Solemnity of Mary, Holy Mother of God

On the feast of Mary, Mother of God, which Pope Paul VI made the World Day of Peace, Saint Pope John Paul II proclaimed to the world three choices which lead to peace. Jesus taught all three to His mother as image and model of the Church.

Against poverty, the first cause of vio­lence, crime and war, Saint Pope John Paul II calls for fair distribution of the world’s resources and asked the people in richer nations to live simpler lives so that there will be more to go around. Jesus made Himself poor for our sake, chose to be born of poor parents, and left His mother poor all her life. In His name, John Paul II is asks us to be no more con­cerned about living affluent, com­fortable lives than Mary was. He says, “Moderation and simplicity ought to become the criteria of our daily lives.”  And for the first time I know of, a Pope said that “evangelical poverty,” a term usually reserved to those who take a vow of poverty, is a duty intrinsic to the Christian voca­tion. John Paul II calls the whole Church to become more like Mary, Mother of God, in what we use, buy and desire.

The second cause of violence, crime and war is injustice. Against this John Paul asks us to respect the dignity of every hu­man person. Jesus taught this atti­tude to His mother from the cross when He looked at John and said, “Behold your son.” He taught Mary to love and respect every human being as her own son. If we as Church are to be like Mary, we must refuse to speak about any human person with less respect than we would show to our own family. In fact, we need to show for every hu­man person the respect owed to the Body of Christ. The great social injustices begin with peo­ple who speak with anger or contempt about those of other races, ethnic groups, political or religious views, or social identifi­cation as rich, poor, labor, man­agement, law-abiding or criminal.

If just every Christian took the words of Jesus to His mother, “Behold your son” as a guideline for looking at every human per­son, injustice would begin to wither. We would see Jesus, Mary’s son, dying for each per­son. We would hear Him telling her to treat each person as Himself. And the face of the earth would change.

The third cause of violence, crime and war is “marginalization”­­ —the fact that some groups of people feel ex­cluded from the real life of the nation, city, or community. Feeling pushed out to the margins of society, they are not inclined to take social responsibility or even to obey the laws of the community in which they feel they do not “belong.”

John Paul calls us to work for a society in which everyone feels welcomed and loved. This is what Jesus taught His mother when she sent Him a message while He was preaching, saying she wanted to speak with Him. (She likely wanted Him to come home for dinner). He an­swered, “Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?” And pointing to His disciples He said, “Here are my mother and my brothers. Whoever does the will of my heavenly Father is brother, and sister, and mother to me.”

Whom do we leave on the margins of parish life? The sick? The home-bound? The youth? Other language groups? How do we reach out to the apathetically (and pathetically) uninvolved? Do our group experiences of “community” include everyone? Whom do we think of when we say, “our parish family”?

For us, the whole human race is our family. We can never feel we have formed community sufficiently until everyone in our city, nation and world feels welcomed and loved. This is the way to peace.

Prayer Prompt: Spend significant time in prayer over the causes of violence and what steps you might take to help alleviate them. Ask Mary and Jesus to help you make choices that lead you to live a simpler life, to work against injustice, and to help others to feel included and wanted in the community.

— Fr. David M. Knight

View today’s Mass readings, Lectionary #18, on the USCCB website here

Fr. David M. Knight (1931-2021) was a priest of the Diocese of Memphis in Tennessee, a prolific writer, and a highly sought after confessor, spiritual director, and retreat master. He authored more than 40 books and hundreds of articles that focus primarily on lay spirituality and life-long spiritual growth.