MOTHER OF PEACE

On the first day of the civil year, the Church celebrates the solemnity of Mary, Mother of God. The Gospel of Luke, describing the birth of Jesus, highlights three aspects that see her as the protagonist: “she gave birth”, “wrapped him in swaddling clothes” and “laid him in a manger” (Lk 2,6-7). All in a profound silence. There is silence at Jesus’ crib; silence of adoring wonder. Mary is there and shines as a wonderful icon of humanity before a God who became a child. The piety of the faithful exclaims:

I hail you, Mother of God, joy of angels,
because you surpass in fullness
what the prophets have said about you.
The Lord is with you: You have given life
to the Savior of the world.

We briefly highlight two aspects of the mother of Jesus: being a woman; being a mother. The woman, in the plan of salvation, is the meeting point between God and humanity and represents, in the human sphere, the receptive capacity of the divine. This instinctively places her in defence of being over action, of intuition over reasoning, of concrete life over abstraction. In fact, to a woman was promised salvation (Eve), in a woman the Word of God was made flesh (Mary), and, finally, to a woman again, of the Apocalypse, the final victory over sin and death is assured. In Mary we venerate, therefore, the image of the new woman, who is the mother of God and of every man.
Over the travail of our human and spiritual birth, in the toil of a more fraternal world, in the daily struggle to make the Kingdom grow, a mother watches over us, Mary watches over us, protecting the world by giving us her Son, Jesus Christ. Mary is therefore a mother. And we must know that where there is a mother there is always a great reversal, since her mere presence interrupts the logic of self-preservation, of being self-sufficient, and introduces, in relationships, the logic of openness to the other, to what is outside and that incessantly questions us. Only in this way does peace flourish.
In this regard, the Hebrew term that indicates peace is the very well-known shalom. Let us then see some traits of the shalom that Christ inaugurated with his birth. Shalom indicates first and foremost the fullness of material goods. This fullness, however, is not the superabundance to which consumer society has accustomed us; biblical fullness means that God provides every man with what he needs to live. Whoever recognizes and welcomes the goodness of God in created reality establishes, in the human, solidarity and sharing. For Scripture, this order is justice. From justice, peace flourishes (cf. Ps 84:11). For Jewish tradition, the opposite of peace is not war but division. Shalom therefore means living in harmony with oneself, with the members of one’s family, with brothers in faith, with every man. In conclusion, Mary is the mother of the Author of peace. In relation to us, however, she is a mother in the order of grace as a cooperator with Christ in “restoring the supernatural life of souls” (cf. LG 61). Pope Paul VI, in the apostolic exhortation Signum Magnum (1967), recalled that Mary’s motherhood, in developing the life of grace, is not only expressed in intercession but also through “another influence: that of example”. Mary, therefore, not only generates but also educates so that we can reach full maturity in Christ. This is the wish that we want to make for each other on this New Year’s Eve.

Commentary by b. Sandro Carotta, osb
Abbazia di Praglia (Italy)

Translation by f. Mark Hargreaves,
Prinknash Abbey