Jesus Wants Us to Know and Love His Mother
“Ecce mater tua” (John 19:27).
As relational beings, we do not and cannot function in isolation. Whatever our career, mission, or vocation, whatever our particular challenges or opportunities, defeats or triumphs, sufferings or joys, we share a common denominator: we were created to know and love others, and to be known and loved by others, especially God.
Both in the context of our family life and our professional life, we desire to be known and loved by others. Hopefully this is not for vain or prideful reasons, but so that we can better live out our God-given vocation and fulfill his purpose for our life, which never occurs in a vacuum but in relation to those around us.
Why We Should Love Mary More
Now consider the mission of Mary, the Mother of God: namely, to bring Christ to the world and the world to Christ. No human being has a vocation more universally important, more relevant to the lives of every other human being, than Mary. (Though we all share this calling in our own small ways!)
With Mary’s supremely important purpose in mind, we can fully understand why, in 1917, Our Lady of Fatima told one of the three visionaries, Lúcia, why she would soon take her cousins, Jacinta and Francisco, to Heaven, but Lúcia must remain on earth longer: “Jesus wants to use you to make me known and loved. He wants to establish the devotion to my Immaculate Heart in the world. I promise salvation to those who embrace it and their souls will be loved by God as flowers placed by Myself to adorn His throne…I will never leave you, My Immaculate Heart will be your refuge and the way that will lead you to God.”
As Saint Louis-Marie de Montfort taught, "the Virgin Mary is the surest, easiest, quickest and most perfect means of reaching Jesus Christ.” Jesus and Mary long for us to understand this!
Heaven is so patient with us. Roughly 400 years before she appeared in Portugal, Mary appeared as Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico with a very similar message for St. Juan Diego: “My son, I love you. I desire you to know who I am.” She described the many ways she would help and guide him in all his struggles as he sojourned toward union with God in Heaven.
At Fatima, Mary didn’t leave us to our own devices, either. In her maternal wisdom, she gave us some specific requests that would help us to know and love her better, as well as to make reparation to her Immaculate Heart:
Pray the rosary daily.
Fulfill the duties of our state in life.
Consecrate ourselves to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
Be devoted to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
Be devoted to the Brown Scapular.
These practices are so simple and easy to adopt in our daily lives, regardless of our particular vocation or profession. She’s shown us the way through her to Jesus. We just need to walk it.
A Repetition of the Gospel
Fatima and Guadalupe are probably the most remarkable and well documented Marian apparitions, but our Blessed Mother is persistent with us. Her repeated efforts to illuminate our path to Jesus (many already Church approved) are beautifully documented in Wincenty Laszewski’s book, “The World of Marian Apparitions: Mary’s Appearances and Messages from Fatima to Today.”
In his discussion of Fatima, Laszewski makes this excellent point: “The Fatima message is rightly compared with Holy Scripture: the truths of both Fatima and the Bible are without end. The Fatima truths, however, are not in some sort of competition with the Word of God; rather, Fatima is simply a contemporary reminder, a repetition of the gospel.”
Isn’t that so true? Consider John’s gospel account of Christ’s final words. As our Savior hung dying on the Cross at Calvary, he took those last moments to command his beloved disciple, and thus all of us, “Behold your mother,” (John 19:27). What a pearl of wisdom our merciful Lord handed us, even as our sins handed him death! We ignore it to our own detriment and peril.
The word “behold” is so meaningful, especially in the context of Christ’s final words on the Cross. To behold requires inner quietude and stillness. It requires focus. Great beauty一like that of our Heavenly Queen一deserves to be beheld, not glanced at, glossed over, and forgotten (or worse, mocked and blasphemed as the Blessed Virgin has been).
It’s been 109 years since Fatima, 495 years since Guadalupe, and 2,026 years since Jesus gave us his parting wisdom at Calvary. Are we ready to listen? We have nothing to lose and Heaven to gain. Let’s behold our Mother as Christ commanded!
Happy Feast of Our Lady of Fatima! Saints Jacinta and Francisco, pray for us! Venerable Lúcia de Jesus dos Santos, pray for us! Our Lady of Fatima, ora pro nobis!
Katherine is a mother of four and lives in Virginia with her family. She contributed a chapter about Our Lady Undoer of Knots to “Crowned with Grace: A Collection of Marian Titles and Devotions.” She holds a Bachelor of Arts in politics from Ave Maria University. Prior to her current role as homemaker and home educator, she served as communications director for the National Center on Sexual Exploitation and for former Congressman Keith Rothfus. She also worked in communications at Heritage Action for America. She is passionate about living out her Catholic faith and fostering a culture that protects children’s innocence and joy.