Leo XIV: contemplate the mystery of God with the look of Mary protects us from ideology

Pope Leo XIV said that contemplating the mystery of God and history with the gaze of the Virgin Mary protects us from “sick ideology and information”, in his speech to the participants of the Congress of the Pontifical Mariana Internationalis Academy.

“Contemplating the mystery of God and history with the inner gaze of Mary protects us from the mystifications of propaganda, the sick ideology and information, which will never know how to carry a disarmed and disarming word, and opens us to divine gratuity, which only makes possible the walking together of people, peoples and cultures in La Paz,” said the Holy Father in his speech in the classroom Paul VI in the Vatican.

Therefore, explained the pontiff, “the Church needs mariology; it needs to think and propose in academic centers, in the sanctuaries and in the parish communities, in associations and movements, in the institutes of consecrated life”, valuing “the innumerable suggestions offered by art, music and literature.”

The Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church

León XIV also stressed that “the Virgin Mary, mother of the Church, teaches us to be the holy people of God; hence the importance of this pontifical academy, a cenacle of thought, spirituality and dialogue that is responsible for coordinating mariological studies and the scholars of mariology, at the service of a genuine and fruitful Marian piety.”

The Holy Father also recognized that in this congress the participants “have wondered if a church with a Marian face is a remnant of the past or a prophecy of the future, capable of shaking the minds and hearts of custom and the regret of a ‘Christian society’ that no longer exists.”

“They have discussed the ends and values ​​that the Marian cult proposes to believers, to verify if they are at the service of hope and comfort that the Church has the duty to announce. They have recognized in the jubilee and in the synodality two biblical and theological categories to effectively express the vocation and mission of the mother of the Lord,” he continued.

“Jubilee” and “Sinodal” woman

Leo XIV stressed that “as a ‘jubilee’ woman, Maria always seems to us to start again from the listening of the word, according to the attitude described by St. Augustine: ‘Each one consults you what he wants, but he does not always hear the answer he wants. Your most faithful servant is one that does not seek to hear from you what he wants, but want what he hears of you’ (confessions, x, 26)”.

“As a ‘Synodal’ woman, she is full and maternally involved in the action of the Holy Spirit, which calls to walk together, as brothers and sisters, whom they previously believed to have reasons to remain separate in their mutual suspicion and even in their enmity (cf. Mt 5,43-48).”

The Pontiff also stressed that “a church with Mariano heart custody and better understands the hierarchy of the truths of faith, integrating reason and affection, body and soul, universal and local, person and community, humanity and cosmos.”

“It is a church that does not give up raising itself, to others already God uncomfortable questions – how will this be? ‘ (Lc 1,34) – and to travel the demanding paths of faith and love – ‘Here is the slave of the Lord: do in me according to your word’ (Lk 1,38) ”.

Pope León also said that “a Marian piety and practice oriented at the service of hope and comfort release from fatalism, superficiality and fundamentalism; all human realities are taken seriously, starting with the latter and those discarded; they contribute to give voice and dignity to those who are sacrificed in the altars of ancient and new idols.”

The Holy Father also indicated that if “in the vocation of the Mother of the Lord it is possible to read the vocation of the Church” then “Marian Theology has the task of cultivating throughout the people of God, in the first place, the availability to ‘recommend’ from God, of his Word and the needs of the neighbor, with humility and courage.”

It must also cultivate “the desire to walk towards the unity that springs from the Trinity, to testify to the world of the beauty of faith, the fertility of love and the prophecy of hope that does not disappoint.”

Mary, the mother of Jesus, is “a meeting and dialogue between cultures: she, in effect, perfect cooperative of the Holy Spirit, does not cease to open doors, tend bridges, knock down walls and help humanity to live in peace in the harmony of diversities.”