The month of May allows the Church to honor Mary as the one in whom God’s plan of salvation is perfectly fulfilled through Christ’s transforming work. Her holiness is a cause for hope: what God promises in Christ is not only awaited but already accomplished in her.
In this Sunday’s Gospel, Jesus makes three promises to his disciples: that love for him will be expressed in obedience to his commandments, that the Father will give the Spirit of truth, and that he will not leave us orphans. These promises are already realized in Mary in a unique and exemplary way.
Mary shows that love is not primarily emotion or sentiment, but obedience. Her decisive “yes” at the Annunciation—her fiat, “Let it be done to me according to your word”—is the purest expression of Christ’s teaching: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” Her obedience is concrete and total, the offering of herself without reservation to God’s will.
Christ’s promise not to leave us orphans is fulfilled both in the gift of the Holy Spirit and in the gift of Mary as our Mother. From the Cross, Jesus says to the beloved disciple, “Behold, your mother,” entrusting Mary to all who belong to him. In moments of loneliness or abandonment, we can turn to her with confidence, knowing her maternal intercession and care. Marian devotion thus anchors us in the communion of saints, where we are never alone.
The promise of the Spirit of truth is likewise manifested in Mary’s “fullness of grace.” She is the Spirit-filled disciple par excellence, the one who hears the word of God and keeps it. Her life reveals what it means to receive the Spirit fully and remain faithful to the end.
To honor Mary is therefore to honor God’s redemptive work in Christ. To turn to her, Queen of heaven and earth, is to be led more surely to her Son. And in uniting our hearts to her Immaculate Heart, we come to know more deeply the heart of Christ himself—the human heart of God who loved us to the end.
-Fr. Richard Hermes, S.J.
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