverence to the Trinity.
I will make an attempt to place things for you to reflect upon and to act, not to force a correction but help you understand in what way truly our lady can be honored. I would also use this as an opportunity for the study of the Word of God and so I have chosen the theme ‘do whatever he tells you’ Jn 2:5.
I am sure you have heard or read this Scripture passage over a hundred times. I will not read it but for the benefit of some will tell the story in a gist. Mary and Jesus were invited to a wedding banquet. In those times, wedding celebrations lasted a week or more. Unfortunately they ran out of wine. Some witty person said that the disciples of Jesus consumed all the wine and so it was but natural for Mary to approach Jesus to handle the situation. J. Jesus gave a very vague and somewhat insulting reply by calling her a woman instead of mom in front of others. But this did not affect Mary and she did not go hurt or crying from there. She put her faith to test and told the servants “Do whatever he tells you”. You know the miracle that followed – Jesus turned six jars of water into wine. This was the first of the miracles of Jesus.
Many of us recall this miracle occasionally may be just before a meal or at wedding celebrations. But let us ask ourselves is this really what John was interested in communicating to us through his gospel. Was there a deeper meaning to this entire miracle? This gospel was written in 90 AD i.e. nearly 60 years after the death of Jesus. None of the previous three gospels carried this story but John had it. To understand this miracle we need to go John 1:1.
John 1:1 - In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. While Matthew spoke of Joseph having a dream and Luke telling Mary had a vision, John goes right to the beginning of mankind. Jesus was present even before mankind was created. We read in one place Jesus told the scribes and Pharisees before Abraham was, I was.
So for our study let us consider this as Day 1.
John 1:29 - The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him and declared, "Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! Let us consider this as Day 2.John 1:35 - The next day John again was standing with two of his disciples. This would then be Day 3
John 1:43 - The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, "Follow me." This is Day 4
John 2:1 - On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there.
After Day 4, three more days, so in all how many days? SEVEN Days. Does this remind you of anything? Have you come across this number anytime before? YES – at creation.
God created mankind and he created Adam and Eve – the first man and first woman. The story then goes on to say that they were told not to eat the fruit of a tree but Eve listened to the words of the serpent and ate it and gave some to Adam. At that point the Lord God said the words captured in Genesis 3:15 - I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.” God was making a plan for the redemption of man at that point. He was talking of a woman and her son. This is the plan John wants to prove through this passage of the wedding at Cana.
We find the mention of the same words – a woman and her son in this passage. Jesus calls his mother ‘woman’. Mary is taking on the new role that God ordained at the fall of Adam and Eve. In this redemption plan, Mary is the new Eve and Jesus the new Adam. The first eve listened to the serpent. The new eve is going to listen to the Heavenly Father.
The miracle of turning water into wine has a more deeper meaning. It is turning of the ordinary to the extraordinary. Ezekiel 36:26 - A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.(NRSV)
You will no longer be plain water but I will put my Spirit in you to make a new wine, a new person. The content of wine is water and spirit. John the Baptist told – I baptize you with water but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit. This is what John wants to tell us through this passage. The time has come and God’s plan has been fulfilled in the coming of Jesus.
All these years we may have read this with what the physical eye could see. You can see the entire happenings with your spiritual eye for a deeper understanding of this miracle – the whole plan of salvation is encompassed in this story. John uses the perfect example of a wedding to show us the beginning of a new kingdom, a new family.
In this whole passage, one of the things that has always touched me has been Mary’s sensitivity and humility and firmness when she made the statement – do whatever he tells you. Mary moved the focus from herself to her son. She didn’t use her intelligence or experience or wisdom but she pointed rightly to her son.
At the Transfiguration we read in Luke 9:35 - Then from the cloud came a voice that said, "This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!"(NRSV) God the Father was pointing to His son – listen to Him, in other words – do whatever he tell you. Mary was only echoing the words of the Heavenly Father – listen to Him. And we see the result of listening to Him.
What were Mary’s words at the annunciation – May it be done to me according to Your word.
