Perfect Love

CELERY

As a Catholic, I am not what people may call a typical devotee of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It took me a while to appreciate her late in my adult life when I was going through an excruciating time with my seriously ill daughter who was in the hospital. I felt so helpless seeing her suffer and wished I were the sick one instead.

As I closed my eyes one early morning – unaware that I was praying without words, the scene from the movie, The Passion of the Christ, where Mary watched her son from a distance as he was being scourged, flashed in my mind. Her message to me was clear – that she knew well what I was undergoing as a mother because she had been there.

Over a month ago, I committed to participating in a twenty-four-hour rosary vigil for the conversion of sinners, end to the pandemic, and world peace. However, I completely forgot about it and missed my first assigned hour. When I tried to catch up later that day, I found myself unexpectedly in tears while reciting the rosary, receiving two powerful messages.

The divine love between Jesus and Mary is perfect so that everything Jesus had undergone, from the moment of his agony in the garden of Gethsemane to his death in Calvary, Mary herself experienced. The Catholic Church declares this as part of her seven sorrows.

The perfect love of Jesus and Mary makes them one in heart, mind, and spirit.

Both messages have taken on a rich and personal meaning for me because I have always taken Mary for granted. When I remember her, it would be to ask her to show me how to “love her son Jesus more.” But I was surprised at one time when I prayed to Jesus for guidance. I sensed that he was entrusting me to his mother, telling me she would follow and do whatever he decides to do for me.

I believe this was the essence of Christ’s words when he said from the Cross to his mother, “Woman, here is your son.” And to his disciple John, “Here is your mother.”

Mary is my spiritual mother in and through Jesus.