Mary's
"yes" is therefore the
door through which God was able to enter the
world, to become man. So it is that
Mary is truly and
profoundly involved in the Mystery of the
Incarnation, of our salvation.
And the Incarnation, the Son's becoming
man, was the beginning that prepared the ground
for the gift of himself; for giving himself with
great love on the Cross to become Bread for the
life of the world. Hence sacrifice, priesthood
and Incarnation go together and
Mary is at the heart of
this mystery.
The Gospel tells us that from that hour St John,
the beloved son, took his mother Mary "to his
own home". This is what it says in the [English]
translation; but the Greek text is far deeper,
far richer. We could translate it:
he took Mary into his
inner life, his inner being, "eis tà ́dia", into
the depths of his being.
Because of his
identification with and sacramental conformation
to Jesus, Son of God and Son of Mary, every
priest can and must feel that he really is a
specially beloved son of this loftiest and
humblest of Mothers.
The Second Vatican Council invites
priests to look to Mary as
to the perfect model for their existence,
invoking her as "Mother of the supreme and
eternal Priest, as Queen of Apostles, and as
Protectress of their ministry". The
Council continues,
"priests should always
venerate and love her, with a filial devotion
and worship" (cf.
Presbyterorum Ordinis, n. 18).
The Holy Curé d'Ars, whom we are remembering in
particular in this Year, used to like to say:
"Jesus Christ, after giving us all that he could
give us, wanted further to
make us heirs to his most precious possession,
that is, his Holy Mother (B. Nodet, Il
pensiero e l'anima del Curato d'Ars, Turin 1967,
p. 305).
