INTRODUCTION
On 1st January 2002,
marking the Solemnity of the Mary, Mother of God, Pope John Paul II in his
homily had said, “If Jesus is Life, Mary is the Mother of Life. If Jesus is
Hope, Mary is the Mother of Hope. If Jesus is Peace, Mary is the Mother of
Peace, Mother of the Prince of Peace… Let us ask her to give us Jesus, ‘our full Blessing, in whom the
Father blessed all history once and for all’, making it become the
history of salvation.”
The above statement of Pope John Paul
II succinctly depicts the relationship between Mary and Christ, which is the
crux of the salvation of human race. Jesus is God-made-man and Mary is the Woman
that God made to be the Mother of His Son here on earth. She is given to us as
Mother at the foot of the Cross “…this is your mother” [St. John 19:27], and
she is the ‘Mother of all believers’ as Lumen
Gentium calls her and in fact she is the Mother of entire human race.
Expounding on that above exhortation
of Jesus from the Cross [St. Jn. 19:27], our former Rector Major Fr. Egidio
Vigano in his first letter to the Salesian Family, titled as “Mary is renewing the Salesian Family of Don
Bosco”, had said, “… we [Salesian Family] need to re-examine closely the
reality of Mary’s Spiritual Motherhood and live again the attitude and resolve
of that disciple… we must make the evangelist’s [St. John] affirmation our own
program of renewal, viz. ‘make a place
for Our Lady in our home’”.
The events of the Annunciation, the
Visitation and the Birth of Child Jesus and other narratives as mentioned in
the Gospels speak volumes of her faith and confidence in the Lord. In this
article I would like to delineate on the event of the ‘Wedding feast at Cana’
where her unwavering faith is highly remarkable in the Lord, of whom she spoke,
‘My soul glorifies the Lord…” and beautifully places her ‘pride’ in the human
history saying, “hence forth all generations call me blessed…”. This claim of
our Blessed Mother has been marvelously true over 2000 years.
Our father and founder Don Bosco
himself fondly took her as ‘Mother and Teacher’ from the time of his dream at
the age of nine and throughout his life implored her intercession as ‘Immaculate
Help of Christians’. Through the event of the ‘Wedding feast at Cana’, she
teaches us her sons and daughters to become ardent disciples of the Lord in our
faith-journey.
WEDDING FEAST AT CANA – A
TEACHER, HELPER AND INTERCESSOR
The event of ‘Wedding
Feast at Cana’ [in St. Jn. 2] signifies the unique role of Mother Mary, as
Helper, Intercessor and Teacher. The Gospel text goes along five themes:
I.
The Place that
Mother Mary has:
The text says, “There was
a wedding at Cana in Galilee and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus and his
disciples were also invited to the wedding.”
We notice that Mary seems
to dominate the scene in the wedding feast at Cana, and the presence of Jesus
is mentioned only as second. St. Thomas Aquinas, noting this says that at Cana
Mary is acting as the “go-between” in arranging a mystical marriage (Cf. Commentary
on John, 98; and 2,1, n.336, 338, and 343, 151-152). Hence in a way she almost
dominates the scene, and, once the Marriage is arranged, steps back, her final
words to us being, “Do whatever he tells you.”
II.
The Prayer
that Mother Mary makes:
The text says, “When the
wine ran short, the mother of Jesus said to him, ‘They have no wine.’”
We notice another central
role that Mary has: she is interceding here, she is praying for others to her
Son. Three significant qualities exemplify her prayer:
·
Her
discernment - She notices the
problem, probably even before the bridegroom and the marriage party. Indeed mothers
often notice the needs of their children before they do. But why didn’t Jesus
notice? Perhaps he did, and surely as God he knew. But he waits for us to ask.
Yes, God waits and expects us to ask. In such expectation and pleading God
teaches us that we must learn to depend on Him and learn habitually to bring Him
our many needs. The Book of James says, “You have not, because you ask not” [James
4:2].
