“Ad Jesum Per Mariam”—To Jesus
Through Mary
Solemnity
of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God
(see Jn 2:5; 19:26-27)
Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,
Just a week ago we happily
welcomed Christmas, the Birthday of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior of the
world, solemnly marking the definitive day of our freedom from all forms of
slavery to the forces of evil.
Today, we let our minds and
hearts break into songs of great joy and profound gratitude to God the Father
for granting all of us such a blessed honor to celebrate the divine motherhood
of the Holy Virgin Mary, Mother of Jesus Christ and our Beloved Mother, too.
The Holy Catholic Church,
in faithfulness to the Sacred Scripture and Tradition, teaches us the truth
that Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, is at the same time true God and true
Man.
Of the divine conception of
Jesus, the Son of God, into the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mother, the Gospel
according to Saint Matthew, Chapter 1, verses 20-21, reads:
For it is through the Holy Spirit that this child has
been conceived in her. She will bear a
son and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their
sins.
The Blessed Virgin Mary is,
therefore, the biological mother of Jesus Christ, Son of God, and God
Himself. Assuring us of the true
humanity of Jesus Christ, Saint Paul writes in his Letter to the Hebrews,
Chapter 4, verse 15:
For we do not have a high priest who is unable to
sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has similarly been tested in every
way, yet without sin.
Of the double nature of
Jesus Christ, Saint John, the beloved disciple of the Lord, firmly teaches us this
in his Fourth Gospel, Chapter 1, verse 14:
And the Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us.
The Creed, or solemn and
official declaration on Christian faith, by the I Council of Nicea in 325,
which we all repeat every Sunday at Holy Mass, says:
I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Only Begotten Son
of God, born of the Father before all ages, God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God.
We have no reason to doubt that the
Blessed Virgin Mary is the Mother of Jesus of Nazareth, Son of Mary and Joseph,
a member of our human family, and that She is also the Mother of Christ, the
eternal Son of God, and God Himself.
This truth that the Blessed Virgin
Mother is truly the Mother of God will by no way cause any harm to our absolute
faith in the Most Holy Trinity. On the
contrary, by professing our belief that the Blessed Virgin Mary is the Mother
of God, we eventually confirm our faith in the truth that Jesus Christ, our
Lord and Savior, born of God the Father from eternity, but then conceived by
the Holy Spirit and born of the Blessed Virgin Mother into our world 2017 years
ago, is true God and true Man.
The divine motherhood of the Blessed
Virgin Mary never hinders but really leads all of us Christians, whether
Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican or Protestant, to Jesus Christ, Her Beloved Son,
as confidently stated by Saint Bernard of Clairvaux:
“Ad Iesum per Mariam”—Latin for “unto Jesus through Mary”.
This statement is strongly
backed up by the story reported by Saint John in the Fourth Gospel, Chapter 2,
verse 5, of the miracle of water turned into wine by Jesus at the wedding at
Cana, thanks to the guidance of the Blessed Virgin Mother to the servers when
She sent them to Her Son:
Do whatever He
tells you.
The Blessed Virgin Mother
also sends us Christians, especially in times of our trials and suffering and
confusion, to Her Beloved Son, Jesus Christ, with Her humble yet powerful
instruction and recommendation to which surely never will our Lord and Savior
say no:
Do whatever He tells you.
This means that our prayer whatsoever
will one hundred percent be answered.
Do you know why?
Simply because Jesus Christ Himself has
willed it when He about breathing His last on the cross entrusted all of us His
believers to His Beloved Mother, and then all of us to Her, as reported by
Saint John, in the Fourth Gospel, Chapter 19, verses from 26 to 27:
When Jesus saw His Mother and the disciple there whom He
loved, He said to His Mother, “Woman, behold your son.” Then He said to the disciple, “Behold, your
Mother.”
So, the Blessed Virgin
Mother of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and the Holy Mother of God, is also our
Beloved Holy Mother. We are doubtlessly
Her children whom She now so powerful in heaven loves and cares for with the
same tender and sweet heart with which She loves and cares for Jesus.
For this reason, let all of
us turn our minds and hearts to our heavenly Mother and pray as the Church
always does:
Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at
the hour of our death. Amen.
Fr. Francis Xavier Nguyen Van Nhut, O.P.