My thoughts were refreshed as I read this line over and over again. At the beginning of my spiritual journey where I was very hard-headed, stubborn (I don’t know if it has changed over the years) I had this dream wherein I was at one end, our lady in the middle but on the side looking at me and pointing her hands towards someone who was not seen. The way was clear between me and the unseen person. To put this dream into few words – she was saying the same thing to me – listen to Him.
We will now reflect at a few other points in the life of Mary.
The first question I have – who is the mother of God? Mary. How did she become the mother of God? And we will quote the story of the annunciation. In Luke 1:35 we read - The angel said to her, "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 holy; he will be called Son of God.(NRSV) Mary was on the way to motherhood the moment the Holy Spirit descended upon her. And the child to be born would be holy and His name would be Jesus.
Now the question to you all: Has the Holy Spirit come upon you? So, what have you conceived? What is the fruit of your spiritual womb having received the Holy Spirit in baptism?
Who did Jesus say was his mother, brother or sister? Luke 8:21 - But he said to them, "My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it." Matthew 12:50 - For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother." Jesus made it clear even then that physical relationship does not matter to Him at all. What matters is the spiritual relationship to the Father i.e. those who hear the Word of God and do it. It does not matter if you are a catholic or baptized Christian – what matters is hearing the Word of God and doing it.
When Mary greeted Elizabeth, Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and the child in her womb leaped with joy. The presence of the Holy Spirit in Mary caused a reaction in Elizabeth and the child in her womb.
Does the Holy Spirit present in us cause others to be filled with the Holy Spirit, to be joyous and happy or does it cause them to mourn and grieve?
The next question – which saint or prophet did Mary pray to? Then to whom did she pray? At that point in time there was no Jesus for her, probably she did not have a better understanding of the Holy Spirit as we have today, so she developed a relationship with Yahweh who was mentioned in all the Jewish books. Later Jesus would call Yahweh, Abba Father.
John 14:6 - Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. In other words Jesus said I am the way to the Father. Jesus came to glorify the Father and no other person. Mary prayed to the Father, Jesus prayed to the Father, Mary obeyed the will of the Father, so did Jesus. Read the life of saints and you will see the same pattern. We too, like Mary, need to get into a relationship with the Father.
For many of us our faith begins and ends in Mary. Just picture our own lives – we were brought up by our parents from infancy to adolescence to teenagers to youthfulness and finally to men and women. As years passed, we were no longer clinging to their dress and hands but grew on to maturity. Does that mean we have abandoned them? They have no role in our lives? They are very much a part of us always and we have the fondest of memories of those years.
So also in our spiritual lives, we were and are brought up with a lot of Marian spirituality but this is not the end. Our view, our faith should not end there but go beyond towards the Trinitarian spirituality. Marian spirituality is only the beginning, it is milk and we have to mature to be on solid food. Even though we are on solid food, we consume milk but milk alone is not sufficient for our survival.
The Church document Lumen Gentium 66 is very clear wrt devotion to the Trinity, to our Lady and to the saints. Worship or adoration given to the Trinity is called latria (The highest kind of worship, or that paid to God alone), to saints called dulia (the honour paid to the saints) and to our Lady hyperdulia (veneration offered to the Blessed Virgin Mary). The church honors Mary but does not worship her.
I have shown it at different levels and want you to realise the distance to be maintained between them. We have God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. There is no God the mother, in the sense, God the Father is both father & mother but there is no fourth person.
Does that mean that we should not pray to Mary? I have never once said this in my talk this evening but lets set things in its proper place. First things first! Our prayer should and always be directed to the Father. Jesus showed us this way – pray to your Father Mt 6: 6ff. Jesus did not say pray to me. Having prayed our prayer to the Father, we now join Mary in interceding for our needs. As St. Maximillian Kolbe, called an apostle of Mary spoke of the human soul as going with Mary to Christ, not going to Christ from Mary. He had very strong devotions to Mary and has written a lot about her but made it very clear in this one point of the position of the human race, Mary and the Trinity, with Mary to Christ.
Among the many statements on Mary, I found this statement of St. Pius X most appropriate with our theme. He said she was the "dispensatrix of all the gifts, and is the "neck" connecting the Head of the Mystical Body to the Members. All power flows through the neck. All controls are dispensed from the head to the body through the neck. This is such a beautiful picturisation of our theme this evening. Just imagine the neck telling the body – do whatever the head tells you. It just fits perfectly! The neck is still a part of the body, so the body together with the neck to the head. The Church with Mary to Christ!
