#9 - St.JPII's Meditation on Mary

[MariaChristi]

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Continuing with Chapter 5 in the Encyclical “Mulieris Dignitatem”, paragraph 14 is long but important, for it helps us to see how all humanity is called to look at Mary as our Mother and Model in our following of Christ. She is the “New Eve” as Jesus is the “New Adam”. Hopefully, on this Sunday, you’ll have time to ponder God’s Plan for all of us in JPII’s Meditation:

1. Jesus enters into the concrete and historical situation of women, a situation which is weighed down by the inheritance of sin. One of the ways in which this inheritance is expressed is habitual discrimination against women in favour of men. This inheritance is rooted within women too. From this point of view the episode of the woman “caught in adultery” (cf. Jn 8:3-11) is particularly eloquent. In the end Jesus says to her: “Do not sin again”, but first he evokes an awareness of sin in the men who accuse her in order to stone her, thereby revealing his profound capacity to see human consciences and actions in their true light. Jesus seems to say to the accusers: Is not this woman, for all her sin, above all a confirmation of your own transgressions, of your “male” injustice, your misdeeds?

This truth is valid for the whole human race. The episode recorded in the Gospel of John is repeated in countless similar situations in every period of history. A woman is left alone, exposed to public opinion with “her sin”, while behind “her” sin there lurks a man - a sinner, guilty “of the other’s sin”, indeed equally responsible for it. And yet his sin escapes notice, it is passed over in silence: he does not appear to be responsible for “the others’s sin”! Sometimes, forgetting his own sin, he even makes himself the accuser, as in the case described. How often, in a similar way, the woman pays for her own sin (maybe it is she, in some cases, who is guilty of the “others’s sin” - the sin of the man), but she alone pays and she pays all alone! How often is she abandoned with her pregnancy, when the man, the child’s father, is unwilling to accept responsibility for it? And besides the many “unwed mothers” in our society, we also must consider all those who, as a result of various pressures, even on the part of the guilty man, very often “get rid of” the child before it is born. “They get rid of it”: but at what price? Public opinion today tries in various ways to “abolish” the evil of this sin. Normally a woman’s conscience does not let her forget that she has taken the life of her own child, for she cannot destroy that readiness to accept life which marks her “ethos” from the “beginning”.

The attitude of Jesus in the episode described in John 8:3-11 is significant. This is one of the few instances in which his power - the power of truth - is so clearly manifested with regard to human consciences. Jesus is calm, collected and thoughtful. As in the conversation with the Pharisees (cf. Mt 19:3-9), is Jesus not aware of being in contact with the mystery of the “beginning”, when man was created male and female, and the woman was entrusted to the man with her feminine distinctiveness, and with her potential for motherhood? The man was also entrusted by the Creator to the woman - they were entrusted to each other as persons made in the image and likeness of God himself. This entrusting is the test of love, spousal love. In order to become “a sincere gift” to one another, each of them has to feel responsible for the gift…

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How truly the Church teaches by the power of the Holy Spirit! “The Church’s devotion to Mary is intrinsic to Christian worship” (CCC 971). The Catechism also reminds us:

487 What the Catholic faith believes about Mary is based on what it believes about Christ, and what it teaches about Mary illumines in turn its faith in Christ.

The Holy Spirit is given to the Church to bring us into All Truth. By God’s Grace, let us remain faithful to all God reveals to us, in Scripture, Tradition and the Magisterium of the Church. By Grace, let us remember Mary is for us the Icon of the Church; let us love the Church as Christ loves her.

Come Holy Spirit, enlighten the hearts of Your faithful. Kindle in us the Fire of Your Love.
Mary, Mother of the Church, pray for us.
Jesus, we trust in You!