ENCYCLICAL LETTER "REDEMPTORIS MATER" 

OF THE SUPREME PONTIFF JOHN PAUL II  

ON THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY

IN THE LIFE OF THE PILGRIM CHURCH

 Introduction...............................................…………………...            3

Part I

MARY IN THE MYSTERY OF CHRIST

1. Full of grace............................................……………….      14

2. Blessed is she who believed.........................………....       23

3. Behold your mother......................................……….               39

Part II

THE MOTHER OF GOD AT THE CENTER

OF THE PILGRIM CHURCH

1. The Church, the People of God present in all the nations

   of the earth............................................………………….....               53

2. The Church's journey and the unity of all Christians…….          64

3. The "Magnificat" of the pilgrim Church.................…..…..               73

Part III

MATERNAL MEDIATION

1. Mary, the Handmaid of the Lord..........................………..               80

2. Mary in the life of the church and of every Christian...…..              91

3. The meaning of the Marian Year..........................……….               104

Conclusion.................................................…………………           110

[Note  of the keyboarder: the text of the Encyclical follows  the

precise  pagination of the official text sent from Rome  to  each

English  speaking  Bishop of the Catholic Church.  The  text  has

been  followed  very  closely; the only changes  have  been  from

"English"   spelling/grammar (e.g.  colour)  to American  custom.

The footnotes are  precisely as  given,  except for footnote  143

where  I  placed the  titles  of the  books  of  Saint  Louis  de

Montfort and  of  Saint  Alphonsus Liguori  in  English; and also

gave  the   American  publisher  (my community)  of the  book  of

Montfort cited by the Holy Father.   I'm sure  there are mistakes

here and there - my fault!   The  more  I read  this Letter,  the

more  important it appears to me,   and  not only  in  mariology.

     Fr Pat Gaffney

ENCYCLICAL LETTER "REDEMPTORIS MATER" OF 

THE SUPREME PONTIFF JOHN PAUL II 

 ON THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY

IN THE LIFE OF THE PILGRIM CHURCH

Venerable Brothers and dear Sons and Daughters, Health and

                       Apostolic Blessing.

INTRODUCTION

1. The Mother of the Redeemer has a precise place in the plan  of

salvation, for "when the time had fully come, God sent forth  his

Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who  were

under  the law, so that we might receive adoption as  sons.   And

because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our

hearts, crying 'Abba! Father!'" (Gal 4:4-6).

With  these words of the Apostle Paul, which the  Second  Vatican

Council takes up at the beginning of its treatment of the Blessed

Virgin  Mary, (1)  I too wish to begin my reflection on the  role

of Mary in the mystery of Christ

________________________________________________________________

    1.   cf.   Second  Vatican   Ecumenical   Council,   Dogmatic

Constitution  on the Church, Lumen Gentium, 52 and the  whole  of

Chapter  VIII,  entitled "The Role of the  Blessed  Virgin  Mary,

Mother of God, in the Mystery of Christ and the Church."

________________________________________________________________

                               -3-

and  on  her  active and exemplary presence in the  life  of  the

Church.  For they are words which celebrate together the love  of

the  Father, the mission of the Son, the gift of the Spirit,  the

role  of  the woman from whom the Redeemer was born and  our  own

divine filiation, in the mystery of the "fullness of time." (2)

This  "fullness"   indicates the moment fixed from  all  eternity

when  the  Father  sent his Son, "that whoever  believes  in  him

should  not perish but have eternal life" (Jn 3:16).  It  denotes

the  blessed  moment when the Word that  "was  with  God...became

flesh  and  dwelt among us" (Jn 1:1, 14), and  made  himself  our

brother.   It  marks  the moment when the Holy  Spirit,  who  had

already  infused  the fullness of grace into  Mary  of  Nazareth,

formed  in  her virginal womb the human nature of  Christ.   This

"fullness"   marks  the  moment when, with the  entrance  of  the

eternal into time, time itself is

________________________________________________________________

    2. The expression "fullness of time" is parallel with similar

expressions of Judaism both Biblical (cf. Gen 29:21, 1 Sam  7:12;

Tob 14:5) and extra-Biblical, and especially in the New Testament

(cf.  Mk  1:15; Lk 21:24; Jn 7:8, Eph 1:10).  From the  point  of

view of form, it means not only the conclusion of a chronological

process  but  also  and  especially the  coming  to  maturity  or

completion  of  a  particularly important  period,  one  directed

towards the fulfillment of an expectation, a coming to completion

which  thus takes on an eschatological dimension.   According  to

Gal 4:4 and its context, it is the coming of the Son of God  that

reveals  that time has, so to speak, reached its limit.  That  is

to  say, the period marked by the promise made to Abraham and  by

the  Law  mediated by Moses has now reached its  climax,  in  the

sense that Christ fulfills the divine promise and supersedes  the

old law.

 ________________________________________________________________

-4-

redeemed,  and  being filled with the mystery of  Christ  becomes

definitively   "salvation   time."   Finally,   this   "fullness"

designates the hidden beginning of the Church's journey.  In  the

liturgy  the Church salutes Mary of Nazareth as the Church's  own

beginning,(3)  for in the event of the Immaculate Conception  the

Church  sees projected and anticipated in her most noble  member,

the  saving grace of Easter.  And above all, in  the  Incarnation

she encounters Christ and Mary indissolubly joined: he who is the

Church's Lord and Head and she who, uttering the first 'fiat'  of

the New Covenant, prefigures the Church's condition as spouse and

mother.

2.   Strengthened by the presence of Christ (cf. Mt  28:20),  the

Church journeys through time towards the consummation of the ages

and goes to meet the Lord who comes.  But on this journey - and I

wish  to  make this point straightaway - she proceeds  along  the

path  already  trodden by the Virgin Mary, who "advanced  in  her

pilgrimage of faith and loyally persevered in her union with  her

Son unto the Cross."(4)

I take these very rich and evocative words from the  Constitution

"Lumen Gentium," which

________________________________________________________________

    3.  Cf.  Roman  Missal, Preface  of  8  December,  Immaculate

Conception  of  the  Blessed  Virgin  Mary;  Saint  Ambrose,   De

Institutione  Virginis,  XV,  93-94:PL 16,  342;  Second  Vatican

Ecumenical  Council, Dogmatic Constitution on the  Church,  Lumen

Gentium, 68.

    4.  Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Dogmatic  Constitution

on the Church, Lumen Gentium, 58.

________________________________________________________________

                               -5-

in  its  concluding part offers a clear summary of  the  Church's

doctrine  on  the  Mother of Christ whom  she  venerates  as  her

beloved Mother and as her model in faith, hope and charity.

Shortly  after the Council, my great predecessor Paul VI  decided

to  speak  further  of the Blessed  Virgin.   In  the  Encyclical

"Christi  Matri" and subsequently in the  Apostolic  Exhortations

"Signum  Magnum"  and  "Marialis  Cultus"(5)  he  expounded   the

foundations  and  criteria of the special  veneration  which  the

Mother  of Christ receives in the Church as well as  the  various

forms  of  Marian devotion - liturgical, popular  and  private  -

which respond to the spirit of faith.

