Dear Friends,
Just a few short days ago, July 2, we commemorated the anniversary of the first apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Garabandal. With the angel four years of graces began, a story of love. With the first apparition of the Blessed Virgin a precious time started, to which we can only respond by saying: thank you!
The Blessed Virgin came to show herself as Mother. There is a hymn to Our Lady from the ninth century with the words “Monstra te esse Matrem” (show yourself as Mother). In Garabandal She did this to an extraordinary extent, even from the very first apparition. Such was the closeness that She showed that the girls remember how they told her everything with simplicity, with confidence, and that She was “like a mother who, when her daughter hasn’t seen her in a long time, tells her everything … She was our mother from heaven!”
Mother of the Church
In 1964, four years after the first apparition, the dogmatic constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium was published, an important part of which is dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God, in the mystery of Christ and the Church. At the end of the Council Pope Saint Paul VI proclaimed Mary “Mother of the Church.” We are seeing a maternal act of the Mother of God towards the members of the mystical body of her Son, towards us. The Blessed Virgin is not far from us, but rather is very close; She is our Mother. Jesus gave her to us from the cross and the Church ratifies this motherhood over us. The Council says, “The Son whom she brought forth is He whom God placed as the first-born among many brethren, namely the faithful, in whose birth and education she cooperates with a maternal love” (Lumen Gentium, 63). Curiously, at the same time that the apparitions in Garabandal were taking place, which are notable for this closeness, this maternity where She teaches, guides, educates her children, the Church—in one of the most important documents of the Council—teaches the Christian people that She is certainly Mother. She cooperates with her yes to the generation and education of the members of the Church. She exercises over us a true maternity, “She is our mother in the order of grace,” the Council will say. This is because “She conceived, brought forth and nourished Christ. She presented Him to the Father in the temple, and was united with Him by compassion as He died on the Cross. In this singular way she cooperated by her obedience, faith, hope and burning charity in the work of the Savior in giving back supernatural life to souls” (Lumen Gentium, 61).
Mediatrix
The Council also states that Mary’s motherhood “sustained without wavering” and that “taken up to heaven she did not lay aside this salvific duty, but by her constant intercession continued to bring us the gifts of eternal salvation” (ibid., 62). The Council understands well, and also clarifies, that Christ is the sole Mediator, and that calling Mary “Mediatrix,” “Help,” or “Helper” in no way detracts from Christ and His unique mediation. It is understood that She continues to do for her children what She did at the wedding at Cana (cf. Jn 2:1–11): She intercedes, She points out to Jesus, “They have no wine,” but it is Jesus, who is God, who performs the miracle. Indeed, the Council states, “unique mediation of the Redeemer does not exclude but rather gives rise to a manifold cooperation which is but a sharing in this one source.” And who better to cooperate than his Most Holy Mother, the Virgin, the purest, the Immaculate, the Ever Virgin?
We are her children
If she is our Mother, we are her children. This truth is a source of comfort. I have a Mother in Heaven—and not just any Mother, but Mary, the Mother of Jesus, the Queen of Heaven and Earth. After Christ, she occupies the highest place and is the closest to us. Her exalted dignity does not cause her to distance herself from us as someone unreachable; on the contrary, because She is so holy and so close to the Lord, we must draw closer to her. Like a good mother, She wants to guide us: “Do this,” “Don’t do that”—when will we listen to her?
Sixty-five years have passed since the Virgin’s first apparition, but her presence, her messages, and her teachings remain relevant today. Let us take time to reflect on all of this. I encourage you to read the chapter on the Virgin Mary in Lumen Gentium and marvel at the greatness of this Mother who has drawn so close to us.
May God bless you,
Team Garabandal.it
José María Pemán and Garabandal
