Marian Times

A small bright light in the silent darkness

She sits quietly, in the stillness before dawn breaks. She is utterly exhausted, drained in body and spirit. She was not spared the horror of Golgotha and all that preceded it. She has felt the pain of her Son’s abandonment by those who should have been most loyal to him. When everyone else fled, she stood by him.

She has grieved for her crucified Son and for her other children who through sin have all in some way contributed to his Passion. “The Virgin of Sorrows. When you contemplate her, look into her Heart; she is a Mother with two sons, face to face: He … and you” (St Josemaría, The Way 506). Her grief is immense. If we who are sinners suffer when we see wrongdoing and injustice, how much more sensitive must she who is the Immaculate Conception be to every form of evil, and especially to the supreme injustice of the Passion of the Son of God?

But her suffering on Holy Saturday is not wasted. Rather it is a living prayer for the Church which is being born, for all who will come to believe in Jesus and who will welcome the grace of salvation. She makes acts of faith, hope and love as she confidently awaits the Resurrection. Speaking of Holy Saturday, Pope Francis says that “Our Lady spent that day, the day that would be dedicated to her, in prayer and hope. She responded to sorrow with trust in the Lord” (Easter Vigil Homily, 11 April 2020).

The Great Light

And now, all of a sudden he is here. “I am risen and I am with you always” (Ps 139:18). It is impossible to put into words the radiant joy of that first meeting of the Risen One with his most faithful disciple and apostle, his Mother. It is extremely intimate and ineffable. Perhaps this is why it does not figure in the Gospels. Just as the sorrow of the Immaculate Conception is unfathomable, so too is her joy (cf. Is 61:10-11).

“Indeed, it is legitimate to think that the Mother was probably the first person to whom the risen Jesus appeared. Could not Mary’s absence from the group of women who went to the tomb at dawn (cf. Mk 16:1; Mt 28:1) indicate that she had already met Jesus? This inference would also be confirmed by the fact that the first witnesses of the Resurrection, by Jesus’ will, were the women who had remained faithful at the foot of the Cross and therefore were more steadfast in faith (…) It seems reasonable to think that Mary had had a personal contact with her risen Son, so that she too could delight in the fullness of paschal joy. Present at Calvary on Good Friday (cf. Jn 19:25) and in the Upper Room on Pentecost (cf. Acts 1:14), the Blessed Virgin too was probably a privileged witness of Christ’s Resurrection, completing in this way her participation in all the essential moments of the paschal mystery” (St John Paul II, Audience, 21 May 1997).

On Holy Saturday it is as if the world is shrouded in darkness and silence. The Redeemer lies silently in the tomb. Were the angels to look down from heaven on that day, they would see a world covered in shadow, yet with one small, strong, warm, bright light. This is the light of Mary’s faith. On Holy Saturday, when the whole of creation shares in the sleep of the death of God’s Son, Mary’s heart is awake. She as it were incarnates the faith of the Church in her very person. The light of faith, hope and love shine brightly in her as she prepares for the moment when Christ will faithfully accomplish what he promised. “I slept, but my heart was awake. Hark! My beloved is knocking. Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my perfect one; for my head is wet with dew, my locks with the drops of the night”. These words of the Song of Solomon 5:2 seem to express the intimate dialogue of Mary and her Risen Son.

Mary’s day

Why is Saturday dedicated to Our Lady? Because, as St Bernard explains, “in Mary alone did the faith of the Church remain steadfast during the three days that Jesus lay in the tomb. And although everyone else wavered, she who conceived Christ in faith, kept the faith that she had once for all received from God and never lost. Thus could she wait with assured hope for the glory of the Risen Lord”.

The light of Mary’s faith, which kept burning brightly on Holy Saturday despite all the odds and in the midst of untold suffering, merged into the splendour of Christ’s radiance on Easter Sunday morning. Mary leads us into the glory of Christ’s Resurrection. “Certainly, Jesus Christ is the true light, the sun that has risen above all the shadows of history. But to reach him we also need lights close by – people who shine with his light and so guide us along our way. Who more than Mary could be a star of hope for us?” (Benedict XVI, Spe Salvi 49).