3.   The circumstance which now moves me to take up this  subject

once more is the prospect of the year 2000, now drawing near,  in

which  the Bimillennial Jubilee of the birth of Jesus  Christ  at

the  same  time directs our gaze towards his Mother.   In  recent

years, various opinions have been voiced suggesting that it would

be  fitting to precede that anniversary by a similar  Jubilee  in

celebration of the birth of Mary.

________________________________________________________________

5. Pope Paul VI, Encyclical Epistle "Christi Matri" (15 September

1966):  AAS  58 (1966) 745-749;   Apostolic  Exhortation  "Signum

Magnum   (13  May  1967):  AAS  59  (1967)  465-475);   Apostolic

Exhortation  "Marialis Cultus" (2 February 1974): AAS  66  (1974)

113-168.

 ________________________________________________________________

                               -6-

In  fact,  even though it is not possible to establish  an  exact

chronological point for identifying the date of Mary's birth, the

Church  has  constantly  been aware that  Mary  appeared  on  the

horizon  of salvation history before Christ.  It is a  fact  that

when  "the fullness of time" was definitively drawing near -  the

saving  advent  of  Emmanuel  - she who  was  from  all  eternity

destined  to  be his Mother already existed on earth.   The  fact

that she "preceded" the coming of Christ is reflected every  year

in  the  liturgy  of  Advent.   Therefore,  if  to  that  ancient

historical expectation of the Savior we compare these years which

are bringing us closer to the end of the second Millennium  after

Christ  and  to  the beginning of the  third,  it  becomes  fully

comprehensible  that in this present period we wish to turn in  a

special  way  to her, the one who in the "night"  of  the  Advent

expectation  began  to shine like a true "Morning  Star"  (Stella

Matutina).   For  just as this star, together  with  the  "dawn,"

precedes  the  rising of the sun, so Mary from the  time  of  her

Immaculate  Conception  preceded the coming of  the  Savior,  the

rising  of  the  "Sun of Justice" in the  history  of  the  human

race.(7)

Her presence in the midst of Israel - a

________________________________________________________________

    6.  The  Old Testament foretold in many  different  ways  the

mystery of Mary: cf. Saint John Damascene, Hom. in Dormitionem I,

8-9: S.Ch. 80, 103-107.

    7. Cf. Insegnamenti di Giovanni Paolo II, Vi/2 (1983) 225  f;

Pope  Pius IX, Apostolic Letter "Ineffabilis Deus"  (8  December,

1854): Pii IX P.M. Acta, pars I, 597-599.

_______________________________________________________________

                               -7-

 presence  so discreet as to pass almost unnoticed by the eyes  of

her  contemporaries - shone very clearly before the Eternal  One,

who had associated this hidden "daughter of Sion" (cf. Zeph 3:14;

Zech 2:10) with the plan of salvation embracing the whole history

of  humanity.   With  good  reason  then  at  the  end  of   this

Millennium, we Christians who know that the providential plan  of

the Most Holy Trinity is the central reality of Revelation and of

faith  feel  the  need to emphasize the unique  presence  of  the

Mother  of Christ in history, especially during these last  years

leading up to the year 2000.

4.  The Second Vatican Council prepares us for this by presenting

its  teaching the Mother of God in the mystery of Christ  and  of

the  Church.  If it is true, as the Council itself proclaims  (8)

that "only in the mystery of the Incarnate Word does the  mystery

of  man take on light: then this principle must be applied  in  a

very  particular way to that exceptional "daughter of  the  human

race,"  that  extraordinary  "woman" who  became  the  Mother  of

Christ.  Only in the mystery of Christ is her mystery fully  made

clear.  Thus has the Church sought to interpret it from the  very

beginning:  the  mystery of the Incarnation has  enabled  her  to

penetrate and to make even clearer the

______________________________________________________________

    8.  Cf.  Pastoral Constitution on the Church  in  the  Modern

World "Gaudium et Spes," 22.

______________________________________________________________

                               -8-

mystery  of  the Mother of the Incarnate Word.   The  Council  of

Ephesus (431) was of decisive importance in clarifying this,  for

during that Council, to the great joy of Christians, the truth of

the  divine motherhood of Mary was solemnly confirmed as a  truth

of  the Church's faith.  Mary is the Mother of God  (=Theotokos),

since  by  the  power of the Holy Spirit  she  conceived  in  her

virginal womb and brought into the world Jesus Christ, the Son of

God who is of one being with the Father. (9)  "The Son of God ...

born  of the Virgin Mary ... has truly been made one of  us,"(10)

has  been made man.  Thus, through the mystery of Christ, on  the

horizon  of the Church's faith there shines in its  fullness  the

mystery  of  his  Mother.   In turn,  the  dogma  of  the  divine

motherhood of Mary was for the Council of Ephesus and is for  the

Church  like a seal upon the dogma of the Incarnation,  in  which

the Word truly assumes human nature into the unity of his person,

without canceling out that nature.

5. The Second Vatican Council, by presenting Mary in the  mystery

of  Christ, also finds the path to a deeper understanding of  the

mystery  of the Church.  Mary, as the Mother of Christ, is  in  a

particular way united with the Church, "which

_______________________________________________________________

    9.   Ecumenical   Council   of   Ephesus,   in    Conciliorum

Oecumenicorum  Decreta, Bologna, 1973, 41-44,  59-61:DS  250-264;

cf. Ecumenical Council of Chalcedon, o.c. 84-87:DS 300-303.

    10. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral  Constitution

on the church in the Modern World "Gaudium et Spes," 22.

 ______________________________________________________________

                               -9-

the  Lord  established as his own body."(11)  It  is  significant

that the conciliar text places this truth about the church as the

Body of Christ (according to the teaching of the Pauline Letters)

in close proximity to the truth that the Son of God "through  the

power  of  the  Holy Spirit was born of the  Virgin  Mary."   The

reality  of  the  Incarnation finds a sort of  extension  in  the

mystery of the Church - the Body of Christ.  And one cannot think

of the reality of the Incarnation without referring to Mary,  the

Mother of the Incarnate Word.

In these reflections, however, I wish to consider primarily  that

"pilgrimage  of  faith" in which "the Blessed  Virgin  advanced,"

faithfully preserving her union with Christ.(12)  In this way the

"twofold  bond"  which unites the Mother of God with  Christ  and

with the Church takes on historical significance.  Nor is it just

a  question  of the Virgin Mother's life-story, of  her  personal

journey  of  faith  and "the better part" which is  hers  in  the

mystery of salvation; it is also a question of the history of the

whole  People  of  God, of all those who take part  in  the  same

"pilgrimage of faith."

The Council expresses this when it states in another passage that

Mary  "has gone before," becoming "a model of the Church  in  the

matter of faith, charity and perfect union with

________________________________________________________________

    11. Dogmatic Constitution on the Church "Lumen Gentium," 52.

    12. Cf. ibid., 58

 _______________________________________________________________

                              -10-

Christ."(13)   This  "going before" as a figure or  model  is  in

reference to the intimate mystery of the Church, as she  actuates

an accomplishes her own saving mission by uniting in herself - as

Mary  did - the qualities of mother and virgin.  She is a  virgin

who  "keeps  whole and pure the fidelity she has pledged  to  her

Spouse" and "becomes herself a mother," for "she brings forth  to

a  new and immortal life children who are conceived of  the  Holy

Spirit and born of God."(14)

6.  All  this  is accomplished in  a  great  historical  process,

comparable "to a journey." The pilgrimage of faith indicates  the

interior  history, that is, the story of souls.  But it  is  also

the  story  of all  human beings, subject here on  earth  to  the

transitoriness,  and  part of the historical dimension.   In  the

following reflections we wish to concentrate first of all on  the

present,   which  in  itself  is  not  yet  history   but   which

nevertheless  is constantly forming it, also in the sense of  the

history  of  salvation.  Here there opens up  a  broad  prospect,

within  which  the Blessed Virgin continues to  "go  before"  the

People of God.  Her exceptional pilgrimage of faith represents  a

constant  point of reference for the Church, for individuals  and

for communities, for

________________________________________________________________

    13.  Ibid., 63; cf. Saint Ambrose, Expos. Evang.  sec.  Lucam

II,7:CSEL  32/4,45; De Institutione Virginis, XIV,  88-89:PL  16,

341.

