Hajja Salesjana April-June 2020

H AJJA S ALESJANA 10 Most people are aware that Pope John Paul II credited Mary’s intercession for sparing his life when four bullets from a would-be assassin struck him while he was blessing pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square on May 13, 1981. A year to the day later, the Pope placed one of those bullets in Mary’s crown at the Shrine of Our Lady of Fátima in Portugal. This leaves little doubt as to the real, practical and powerful grace of Mary’s maternity toward priests. The renowned Mariologist Fr. Emile Neubert, S.M., in his wonderful book Mary and the Priestly Ministry , helps us to understand Mary’s spiritual maternity, which stems from her “cooperation in the mysteries of the Incarnation, the Redemption, and the distribution of grace.” Let us note how Mary, in these three functions, becomes the Mother of priests: 1. The Incarnation sets special grounds for Mary’s motherhood of priests. Mary provided the material cause of Christ’s priesthood. Mary then carried all Her Son’s future priests in Her womb along with Him. She did not know them individually at that time, but She wished for them what Jesus wished for them at that time, and loved them with the same special love Her Son had for them. 2. Our Mother Mary’s special role in the Redemption : If Mary, in the Incarnation, conceived us spiritually, as it were, then in the mystery of the Redemption She gave us birth. At the foot of the Cross, Christ confided Mary to John, who was a priest, and it is to priests, above all, that Christ gives His Mother because He has a greater love for them and they have a greater need of Her. 3. Our Mother Mary’s special role in the distribution of grace : Mary has a special love for priests: if maternity consists essentially in giving and in nurturing life, can any human maternity be understood apart from such a love? Mary loves all the faithful with incomparable love. But She loves priests with an altogether unique love because She sees in the priest a greater resemblance to the image of Her Son than in any other Christian of equal holiness. What Mary Does for Priests by Kathleen Beckman (www.catholicexchange.com)