Every 1st Friday our parish family gathers throughout the day for Eucharistic Adoration and Benediction at 6 p.m. For many months now, at the urging of our Pastor, we have been praying the Rosary of the Seven Sorrows before we have Benediction.
On this particular 1st Friday I realized that this was the 1st Friday of the month particularly dedicated to the Blessed Mother. In fact, the beautiful statue of Our Lady, still crowned from last weekends procession and May crowning, is still prominent inside the Church. I wanted to reflect last night on Mary and her role as I always believe our devotion to her is misunderstood. And this misunderstanding comes from both those who believe the Church assigns worship to Mary (which she most assuredley does not) and those well-intentioned but slightly misguided Catholics who may go overboard in their personal devotion.
I found a writing from the Ligourian website titled "Praying through Mary points us in the right direction" by Rick Potts, C.Ss.R. Here are some highlights:
"In Scripture Mary always points to Jesus and away from herself. She is the lowly handmaid, the servant of God. At the wedding feast of Cana, in what was probably Mary's boldest moment, she tells the servants, do whatever he tells you (Jn. 2:1). She could have just told them to get the stone water jars. Instead, she told them to follow Jesus. Be obedient to him.
And those are her last words in Scripture. The most blessed of women, the God-bearer, the one born without sin and the one who would be assumed into heaven, says not one recorded word from this point forward. Jesus begins his public ministry with a little push from his mother, and immediately she fades into the background, always there but never there, silently echoing the words of John the Baptist: He must increase, but I must decrease (Jn. 3:30).
Mary is an integral part of the Catholic faith, so integral that some people think we worship her. And who can blame them? It's tricky enough trying to explain to non-Catholics the difference between praying to Mary and praying through Mary. It doesn't make it easier that some Catholics actually do place the spotlight on Mary and seem to ignore Jesus.
But sometimes it is easier to approach Mary, the Mother, rather than Jesus, the crucified, especially when we feel guilty or ashamed. Who wants to look up into those sorrowful, pain-filled eyes and admit our own sins did this to him? It's so much easier to run to the protection of Mary.
Those of us lucky enough to have experienced the unconditional love of a mother - whether biological, officially adopted, or unofficially adopted - have real-world experience to help us process and understand Mary's deep love. It's sometimes harder to imagine that our God loves lowly and sinful us.
The problem is that sometimes we feel so comforted and protected by Mary that we fail to see her pointing to Jesus. We ignore that she is peeling us off herself, urging us to go to her Son. We don't hear her say he won't bite and he won't blame - he will only embrace us, forgive us, help us.
And Mary should know. Mary said yes so we might know him. Mary carried him in her womb for nine months and endured childbirth so we might have a Brother and Lord. Mary let him leave the safety of her home and go to Calvary so we would have a Savior to run to.
Mary listens to us, loves us, embraces us - and then sends us straight to Jesus."
All I can add is WOW! This explains things beautifully.
Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen!
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