    14.  Cf. Dogmatic Constitution on the Church "Lumen Gentium,"

64.

________________________________________________________________

                              -11-

peoples  and  nations, and in a sense for all  humanity.   It  is

indeed difficult to encompass and measure its range.

The  Council  emphasizes that the Mother of God  is  already  the

eschatological  fulfillment  of  the Church: "In  the  most  holy

Virgin the Church has already reached that perfection whereby she

exists  without spot or wrinkle (cf. Eph 5:27)"; and at the  same

time the Council says that "the followers of Christ still  strive

to  increase  in holiness by conquering sin, and  so  they  raise

their eyes to Mary who shine forth to the whole community of  the

elect as a model of the virtues."(15)  The pilgrimage of faith no

longer belongs to the Mother of the Son of God: glorified at  the

side of her Son in heaven, Mary has already crossed the threshold

between  faith  and that vision which is "face to  face"  (1  Cor

13:12).   At  the  same time,  however,  in  this  eschatological

fulfillment,  Mary  does not cease to be the "Star  of  the  Sea"

(Maris Stella)(16) for all those who are still on the journey  of

faith.   If  they  lift  their eyes to  her  from  their  earthly

existence, they do so because "the Son whom she brought forth  is

he whom God placed as

_______________________________________________________________

    15. Ibid., 65

    16.  "Take  away this star of the sun which  illuminates  the

world: where does the day go?  Take away Mary,m this star of  the

sea,  of  the great and boundless sea: what is left  but  a  vast

obscurity  and  the shadow of death and the  deepest  darkness?":

Saint Bernard, In Nativitate B. Mariae Sermo - De aquaeductu,  6:

S.Bernardi Opera, V, 1968, 279; cf.  In laudibus Virginis  Matris

Homilia II, 17: ed.cit., IV, 1966, 34 f

_______________________________________________________________.

                              -12-

the  first-born  among many brethren (Rom  8:29),"(17)  and  also

because  "in  the birth and development" of  these  brothers  and

sisters "she cooperates with a maternal love."(18)

_____________________________________________________________

    17. Dogmatic Constitution on the Church "Lumen Gentium," 63.

    18. Ibid., 63.

_____________________________________________________________

                              -13-

Part I

MARY IN THE MYSTERY OF CHRIST

1. Full of grace

7.   "Blessed be the God and Father of Our Lord Jesus Christ  who

has  blessed  us in Christ with every spiritual blessing  in  the

heavenly  places"  (Eph 1:3).  These words of the Letter  to  the

Ephesians  reveal the eternal design of God the Father, his  plan

of man's salvation in Christ.  It is a universal plan, which con

cerns all men and women created in the image and likeness of  God

(cf. Gen 1:26).  Just as all are included in the creative work of

God  "in  the beginning," so all are eternally  included  in  the

divine plan of salvation, which is to be completely revealed,  in

the  "fullness  of time," with the final coming  of  Christ.   In

fact,  the  God who is the "Father of Our Lord  Jesus  Christ"  -

these  are the next words of the same Letter - "chose us  in  him

before  the foundation of the world, that we should be  holy  and

blameless  before  him.  He destined us in love to  be  his  sons

through  Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his  will,  to

the  praise of his glorious grace which he freely bestowed on  us

in the Beloved.  In him we have redemption through his blood, the

forgiveness of

                              -14-

our  trespasses, according to the riches of his grace" (Eph  1:4-

7).

The  divine  plan of salvation - which was fully revealed  to  us

with  he  coming of Christ - is eternal.  And  according  to  the

teaching contained in the Letter just quoted and in other Pauline

Letters (cf. Col 1:12-14; Rom 3:24; Gal 3:13; 2 Cor 5:18-29),  it

is also eternally linked to Christ.  It includes everyone, but it

reserves a special place for the "woman" who is the Mother of him

to whom the Father has entrusted the work of salvation. (19)   As

the  Second Vatican Council says, "she is  already  prophetically

foreshadowed  in  that promise made to our  first  parents  after

their  fall  into sin" - according to the Book  of  Genesis  (cf.

3:15).  "Likewise she is the Virgin who is to conceive and bear a

son, whose name will be called Emmanuel" - according to the words

of Isaiah (cf. 7:14).(20)  In this way the Old Testament prepares

that  "fullness  of time" when God "sent forth his Son,  born  of

woman .... so that we might receive adoption as sons.  The coming

into the world of the Son of God is an event recorded in the

________________________________________________________________

19.   Concerning  the  predestination of  Mary,  cf.  Saint  John

Damascene,  Hom in Nativitatem, 7;10: S.Ch. 80, 65; 73;  Hom.  in

Dormitionem I, 3: S.Ch. 80, 85: "For it is she , who chosen  from

the  ancient  generations, by virtue of  the  predestination  and

benevolence of the God and Father who generated you (the Word  of

God)  outside  time without coming out of  himself  or  suffering

change,  it is she who gave you birth nourished of her flesh,  in

the last time..."

20.  Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium, 55.

___________________________________________________________ 

-20-

first chapters of the Gospels according to Luke and Matthew.

8..   Mary is definitively introduced into the mystery of  Christ

through  this event: the Annunciation by the Angel.   This  takes

place at Nazareth, within the concrete circumstances of the  his

tory  of Israel, the people which first received God's  promises.

The  divine messenger says to the Virgin: "Hail, full  of  grace,

the  Lord is with you" (Lk 1:28).  Mary "was greatly troubled  at

the saying, and considered in her mind what sort of greeting this

might  be" (Lk 1:29): what could those extraordinary  words  mean

and in particular the expression "full of grace" (kecharitomene).

