The Marian Month of...JUNE

May is the month of Mary, but now it’s June and Catholics should move on to other things. In case you can’t tell I‘m being sarcastic; I purposely held back this post until June just to keep some Marian thoughts going.

Our Lady should indeed be revered every month as a Queen of great goodness and power in her intercession for us, for she loves all the children of God who are born with the image & likeness of her own son. Her powerful love is often forgotten or not understood in the blindness & foolishness of the world.

It must be especially painful for Mary (and Jesus) when she is ignored by devout Christians. At the foot of the cross, St. John can represent all of us when Jesus says to him, “Behold your mother”. This seems to be more of a command than a suggestion, especially since Jesus said it as He was being tortured to death (see John 19:27). Also, if He chose to say it at this time, it must be a part of the redemptive process and not merely a domestic arrangement. I sometimes wonder what non-Catholic Christians think of Luke 1:48 “For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed,” Do they ever ask themselves, “How does my generation ‘called her blessed’ and how do we do this at our church? Do we even ‘call her’ at all?”

God chooses to work through people and He went through Mary in the most intimate way imaginable for she is not only a daughter of God like any woman, but also a Mother and a spouse. We may often think of Mary as the Mother of God, but perhaps not as often as the spouse of the Holy Spirit (CCC #507). We can say the job of the Holy Spirit is to make us Holy because He is the Sanctifier. We can also say that two become one in spousal union; therefore we should be able to say that the Holy Spirit is pleased to work and act through His spouse for the sanctification of the human race. Every person is invited to be transformed through Mary, by the power of the Holy Spirit, into Christ’s own image. Of course, God did not have to be so united with Mary, it was His free choice and He takes delight in it.

 

God going through Mary might be easier to internalize if we imagine light passing through glass. If we are in a room with a window, the sunlight passes through the glass to light up the room whether we know the glass is there or not; whether we like the glass or not. The glass is in no way the source of the light, but the light goes through the glass regardless. The glass can also help to keep bad things out of the room like insects, wild animals and cold air. Incidentally, if God were to make a piece of glass for the light of the world to shine through, would He choose some dirty, cracked or chipped glass that would block and distort His magnificent  light, or would He create an immaculate piece glass? Think about it.

 

And think about this; Mary in terms of three things: passion, baptism and gift. The Holy Spirit wants to work wonders in our day and raise-up great saints with great passion. Why does this happen so rarely? Perhaps it is because He rarely finds a soul willing to be more perfectly transformed in Christ through His spouse Mary.

At baptism we are made into “other Christs” by the work of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit was pleased to first form Christ through Mary and He continues to form “other Christs” through her. Remember that baptism is a beginning not the end, and the goal of any devotion to Mary is our ongoing post-baptismal transformation and consecration in Christ.

Consecration to Jesus through Mary is a gift that gives back infinitely more via magnification. Mary’s soul magnifies the Lord (see Luke 1:46). Think of a magnifying glass placed in the sun. The rays of the sun that go through the glass are concentrated and the heat & light is greatly magnified. Mary acts as the magnifier of God’s Grace and magnifiers tend to work both ways. If we give Mary our meager efforts, she will purify and magnify them for us while at the same time protecting us from evil and temptation. St. Louis de Montefort says that going through Mary is the quickest, easiest and surest way to Jesus. If we were to fully realize what a great gift this is, we’d never stop praising God for it.

The proceeding was inspired by a book called “33 Days to Morning Glory” by Fr. Michael E. Gaitley and the teachings of St. Maximilian Kolbe and St. Louis de Montefort.