The Face of Mercy / Daniel Conway

Mary, mother of Jesus, mother of hope

Last month, Pope Francis made a two-day pilgrimage to Fatima in Portugal to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Mary’s appearance to three shepherd children there in 1917. During this May 12-13 trip, the pope also presided over the canonization of two of the child visionaries, Francisco and Jacinta Marto.

“In [Christ’s] name, I come among you and have the joy of sharing with everyone the Gospel of hope and peace,” the pope said. “May the Lord bless you, and the Virgin Mother protect you!”

This historic trip to Fatima provided Pope Francis with an opportunity to reflect on the role of Mary in the history of our salvation—as well as her ongoing role in our lives as Christians.

In his general audience remarks, just a few days before his trip to Fatima, Pope Francis said Mary’s “yes” at the annunciation was more than a yes to bearing the Son of God, but was also an acceptance of everything she would endure after—something every mother experiences with a new child.  

“It was not easy to answer with a ‘yes’ to the angel’s invitation; yet she, a woman still in the flower of youth, answers with courage, despite not knowing anything about the fate that awaited her.

“Mary at that moment looks like one of the many mothers of our world, brave to the extreme when it comes to welcoming in her womb the story of a new human being who is growing,” the pope said. “Her ‘yes’ to the angel at the annunciation was just the first step in a long list of obedience leading to the moment she stood at the foot of her Son’s cross.”

According to Pope Francis, the Gospels show Mary to be a powerful figure who speaks only occasionally, but always with profound import, and whose actions show great character and strength.

She simply stands at the foot of the cross, for example, not weeping or crying out but just standing there, silently confident that God’s plan is being carried out in the person of her son.

Throughout history, great poets and artists have imagined this moment in vivid and passionate detail, “but the Gospels just say she was ‘standing.’ ” She was there, in the worst moment, in the cruelest time, and suffered with her son, and according to Pope Francis her mere presence spoke eloquently without words or gestures.

“Mothers do not betray, and at that moment, at the foot of the cross, none of us can say whose was the cruelest passion; whether that of an innocent man who dies on the scaffold of the cross, or the agony of a mother who accompanies the last moments of her son’s life,” the pope said.

Amazingly, she doesn’t get angry or protest—as she certainly would have the right to do. Mary simply stands there. Mary was present at the foot of the cross at this crucial moment in the history of our redemption when many others had fled.

Despite everything, even the “deepest darkness,” Mary does not leave, but stands faithfully. “That’s why we all love her as a Mother. We are not orphans: we have a Mother in heaven, who is the Holy Mother of God.”

Although she didn’t know what the outcome of her son’s Passion would be, she was loyal to the plan of God, just as she promised to the angel “on the first day of her vocation,” the pope said

“The suffering of mothers: We have all known strong women that braved the many sufferings of their children!” he said.

Even in the first days of the Church, before Christ’s resurrection was known, when the disciples are all afraid, hiding in a room behind locked doors, the “Mother of Hope” stays, Pope Francis said. “She is simply there, in the most normal of ways, as if it were a natural thing.”

So, “in moments of difficulty, Mary, the Mother Jesus has given to us all, can always support our steps, can always say to our heart: ‘Get up! Look ahead, look at the horizon,’ because she is a Mother of Hope.”

One-hundred years ago, the children of Fatima saw the Mother of God and our mother “standing there,” and calmly inviting them to be her messengers of holy hope. Today, may we look at Mary our mother and through her example find signs of God’s love for us and the profound hope for the future.
 

(Daniel Conway is a member of The Criterion’s editorial committee.) †