(21)

If  we  wish to meditate together with Mary on these  words,  and

especially on the expression "full of grace," we can find a  sig

nificant echo in

_____________________________________________________________

21.   In  Patristic  tradition there is a  wide  and  varied  in

terpretation  of this expression: cf. Origen, In Lucam  Homiliae,

VI, 7: S.Ch. 87, 148; Severianus of Gabala, In mundi  creationem,

Oratio VI, 10: PG 56, 497 f.; Saint John Chrysostom (Pseudo),  In

annuntiationem  Deiparae et contra Arium impium, PG 62,  765  f.;

Basil  of  Seleucia, Oratio 39, In Sanctissimae  Deiparae  Annun

tiationem,  5:  PG 85, 441-446; Antipater of Bosra, Hom.  II,  In

Sanctissimae  Deiparae  Annuntiationem, 3-11: PG  85,  1777-1783;

Saint  Sophronius  of  Jerusalem,  Oratio  II,  In   Sanctissimae

Deiparae  Annuntiationem, 17-19: PG 87/3, 3235-3240;  Saint  John

Damascene,  Hom  in Dormitionem, I, 70: S.Ch. 80,  96-101;  Saint

Jerome, Epistola 65, 9: PL 22, 628; Saint Ambrose, Expos.  Evang.

sec. Lucam, II, 9:CSEL 32/4, 45f. Saint Augustine, Sermo 291,  4-

6:  PL  38, 1318 f.;Enchiridion, 36,11: PL 40, 250;  Saint  Peter

Chrysologus,  Sermo  142: PL 52, 579 f.; Sermo 143: PL  52,  583;

Saint Fulgentius of Ruspe, Epistola 17, VI, 12: PL 65, 458; Saint

Bernard,   In  laudibus  Virginis  Matris,  Homilia   III,   2-3:

S.Bernardi Opera, IV, 1966, 36-38.

                              -16-

the  very passage from the Letter to the Ephesians quoted  above.

And if after the announcement of the heavenly messenger the  Vir

gin  of  Nazareth is also called "blessed among  women:  (cf.  Lk

1:42), it is because of that blessing with which "God the Father"

has  filled  us  "in the heavenly places, in  Christ."  It  is  a

spiritual blessing which is meant for all people and which  bears

in itself fullness and universality ("every blessing").  It flows

from that love which, in the HOly Spirit, unites the  consubstan

tial  Son  to  the Father.  At the same time, it  is  a  blessing

poured out through Jesus Christ upon human history until the end:

upon all people.  This blessing however refers to Mary in a  spe

cial and exceptional degree: for she was greeted by Elizabeth  as

"blessed among women."

The  double greeting is due to the fact that in the soul of  this

"daughter  of  Sion"  there is manifested, in a  sense,  all  the

"glory  of grace," that grace which "the Father has given  us  in

his  beloved  Son."  For the messenger greets Mary  as  "full  of

grace;"  he calls her thus as if it were her real name.  He  does

not  call her by her proper earthly name: Miryam (=Mary), but  by

this  new name: "full of grace."  What does this name mean?   Why

does the archangel address the Virgin of Nazareth in this way?

In the language of the Bible "grace" means a special gift,  which

according  to the New Testament has its source precisely  in  the

Trinitarian life of God himself, God who is love (cf. 1 Jn

                              -17-

4:8).  The fruit of this love is "the election" of which the Let

ter to the Ephesians speaks. On the part of God, this election is

the eternal desire to save man through a sharing in his own  life

(cf.  2 Pt 1:4) in Christ: it is salvation through a  sharing  in

supernatural  life.   The effect of this eternal  gift,  of  this

grace of man's election by God, is like a seed of holiness, or  a

spring  which rises in the soul as a gift from God  himself,  who

though grace gives life and holiness to those who are chosen.  In

this  way there is fulfilled, that is to say there  comes  about,

that  "blessing"  of man "with every  spiritual  blessing,"  that

"being his adopted sons and daughters...in Christ," in him who is

eternally the "beloved Son" of the Father.

When  we  read  that the messenger addresses  Mary  as  "full  of

grace," the Gospel context, which mingles revelations and ancient

promises, enables us to understand that among all the  "spiritual

blessings  in Christ" this is a special "blessing."  In the  mys

tery  of Christ she is present even "before the creation  of  the

world," as the one whom the Father "has chosen" as Mother of  his

Son  in  the Incarnation.  And, what is more, together  with  the

Father,  the Son has chosen her, entrusting her eternally to  the

Spirit of holiness.  In an entirely special and exceptional  way,

Mary is united to Christ and similarly she is eternally loved  in

this "beloved Son," this Son who is of one being with the Father,

in whom is concentrated all the "glory

                              -18-

of  grace."  At the same time, she is and remains perfectly  open

to  this  "gift  from  above" (cf. Jas  1:17).   As  the  council

teaches, Mary "stands out among the poor and humble of the  Lord,

who confidently await and receive salvation from him." (22).

9.  If the greeting and the name "full of grace" say all this, in

the  context of the angel's announcement they refer first of  all

to the election of Mary as Mother of the Son of God.  But at  the

same time the "fullness of grace" indicates all the  supernatural

munificence from which Mary benefits by being chosen and destined

to be the Mother of Christ.  If this election is fundamental  for

the accomplishment of God's salvific designs for humanity, and if

the  eternal choice in Christ and the vocation to the dignity  of

adopted children is the destiny of everyone, then the election of

Mary  is  wholly  exceptional and unique.  Hence  also  the  sin

gularity and uniqueness of her place in the mystery of Christ.

The  divine messenger says to her: "Do not be afraid,  Mary,  for

you have found favor with God.  And behold, you will conceive  in

your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus.   He

will  be great and will be called the Son of the Most  High"  (Lk

1:30-32).   And when the Virgin, disturbed by that  extraordinary

greeting, asks: "How shall this be since I have no

________________________________________________________________

22. Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium, 55.

 _______________________________________________________________

husband?",  she  receives  from the angel  the  confirmation  and

explanation  of  the preceding words.  Gabriel says 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

called holy, the Son of God" (Lk 1:35).

The Annunciation, therefore, is the revelation of the mystery  of

the  Incarnation  at  the very beginning of  its  fulfillment  on

earth.   God's salvific giving of himself and his life,  in  some

way to all creation but directly to man, reaches one of its  high

points in the mystery of the Incarnation.  This is indeed a  high

point  among all the gifts of grace conferred in the  history  of

man and of the universe:  Mary is "full of grace," because it  is

precisely in her that the Incarnation of the Word, the hypostatic

union  of the Son of God with human nature, is  accomplished  and

fulfilled.   As the Council says, Mary is "the Mother of the  Son

of  God.  As a result, she is also the favorite daughter  of  the

Father  and the temple of the Holy Spirit.  Because of this  gift

of  sublime grace she far surpasses all other creatures, both  in

heaven and on earth.(23)

10.   The  Letter  to the Ephesians, speaking of  "the  glory  of

grace"  that "God the Father...has bestowed on us in his  Beloved

Son," adds: "In him we have redemption through his blood"

____________________________________________________________

(23) Ibid., 53.

 ___________________________________________________________

                               -20

(Eph 1:7). According to the belief formulated in solemn documents

of  the church this "glory of grace" is manifested in the  Mother

of  God  through the fact that she has been "redeemed in  a  more

sublime  manner."(24)  By virtue of the richness of the grace  of

the  beloved Son, by reason of the redemptive merits of  him  who

willed to become her Son, Mary was preserved from the inheritance

of  original sin.(25)  In this way, from the first moment of  her

conception  - which is to say of her existence - she belonged  to

Christ, sharing in the salvific and sanctifying grace and in that

love  which  has its beginning in the "Beloved," the Son  of  the

Eternal  Father, who through the Incarnation became her own  Son.

Consequently, through the power of the Holy Spirit, in the  order

of  grace,  which is a participation in the divine  nature,  Mary

receives  life  from  him to whom she herself, in  the  order  of

earthly generation, gave life as a mother.  The liturgy does  not

hesitate to call her "mother of her Creator"(26) and to hail  her

with the words which Dante Alighieri places on the lips of  Saint

________________________________________________________________

24.  Cf.  Pope  Pius IX, Apostolic Letter,  Ineffabilis  Deus  (8

December  1854):  Pii IX P.M. Acta, pars I, 616;  Second  Vatican

Ecumenical  Council, Dogmatic Constitution on the  Church,  Lumen

Gentium, 53.

