LLIVINGIVING THETHE U UNCONDITIONALNCONDITIONAL “ “YESYES”” OFOF M MARYARY

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TTABLEABLE OFOF C CONTENTSONTENTS

IINTRODUCTIONNTRODUCTION – – Mary, Mary, a member of our human racea member of our human race . . 33

RRECENTECENT THEOLOGICALTHEOLOGICAL INSIGHTSINSIGHTS 33

MMARYARY ININ THETHE S SCRIPTURESCRIPTURES 66

FFURTHERURTHER READINGREADING ANDAND REFLECTIONREFLECTION 88

OONN--GOINGGOING DISCOVERYDISCOVERY OFOF M MARYARY BYBY M MARYARY OFOF THETHE P PASSIONASSION 88

FMM FMM MISSIONMISSION ININ M MARYARY’’SS WAYWAY 11 11

TTOO MAKEMAKE ITIT OUROUR OWNOWN 1313

EENDND NOTESNOTES 1414

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OONGOINGNGOING DISCOVERYDISCOVERY THROUGHTHROUGH CONTEMPLATIONCONTEMPLATIONOFOF L LIVINGIVING THETHE U UNCONDITIONALNCONDITIONAL “ “YESYES” ” OFOF M MARYARY

IINTRODUCTIONNTRODUCTION::

God’s plan of salvation is made possible through two “Ecce’s” that of the second person of the Trinity who responded to the Father in saying behold I come to do your will1 and of Mary who said, behold the Handmaid of the Lord, be it done to me according to your Word.2

The consent of Mary, a member of our human race sets the path for all those who will say yes to the Lord’s call in times to come to continue His mission.

Before Vatican II the Church considered Mary as a “transcendent symbol”.3 Thanks to the new understanding that has emerged with Vatican II, Mary was placed within the Dogmatic Constitution of the Church, Lumen Gentium4. The Apostolic Exhortation, “Marialis Cultus”5 affirmed, that she is a member of our human race and a member of the Church. This signaled a new direction in Marian theology where she is seen as model of discipleship within the community of believers.

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RRECENTECENT THEOLOGICALTHEOLOGICAL INSIGHTSINSIGHTS ONON M MARYARY

The Annunciation6 in Luke provides the first active appearance of Mary in the Gospels where she is greeted by the angel with the words, “Hail full of grace,” significant of her state of being. The angel continues, “the Lord is with you” a formula often used to greet a person chosen by God for a special purpose in salvation history.7

Elizabeth Johnson comments,8 that “Mary reacts with a troubled heart and receives the classic encouragement not to be afraid. The messenger announces that she will conceive a child who will be great, son of the Most High, inheriting the throne of David in a kingdom without end. Her objection, “How can this be?” is met with the promise that the Holy Spirit will be with her. The promise is underscored with the sign of Elizabeth’s pregnancy. Replete with angelic voice, fear and reassurance, message, objection, and sign, this is a story of Mary being commissioned to carry forward God’s design for redemption. The announcement of her impending motherhood is at the same time her prophetic calling to act for the deliverance of the people. She now takes her place “among those prophets called to give word and witness to the hidden plan of God’s salvific activity not yet seen by other members of the community of faith. Her affirmative response to this divine initiative sets her life off on an adventure into the unknown future. The divine presence will be with her through good times and bad and ultimately the community will remember her life

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with gratitude… It is a prophetic vocation story of a Jewish girl and her God, set within the tradition of her people struggling for freedom.”

With Mary’s “yes” of faith and fidelity, coincides the revelation of God’s power. “The Word became flesh. He came to dwell among us, and we saw His glory, such glory as befits the Father’s only Son, full of grace and truth.” 9

Elizabeth Johnson remarks 10 that this special grace of God plunged her into the heart of the world. It was a real human journey. She searched, she felt anxious, she did not understand everything, she had to find her way from stage to stage of her life’s passage. Viewed from the outside, hers was a really commonplace and obscure life, that of any average woman in any odd corner of a small country, far from the great streams, of history, civilization and of politics. Life did not treat her gently. She lived through the common human lot, “tears and tedium, distress and bitterness, agony and death, joy and light, rage and greatness, a whole long and always unprecedented human life.”11

