Mary in the Life of Religious (7)

Mary as Mother, help and guide of religious

Religious life is a life of commitment, fidelity and discipleship translated into a loving relationship with the People of God. As such, it is not a very easy state of life. Therefore, religious ought to seek the help of Mary - who can be their guide in their pilgrimage of faith and their help in their consecrated lives. In his Encyclical on Sacred Virginity, Pope Pius XII says, "The eminent way to protect and nourish virginity as proven by experience time and time again, throughout the course of centuries, is solid and fervent devotion to the Virgin Mother of God. In a certain way all other helps are contained in this devotion... Therefore in a paternal way we exhort all priests, religious men and women, to entrust themselves to the special protection of the Holy Mother of God...the most powerful mother of those in particular who have vowed and consecrated themselves to the service of God".

John Paul II also speaks to religious and tells them the importance of Mary's role in their consecrated life:

"Mary, Mother of Christ, the Eternal Priest, Mother of priests and of religious, will keep you from all anxiety, as you 'wait in joyful hope for the coming of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.' Entrust yourselves to her, as I commend you to her, to Mary, Mother of Jesus and Mother of the Church." [19]

"Beloved Brothers and Sisters...Persevering in fidelity to him who is faithful, strive to find a very special support in Mary! For she was called by God to the most perfect communion with his Son. May she, the faithful Virgin, also be the Mother of your evangelical way: may she help you to experience and to show to the world how infinitely faithful is God himself!"
(RD 17)

Endnotes:

[19] Jean Bayer, S.J., comp., "John Paul II Speaks to Religious
1978-1980", Principal Allocutions from November 1978 to December
1980, p. 95.

Model of Justice and of the Option for the Poor

The 'signs of the times' offered a good incentive for the renewal of the evangelical option for the religious life. Because of the rapidly changing social and politcal contexts, religious found themselves in new and often unexpected situations. In the face of these new circumstances, religious experienced difficult challenges with regard to their traditional modes of presence and of their apostolic options. They realized the need to renew their options - that is, to practice greater solidarity with their contemporaries, especially with the poor and the marginalized. It is in this context that religious have been called to foster human advancement and to build a society worthy of human beings.[20]

The importance of an effective participation by religious in the work for integral human advancement persuaded the Sacred Congregation for Religious and for secular institutes to make a special study of the role of religious in this regard. Thus, in the Congregation's plenary session of 25-28 April, four problem areas were given attention to; and one of these problems had to do with the option for the poor and for justice. [21]

Religious frequently find themselves living very closely indeed to the dramas which torment those to whose evangelical service they are consecrated. Their state of life demands of them that they be the living expression of the Church's aspiration to respond to the more exigent demands of the poor and the marginalized. Today, there is an immense amount of suffering and injustice which evokes little responses in the hearts of many of our contemporaries. There is the plight of the refugees, of people persecuted because of their political ideas or for professing the faith; there is the violation of the right to be born; the unjustified limitations placed on human and religious liberty, the defective social structures which increase the sufferings of the poor and the marginalized, etc. In all these, religious are called upon by the Spirit to insert themselves in this very situation of poverty and injustice and to be in total solidarity with the people immersed in such circumstances. [22]

With this scenario, religious can look to the Blessed Virgin as their model for the Church's option for justice and the Church's preferential option for the poor. They feel Mary's heart throb with the desire to lessen the inequality between rich and poor; they see her enter the New Testament scene proclaiming a Magnificat laden with justice implications. [23]

The strong spirit of justice and spiritual attitude that Mary exuded in her Magnificat is a good example for the contemporary religious. It is this spirit which would eventually urge and lead them to act in utter solidarity with the poor and the oppressed. Mary is the model of anyone who speaks in behalf of those who have no voice - those who cannot air their suffering and misery because of the unjust structures that prevent them from speaking up. Religious speak in behalf of the poor and marginalized communities with whom they direct their evangelical services. Many of them are now becoming aware of what Mary means in their lives today. They can see that as they sing Mary's canticle, they share in that same spirit of justice as Mary - a spirit that would eventually lead them to concretely act in their own way according to the particular charisms they follow. They are, like Mary, spokespersons for those without power, possessions, and prestige.

Endnotes:
[20] Austin Flannery, O.P., ed., Vatican Council II: The Conciliar and Post Conciliar Documents, vol. 1 (New York: Costello Publishing Company, 1984), p. 260.
[21] Ibid., p. 261.
[22] Ibid., p. 264.
[23] Carol Frances Jegen, BVM, ed., Mary According to Women,
(Kansas City: Sheed and Ward, 1985). p. 76.