25.  Cf. Saint Germanus of Constantinople, In Annuntiationem  SS.

Deiparae  Hom.:  PG 98, 327 f: Saint Andrew of  Crete,  Canon  in

B.Mariae Natalem, 4: PG 97, 1321 f.; In Nativitatem B. Mariae, I:

PG 97, 811 f.; Hom in Dormitionem S.Mariae 1: PG 97, 1067 f.

26. Liturgy of the Hours of 15 August, Assumption of the  Blessed

Virgin  Mary, Hymn at the First and Second Vespers;  Saint  Peter

Damian, Carmina et preces, XLVII: PL, 145, 934.

 ________________________________________________________________

                              -21-

Bernard:  "daughter  of your Son."(27)  And since  Mary  receives

this  "new life" with a fullness corresponding to the Son's  love

for  the  Mother, and thus corresponding to the  dignity  of  the

divine motherhood, the angel at the Annunciation calls her  "full

of grace."

121.   In  the  salvific design of the  Most  Holy  Trinity,  the

mystery   of  the  Incarnation  constitutes   the   superabundant

fulfillment of the promise made by God to man after original sin,

after  that  first sin whose effects oppress  the  whole  earthly

history  of  man (cf. Gen 3:15).  And so, there  comes  into  the

world  a Son, "the seed of the woman" who will crush the evil  of

sin in its very origins: "he will crush the head of the serpent."

As  we see from the words of the Protogospel, the victory of  the

woman's Son will not take place without hard struggle, a struggle

that  is  to  extend through the whole  of  human  history.   The

"enmity,"  foretold  at  the  beginning,  is  confirmed  in   the

Apocalypse  (the book of the final events of the Church  and  the

world), in which there recurs the sign of the "woman," this  time

"clothed with the sun" (Rev 12:1).

Mary, Mother of the Incarnate Word, is placed at the very  center

of  that enmity, that struggle which accompanies the  history  of

humanity on earth and the history of humanity itself.

________________________________________________________________

23.  Divina  Commedia, Paradiso, XXXIII, 1; cf.  Liturgy  of  the

Hours,  Memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary on Saturday, Hymn  II

in the Office of Readings.

 _______________________________________________________________

                              -22-

In  this central place, she who belongs to the "weak and poor  of

the  Lord"  bears in herself  like no other member of  the  human

race, that "glory of grace" which the Father "has bestowed on  us

in his beloved Son," and this grace determines the  extraordinary

greatness  and  beauty  of her whole being.   Mary  thus  remains

before  God,  and  also  before the whole  of  humanity,  as  the

unchangeable  and  inviolable sign of God's election,  spoken  in

Paul's Letter: "in Christ...he chose us... before the  foundation

of  the  world,...He destined us...to be his sons"  (Eph  1:4.5).

This election is more powerful than any experience of evil and of

sin,  than all that "enmity" which marks the history of man.   In

this history Mary remains a sign of sure hope.

2. Blessed is she who believed

12.  Immediately  after the narration of  the  Annunciation,  the

Evangelist  Luke  guides  us in the footsteps of  the  Virgin  of

Nazareth  towards  "a  city of Judah" (Lk  1:39).   According  to

scholars  this city would be  the modern Ain Karim,  situated  in

the  mountains, not far from Jerusalem.  Mary arrived  there  "in

haste,"  to  visit Elizabeth her kinswoman.  The reason  for  her

visit  is also to be found in the fact that at the  Annunciation,

Gabriel had made special mention of Elizabeth, who in her old age

had  conceived a son by her husband Zechariah, through the  power

of God: "your kinswoman

                              -23-

Elizabeth  in her old age has also conceived a son; and  this  is

the  sixth  month with her who was called barren.  For  with  God

nothing  will be impossible" (Lk 1:36-37).  The divine  messenger

has spoken of what had been accomplished in Elizabeth in order to

answer  Mary's  question:  "How shall this be, since  I  have  no

husband?" (Lk 1:34).  It is to come to pass precisely through the

"power  of  the Most High," just as it happened in  the  case  of

Elizabeth, and even more so.

Moved  by  charity,  therefore, Mary goes to  the  house  of  her

kinswoman.   When Mary enters, Elizabeth replies to her  greeting

and feels the child leap in her womb, and being "filled with  the

Holy  Spirit" she greets Mary with a loud cry: "Blessed  are  you

among  women,  and blessed is the fruit of your  womb!"  (cf.  Lk

1:40-42).     Elizabeth's   exclamation   or   acclamation    was

subsequently to become part of the 'Hail Mary', as a continuation

of  the angel's greeting, thus becoming one of the Church's  most

frequently  used  prayers.  But still more  significant  are  the

words  of  Elizabeth in the question which follows: "And  why  is

this  granted me, that the mother of my Lord should come to  me?"

(Lk  1:43).  Elizabeth bears witness to Mary: she recognizes  and

proclaims  that  before her stands the Mother of  the  Lord,  the

Mother of the Messiah.  The son whom Elizabeth is carrying in her

womb also shares in this witness: "The babe in my womb leaped for

joy" (Lk 1:44).  This child is the future John the

                              -24-

Baptist, who at the Jordan will point out Jesus as the Messiah.

While every word of Elizabeth's greeting is filled with  meaning,

her  final words would seem to have fundamental importance:  "And

blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment  of

what was spoken to her from the Lord" (Lk 1:45).(28)  These words

can  be  linked  with the title "full of grace"  of  the  angel's

greeting.   Both of these texts reveal an essential  Mariological

content,  namely the truth about Mary who has become  present  in

the mystery of Christ precisely because she "has believed."   The

fullness  of grace announced by the angel means the gift  of  God

himself.    Mary's   faith,  proclaimed  by  Elizabeth   at   the

Visitation,  indicates  how the Virgin of Nazareth  responded  to

this gift.

13.   As  the Council teaches, " 'The obedience  of  faith'  (Rom

16:26;  cf.  Rom  1:5; 2 Cor 10: 5-6) must be given  to  God  who

reveals, an obedience by which man entrusts his whole self freely

to God."(29)  This description of faith found perfect realization

in Mary.  The "decisive" moment was the Annunciation and the very

words  of  Elizabeth:  "And blessed is she  who  believed"  refer

primarily to that very moment.(30)

________________________________________________________________

28.  Cf. Saint Augustine, De Sancta Virginitate, III, 3:  PL  40,

398; Sermo 25,7: PL 46, 937 f.

29. Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation, Dei Verbum, 5.