Mary’s light is always a reflection of Christ’s, just as her day Saturday, is inseparable from Sunday, the great day of the Lord (cf. Ps 118:24). “Since the Resurrection took place on a Sunday, we keep holy this day, instead of the Sabbath as did the Jews of old”, says St Thomas Aquinas. “However we also sanctify Saturday in honour of the glorious virgin Mary who remained unshaken in faith all day Saturday after the death of her divine Son.”

Mary’s month

The tradition of dedicating the month of May to Our Lady goes back many centuries. In ancient Greece and Rome the month of May was associated with pagan goddesses connected with fertility and spring-time (Artemis and Flora respectively). Christians saw true motherhood and life-giving in the Blessed Virgin.

Pope Pius VII was taken prisoner and transported to France after the second invasion of the Papal States by Napoleon. There he had to remain until the French defeat in 1814. The Pope was able to return to Rome, to a tumultuous welcome, in the month of May. Pius VII, whose cause for canonization was opened by Benedict XVI in 2007, approved the custom of dedicating the month of May to Our Lady in two rescripts of 1815 and 1822. The Venerable Pope Pius XII solidified May as a Marian month by establishing the feast of the Queenship of Mary on 31 May. After the Second Vatican Council, this feast was moved to 22 August, while 31 May became the feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

In his beautiful poem, May Magnificat, Gerard Manley Hopkins asks and seeks to answer the question of why May is the month of Our Lady. Here are some verses, but the poem is well worth reading in full.

May is Mary’s month, and I

Muse at that and wonder why:

Her feasts follow reason,

Dated due to season –

Candlemas, Lady Day:

But the Lady Month: May,

Why fasten that upon her,

With a feasting in her honour?

Is it only it being brighter

Than the most are must delight her?

Is it opportunest

And flowers finds soonest?

Ask of her, the mighty mother:

Her reply puts this other

Question: What is Spring? ;

Growth in every thing – (…)

All things rising, all things sizing

Mary sees, sympathising

With that world of good,

Nature’s motherhood. (…)

Well but there was more than this

Spring’s universal bliss

Much, had to say

To offering Mary May (…)

This ecstasy all through mothering earth

Tells Mary her mirth till Christ’s birth

To remember and exultation

In God who was her salvation.

Hopkins sees May as Our Lady’s month, because it is the month of light and vibrant growth and above all because it is a time of joy. It reflects her Magnificat (cf. Lk 1:46 ff.). Indeed while every Saturday and every month of May are special Marian times, the truth is that every day is filled with the joy of Mary since Christ her Son is the Lord of history who has triumphed over sin and death forever. He is always by our side and he is always “on our side”.

The undying light of the Church

Mary’s Magnificat was a prophetic announcement of the ultimate victory inaugurated by our Lord’s Resurrection, as well as a canticle of thanksgiving for the work of salvation. As such it is the basic “theme-tune” of the Church always and everywhere. To be Catholic is have the joy of Mary in our souls and in our daily lives. So while we may seek to honour Our Lady in a special way on Saturdays and in the month of May, we know that her brightness and joy, a participation in the life of Christ risen, accompany us every day of our lives.

Light, Life and Joy: These are the trademarks of Mary and of the People she has mothered in Christ (cf. Rev 12:1). Light, Life and Joy are the inheritance of all God’s children and are essential characteristics of the Church of all places and all times, even in times of distress or apparent failure.

The testimony of one Piaras Mac Gearailt, an unfortunate eighteenth century Irishman who had felt forced to turn from this Catholic faith bears out this intimate conviction faith:

There is a part of the Saxon Lutheran religion which, though not from choice, I have accepted, that I do not like – that never a petition is addressed to Mary, the Mother of Christ, nor honour, nor privilege, nor prayers, and yet it is my opinion that it is Mary who is tree of lights and crystal of Christianity, the glow and precious lantern of the sky, the sunny chamber in the house of Glory (cf. D. Corkery, The Hidden Ireland, pp. 283 ff).