Pope Paul VI described Mary as a strong and intelligent woman, one who had the wits to question back when the angel addressed her, one who experienced poverty and suffering, flight and exile. In the midst of these troubles she consistently gave active and responsible consent to the call of God, made courageous choices, and worked to strengthen the faith of others. Rather than being submissively pious, “she was a woman who did not hesitate to proclaim that God vindicates the humble and the oppressed, and removes the powerful people of this world from the privileged positions”12

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In the most quoted passage from this letter, the Pope then declares that far from endorsing the particulars of Mary’s own life as exemplary, the Church proposes her to the faithful as an example to be imitated, not precisely in the type of life she led, much less for the socio-cultural background in which she lived and which today scarcely exists anywhere. Rather she is held up as an example for the way in which, in her own particular life, she fully and responsibly accepted God’s will (see Luke 1:38), because she heard the Word of God and acted on it, and because charity and a spirit of service were the driving force of her actions. She is worthy of imitation because she was the first and most perfect of Christ’s disciples.13

MARY IN THE SCRIPTURES

The unconditional “yes” of Mary at the Annunciation was the beginning of her long journey of discovery and one grasps it further through the contemplation of Mary all along this journey. The first step in this journey is her visit to Elizabeth, where two women graced by God with extraordinary intervention in their lives meet one another and share their story. Their mutual love, service and encouragement enables them to go forward with more confidence and joy, despite the struggle that still faced them. Connecting with each other these two women are empowered to speak with prophetic voices. The force of their meeting leads them to proclaim in the

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midst of their history that God blesses the lowly and overthrows the oppressive institutions. Mary’s Magnificat is the climax of her visit and is the powerful prophetic utterance from the mouth of Mary.

Mary’s visit to Elizabeth in Luke and the wedding feast at Cana in John are seen as examples of her sensitivity to her neighbors’ need and as a woman of active service, the characteristics essential in the life of a disciple of Jesus.

Mary giving birth to Jesus, God’s own Son, in the unfamiliar, uncomfortable situation in a stable14 was the living out of the unconditional yes to God. It showed her that her path would be hard, like that of many poor displaced women, yet she did not question God, but said her yes. It manifests her power of endurance and the inner strength in the face of pain and struggle. The whole of Chapter 2 in Luke with many events connected to Mary point out that Mary is an exemplary disciple, a woman actively contemplating the Word of God. Hers is a life in the process of becoming with no final answers yet available.

Once Jesus begins his public ministry, He describes Mary His mother as the person who is doing the will of His Father and therefore publicly confirms her as His disciple.15 and Mary accepts it without questioning. In the Gospels there are various kinds of disciples: Peter for example, is a prototype for the apostle-disciple; the other eleven disciples or apostles are models for community discipleship; Mary the mother of Jesus, however is a prototype for the believer disciple, offering us an insight into our own discipleship in how to follow Jesus.16

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Mary’s unconditional yes stands out poignantly when she follows Jesus on the way of the Cross and stands beneath the Cross:

“…the blessed Virgin advanced in her pilgrimage of faith and faithfully persevered in her union with her Son unto the Cross, where she stood, in keeping with the divine plan, enduring with her only begotten Son the intensity of his suffering, associated herself with his sacrifice in her mother’s heart, and lovingly consenting to the immolation of this victim which was born of her…”17

She stands there as a woman of strong faith, inner strength and conviction. The simple girl of Nazareth becomes a strong woman showing to all men and women who will come after her that suffering need not crush one, but can bring out the best in the person. She, who herself had suffered the loss of her son, stays with the disciples in the upper room, praying with them, giving them hope.18 At Pentecost along with the others, she receives once again the outpouring of the Spirit with which she along with the others continues the mission of her Son in the early Church being a faithful disciple till the end.

FFURTHERURTHER READINGREADING

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Lumen Gentium Ch.8 Pope Paul VI. Apostolic Exhortation “Marialis

Cultus” 1974 Pope John Paul II: Encyclical , “Redemptoris

Mater” 1987 Elizabeth Johnson, “Truly Our Sister” 2003

RREFLECTIONEFLECTION

Mary said her yes at Annunciation. Look back and relive the moment when you said yes to God’s call. Mary became a woman of faith and hope with her yes… and me!

