TOTUS TUUS, MARIA !

MARY’S MOTHERHOOD – BRIDGE TOWARDS TRUE LIFE

Brief meditation inspired by the Mistress of all souls to Myriam van Nazareth

It is so easily said: "Heavenly Mother Mary", "dear Mother Mary"..., but let us reflect for a little while on the exceptional gift hiding behind these words. The relationship between a mother and her child is the first relationship to leave an imprint on virtually every aspect of the child’s process of growing up. Are we truly aware of what it means to have Mary for our Mother?

The relationship between each soul individually and Mary was not invented by man, it was established by God Himself. God does not do anything 'for no reason'. With all of His dispositions He is aiming at the accomplishment of His Plan of Salvation, through which He wants to top the Redemption of human souls. Jesus came into the world as the Messiah, the Redeemer, with a view to help human souls truly and fully bloom in sanctity through the institution of the New Covenant. It is therefore all the more remarkable that exactly in the hour in which the purpose of His Life on earth was about to be fulfilled – the last hour of Christ on the Cross on Mount Golgotha – He should speak the word which, unfortunately, so many souls would never understand in its full spiritual meaning: "Woman, behold Your son! – Son, behold your Mother!" In a quite revealing way the Gospel yet adds the following word: "And from that time on, the disciple took Her into his home".

The Mistress of all souls already pointed out that there, at the summit of Redemption, i.e. during the final stage of making the prospect of Eternal Bliss come true for many souls, the Mystery of total consecration to Mary was actually established and signed by Jesus Himself. There Mary was recognizably pointed at by Jesus Himself as the Mother of all human souls for all generations. John took Her into his home, meaning: The one who, on Mount Golgotha, was actually presented as the embodiment of the human soul in the latter’s relationship to the Mother of God, took Mary into his soul, allowing Her to merge with his entire being. In a manner of speaking the human soul became a dwelling in which the Mother of God would feel at home as a leading Presence and a constant source of strength.

Mary is our Mother, and by virtue of the New Covenant She most certainly is to the fullest, but She needs to get the opportunity to actually fulfill this role. Jesus gave Himself up to His Mother as of His days in Her womb, and allowed Her to merge with His own Being in an unsuspectedly far-reaching mystical unity. When realizing the soul can only be a true Christian to the extent she actually follows Christ in everything, we just have to infer that God expects each soul to, in her turn, surrender to the Mother of God. Therefore the God-given Mystery of total consecration to Mary actually extends an explicit invitation on God’s part to the soul, saying the latter had better not refrain from giving herself up to Mary, having regard to the fact this is very beneficial to her salvation. Jesus phrased this at the very summit of His accomplishments for the benefit of mankind with the intention that it should never be forgotten and that it might become clear that consecration to Mary is part and parcel of the New Covenant and thus of the legacy of Redemption.

Mary was endowed by God with everything that was intended to enable Her to accomplish absolutely perfect Motherhood: Her being the Mother of God’s Son as well as of every human soul. For this purpose God erected Her entire being on a unique foundation of a truly perfectly accomplished sanctity. Love, power, Wisdom, knowledge of all Mysteries of spiritual life... Mary possessed it all from the start like a perfectly developed soil bearing a perfect fruitfulness. Every soul who is ready and willing to give herself up to Her is nourished from this soil, thereby experiencing some of the Mystery through which a child is actually its mother’s child: being born of the mother, in the event of total consecration 'being born again of Mary'. This rebirth makes total consecration a powerful element in the following of Christ, for in consecration to Mary the soul is walking in the footsteps of Jesus, who as the Man-God chose to be born from Mary’s womb.

To the unborn foetus the mother is the gate towards the actual path through life on earth, i.e. towards the path on which the soul is to accomplish her vocation in life. The mother is also called upon to be a channel of special Love and emotional security. For the mother to be able to accomplish all of this in a fruitful way she has got to be able to refrain from focusing on herself. In proportion as the mother is able to do so, she is actually drawing directly upon the source of God’s gifts. Mary has been perfectly able to do so right from the beginning because Her connection with God was developed so thoroughly that it was in fact He who was constantly working through Her.

This was how it was to be forever: Mary as the Bridge between God and the soul, as a Channel of graces, a Channel of Divine Life. The soul that fully accepts Mary as her Mother will drink from Her like from a pond of Eternal Life. This is how Mary fulfills Her true vocation as the Mother of all people: She gives true Life, the germ of which God has planted within Her, and thus builds an indestructible bridge from the soul towards God’s Heart, the Source of Eternal Life. For many souls true Life only begins in the hour in which they decide to give themselves fully to Mary for a life at Her service. The soul can be born again of Her like of the Holy Spirit, thus accomplishing the word Jesus spoke to Nicodemus. As a matter of fact Mary was the One the Holy Spirit entered into the perfect mystical Marriage with, and He is constantly trying to work His sanctifying actions in every soul that is willing to be born of Her for true Life, Divine Life.

Mary was the most fruitful of all mothers: She gave birth to Christ, the Incarnation of Divine Life. If She gets the opportunity to give birth to us for a new life, She will turn us into an orchard yielding nourishment in abundance for many. However, She is only able to give birth to a soul for a new life if the soul has given herself to her in the first place the way she really is, without holding anything back. If the soul does hold anything back, her rebirth will not be complete. If the soul puts every detail of her life, her past, her present and her future completely at Mary’s service She will in Her turn obtain for the soul a new life, giving birth to her for the Kingdom of God.

Myriam, June 2012