Saint Marcellin Champagnat, the father and founder of the Marist brothers, believed that we would better know Jesus if we followed him in the way of Mary. As contemporary members of this wonderful world wide Marist community that Marcellin established, the community of ߺ takes the name of this beautiful Marian feast day as a constant reminder that we can best come close to Jesus and continue his legacy on earth if we imitate the attitudes and behaviours of his mother, Mary.
Two of these life-giving values are ‘Simplicity’ and ‘Presence’.
When you read the stories of Jesus’ life and the beginnings of the Church, we discover that Mary is ever present.
She was there before the beginning, generously saying ‘’ to God to be mother and life-giver.
She responded with courage and an attitude of selfless service to be with her cousin Elizabeth as she too prepared herself for childbirth, by travelling into the dangerous terrain of the hill country of Judea.
She cared for Jesus during those early hidden years, marked by homelessness, journey and anticipation.
She was constantly there in the background throughout the public life of Jesus, anxiously supporting, yet also challenging, her son.
At the most dark and despairing of moments, we find Mary at the foot of the cross of her dying son, one of only a handful of disciples who remained true to the end.
She was prayerfully present at the birth of the Church and during its early years, passing on her wisdom and knowledge to those who would takethe life giving message of Jesus to the ends of the earth.
And the feast day of the ߺ reminds us that Mary is still present with us today, a model and an inspiration for our lives.
But her presence is also marked by a simplicity of life and spirit. The humble stories of Jesus’ birth within a displaced and dispossessed family in Luke’s Gospel, together with their desperate journey as political refugees in Matthew’s Gospel, perhaps help us understand Mary’s passion for simplicity, justice and care for the poor, so poetically captured in the prayer ascribed to her, the Magnifcat:
“My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord
And my spirit exults in God my saviour;
Because this same God has looked upon me, in my humility and poverty.
Yes, from this day forward all generations will call me blessed,
For God has done great things for me.
Holy is the name of God, whose mercy reaches from age to age.
This same God has shown the power to overcome the proud of heart;
And has pulled down rulers from their thrones
Exalting the lowly.
The hungry are filled with good things, the rich sent empty away.
God has come to the help of all in need of mercy
A mercy and a deep compassion that heals the world
In every time and in every place.”
