Do you have people in your life who have been through an incredible amount of suffering and yet are still able to smile and radiate peace? These are the people who are rocks of strength for everyone else, and also role models. We look at their smiling faces, listen to their calm words of reassurance, see how they trust in God and embrace life with gusto, and think to ourselves "I want to become just like him/her someday." And also "What makes him/her different? How are they able to BE like this?"
Since the beginning of the Christian Church, people in every country of the world have thought and felt this way about Mary, Mother of Jesus Who is God and Man. They've marveled at a young teen in a small village having the courage and love to take a risk beyond belief and say "Yes" to God when God asks her to become the unwed mother of the Messiah. They've marveled still further at her ability to walk through a life full of joys, sorrows, and triumphs, still trusting in this God and still loyal to her child, even standing with him through his agonizing death. They are grateful that from his cross Jesus gave her into the keeping of his follower John to care for her and to make her part of his life. And John's life, John's "yes" to God at the moment of Jesus' resurrection was to help craft a new Church. Mary, mother of Jesus, soon became Mary, mother of the Church.
Mary's life is intertwined with the life of Jesus from the beginning of it - his conception - through his growing-up years (including losing him for three days when he stays behind in Jerusalem to talk to the priests in the Temple) to his decision to become a wandering preacher and she and the rest of the family both follow him as disciples and at times want him to come home, - to the end of it, his criminal's death, - and then beyond - for surely he came to her as he came to his other disciples after his resurrection.
Mary shares her story with Luke, who tells it in his Gospel story of Jesus. Other Gospel writers share other parts of her story. Reading her story, praying over it, believers of every age have gotten to know this woman who went through incredible suffering in her life and was still able to radiate peace and joy - and have asked themselves "How was she able to BE like that?" And have wanted to have her strength, her trust in God. Mary's life is so intertwined with her son's that from her first "yes" to God allowing Jesus to come into physical life in her womb to her agonized accepting "yes" as he was placed in the tomb, to her exultant and accepting "yes" to his life beyond the tomb, that her whole life can be summed up in that word "yes." Her "yes" is the reason for her strength, her serenity, her inner peace, her joyful song "He has cast down the mighty from their thrones and has lifted up the lowly."
And forever after, Jesus' disciples of every age look to her story and see a woman who because she risked everything always to say "yes" to God, was able to ask her son, the Son of God, for something as simple as to perform a miracle for a young couple at their wedding and make them more wine so they wouldn't be embarrassed in front of their guests. Mary knows in advance that Jesus will say "yes" to her because she always says "yes" to him. At the wedding of Cana, we see Mary's true face, the face of a practical and observant woman who cares about the every day trials of an ordinary couple, and doesn't think that these sorts of problems are beyond her notice or the notice of her son.
Today people know that Mary, mother of the Church, who lives with her son in Heaven. is still that same practical and observant woman who notices - notices the trials of her children on earth. Mary's heart remains softened and enlarged by her own sufferings. She is known as "mother of mercy"; Jesus is Mercy Itself and Mary, his mother, his first disciple, still loves to bring people to his merciful attention.
St. Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyon, France, and martyred in 202, said this about Mary: "Eve, by her disobedience, tied the knot of disgrace for the human race; whereas Mary, by her obedience (and faith), undid it." Notice this was said in 202, before the Christian Church splintered into a thousand pieces. Inspired by this wise saying, Johann George Schmidtner painted "Mary - or Our Lady - Undoer of Knots," in around 1700. The painting currently hangs in the Church of St. Peter in Perlack/Augsburg, Bavaria/Germany, where the image is venerated by people from around the world.
In the painting, Mary, the Holy Spirit above her head, a knotted serpent (Satan) under her feet, and surrounded by angels, holds a long knotted cord and is working on unknotting it. Below her feet, a small, ordinary man, followed by a dog, and led by an angel, tramps cross-country. The man and his dog grabbed everyone's attention from the beginning. What the painting affirms is that Mary still cares for ordinary people - and their pets. Mary can help us undo the knots of our own lives by uniting with us in prayer and talking for us with her son.
What are the knots of our lives? The website "Our Lady Undoer of Knots" says
"They are the problems and struggles we face for which we do not see any solution. Knots of discord in your family, lack of understanding between parents and children, disrespect, violence, the knots of deep hurts between husband and wife, the absence of peace and joy at home. They are also the knots of despair of separated couples, the dissolution of the family, the knots of a drug addict son or daughter, (the knots of being) sick or separated from home or God, knots of alcoholism, the practice of abortion, depression, unemployment, fear, solitude...Ah, the knots of our life! How they suffocate the soul, beat us down and betray the heart's joy and separate us from God."
When we pray asking Mary to help us, she our friend assists us in opening our hearts to God and hearing the "yeses" He expects of us to help untie these knots as He also works to untie them.
We can especially bring before Mary in prayer the terrible knots of climate change, pollution of the environment, especially our air and our oceans, and the daily extinction of species. Scientists are predicting that unless a miracle happens, our world will become uninhabitable. All because of what human beings have been doing to pollute the planet since the Industrial Revolution. What "yeses" is God asking of us, the human race? In what ways is God asking us to act to save at least a remnant of our world?
When Pope Francis was a student, he saw this painting in Germany, learned about this devotion to "Our Lady Undoer of Knots," and carried a post card depicting the painting back to Argentina. When he became Pope, the Argentinian people presented him with a silver chalice bearing her image. A Novena to Our Lady Undoer of Knots can be found online and there are chapels in the U.S. devoted to her.
Mary, our friend, is always available to pray for us and intercede for us with her Son Jesus to help us undo the knots in our lives, as she asked him to help an ordinary young couple have more wine at their wedding. She is the one who endured unimaginable joys and sufferings during her life on earth, yet still shows us a a smiling serene face and a heart rich in merciful love - because she always said "Yes" to what God asked of her. May we, through her prayerful support, always receive the grace to say "Yes."
My husband and I will be away from today Sept. 12 through Sept. 16 - and I plan on giving him my full attention instead of sneaking off to write. Please enjoy my other posts - there's four years' worth of them on this blog. Also I am readying my murder mystery, "The Shrouded Drum," which will be available for purchase from me at six dollars as a PDF document. I'll keep you up to date!