By Fr. Roy Cimagala
REMEMBER that beautiful gospel episode about the wedding in Cana. (cfr. Jn 2,1-11) Mary, very much a woman who always sees details often missed by men, noticed that the celebration was running out of wine, and so she asked her son to do something about it. Though initially denied, she still went on to tell the stewards to do whatsoever Jesus would tell them. And the first miracle happened. Water became high quality wine.
This gospel episode somehow reminds us that if we would just have a bit of common sense, we would know that it is always wise to go to Mary in order to get to Christ. As a saint once said, Mary is the shortest, surest and safest way to be with Christ.
Let’s see to it that our devotion to her grows. And if it is practically dormant if not dead, then let’s stir it up to life again. She is important to us. In fact, she is indispensable to us. She cannot be treated as an optional feature in our spiritual life, nor something decorative or appendical only.
While she is not God and, therefore, not to be accorded with the worship that is only due to God (latria), she rightly deserves to be given the highest form of veneration (hyperdulia) among all the saints who are already with God in heaven.
She never undermines our relationship with God. If anything, all she does is to bring us to God and to help us fulfill the will of God. Thus, in that episode of the wedding at Cana where she noticed that the hosts were running out of wine, she told the servants, “Do whatever he (Christ) tells you.” (Jn 2,5)
She is a mother to us. In fact, she fulfills the perfection of motherhood because she conceived the Son of God in her womb, thereby making herself, in a mysterious sense, the mother of God (Mater Dei), since Jesus is not only man, but is, first of all, God.
And since Christ is the “prototype” of the redeemed humanity, she, being the mother of Christ, can rightly be called the mother of all humanity that has been redeemed by Christ.
The secret of developing a deep devotion to Mary is in our imitation of her readiness to say, “Fiat,” (Be it done) to whatever God tells us through our faith. With that word, we unite ourselves with God and become members of God’s family. Let’s remember what Christ said about this point: “Whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.” (Mt 12,50)
Let’s develop the habit of quickly saying “Fiat” or “Amen” to whatever our faith tells us. This way, we would be imitating Mary and would bring us immediately to Christ who is our everything.
Let us develop the instinct of bringing Our Lady wherever we are. To be with her is to be with Christ, to be sure. For this, let us soften our heart to welcome and accommodate her, and develop an intimate mother-and-child relationship with her. With her we can never outgrow our condition as a little child who always needs his mother.
Let’s develop a certain fondness for her by availing of some human means that are used for this purpose. These can be developing the habit of looking affectionately at her pictures, saying something nice to her, saying the rosary and explore the different mysteries of Christ’s life with her, etc.
Email: roycimagala@gmail.com
