Pope Francis: Mary is our Mother, who defends us
(Vatican Radio) In a “world
that suffers the crisis of a great orphanhood,” we have a Mother that
accompanies and defends us. That was the message of Pope Francis during the
morning Mass at the Casa Santa Marta on the feast of Our Lady of Sorrows.
The Gospel of the day brings
us to Calvary. All the disciples had fled, except for St John and a few women.
At the foot of the Cross is Mary, the Mother of Jesus. Everyone is looking at
her, saying, “That’s the mother of this delinquent! That is the mother of this
subversive!”
“And Mary heard these things.
She suffered terrible humiliation. And she also heard the dignitaries, even
some priests, whom she respected, because they were priests, [saying] “You who
are so good, come down! Come down!” With her Son, naked, there [on the Cross].
And Mary had such great suffering, but she didn’t go away. She didn’t deny her
Son! He was her flesh.”
Pope Francis recalled that,
when he was in Buenos Aires and would visit prisoners in the jails, he always
saw lines of women waiting to enter:
“They were moms. But they were
not ashamed: their flesh was there inside. And these women suffered not only
the shame of being there – “Look at her! What did her son do?” -- but they also
suffer the ugly humiliation of the searches they had to undergo before
entering. But they were mothers, and they went to find their own flesh. And so
it was with Mary: she was there, with her Son, with that very great suffering.”
Jesus, the Pope said, has
promised not to leave us orphans, and on the Cross he gives us His Mother as
our Mother:
“We Christians have a Mother,
Jesus’ [Mother]; we have a Father, Jesus’ [Father]. We are not orphans! And she
gives birth to us in that moment with such great sorrow: She is truly a martyr.
With a pierced heart, she accepts giving birth to all of us in that moment of
sorrow. And from that moment she becomes our Mother, from that moment she is
our Mother, the one who takes care of us and is not ashamed of us: she defends
us.”
The mystics of the early
centuries, Pope Francis said, counsel us to take refuge under the mantle of the
Mother of God in moments of spiritual turbulence: “The devil can’t enter
there.” He continued, explaining that Mary is a mother, and she will defend as
a Mother. The West later took this advice to heart and composed the Latin
version of the Marian antiphon: Sub tuum praesidium, “under your mantle, under
your protection, O Mother!” We are safe there, he said.
“In a world we could call an
orphan,” Pope Francis concluded, “in this world that suffers the crisis” of a
great experience of being orphaned, “perhaps our help lies in saying ‘Look to
your Mother!’” We have a mother “who defends us, teaches us, accompanies us;
who is not ashamed of our sins. She is not ashamed, because she is our Mother.
May the Holy Spirit, this friend, this companion along the way, this Paraclete
or advocate Whom the Lord has sent, make us understand this very great mystery
of the maternity of Mary.”
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