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meditation of the day

Following Jesus by Following Mary

It is impossible to find Jesus in isolation from the two essential communities to which he belongs by his nature as incarnate Word. In his divinity we cannot embrace him apart from the community of the Holy Trinity; and in his humanity we cannot approach him apart from the family through which he enters our race and shares our human condition to the full. What God has joined together, let no man put asunder.

As the Magi find him with Mary his mother, they fall down and worship him. Note well two things here: first, that they worship only Jesus, but, at the same time, that in bowing down in adoration before him they must necessarily incline with reverence in the direction of the Virgin Mother who is holding him out to them and to the world. Thus, worship of Jesus is inseparable from deep reverence for the Mother by whose obedient faith he has come into the world and made himself available for our own adoration. Mary’s faith has thus made it possible for us to adore God incarnate!

We surrender our whole being in worship to him alone and, through him, to the Father. But in so doing we render a homage of deep gratitude and love to her who first believed and, through her faith, has made our finding of Jesus possible. Nor is this finding of Jesus with his Mother limited only to his babyhood, when he physically had to be held and presented to the world by his Mother’s arms. His dependency on his Mother is a sign of the manner of humiliation and weakness whereby the Word has chosen to redeem us….

Therefore, we must never forget that, since all the works of his divine love become efficacious through the means of his human body, emotions, will, intellect, and heart, consequently the Mother who gave him the gift of her humanity is also continuously present in his every work even when she is invisible to us. Especially at the moment when he sheds all his blood on the cross, we must remember that this very blood has no other source than his Mother’s body. His Father gave him the will to die for us, but Mary gave him the body and the blood to perfect and consummate the sacrifice. Mary alone gave Jesus the blood with which to drown man’s sin!

Erasmo Leiva-Merikakis

Erasmo Leiva-Merikakis, now known as Father Simeon, is a Trappist monk. He is the author of Fire of Mercy, Heart of the Word, a four-volume commentary on Matthew’s Gospel. / From The Way of the Disciple. © 2003, Ignatius Press, San Francisco, CA. www.ignatius.com. Used with permission.