30. This is a classic theme, already expounded by Saint Ire-

                              -25-

 Indeed,  at  the  Annunciation  Mary  entrusted  herself  to  God

completely,  with  the "full submission of intellect  and  will,"

manifesting  "the  obedience of faith" to him who  spoke  to  her

through  his messenger.(31)  She responded, therefore,  with  all

her  human and feminine "I," and this response of faith  included

both perfect cooperation with "the grace of God that precedes and

assists"  and perfect openness to the action of the Holy  Spirit,

who "constantly brings faith to completion by his gifts."(32)

The  word  of  the living God, announced to Mary  by  the  angel,

referred to her: "And behold, you will conceive in your womb  and

bear a son" (Lk 1:31).  By accepting this announcement, Mary  was

to become the "Mother of the Lord," and the divine mystery of the

Incarnation was to be accomplished in her: "The Father of mercies

willed that the consent of the predestined Mother should  precede

the Incarnation."(33)  And Mary gives this consent, after

________________________________________________________________naeus:  "And as by the action of the disobedient virgin, man  was

afflicted  and, being cast down, died, so also by the  action  of

the  Virgin  who obeyed the word of God,  man  being  regenerated

received,  through life, life...For it was meet  and  just...that

Eve  should  be  "recapitulated" in Mary,  so  that  the  Virgin,

becoming the advocate of the virgin, should dissolve and  destroy

the  virginal  disobedience  by  means  of  virginal  obedience":

Expositio  doctrinae apostolicae, 33: S.Ch. 62, 83-86;  cf.  also

Adversus Haereses, V, 19,1: S.Ch. 153, 248-250.

31.  Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Dogmatic Constitution  on

Divine Revelation, Dei Verbum, 5.

32.  Ibid.,  5; cf. Dogmatic Constitution on  the  Church,  Lumen

Gentium, 56.

33.  Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Dogmatic Constitution  on

the Church, Lumen Gentium, 56.

 _______________________________________________________________

-26-

she  has  heard everything the messenger has to say.   She  says:

"Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be to me according

to your word" (Lk 1:38).  This fiat of Mary - "let it be to me" -

was  decisive, on the human level, for the accomplishment of  the

divine  mystery.  There is a complete harmony with the  words  of

the Son, who, according to the Letter to the Hebrews, says to the

Father  as he comes into the world: "Sacrifices and offering  you

have  not  desired, but a body you have prepared for  me...Lo,  I

have  come to do your will, O God" (Heb 10:5-7).  The mystery  of

the Incarnation was accomplished when Mary uttered her fiat: "Let

it  be to me according to your word, which made possible, as  far

as  it depended upon her in the divine plan, the granting of  her

Son's desire.

Mary uttered this fiat in faith.  In faith she entrusted  herself

to  God  without  reserve and "devoted  herself  totally  as  the

handmaid of the Lord to the person and work of her Son."(34)  And

this Son - as the Fathers of the Church teach - she conceived  in

her  mind  before  she conceived him in her  womb:  precisely  in

faith!(35)   Rightly therefore does Elizabeth praise  Mary:  "And

blessed is she who believed that there would

________________________________________________________________

34. Ibid., 56.

35.  Cf. ibid., 53; Saint Augustine, De Sancta Virginitate,  III,

3:  PL 40, 398; Sermo 215, 4: PL 38, 1074; Sermo 196, 1:  PL  38,

1019; De peccatorum meritis et remissione, I, 29, 57: PL 44, 142;

Sermo  25, 7: PL 46, 937-938; Saint Leo the Great, Tractatus  21,

de natale Domini, I: CCL 138, 86.

 _______________________________________________________________

                              -27-

be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord."  These

words  have  already been fulfilled: Mary  of  Nazareth  presents

herself  at the threshold of Elizabeth and Zechariah's  house  as

the  Mother  of  the  Son of God.   This  is  Elizabeth's  joyful

discovery:  "The mother of my Lord comes to me!"

14.   Mary's faith can also be compared to that of Abraham,  whom

Saint  Paul calls "our father in faith" (cf. Rom 4:12).   In  the

salvific economy of God's revelation, Abraham's faith constitutes

the   beginning  of  the  Old  Covenant;  Mary's  faith  at   the

Annunciation  inaugurates the New Covenant.  Just as Abraham  "in

hope  believed against hope, that he should become the father  of

many  nations"  (cf.  Rom 4:18), so Mary,  at  the  Annunciation,

having professed her virginity ("How shall this be, since I  have

no husband?"), believed that through the power of the Most  High,

by  the power of the Holy Spirit, she would become the Mother  of

God's  Son in accordance with the angel's revelation: "The  child

to be born will be called holy, the Son of God" (Lk 1:35).

However,  Elizabeth's words "And blessed is she who believed"  do

no  apply  only to that particular moment  of  the  Annunciation.

Certainly  the Annunciation is the culminating moment  of  Mary's

faith  in  her awaiting of Christ, but it is also  the  point  of

departure from which her whole "journey towards God" begins, her

                              -28-

whole  pilgrimage of faith.  And on this road, in an eminent  and

truly  heroic  manner - indeed with an ever  greater  heroism  of

faith - the "obedience" which she professes to the word of divine

revelation will be fulfilled.  Mary's "obedience of faith" during

the whole of her pilgrimage will show surprising similarities  to

the  faith of Abraham.  Just like the Patriarch of the People  of

God,  so  too  Mary,  during the pilgrimage  of  her  filial  and

maternal  fiat,  "in  hope believed  against  hope."   Especially

during certain stages of this journey the blessing granted to her

"who  believed" will be revealed with particular  vividness.   To

believe  means "to abandon oneself" to the truth of the  word  of

the living God, knowing and humbly recognizing "how  unsearchable

are  his  judgments and how inscrutable his  ways"  (Rom  11:33).

Mary,  who by the eternal will of the Most High stands,  one  may

say,  at  the  very  center  of  those  "inscrutable  ways"   and

"unsearchable  judgment" of God, conforms herself to them in  the

dim  light  of  faith, accepting fully and  with  a  ready  heart

everything that is decreed in the divine plan.

15.  When at the Annunciation Mary hears of the Son whose  Mother

she  is  to  become and to whom "she will give  the  name  Jesus"

(=Savior),  she also learns that "the Lord God will give  to  him

the throne of his father David," and that "he will reign over the

house of Jacob forever and of his kingdom there will

                              -29-

be  no  end" (Lk 1:32-33).  The hope of the whole of  Israel  was

directed toward this.  The promised Messiah is to be "great," and

the  heavenly messenger also announces that "he will be great"  -

great both by bearing the name of Son of the Most High and by the

fact  that  he  is to assume the inheritance  of  David.   He  is

therefore to be a king, he is to reign "over the house of Jacob."

Mary  had  grown  up in the midst of these  expectations  of  her

people:  could she guess, at the moment of the Annunciation,  the

vital  significance  of  the angel's words?  And how  is  one  to

understand that "kingdom" which "will have no end?"

Although  through  faith she may have perceived in  that  instant

that  she was the mother of the "Messiah-King," nevertheless  she

replied: "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be to  me

according  to your word" (Lk 1:38).  From the first  moment  Mary

possessed above all the "obedience of faith," abandoning  herself

to  the meaning which was given to the words of the  Annunciation

by him whom they proceeded: God himself.

16.  Later, a little further along this way of the "obedience  of

faith"  Mary  hears other words: those uttered by Simeon  in  the

Temple  of Jerusalem.  It was now forty days after the  birth  of

Jesus, when, in accordance with the precepts of the Law of Moses,

Mary and Joseph "brought him up to Jerusalem to present him

                               -30

to the Lord" (Lk 2:22).  The birth had taken place in  conditions

of extreme poverty.  We know from Luke that when, on the occasion

of  the census ordered by the Roman authorities, Mary  went  with

Joseph to Bethlehem, having found "no place in the inn," she gave

birth  to her Son in a stable and "laid him in a manger" (cf.  Lk

2:7).