·
Her diligence – It is explicitly clear that Mary is actually praying to her Son.
Rather than fret and be anxious she goes straightway to her Son out of love for
the couple ( and us as well) and trust in her Son. She sees the need and gets
right to the work of praying, of beseeching her Son.
·
Her deference - Mary does not tell Jesus what to do per se, but simply notes the
need: “They have no wine.” She is not directive, as if to say, “Here is my
agenda and solution for this problem, follow my plans exactly, just sing here
at the bottom of my plan for action.” Rather she simply observes the problem
and places it before her Son in confidence. He knows what to do and will decide
the best way to handle things.
Thus Mary is a model
of prayer for us. The Scriptures teach
that Mary is the quintessential woman of prayer, a model of prayer. She
not only intercedes for us, she teaches us how to pray.
III.
The Portrait
of Mother Mary:
The text says, Woman, how
does this concern of yours affect me? My hour has not yet come. His mother said
to the servers, “Do
whatever he tells you.”
We need to notice three
things about this brief dialogue between Mary and Jesus.
·
The Title of
Mary - Jesus calls her “Woman.”
In Jewish culture a man could well respectfully call a woman “Woman,” but it
was unheard of for a Son to call his mother “Woman.” In fact, in the Gospel
according to St. John, Jesus always calls his Mother, “Woman” and this in
fulfillment of Genesis 3:15 which says, “I
will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed;
he shall crush your head, while you strike at his heel.” And thus
Jesus is saying that Mary is the woman who is prophesied. Jesus is actually
exalting her: You are the woman who was prophesied. You are she from whose
“seed” comes forth the Son destined to destroy the power of Satan.
·
Mary is the
new Eve. For Jesus also calls her “Woman” at the foot of the Cross
wherein He is the New Adam, Mary is the New Eve, and the tree this time is the
Cross. And thus, just as we got into trouble by a man, a woman and tree, so now
we get out of trouble by the same path. Adam’s “no” and sin is reversed by
Jesus who saves us by his, “Yes.” Eve’s “No” is reversed by Mary’s “yes”.
·
The Tenacity
of Mary - Jesus says to his
mother, “What to me and to thee, Woman?” It appears that Jesus is expressing
resistance over His mother striving to involve Him in this matter. But Mary
does not seem to interpret it as resistance of Jesus, but stays in conversation
with Jesus and overcomes the ‘tension’ and we notice her tenacity.
To be tenacious means
to hold fast in spite of obstacles or discouragements. It is clear that Mother Mary does not give up,
and that she confidently expects the Lord to answer her favorably, “Do whatever
he tells you.”
·
The Trust of
Mary - She simply departs, telling the stewards, “Do whatever he tells
you.” She does not hover. She does not come back and check on the progress of
things. She does not seek to control or manipulate the outcome. She simply
leaves the scene and leaves it all to Jesus.
IV.
The power of
Mary’s prayer:
Whatever his initial
concerns regarding Mother Mary’s request, Jesus now goes to work:
Jesus told them, “Fill the jars with
water.” So they filled them to the brim. Then he told them, “Draw some out now
and take it to the headwaiter.” So they took it… “Everyone serves good wine
first, and then when people have drunk freely, an inferior one; but you have
kept the good wine until now.”
From the Gospel
narration it appears that Jesus produced almost 150 gallons of the best wine.
Mary’s prayer and tenacity have produced abundant results. Sometimes the Lord says wait, only to grant further abundance
[Cf. Isaiah 40:31]. Mary is not
merely an intercessor for us but also a model for us. We should persevere in
prayer and go to the Lord with confident expectation of His abundant response. “The effectual fervent prayer of a
righteous man avails much “[James 5:16].
V.
The product of
Mary’s prayer:
The text says, Jesus did this as the
beginning of his signs at Cana in Galilee and so revealed his glory and his
disciples began to believe in him.
