Monday, February 11, 2019

Mary, Our Mother, Truly Cares For Us

February 11 is the memorial of Our Lady of Lourdes and the "World Day of Prayer for the Sick." It's a day that has this special dedication, so that we might remember to pray for sick and suffering people every day, in particular those who have been entrusted to us. There are many kinds of healing that the Lord accomplishes in our lives through our merciful Mother Mary. For we are all much in need of healing. 

Occasionally there are great miracles that astonish us all, luminous events that cannot be explained by any natural causes, that only become more amazing when their details are closely studied. 


But most of the time, mercy comes in simple and apparently "ordinary" ways. God's good and loving care, accompanied by Mary's maternal intercession, works mysteriously to bring us the profound healing we may not even know we need. His (and her) priority is always our ultimate, definitive destiny of eternal life. Still, mercy embraces the integral good of the person, and the One who became human and loves us with a human heart is close to us in all our needs. 

In His goodness He has also given us the gift of Mary's particular tenderness. The mother of our Savior is our mother. This does not imply that the love of Christ is "not enough" in itself for our salvation. Quite the opposite. Christ's love is super-abundant, and out of this immeasurable richness He associates Mary's maternal love in all that He does for us. 


How beautiful, how intimately human it is, that Jesus - in making us His brothers and sisters - gives us His mother Mary to be our mother. 


And she is truly a mother to us. She cares, specifically, for each and every one of us. We can bring everything to her, because we are her children, and she will deepen our confidence in the Lord and carry us through even the most inscrutable difficulties in life, keeping us close to her Son. 


We are never orphans.