A  just  and  God-fearing  man, called  Simeon,  appears  at  the

beginning of Mary's "journey" of faith.  His words, suggested  by

the  Holy  Spirit  (cf. Lk 2:25-27), confirm  the  truth  of  the

Annunciation.  For we read that he took up in his arms the  child

to whom - in accordance with the angel's command - the name Jesus

was  given  (cf. Lk 2:21).  Simeon's words match the  meaning  of

this  name, which is Savior: "God is salvation."  Turning to  the

Lord,  he says: "For my eyes have seen your salvation  which  you

have  prepared  in  the  presence of all  peoples,  a  light  for

revelation  to  the  Gentiles and for the glory  to  your  people

Israel."  (Lk  2:30-32).   At  the  same  time,  however,  Simeon

addresses  Mary with the following words: "Behold, this child  is

set  for  the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for  a  sign

that  is spoken against, that thoughts out of many hearts may  be

revealed;" and he adds with direct reference to her: "and a sword

will  pierce  through  your  own soul  also"  (cf.  Lk  2:34-35).

Simeon's words cast new light on the announcement which Mary  had

heard from the angel:

                              -31-

Jesus  is Savior, he is "a light for revelation" to mankind.   Is

not  this what was manifested, in a way on Christmas night,  when

the  shepherds came to the stable (cf. Lk 2:8-209)?  Is not  this

what  was manifested even more clearly in the coming of the  Magi

from the East (cf. Mt 2:1-12)?  But at the same time, at the very

beginning of his life, the Son of Mary, and his Mother with  him,

will  experience in themselves the truth of those other words  of

Simeon:  "a  sign that is spoken against"  (Lk  2:34).   Simeon's

words seem like a second Annunciation to Mary, for they tell  her

of  the  actual  historical  situation in which  the  Son  is  to

accomplish  his mission, namely in misunderstanding  and  sorrow.

While this announcement on the one hand confirms her faith in the

accomplishment of the divine promises of salivation, on the other

hand  it  also  reveals to her that she will  have  to  live  her

obedience  of  faith in suffering, at the side of  the  suffering

Savior, and that her motherhood will be mysterious and sorrowful.

Thus  after the visit of the Magi who came from the  East,  after

their homage ("they fell down and worshipped him") and after they

had offered gifts (cf. Mt 2:11), Mary together with the child has

to  flee into Egypt in the protective care of Joseph, for  "Herod

is about to search for the child, to destroy him" (cf. Mt  2:13).

And  until the death of Herod they will have to remain  in  Egypt

(cf. Mt 2:15).\

                              -32-

17.   When  the  Holy Family returns to  Nazareth  after  Herod's

death, there begins the long period of the hidden life.  She "who

believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken  to

her from the Lord" (Lk 1:45) lives the reality of these words day

by  day.  And daily at her side is the Son to whom "she gave  the

name  Jesus;"  therefore in contact with him she  certainly  uses

this  name, a fact which would have surprised no one,  since  the

name  had long been in use in Israel.  Nevertheless,  Mary  knows

that  he  who bears the name Jesus has been called by  the  angel

"the  Son  of the Most High" (cf. Lk 1:32).  Mary knows  she  has

conceived  and given birth to him "without having a husband,"  by

the  power of the Holy Spirit, by the power of the Most High  who

overshadowed her (cf. Lk 1:35), just as at the time of Moses  and

the  Patriarchs  the cloud covered the presence of  God  (cf.  Ex

24:16; 40:34-35; 1 Kings 8:10-12).  Therefore Mary knows that the

Son to whom she gave birth in a virginal manner is precisely that

"Holy One," the Son of God, of whom the angel spoke to her.

During the years of Jesus' hidden life in the house of  Nazareth,

Mary's life too is "hid with Christ in God" (cf. Col 3:3) through

faith.  For faith is contact with the mystery of God.  Every  day

Mary  is  in constant contact with the ineffable mystery  of  God

made man, a mystery that surpasses everything revealed in the Old

Covenant.  From the moment of the Annuncia-

                              -33-

tion,  the mind of the Virgin-Mother has been initiated into  the

radical  "newness"  of God's self-revelation and  has  been  made

aware of the mystery.  She is the first of those "little one"  of

whom  Jesus  will say one day: "Father,...you have  hidden  these

things  from  the  wise and understanding and  revealed  them  to

babes" (Mt 11:25).  For "no one knows the Son except the  Father"

(Mt  11:27).  If this is the case, how can Mary "know  the  Son?"

Of  course she does not know him as the Father does; and yet  she

is  the first of those to whom the Father "has chosen  to  reveal

him"  (cf. Mt 11:26-27; 1 Cor 2:11).  If though, from the  moment

of  the  Annunciation,  the  Son - whom  only  the  Father  knows

completely, as the one who begets him in the eternal "today" (cf.

Ps  2:7) - was revealed to Mary, she, his Mother, is  in  contact

with  the  truth about her son only in faith and  through  faith!

She  is  therefore  blessed,  because  "she  has  believed,"  and

continues to believe day after day amidst all the trials and  the

adversities  of Jesus' infancy and then during the years  of  the

hidden  life  at Nazareth, where he "was obedient  to  them"  (Lk

2:51).   He was obedient both to Mary and also to  Joseph,  since

Joseph  took the place of his father in people's eyes'; for  this

reason,  the  son  of Mary was regarded by  the  people  as  "the

carpenter's son" (Mt 123:55).

The mother of that Son, therefore, mindful of what has been  told

her at the Annunciation

                              -34-

and  in  subsequent  events, bears  within  herself  the  radical

"newness"  of faith: the beginning of the New Covenant.  This  is

the  beginning of the Gospel, the joyful Good News.  However,  it

is not difficult to see in that beginning a particular  heaviness

of  heart,  linked with a sort of "night of faith" - to  use  the

words of Saint John of the Cross - a kind of "veil" through which

one has to draw near to the Invisible One and to live in intimacy

with  the  mystery.(36) And this is the way that Mary,  for  many

years,  lived in intimacy with the mystery of her Son,  and  went

forward  in her "pilgrimage of faith," while Jesus "increased  in

wisdom...and  in  favor  with  God and  man"  (Lk  2:52).   God's

predilection for him was manifested even more clearly to people's

eyes.  The first human creature thus permitted to discover Christ

was Mary, who lived with Joseph in the same house at Nazareth.

However,  when  he had been found in the Temple, and  his  Mother

asked him "Son, why have you treated us so?" the twelve-year  old

Jesus  answered: "Did you not know that I must be in my  Father's

house?"  And the Evangelist adds: "And they (Joseph and Mary) did

not  understand the saying which he spoke to them" (Lk  2:48-50).

Jesus  was  aware that "no one knows the Son except  the  Father"

(cf.  Mt 11:27); thus even his Mother, to whom had been  revealed

most completely the mystery of his divine son-

________________________________________________________________

36. Ascent of Mount Carmel, 1.II, Ch. 3, 4-6.

 _______________________________________________________________

                              -35-

ship,  lived  in intimacy with this mystery only  through  faith!