OONGOINGNGOING DISCOVERYDISCOVERY OFOF M MARYARY BYBY M MARYARY OFOF THETHE PPASSIONASSION

The Blessed Virgin had a special place in the life of Helen de Chappotin. She was born and baptized in the month of May,received her First Communion in the month of May. Later she would say “…the love of my Virgin Mother had wanted me to be the child of her month.”19 As a young girl, she belonged to a group of the Children of Mary. After her mother’s death, she began a great attachment to the Blessed Virgin calling her by the name “Maman Vierge”

She entered the Poor Clare’s on the first Vespers of the feast of our Lady of Loretto. It is there she received the mystical name, “Mary Victim of Jesus and of Jesus

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crucified.” Later she entered the Society of Marie Reparatrix and imbibed the spirit of the Mother of Sorrows.

Going to India as a novice and taking up responsibility at a very young age, imitation of Mary became her hallmark. “I spent my life under the shadow of Nazareth”.20 Her devotion to Mary made her take the vow to honor always the hidden life of Mary especially in Nazareth to obtain the triumph of the Church and of Truth.21 and it became the seal of her soul . Like Mary she wanted to love Jesus, serve him, give Him to the world. “A hidden life beneath the gaze of God. Even if I had to go into the army, this would still be my path marked by Nazareth.”22

Later the name, the Missionaries of Mary, given by the Church, for her new Congregation was a clear sign that Mary’s way was to be her way and the way of all those who would follow this path. She gave to the Institute the motto in Mary’s words, “Behold the handmaid of the Lord”. In the trials that beset her, she wanted to follow the path of Mary. “I want to face trials with my Mother, bear trials with my Mother.”23 And she would say “Jesus is very happy when I am there in His presence, enveloped, as it were, by Mary, pleading the cause of the world with her, and as she did in Nazareth.”24

In 1885 she said,”…for many years there exists within me a contemplation of Mary’s fiat. I feel drawn to it by a force which is not my own and that makes me understand its beauty, silence and magnitude.”25 In

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1899 in her communication to the Institute she said, “We are called to spread the grace of the Gospel in all its richness.”26 And she offered Mary’s way as the model for it.27 Indeed Mary was her special path to reach “the path”, Jesus.

She found great inspiration in the offering of Mary. “The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. What a day that was! No one will ever make so complete an offering of her entire being to her creator as Mary made; nor will any one obtain, as much as she has obtained. But in the measure in which a soul annihilates herself in God, God will dwell in her. Oh, if Franciscan Missionaries of Mary knew how to understand it, how powerful their work would be on earth, even in the obscurity of the hidden life!”28

She found herself being in the place of Mary while at adoration.“Mary was the inseparable companion of Jesus; from the stable to the Cross, she had a share in His life and in His suffering,… Well to be a Franciscan Missionary of Mary is to continue the mission of Mary, to be the inseparable companion of Jesus on earth and to do on earth what Mary can do no longer here below, namely, be near Jesus in the Eucharist; as her representatives, they adore and offer themselves as victims in the name and place of their Immaculate Mother.”29

In Mary’s “ecce” Mary of the Passion found the basic attitudes necessary for our vocation: surrender, openness to the world, humility, availability.

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Mary of the Passion draws a parallel between Mary and an FMM:

As Mary gave us Christ - so we give Him to others.As Mary accompanied Jesus - so we accompany Him

1 Heb.10:5-72 Lk.1:383 Elizabeth A. Johnson. Truly Our Sister: ATheology of Mary

in the Communion of Saints. New York: Continuum, 2003.

95 4 Walter M. Abbott S.J. (ed). The Documents of Vatican II,

New York, NY: America Press, 19665 Pope Paul VI. Apostolic Letter Marialis Cultus. 19746 Lk.1:26-387 Exodus 3:12; Jg. 6:12; Jer.1:8 etc.8 Johnson, op.cit. 250-2519 John 1:1410 Johnson, op.cit., 110 11 Ibid., Elizabeth Johnson quoting Raymond E. Brown12 Marialis Cultus, n. 3713 Marialis Cultus, n.3514 Lk.2:1f15 Lk.8:19-2116 J. Neuner, sj. Mary model of the Church, Vidyajyoti

Journal, vol. 59, December 1995

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by prayer before the Blessed Sacrament.

Mary accompanied Jesus to - so we dedicate ourselves Egypt and apostolic journeys to the apostolate.

