Right after the Holy Father Pope John Paul II chose me to be your archbishop; I went as soon as I could to the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City. I made that pilgrimage because I wanted to make an act of dedication and love. I had a strong desire to put myself and my ministry here in the hands of our Blessed Mother.
Praying in her shrine, I experienced a beautiful sense of peace and joy. It was a child’s joy. I could feel that Mary was with me. I could feel her warmth and her mother’s love for me.
Last month, when I learned that I would be leaving you to go to Los Angeles, as I got off the phone with the apostolic nuncio, the first thing I saw was a painting of Our Lady of Guadalupe hanging in the hallway. And I felt that same reassurance of her motherly love and protection.
I have known such feelings ever since I was a little boy. But at times like these, certain turning points in my life and ministry, I’ve been blessed with the grace to experience her love with even greater certainty.
The face of our Blessed Mother for me has always been the face of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Growing up in Monterrey we had her images all around us. Even before we were old enough to put our emotions into words, we could see in her dark eyes all the compassion of Mary’s maternal love for us.
My parents taught my sisters and me that we had a mother on earth and a mother in heaven who was the mother of Jesus. She was nuestra madre querida Guadalupe, quien siempre nos cuida — our dear mother Guadalupe who always cares for us.
As my parents taught me to love Jesus, they taught me also to love his mother. And I have tried to share my filial love for Mary with you during these past five years.
Mary is so important — both for God’s plan of salvation and for our spiritual lives.
Jesus said that to enter the kingdom of God we must become like children. (Mt 18:3) This is one of those “hard sayings” of Jesus. We are not quite sure what to make of it. (Jn 6:60) We are all grown-ups with big responsibilities in the world. How could he want us to be like children?
Because he is talking about spiritual childhood — the attitude of those who know that they are children of God.
We have been made sons and daughters of God through baptism! This is the great gift of the father’s love that Christ came to share with us. And we all need to grow ever more deeply in this awareness.
We are called to carry out our duties in this world as his beloved children, knowing that we are a part of his great plan to make all humanity one family of God in his son.
We learn how to do this, as Jesus did, in the household of Mary. (Lk 2:51-52).
Mary does not say much in the pages of the Gospel. But like good children we should listen to her words and follow her example. She gives us everything we need to grow in our sense of our divine filiation.
She tells the Angel at the Annunciation, “Let it be done to me according to your word.” (Lk 1:38) And I like to think that Jesus learned something of his own attitude of filial confidence and obedience from this fiat, Mary’s “let it be,” in which she entrusted herself totally to God’s will.
We can hear Mary’s faith reflected in the words that Jesus taught his disciples to pray: “Thy will be done.” We can hear her faith again in his prayer on the night he was asked to die for us: “Not my will, but thine be done.” (Mt 6:10; Lk 22:42)
Like Jesus and like Mary, we need to trust that our father knows what is best for us, that he has a plan and a purpose for our lives. We need to work hard every day to shed our pride, our illusions of self-sufficiency, our selfishness.
Mary, our mother, can show us the way by showing us her son. As Jesus came to us through Mary, we must go to him through Mary.
In this month of Mary, in this week where we honor our earthly mothers, let us open our hearts again to our Blessed Mother. Let us ask her help in following Jesus and in hearing our father’s call in the people we meet and in every circumstance we face.
Let us entrust ourselves to her and learn from her. Let us ask her help to pray and to love as children do.