In the General Audience this Wednesday, Pope Francis proposed Mary’s “yes” as an example that encourages us to also say our “yes” to God “every time we find ourselves faced with an obedience to fulfill or a test to overcome.” .
Before the faithful and pilgrims who listened to him from St. Peter’s Square in the Vatican, the Holy Father explained that the Holy Spirit carries out his work of sanctification through a “very special” means: Marian piety.
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Remembering the motto “to Jesus through Mary,” he noted that “the Virgin makes us see Jesus and she opens the doors for us.”
“The Virgin is always the mother who leads us by the hand towards Jesus. The Virgin never points to herself, she always points to Jesus. And this is Marian piety. To Jesus, through the hands of Mary.”
Likewise, he recalled that Mary, as the first disciple and figure of the Church, is “a letter written with the Spirit of the living God. Precisely for this reason, it can be known and read by all human beings, even by those who do not know how to read theological books.
According to Pope Francis, by saying her “yes” and accepting to be the Mother of Jesus “it is as if Mary said to God: ‘Here I am, I am a writing board: let the Writer write what he wants, let him do what he wants. May the Lord of all things be with me.’”
In this way, he stressed that “Mary offers herself to God as a blank page on which He can write whatever he wants.”
Mary’s “yes” also represents, according to the Pontiff, “the apex of all religious behavior before God, since she expresses, in the highest way, passive availability combined with active availability, the deepest emptiness that accompanies the greatest fullness.”
He explained that for this reason “the Mother of God is an instrument of the Holy Spirit in his work of sanctification.”
“She suggests only two words that everyone, even the simplest, can utter on any occasion: ‘Here I am’ and ‘fiat.’ Mary is the one who said ‘yes’ to God and with her example and intercession she encourages us to also say our ‘yes’ every time we find ourselves faced with an obedience to fulfill or a test to overcome.”
Next, Pope Francis explained that between her and the Holy Spirit “there exists a unique and eternally indestructible bond, which is the very person of Christ.”
He highlighted that the evangelist Saint Luke intentionally highlights “the correspondence between the coming of the Holy Spirit on Mary at the Annunciation and his coming on the disciples at Pentecost, using some identical expressions in both cases.”
He also noted that Saint Francis of Assisi, in one of his prayers, greets the Virgin as “daughter and slave of the most high King and heavenly Father, mother of our most holy Lord Jesus Christ, wife of the Holy Spirit.”
“Daughter of the Father, Mother of the Son, Wife of the Holy Spirit. “Mary’s unique relationship with the Trinity could not be illustrated with simpler words,” the Holy Father noted.
Finally, he highlighted that the Virgin Mary “is the wife, but she is, before that, the disciple of the Holy Spirit.”
“Let us learn from her to be docile to the inspirations of the Spirit, especially when she suggests that we get up quickly and go help someone in need, as she did immediately after the angel left her,” Pope Francis concluded.
Almudena Martínez-Bordiú
I am a graduate in Journalism and Advertising from the CEU San Pablo University in Madrid. Specialized in religious information in Spain since 2015. I have been a senior correspondent for ACI Prensa and EWTN Noticias in the Vatican for two years and I am currently a European correspondent based in Spain.