By Father Rich Tomkosky
As we move back into the Ordinary Time of the Church’s liturgical calendar, we are called to put the mysteries of faith which we celebrated during the beautiful season of Advent and Christmas into practice in our daily or “ordinary” life.
We ponder the great role of Mary in salvation history. Just as she was the one who by saying yes to God in the mystery of the Annunciation and gave the eternal Son of God His human nature and bought Him into our world at Christmas, she is also the one who asks Jesus in love to perform His first miracle, which begins the public dimension of Jesus’s work of redeeming the human race from the power of satan, sin, and death.
Mary’s role now is the spiritual mother for humanity until the end of time. She is always associated with Jesus in a most intimate way, as the Second Vatican Council put it, “By decree of God’s providence she was, here on earth, the noblest of all of His companions, and the humble servant of the Lord. In conceiving Christ, in bearing Him, in nursing Him, in presenting Him to the Father in the temple, in sharing in her Son’s Passion as He was dying on the Cross by her obedience, her faith, her hope and burning love, she cooperated, in a way that was quite unique, in the work of the Savior in restoring supernatural life to souls. She is therefore mother to us in the order of grace (Lumen Gentium, 61-62).”
Mary is the human being who most fully participated in Christ’s redemptive act, of which we are all called to share in by our prayers, good works of charity, and by daily bearing our cross in love for the ongoing conversion of our heart/mind/will and for the sake of the salvation of others: for hardened sinners on earth and for the souls in Purgatory. What a privilege it is to share in the mission of the Redeemer in company with our Lady!
Jesus mysteriously said to Mary in protest when asked by her to work a miracle for the newly married couple at Cana, “Woman, how does your concern affect me? My hour has not yet come.” Is Jesus being disrespectful in calling her “Woman” instead of Mother? Well, the answer is no. There are some profoundly deep mysteries going on here.
What is Christ’s “hour?” It is mystical reality of Jesus moving in a definitive way toward His Passion, Death and Resurrection — the time (hour) for beginning His public mission, given to Him by the Father, of redeeming the human race. Cana is a rehearsal for Golgotha (the hill of the Cross). That is why Christ in His human nature initially shrinks from it. Suffering is not pleasant, especially the immense suffering Jesus is going to take on for our redemption (all of our sins and their awful effects).
Why does Jesus call her “Woman” instead of Mother? Again, there is a deep meaning behind this. The other time in Scripture where the “Woman” is addressed by God is in the beginning of the book of Genesis, namely the first woman, Eve. Jesus, by calling Mary “Woman,” is in essence calling her the “New Eve” as He is the “New Adam;” for the beginning of the Redemption of humanity by this public miracle at Cana, which is the sign that God is giving humanity one final chance, and wants to create humans anew in the person of Jesus, with Mary’s special participation in this whole process.
Mary is now going from being Jesus’s mother, strictly speaking, to becoming the universal spiritual mother of the human race, which is completed on the Cross when Jesus entrusted all human beings to her care in the person of Saint John the Evangelist representing all of us. Now, in eternity, she continues that mission of caring for us in all ways.
Mary says to the waiters at the wedding and to us always, “Do whatever He tells you.” The ongoing message from our Lady to us humans is that Jesus alone is the one who can save you from sin, from the devil, and from death! “Do whatever He tells you.” This obedience of love is the narrow path that leads to salvation, which Mary exemplified in her own life.
Yes, through the teaching of our Catholic faith, we are given the knowledge to follow Jesus in a definitive way. Jesus has shown us the path with the encouragement of Mary to enter now His “Hour” to be the Savior of us sinners. Now He gives us the grace, especially through the Sacraments, to follow Him on it through the ongoing intercession of Our Blessed Mother for us sinners in this vale of tears. She is truly the refuge of sinners for all eternity. May we daily turn to her in love, to ask for her intercession that we become more like Jesus in all that we say, and think, and do. God bless you.
Father Rich Tomkosky is the Pastor of Saint Thomas the Apostle Parish in Bedford and the Pastor of Seven Dolors of the Blessed Virgin Mary Parish in Beans Cove.
