God seems to think that we are in an urgent need of Mary. “Vital need”, “only refuge”, “only way”. Mary is shining with a greater light now and is offered under a new light to us as a definitive help. How? Why?
From at least 160 years, we witness many Marian apparitions, messages (from her and about her), Marian activity and a lot of teaching on Mary. We feel as if God is pushing toward a greater knowledge of Mary. It is a fact, we can’t deny it! Two dogmas have been declared (Immaculate Conception, Assumption), the world has been consecrated to Mary various times, Messages - sometimes short, sometimes long – have been given to the world through various visionaries. We then all wonder: “why Mary is more revealed in our time?” She is not only “more revealed”, but we can notice that she is often presented as the only refuge in troubled times! This is a strong statement!
From at least 160 years, we witness many Marian apparitions, messages (from her and about her), Marian activity and a lot of teaching on Mary. We feel as if God is pushing toward a greater knowledge of Mary. It is a fact, we can’t deny it! Two dogmas have been declared (Immaculate Conception, Assumption), the world has been consecrated to Mary various times, Messages - sometimes short, sometimes long – have been given to the world through various visionaries. We then all wonder: “why Mary is more revealed in our time?” She is not only “more revealed”, but we can notice that she is often presented as the only refuge in troubled times! This is a strong statement!
Since she is that
essential for our Faith - as this Marian activity seems to convey - we wonder
as well: "how come she is not that clearly and explicitly central in the Gospels!
If all this Marian activity is right, then she must be essential and structural
in the Gospels, from day one!" "But this doesn’t seem so" we think hastily. Then we
ask ourselves: "why God is hiding her to our eyes? Why did He hide her for so
many centuries if she is that essential?"
It seems as well that today God is opening our eyes to see Mary well present in the Gospels, giving a deeper teaching all together on our faith and on Mary. In this teaching she appears being essential, non-negotiable, non-optional, structurally part of our Faith. God is giving a very special grace to see Mary in the Gospels, opening our eyes through “plain exegesis”, “typological exegesis”, “spiritual exegesis”, “camouflage exegesis” and “negative-effect exegesis”. Then the same question comes back again: why doing so so late (after 1850 to 2000 years) and not right from the beginning? How come we didn’t see that in previous times?
On one hand we
can’t say that Mary was absent from the beginning in the Gospel. From the first
generation, from the Gospels we find her explicitly present in various places
(Luke 1-2, John 2 and 19). These are powerful passages. Nobody can deny the fact of "taking Mary as his/her own mother" (see John 19) is essential and vital. Nobody can deny the deep dimension of Luke's entrance
diptych depicting two Annunciations, and the meaning of Mary’s one (see Luke 1).
On the other
hand, it is true as well that today’s emphasis on Mary’s essentiality is much
stronger that what centuries of exegesis could gather from these explicit
passages. [Only in the French School of Spirituality and in some Sermons of St
Bernard we could find strong statement on the essentiality of Mary to our faith.] So we are still left with the question: why in the Bible, in the Gospels her essentiality remained rather softly hidden.
Some statements
can come to our attention and make us reflect and ponder:
I- We find this
statement in the book “True devotion to Mary” by St Louis de Montfort:
“When Mary has taken root in a soul she produces in it
wonders of grace which only she can produce; for she alone is the fruitful
virgin who never had and never will have her equal in purity and fruitfulness.
Together with the Holy Spirit Mary produced the greatest thing that ever was or
ever will be: a God-man. She will consequently produce the marvels, which will
be seen in the latter times. The formation and the education of the
great saints who will come at the end of the world are reserved to her, for only this singular and wondrous virgin can
produce in union with the Holy Spirit singular and wondrous things.” (True devotion to Mary, 35)
II- In Mary’s
messages to Don Gobbi, of the “Marian movement of the Priests”, she says that
her Immaculate Heart will be the last and sole recourse and refuge in these
times, the only safe place:
“The
time has come when my Immaculate Heart must be glorified by the Church and by
all humanity because, in these times of the apostasy, of the purification and
of the great tribulation, my Immaculate Heart is the only refuge and the way which leads you to the God of salvation
and of peace. Above all, my Immaculate Heart becomes today the sign of my sure
victory, in the great struggle which is being fought out between the followers
of the huge Red Dragon and the followers of the Woman Clothed with the Sun.” (3
June 1989)
III- We find as
well this statement as well in the writings of Maria Valtorta:
“Out of pity (and
mercy) for these poor men swept away by the storm (end of time) of blood, fire,
persecution, death, infinite mercy will shine on the sea of blood and horror:
the Pure Morning Star, Mary who will herald the final coming of Christ. It
follows that the new preachers will
teach the Gospel of Mary, indeed too left in the shade by the
evangelists, apostles and the disciples, while a broader knowledge of her would have served as teaching to many people,
thus avoiding many falls. She is Co-redemptrix and acts as a master-teacher: of
pure life, faithful, wise, compassionate and pious at her place and amongst the
men of her time. She never ceased teaching throughout the centuries and is
worth even to be better known as the world sinks into the mud and darkness, to
be more imitated and to bring the world toward what emanates from her.” (You
may read this Master-Piece: “The Virgin Mary in the Writings of Maria Valtorta”
by Gabriele Roschini.)
Without entering
in the details of the “darkness” and the “mud”, from these statements we see
that they consider that the surrounding world (social and political life)
changed and became darker. Therefore God is offering greater, more powerful and
more secure Help. This help is embodied in Mary. The answer to our question is:
there is a direct proportion between
the increase in the darkness (and therefore in the need for help) and the increase of the Help offered by God. It is
an increase in quantity and quality.
The “quality”
should attract our attention because it brings theological meaning and
therefore added value to our Faith.
(to be continued)
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