We sing that hymn “Be with us Mary along the way to lead us to your Son Jesus.” If you have been having great devotion to Mary, you will see that each and every prayer leads us to Jesus. It does not end with Mary as we have made it to be.
Have you noticed how do the Perpetual Succor novena begin… Come Holy Ghost. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you. Mary was not on her own trip doing what she liked. She was wholly dependent on the Father. She tells the people to “do whatever He tells you”.
I want each one of us here to reflect on what we recite in the litany during rosary. Holy mother of God, mother of the Church – what I just shared with you.
Gate of Heaven – she is not the gate to heaven, she is the gate through which heaven entered the world
Ark of the covenant – in the OT, the ark carried the bread and the commandments. Mary was the carrier of the new covenant and the bread of life i.e. Jesus
You will see that each of these speaks about the glory of the Father. They don’t end in her. There is something much deeper which we need to reflect and realize.
In the final section, let us examine the life of Mary and the fruit and the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
Galatians 5:22-23 lists out nine fruits of the Holy Spirit i.e. love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. The Catholic Church adds three more to this list – goodness, modesty and chastity. It replaces love with charity.
Charity – this is not of giving alms to someone, it means reaching out to others in need at the cost of denying self. As soon as Mary was filled with the Holy Spirit, she made a visit to her cousin Elizabeth in haste/ immediate visit.
Joy – happiness is in the mind and is of a short duration but joy is deep down in the heart. There was nothing for Mary to feel joyous, she was actually in trouble because if anyone found out that she was carrying a child before marriage, she would be stoned to death but she sang the Magnificat.
- Luke 1:46-47 "My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,(NRSV)
Peace – I came across a very interesting statement – the day when power of love overcomes the love of power there will be peace. I am not talking of peace that the world gives but of the Holy Spirit. Mary had power in her hands – remember Hagar how she taunted Sarah but Mary channeled the power for good. When Simeon told her a sword would pierce her soul, she was not complaining or grumbling or murmuring. She was at peace and at the same time displaying the virtue of patience.
Patience – she was going with the plan God had worked out for her. The words of any was not going to give up. She stood at the foot of the cross – the sword was piercing her soul.
Kindness, gentleness, goodness – these were on display during her visit to Elizabeth as well as at the wedding in Cana. She was sensitive to the needs of the groom and the embarrassment that would follow. She could have said why should I bother, its none of my business but she was the good Samaritan that day.
Faithfulness – Mary was faithful to God in the sense she cooperated in His plan, at the same time she also knew that being found with a child would mean unfaithfulness to Joseph. And that is why she asked God how can this be since I am a virgin?
After the death of Jesus, she did not say its all over and go back to mourn and grieve her son. The bible tells us she was with the apostles and prayed. She was going to be someone special in the church to follow after Pentecost.
Self-control – there was no boasting or flaunting in Mary at any point in her life. Her son said certain things to her and any other person would have struck back but Mary pondered on these words. She knew how to keep quiet and we see the same attitude in her Son.
Generosity – a cheerful giver – Mary gave of whatever she had – her time to Elizabeth, her family needs but most of all she gave her son. She did not hold Him back and we all know what she got in return.
Modesty – the simplicity of Mary in words and deeds and thoughts
Chastity – the fruit of the Holy Spirit chastity is not about our physical nature but purity in thoughts for what originates from the thoughts will end up in actions. Never have we come across any negative thoughts or actions of Mary.
Going through struggles in our life let us ask a simple question – what would Mary do in such a situation? Did she fight for justice, did she enter into a debate? She pondered / reflected in all that was happening to her keeping in view the plan God had for her. She bore everything.
To summarise, follow Mary’s advice – do whatever He tells you and I can tell you my dear people of God you will not regret this decision. Truly if you want to honour Mary, listen to what she said do whatever He tells you. As we celebrate the feast of the nativity of our Lady, let our prayer be Mary our mother always lead us to the heart of Jesus to do the will of God the Father through the Power of His Spirit.