It was through her that He became the bridge between the Divine and the human. If we take her away then either God does not become man or He that is born of her is a man and not God. Without her we would no longer have Our Lord! If we have a box in which we keep our money, we know that one thing we must always give attention to is the key; we never think that the key is the money. Our Blessed Mother is like the key. Without her, we can never get to Our Lord because He came through her. She is not to be compared to Our Lord, for she is a creature and He is a Creator. But if we lose her we cannot get to Him. That is why we pay so much attention to her; without her we could never understand how that bridge was built between Heaven and earth.

It may be objected: "our Lord is enough for me. I have no need for her". But He needed her whether we do or not. And what is more important, Our Blessed Lord gave us His Mother as our Mother. On that Friday men call Good, when He was unfurled upon the Cross as the banner of salvation. He looked down to the two most precious creatures He had on earth: His Mother and His beloved disciple, John. The night before, at the Last Supper, He had made His last Will and Testament giving us that which on dying no man was ever able to give, namely, Himself in the Holy Eucharist. Thus He would be with us as He said: "All days unto the consummation of the world". Now in the darkening shadows of Calvary, He adds a codicil to His Will. There beneath the Cross, not prostrate as the Gospel notes, "stood" His Mother. As a Son, He thought of His Mother: "Behold thy mother".

At last we see illumined the Gospel's description of His Birth, namely, Mary "brought forth her first born and laid him in a manger". Her first born. Saint Paul calls Him the "first born of all creatures". Does that mean that she was to have other children? Most certainly! But not according to the flesh, for Jesus was Her only Son. But she was to have other children by the spirit. Of these John is the first, born at the foot of the Cross, maybe Peter is the second, James, the third, and all of us the millionth and millionth of children. She gave birth in joy to Christ Who redeemed us, then she gave birth in sorrow to us whom Christ redeemed!. Not by a mere figure of speech, not by a metaphor but in virtue of Baptism did we become children of Mary and brothers of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

Just as we do not shrink from the thought of God giving us His Father so that we can pray: "Our Mother". Thus the Fall of Man is undone through another Tree, the Cross; Adam through another Adam, Christ; and Eve through the new Eve, Mary.

Born of the Virgin Mary: this is a true statement not only of Christ but of every Christian, although in a lesser way. Every man is born of woman in the flesh as a member of the race of Adam. He is also born of the Woman in the Spirit if he is of the redeemed race of Christ. As she formed Jesus in her body so she forms Jesus in our souls. In this one Woman are Virginity and Motherhood united as if God willed to show us that both are necessary for the world. Things separated in other creatures are united in her. The Mother is the protector of the Virgin and the Virgin is also the inspiration of motherhood.

One cannot go to a statue of a mother holding a babe, hack away the mother and expect to have the babe. Touch her and you spoil Him. All other world religion are lost in myth and legend except Christianity. Christ is cut off from all gods of paganism because He is tied to woman and to history. "Born of the Virgin Mary; suffered under Pontius Pilate". Coventry Patmore rightly calls Mary: "Our only Saviour from an abstract Christ". It is easier to understand the meek and humble heart of Christ by looking at His Mother. She holds all the great Truths of Christianity together as a piece of wood holds a kite. Children wrap the string of a kite around a stick and release the string as the kite climbs to the heavens. Mary is like that piece of wood. Around her we wrap all the precious strings of the great Truths of our holy Faith-for example the Incarnation, the Eucharist, the Church. No matter how far we get above the earth as the kite may, we always have need of Mary to hold the doctrines of the Creed together. If we threw away the stick we would no longer have the kite; if we threw away Mary we would never have Our Lord. He would be lost in the Heavens like our runaway kite and that would be terrible, indeed, for us on earth.

Mary does not prevent our honouring Our Lord. Nothing is more cruel than to say that she takes souls away from Christ. That could mean that Our Lord chose a mother who is selfish, He Who is Love Itself. If she kept us from her Son we would disown her! But is not she who is the Mother of Jesus, good enough for us sinners? We would never have had Our Divine Lord if He had not chosen her.

We pray to the Heavenly Father, "Give us this day our daily bread". Though we ask God for our daily bread we do not hate the farmer nor the baker who help prepare it. Neither does the mother who gives the bread to her child dispense with the Heavenly Provider. If the only charge Our Lord has against us on judgment day is that we loved His Mother then we shall be very happy!

As our love does not start with Mary so neither does it stop with Mary. Mary is a window through which our humanity first catches a glimpse of Divinity on earth. Or perhaps she is more like a magnifying glass that intensifies our love of her Son and makes our prayers more bright and burning.

God, Who made the sun also made the moon. The moon does not take away from the brilliance of the sun. The moon would be only a burnt-out cinder floating in the immensity of space were it not for the sun. All its light is reflected from the sun. The Blessed Mother reflects her Divine Son; without Him, she is nothing. With Him, she is the Mother of Men. On dark nights we are grateful for the moon; when we see it shining we know there must be a sun. So in this dark night of the world when men turn their backs on Him Who is the Light of the World we look to Mary to guide their feet while we await the sunrise.

BY ARCHBISHOP FULTON J. SHEEN (1895 to 1979)

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Sunday, May 24, 2009

I have through years of reading, pondering, reflecting and contemplating, the 3 things that last; FAITH . HOPE . LOVE and I would like to made available my sharing from the many thinkers, authors, scholars and theologians whose ideas and thoughts I have borrowed. God be with them always. Amen!

I STILL HAVE MANY THINGS TO SAY TO YOU BUT THEY WOULD BE TOO MUCH FOR YOU NOW. BUT WHEN THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH COMES, HE WILL LEAD YOU TO THE COMPLETE TRUTH, SINCE HE WILL NOT BE SPEAKING AS FROM HIMSELF, BUT WILL SAY ONLY WHAT HE HAS LEARNT; AND HE WILL TELL YOU OF THE THINGS TO COME.

HE WILL GLORIFY ME, SINCE ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. EVERYTHING THE FATHER HAS IS MINE; THAT IS WHY I SAID: ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. - JOHN 16:12-15 -