Living  side  by  side  with her Son under  the  same  roof,  and

faithfully persevering "in her union with her Son," she "advanced

in her pilgrimage of faith," as the Council emphasizes.(37)   And

so  it was during Christ's public life too (cf. Mk 3:21-35)  that

day  by  day there was fulfilled in her the blessing  uttered  by

Elizabeth at the Visitation: "Blessed is she who believed."

18.   This  blessing reaches its full meaning  when  Mary  stands

beneath  the Cross of her Son (cf. Jn 19:25).  The  Council  says

that  this  happened "not without a divine plan":  by  "suffering

deeply  with her only begotten Son and joining herself  with  her

maternal  spirit  to his sacrifice, lovingly  consenting  to  the

immolation  of the victim to whom she had given birth,"  in  this

way Mary "faithfully preserved her union with her Son even to the

Cross."(38)   It is a union through faith - the same  faith  with

which   she   had  received  the  angel's   revelation   at   the

Annunciation.   At that moment she had also heard the words:  "He

will  be great...and the Lord God will give to him the throne  of

his  father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob  for

ever; and of his kingdom there will be no end" (Lk 1:32-33).

_______________________________________________________________

37. Cf. Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium, 58.

38. Ibid., 58.

                              -36-

And now, standing at the foot of the Cross, Mary is the  witness,

humanly  speaking, of the complete negation of these  words.   On

that  wood of the Cross her Son hangs in agony as one  condemned.

"He  was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows...he  was

despised, and we esteemed him not": as one destroyed (cf. Is  53:

3-5).  How great, how heroic then is the obedience of faith shown

by  Mary  in  the face of God's  "unsearchable  judgments!"   How

completely  she  "abandons  herself  to  God"  without   reserve,

"offering  the full assent of the intellect and the will"(39)  to

him  whose  "ways  are inscrutable" (cf.  Rom  11:33)!   And  how

powerful  too  is  the  action of grace in  her  soul,  how  all-

pervading  is the influence of the Holy Spirit and of  his  light

and power!

Through  this faith Mary is perfectly united with Christ  in  his

self-emptying.  For "Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form

of  God, did not count equality with God a thing to  be  grasped,

but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born  in

the  likeness of men": precisely on Golgotha "he humbled  himself

and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross" (cf.  Phil

2:5-8).   At the foot of the Cross Mary shares through  faith  in

the shocking mystery of this self-emptying.  This is perhaps that

deepest "kenosis" of faith in human history.

________________________________________________________________

39. Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Dogmatic  Constitution

on Divine Revelation, Dei Verbum, 5.

                              -37-

Through  faith the Mother shares in the death of her Son, in  his

redeeming death; but in contrast with the faith of the  disciples

who  fled,  hers was far more enlightened.   On  Golgotha,  Jesus

through the Cross definitively confirmed that he was the "sign of

contradiction" foretold by Simeon.  At the same time, there  were

also  fulfilled on Golgotha the words which Simeon had  addressed

to  Mary:  "and  a  sword  will  pierce  through  your  own  soul

also."(40)

19.   Yes,  truly "blessed is she who  believed!"   These  words,

spoken  by Elizabeth after the Annunciation, here at the foot  of

the  Cross seem to re-echo with supreme eloquence, and the  power

contained  with  them becomes something  penetrating.   From  the

Cross,  that  is  to say from the very heart of  the  mystery  of

Redemption,  there radiates and spreads out the prospect of  that

blessing of faith.  It goes right back to "the beginning," and as

a sharing in the sacrifice of Christ - the new Adam - it  becomes

in  a  certain  sense the counterpoise to  the  disobedience  and

disbelief  embodied in the sin of our first parents.  Thus  teach

the  Fathers of the Church and especially Saint Irenaeus,  quoted

by   the   Constitution  Lumen  Gentium:  "The  knot   of   Eve's

disobedience was untied by Mary's obedience; what the virgin  Eve

bound through her unbelief, Mary

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40. Concerning Mary's participation or "compassion" in the  death

of   Christ,  cf.  Saint  Bernard,  In  Dominica  infra   octavam

Assumptionis Sermo, 14: S.Bernardi Opera, V, 1968, 273.

                              -38-

loosened by her faith."(41)  In the light of this comparison with

Eve, the Fathers of the Church - as the Council also says -  call

Mary the "mother of the living" and often speak of "death through

Eve, life through Mary."(42)

In the expression "Blessed is she who believed," we can therefore

rightly  find a kind of "key" which unlocks for us the  innermost

reality of Mary, whom the angel hailed as "full of grace."  If as

"full of grace" she has been eternally present in the mystery  of

Christ,  through  faith she became a sharer in  that  mystery  in

every  extension  of her earthly journey.  She "advanced  in  her

pilgrimage  of  faith" and at the same time, in  a  discreet  yet

direct  and  effective  way, she made  present  to  humanity  the

mystery  of Christ.  And she still continues to do  so.   Through

the  mystery of Christ, she too is present within mankind.   Thus

through the mystery of the Son the mystery of the Mother is  also

made clear.

3. Behold your mother

20.   The Gospel of Luke records the moment when "a woman in  the

crowd  raised her voice" and said to Jesus: "Blessed is the  womb

that  bore  you  and the breasts that you  sucked!"  (Lk  11:27).

These words were an expression of

________________________________________________________________41. Saint Irenaeus, Adversus Haereses, III, 22,4: S.Ch. 211, 438-

444; cf.  Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium,

56, Note 6.

42.  Cf. Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium,  56,

and the Fathers quoted there in Notes 8 and 9.

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                              -39-

praise of Mary as Jesus' mother according to the flesh.  Probably

the  Mother of Jesus was not personally known to this woman;   in

fact,  when  Jesus  began his messianic  activity  Mary  did  not

accompany  him but continued to remain at Nazareth.   Once  could

say  that the words of that unknown woman in a way  brought  Mary

out of her hiddenness.

Through these words, there flashed out in the midst of the crowd,

at  least for an instant, the gospel of Jesus' infancy.  This  is

the  gospel in which Mary is present as the mother who  conceives

Jesus  in her womb, gives him birth and nurses him:  the  nursing

mother  referred  to by the woman in the crowd.  Thanks  to  this

motherhood,  Jesus, the Son of the Most High (cf. Lk 1:32), is  a

true son of man.  He is "flesh," like every other man: he is "the

Word  (who) became flesh" (cf. Jn 1:14).  He is of the flesh  and

blood of Mary!(43)

But  to the blessing uttered by that woman upon her who  was  his

mother  according  to the flesh, Jesus replies in  a  significant

way: "Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and  keep

it"  (Lk 11:28).  He wishes to divert attention  from  motherhood

understood only as a fleshly bond, in order to direct it  towards

those  mysterious bonds of the spirit which develop from  hearing

and keeping God's word.

________________________________________________________________

41.  "Christ is truth, Christ is flesh: Christ truth in the  mind

of Mary, Christ flesh in the womb of Mary":Saint Augustine, Sermo

25 (Sermones inediti), 7: PL 46, 938.

                              -40-

This same shift into the sphere of spiritual values is seen  even

more  clearly  in another response of Jesus reported by  all  the

Synoptics.  When Jesus is told that "his mother and brothers  are

standing outside and wish to see him," he replies: "My mother and

my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it" (cf. Lk

8:20-21).   This he said "looking around on those who  sat  about

him," as we read in Mark (3:34) or, according to Matthew (12:49),

"stretching out his hand towards his disciples."