St. Pope John Paul II: MARIAN DIMENSION OF CHRISTIAN LIFE

MARIAN DIMENSION . . .

The Marian dimension of the life of a disciple of Christ is expressed in a special way precisely through this filial entrusting to the Mother of Christ, which began with the testament of the Redeemer on Golgotha.

Entrusting himself to Mary in a filial manner, the Christian becomes like the Apostle John. The Christian  “welcomes” the Mother of Christ “into his own home”. And brings her into everything that makes up his inner life. That is to say into his human and Christian “I”; he “took her to his own home”. Thus the Christian seeks  that “maternal charity”;  with which the Redeemer’s Mother “cares for the brethren of her Son”. ” “In whose birth and development she cooperates” in the measure of the gift proper to each one through the power of Christ’s Spirit. Thus also is exercised that motherhood in the Spirit which became Mary’s role at the foot of the Cross and in the Upper Room.

. . . OF CHRISTIAN LIFE

This filial relationship, this self-entrusting of a child to its mother, not only has its beginning in Christ but can also be said to be definitively directed towards him. Mary can be said to continue to say to each individual the words which she spoke at Cana in Galilee; “Do whatever he tells you”.  For he, Christ, is the one Mediator between God and mankind; he is “the way, and the truth, and the life” (Jn. 14:6); it is he whom the Father has given to the world, so that man “should not perish but have eternal life” (Jn. 3:16).

The Virgin of Nazareth became the first “witness” of this saving love of the Father, and she also wishes to remain its humble handmaid always and everywhere. For every Christian, for every human being. Mary is the one who first “believed”. And precisely with her faith as Spouse and Mother she wishes to act upon all those who entrust themselves to her as her children. And it is well known that the more her children persevere and progress in this attitude; the nearer Mary leads them to the “unsearchable riches of Christ” (Eph. 3:8). And to the same degree they recognize more and more clearly the dignity of man in all its fullness and the definitive meaning of his vocation, for “Christ . . . fully reveals man to man himself.”

Mother of the Redeemer, #45, 46
John Paul II