The narration in the
Gospel mentions towards the end that many began to believe in the Lord this day on account of this
miracle. Mary’s essential role is to lead many souls to a deeper union with her
Son. And having led us, she instructs us, “Do whatever he tells you.” She
continued to hold up Christ for us to see throughout her life and at the foot
of the Cross after He is taken down.
Mary has a
special role in helping to initiate our faith and in helping by God’s grace to enable
Christ to be born in us and continues to assist us as the ‘Help of Christians’.
CONCLUSION
Immaculate Mary,
the Help of Christians:
“Immaculate Help of Christians” is the title
with which Don Bosco continually honored our Blessed Mother Mary. This is the
feast we shall be soon celebrating on 24th May. Don Bosco expressed
it to Fr. Cagliero, "the Madonna wishes us to honour her under the title
of "Help of Christians"; the times are so sad that we have real need
of the most holy Virgin's assistance in preserving and defending the Christian
faith". He affirms emphatically of the motherly intervention of Mary at
the beginning and early development of our Congregation and it continues
throughout human history.
In
the letter of AGC-414, written by our beloved Rector Major, Rev. Fr. Pascual
Chavez in August 2012, we read that he outlines the disturbing problems, evil
and the ‘culture of death’ present in the contemporary society and poses
serious threat to the Church and to Salesian Mission as well. He underscores
that Mother Mary, as a woman stands out as shining example. He explicates that
‘Mary Immaculate Help of Christians’ shows us the field of our mission and
continues to guide and support us in carrying it out. He poses a question, “what would Don Bosco do
today?” and he suggests the answer of Don Bosco himself, “If you have loved me
in the past, continue to love me in the future by the exact observance of our
Constitutions". In Article 8 we read, “…we believe that Mary is present
among us and continues her mission as Mother of the Church and Help of
Christians, we entrust ourselves to her, the humble servant in whom the Lord
has done great things, that we may become witnesses to the young of her Son’s
boundless love”.
It
is worth to reflect on the words of our Blessed Mother in her Magnificat, "… henceforth all generations
will call me blessed" [Lk. 1:48]. Commenting on this phrase from the
Magnificat, Pope Benedict XVI writes eloquently,
“The Church invented
nothing new of her own when she began to extol Mary; the Church does what she
must; she carries out the task assigned her from the beginning. While writing
this text [Lk. 1:48], Luke the Evangelist was already among the second
generation of Christianity, where Jews had been joined by that of the Gentiles,
who had been incorporated into the Church of Jesus Christ. The expression
"all generations, all families" was beginning to be filled with
historical reality. The Evangelist would certainly not have transmitted Mary's
prophecy if it had seemed to him an indifferent or obsolete item. He wished in
his Gospel to record "with care" what "the eyewitnesses and
ministers of the word" (Lk 1:2-3) had handed on from the beginning, in
order to give the faith of Christianity, which was then striding onto the stage
of world history, a reliable guide for its future course.”
We turn to Mary, our Mother because
the Lord had done most wonderful things in her life. She fully trusted God and
took pride in it as she said, “hence forth all generations will call me
Blessed”. As we turn to her and place ourselves under her Maternal Protection,
she teaches us as true mother, out of her own exemplary life as evinced in the
‘Wedding Feast at Cana’.
In the same letter of AGC-414 of
August 2012, our Rector Major, refers to her beautifully:
“Mary, as Mother and Teacher, not only reminds us of the dream at nine
years of age and her presence in the life of Don Bosco, but goes much further… refers
to the fundamental mission of Mary as Mother and Teacher of Jesus, the Son of
God made man. Just as Mary by the power of the Holy Spirit brought to the light
the Saviour, so also she brings to the light each one of us by the power of the
same Spirit, as educators and pastors of the young.”
Yes, she is the ‘Help of all
Christians’, Mother of all believers and her maternal protection and
intercession is extended to all who seek her with a sincere heart.
Thank you,
Papireddy
14th May 2013
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