On the Feast of the Solemnity of the Mother of God in 2012, the Pope Emeritus shared this insight on the Birth of Christ, which reveals the great perfection of Mary, the Theotokos. For the purpose of this mini-series on perfection and Mary, one can see the fact that Mary at the Birth of Christ was completely focused on Christ, in and with the "superabundant measure of the gift of grace" which was given to her in her Immaculate Conception.
Contemplation was her life on earth, the complete oneness of mind, heart, soul, memory, understanding and will with and in Christ.
The first to be swept up by this blessing was Mary the virgin, the
spouse of Joseph, chosen by God from the first moment of her existence
to be the mother of his incarnate Son. She is the “blessed among women”
(Lk 1:42) – in the words of Saint Elizabeth’s greeting. Her whole life
was spent in the light of the Lord, within the radius of his name and of
the face of God incarnate in Jesus, the “blessed fruit of her womb”.
This is how Luke’s Gospel presents her to us: fully intent upon guarding
and meditating in her heart upon everything concerning her son Jesus
(cf. Lk 2:19, 51). The mystery of her divine motherhood that we
celebrate today contains in superabundant measure the gift of grace that
all human motherhood bears within it, so much so that the fruitfulness
of the womb has always been associated with God’s blessing. The Mother
of God is the first of the blessed, and it is she who bears the
blessing; she is the woman who received Jesus into herself and brought
him forth for the whole human family. In the words of the liturgy:
“without losing the glory of virginity, [she] brought forth into the
world the eternal light, Jesus Christ our Lord” (Preface I of the
Blessed Virgin Mary).
Mary is the mother and model of the Church, who receives the divine Word
in faith and offers herself to God as the “good soil” in which he can
continue to accomplish his mystery of salvation. The Church also
participates in the mystery of divine motherhood, through preaching,
which sows the seed of the Gospel throughout the world, and through the
sacraments, which communicate grace and divine life to men. The Church
exercises her motherhood especially in the sacrament of Baptism, when
she generates God’s children from water and the Holy Spirit, who cries
out in each of them: “Abba, Father!” (Gal 4:6). Like Mary, the Church is
the mediator of God’s blessing for the world: she receives it in
receiving Jesus and she transmits it in bearing Jesus. He is the mercy
and the peace that the world, of itself, cannot give, and which it needs
always, at least as much as bread.
Mary leads us to Christ and to the Father. To her was revealed the Indwelling of the Trinity to the highest degree of any human. In the Holy Spirit, through baptism, we join with her in our journey to perfection. She points the way, continually.
Without Mary, there is no Incarnation, no Redemption, no Passion and Death of Christ, and no Resurrection. We would be still locked in sin.
Indeed, she is the Co-Redemptrix.
to be continued....
