Mary

Mary is inseparable from Jesus. We can never have Mary alone and without Jesus. In fact we give Mary glory only because she is connected with Jesus.

Theologically Mary came into Salvation History because the Savior needed a mother. To save mankind from sin Jesus must die. And to die the Son of God must become man for he cannot be killed on the cross without a body. And so He took flesh from the Virgin Mary and became man. And in doing so Mary became Mother of God.

From her being “Theotokos” or Mother of God, come all of Mary’s titles and privileges. To worthily carry the Son of God in her womb, she first had to be immaculately conceived. She was made therefore the Immaculate Conception. And because she is born without sin she cannot die in as much as death is a consequence of sin. Mary is assumed into heaven body and soul thus. In heaven since her son is King of the universe, she was crowned too as Queen of heaven and earth.

Mary is thus called Blessed by all generations because she is closely linked to the Redeemer. And because of Mary’s strong connection to him, the best image we could ever have of Mary is that with Jesus – the picture of the Blessed Mother with her Divine Son like our very own Mary, Help of Christians. In this image we see Mary bearing Christ in her arms and bringing him forward to the people. Once more we go back to our first realization that Mary’s greatness is in her being a bearer of Christ to the people or a Christopher (a Christ-bearer).

As Christopher, Mary brings Christ to everyone and everyone to Christ. She did that at Cana. She brought Jesus to the newly wedded couple. She did it with Don Bosco. She was at every step and in every circumstance of Don Bosco’s holy life. In fact she does it with every Salesian struggling to be holy for the young, and even with every Bosconian following every good Salesian.

But all these things she does now, she does in silence – as she used to before when she was still on earth. In the gospel story she had always been silent. She had not preached. Neither had she work any miracle in her life. From then until now she knows that her place with Jesus would always be in the background. Like John the Baptist, she knows that her Son is the Messiah. Only to Him must everyone go. To Him alone she must lead everyone.