V EASTER SUNDAY - John 14:1-12
Pope Francis came to Fatima in pilgrimage to celebrate 100 years of the apparitions of Our Lady and to declare saints the two siblings Francisco and Jacinta, whose lives were transformed by the experience of God. And since then, during these past hundred years, Fatima has become a place where many people have made an experience of God, which changed their lives. In Fatima, the encounter with Christ and the experience of God has been mediated by Mary, the mother of the Lord. Repeating the words of Pope Paul VI, Pope Francis said: “Indeed, “if we want to be Christian, we must be Marian; in a word, we have to acknowledge the essential, vital and providential relationship uniting Our Lady to Jesus, a relationship that opens before us the way leading to him” (Paul VI, Address at the Shrine of Our Lady of Bonaria, Cagliari, 24 April 1970).” Like in the wedding of Cana, Mary is the one who pays attention to our needs, who address her Son in our behalf and who commands us to do whatever he tells us. And then she hides away. She always avoids the limelight, because belongs Christ.
This Sunday’s gospel makes it very clear that Jesus is “the Way, the Truth and the Life” (Jn 14:6). He alone is the Saviour and it is through him that we become reconciled with the Father; it is in him that we become God’s children. Sometimes, in popular religiosity, one gets the impression that Mary overtakes Jesus as if she was the Way and the Mediator. We put Jesus far away as if he is unreachable and Mary is the one close to us. That’s why the Pope, greeting the pilgrims, asked which Mary is the one that accompanies us and leads us to Jesus? We are “pilgrims with Mary... But which Mary? A teacher of the spiritual life, the first to follow Jesus on the “narrow way” of the cross by giving us an example, or a Lady “unapproachable” and impossible to imitate? A woman “blessed because she believed” always and everywhere in God’s words (cf. Lk 1:42.45), or a “plaster statue” from whom we beg favours at little cost? The Virgin Mary of the Gospel, venerated by the Church at prayer, or a Mary of our own making: one who restrains the arm of a vengeful God; one sweeter than Jesus the ruthless judge; one more merciful than the Lamb slain for us?”
"Great injustice is done to God’s grace whenever we say that sins are punished by his judgment, without first saying – as the Gospel clearly does – that they are forgiven by his mercy! Mercy has to be put before judgment and, in any case, God’s judgment will always be rendered in the light of his mercy. Obviously, God’s mercy does not deny justice, for Jesus took upon himself the consequences of our sin, together with its due punishment. He did not deny sin, but redeemed it on the cross. Hence, in the faith that unites us to the cross of Christ, we are freed from our sins; we put aside all fear and dread, as unbefitting those who are loved (cf. 1 Jn 4:18).”
It is in Jesus Christ that we find peace: “Do not let your hearts be troubled.” (Jn 14:1) It is in him who shared our pain and our sorrows that we find the courage to go on struggling in the sure hope that we will overcome. And the Pope said: “Indeed, God created us to be a source of hope for others, a true and attainable hope, in accordance with each person’s state of life.”
“With Mary’s protection, may we be for our world sentinels of the dawn, contemplating the true face of Jesus the Saviour, resplendent at Easter. Thus may we rediscover the young and beautiful face of the Church, which shines forth when she is missionary, welcoming, free, faithful, poor in means and rich in love.” (Pope Francis’ homily in Fatima).
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