Mary our Mother and Help

THE WORD AND THE FEAST

May 24, 2019: Celebrating the Feast of Mary Help of Christians

Genesis 3: 1-6, 13-15; John 2: 1-11

Mary, the mother of God, mother of Jesus and our Mother, is manifested to us by God, in history and in events of today, as the Help of those who follow her Son, that is, the help of Christians! It is right today to have a look at the role of this Mother within the framework of our faith. 

IN HISTORY... In history we have seen persons, groups, the people of God, saints and saintly leaders of the people of God, founders of religious congregations and martyr witnesses to faith, relating in a very special and personal manner to the Blessed Mother of God. Apart from the fact that Jesus himself presented her to us as our Mother, Mary has stood by every follower and friend of her Son and proved a great protection to them in their lives. Don Bosco is one such, who experienced the constant guidance, benevolence and protection of our Blessed Mother and invoked her in this title: Mary Help of Christians.

IN THE CHURCH... As people of God and specially as Catholic Church we have a special gratitude and filial love for our Blessed Mother because we have been and we are privileged followers of her Son; yes, privileged, special and blessed! How much we have experienced this! We need to feel sorry for those of our own fellow pilgrims in faith, who miss this lovely, loving and lovable mother. The children might disregard their mother and hardly care for her, but the mother would always consider them her children, and consider so with compassion and concern.

IN FAITH... Mary, the Mother of Christ and our Blessed Mother, has an enormous role to play within the salvific plan of God. As the first reading suggests, God had in God's holy will a 'woman' who would usher in the salvation of humanity as a chosen instrument of God. St. Paul refers to this plan in his letter to the Galatians: (4:4) when the fullness of time came God sent God's son through a 'woman'... that is the 'woman' that Jesus is interacting with in the Gospel! What a lovely message from the Word, proposing to us a great model in cooperating with the eternal plan of God. The Message from our Blessed mother is a further explication of this model: 'Do whatever he tells you'.

Mary proves to be a mother and a help to those who are with Christ! The key is to be with Christ: being with, and being with Christ. Let us note the focus here. Our Blessed Mother will never be happy with us coming to her and stopping with her - she wants to and she vows to take us to the Son and that is where our salvation lies. Whether the faithful or those who shepherd the faithful - it would do well for us never to lose sight of this loving desire of our Blessed Mother, that we hold her hand and walk to Jesus. And on this journey she is certainly our mother and our help!

Here is a link to access the proper for this feast... the Mass Prayers, Readings and others (copy and paste it in the URL to find it):

http://opcalendarium.blogspot.com/2012/05/proper-mass-of-mary-help-of-christians.html