17 Lumen Gentium, 1964, n. 5818 Acts. 1:1419 He speaks to me in the heart of His Church; 31 May 1883

(208), 21320 Life of Very Reverend Mother Mary of the Passion, 3721 Op.cit. 3722 He speaks to me in the heart of His Church, 17 August,

1883 (187), 19523 He speaks to me in the heart of His Church, 7 May 1883

(230) 23124 Ibid. 21 June 1883 (209) 21325 Ibid. 14 December 1885(215) 21926 Circular and Official Letters to the Institute; 1877-1904; 2

February 189927 He speaks to me in the heart of His Church, 8 April 1883

(249) 24928 Custom Book. Directory of the feast of the Annunciation,

March 25, CT\1: 9029 Ibid., Directory of Adoration; CT\1:28

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As Mary was active after - so we are active in the ChurchPentecost in the early Church to renew the evangelical action. The apostolic and contemplative vocation of an fmm is synthesized in Mary:

Offering: she offered herself from the moment of the Annunciation to Calvary where her self-offering reached its peak.

Adoration: From the Annunciation, she contemplated and adored, deeply united to her son.Mission: In close union with the Spirit, she gave the world Jesus. Salvation comes through Mary.

FMM FMM MISSIONMISSION ININ M MARYARY’’SS WAYWAY:

“Our blessed Lady was the most perfect imitator of her Divine Son. She should therefore be her missionary daughters’ special path to go to our Lord, to imitate Him and give Him to souls.” CS.3

“…Let us continue on earth the mission of Mary Immaculate, everything is there for us. In all things, everywhere, always, may our religious family be, after her example, the handmaid of the Lord”. JO 103

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Our mission is to continue Mary’s mission, it is to be Mary herself, to be her hosts near the Host of the tabernacle. May I then be Mary, and may Mary be I…” He speaks to me… 15 February 1885 No.254

“What was Mary’s work? She saved the world by giving it Jesus. As queen of martyrs, she was then united as closely as possible to our Lord Jesus Christ, the Divine Victim, and after Him, had the first share in the sacrifice of the Cross.” CR1/2

“It was in the humility of Nazareth that this Divine Mother merited to give the Savior to the world. Each of her missionary daughters should offer herself, then, as a victim without ostentation, in the humility and simplicity of the hidden life, thus striving to obtain peace between heaven and earth.” CS 4

“…Each of us, the Institute as a whole, in union with Mary and through her, should share in her mission, make peace between heaven and earth, and obtain the coming of the kingdom of God.” MD 625

“…by imitating her life, hidden, yet full of zeal for the glory of God and salvation of souls, we shall fulfill the purpose of the Institute’s existence.” JO 545

“Let us continue on earth the mission of Mary Immaculate-this ideal sums up our whole life…”30

She summarized our life: “We will work as Missionaries in Mary’s way – Through Jesus. This is how she was truly a missionary in the shadow of Jesus and the 30 Circular 14th May,1896, The spirit of the Institute, 49

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Apostles. We bring both Jesus and Mary with us at the same time.”31 She sees the gift of the Institute to the world as a “Pentecost”, under the impulse of Mary Immaculate, a renewal of truth and charity.32

RREFLECTIONEFLECTION

Re-read the yes of Mary, that of Mary of the Passion and your own.Recall the moments the yes you have said has helped you to grow in your vocation.

TTOO MAKEMAKE ITIT OUROUR OWNOWN

As Franciscan Missionaries of Mary, our “yes”, entails a similar process, whereby God chooses His plan to be fulfilled in and through us, through the hidden life, through the ordinariness of life, through fulfillment and through the crucible of suffering. It is the faith and obedience like that of Mary, her surrender to the Spirit we are called to live at every situation of our life. Called to be missionaries, we collaborate in the mission of Christ, to give Jesus to the world, so helping to make peace between heaven and earth in its various aspects including standing beneath the Cross. She also reminds us that our personal concerns need to become secondary and Jesus’ concern for the reign of God must become primary in our lives.

31 He speaks to me in the heart of His Church, 18 December

1888 (268) 26332 Cf. He speaks to me in the heart of His Church, 27 May

1903(257) 255

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The spirituality she offers us is to live in close communion with her Son Jesus, to listen to the Spirit, to live in love of God’s will and be ready to sacrifice oneself as Christ sacrificed Himself and as she sacrificed her life for her Son.

End Notes

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