How To Get Boat Off Ground

Mary, Mother of the Word of God Lent Meditation

weekly Letter from the Bishop of Tarrasa

for Sunday March 27, 2011

The second chapter of the Apostolic Exhortation of Benedict XVI on the Word of God is dedicated to "the human response to God speaking." It is a fundamental theological synthesis on faith, as free human response to God, which enables it to enter into dialogue with his Creator.

Pope, from the issue of faith in response to the Word of God, raised an issue that is very concerned and is in the center of his teachings, on which also spoke on his recent trip to Santiago de Compostela and Barcelona. "In our time," he says sadly has become widespread, especially in the West, the idea that God is foreign to the life and problems of man and, moreover, that its presence can be even a threat to their autonomy. "Faced with this thought the Pope recalls the entire history of salvation shows that God speaks and acts in history in favor of men and their integral salvation.

And immediately expresses a very proper concern of a pastor of the Christian community by saying, "It is therefore important from a pastoral point of view to show the ability of the Word of God to discuss the problems that man has to face in everyday life. Therefore, we must make every effort necessary to show that the Word of God is a response to our questions, is a widening of their own values \u200b\u200band, while the satisfaction of one's aspirations "(n. 23).

And the Pope has chosen for this chapter a quote from an author beloved by him, the Franciscan St. Bonaventure, who dedicated his doctoral thesis. The quotation is from the play called Breviloquium and reads: "Sacred Scripture is precisely the book that are written words of eternal life to not only create but also possess eternal life, in which we see, we will love and will be filled with all our desires. "

bring this chapter a reference to St. Mary as Mater Dei and Mater fidei Verbi, ie "Mother of the Word of God" and "Mother of the faith." If sin is the rejection of the Word and dialogue with God, she is the perfect icon of everything behaves better than the fact of receiving the Word. All the Pope's document is a beloved Marian dimension. The Pope did not save the title to the Mother of Jesus, which also gives the title as Easter "Mother of joy." At the same time, recommended to theologians to deepen the relationship between Mary and the theology of the Word and all the faithful are asked appreciate and be diligent in addressing her with the traditional prayers of the Christians of East and West: the Angelus, the rosary and the hymn called Akátistos.

Mary, because of their intimate relationship with Jesus Christ, is also in the innermost center of Christian truth. And, with masterly sentence, the pope theologian, is reaffirmed with this beautiful expression: "Actually, you can not think of the Incarnation of the Word regardless of freedom of this young woman, whose consent to cooperate decisively the entry of the Eternal in time. She is the figure of the Church to listen to the Word of God that it was made flesh "(n. 27).

† Josep Angel Saiz Meneses

Bishop of Tarrasa