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Homily
for the Rosary Rally
Ephesians 1:3-6, 11-12 John
2:1-11 Intro : Ave, Ave, Ave Maria, Ave, Ave Maria.
We gather today to celebrate the Year of the Rosary proclaimed by our Holy Father, Pope John Paul II, in his Apostolic Letter last October 2002.
In that reflective message, the Pope reminds us at the beginning of the third millennium of the great spiritual lessons we can learn at the school of Mary by 1) contemplating the face of Jesus and 2) experiencing the depth of his love for us. We do this, of course, in order to proclaim anew before the world that Jesus Christ is Lord ! For he and only he is “the way, and the truth and the life.” (Jn 14:6)
The Pontiff tells us that against the background of the words Ave Maria , the principal events of the life of Jesus pass before the eyes of our souls. We meditate on the joyful, sorrowful, luminous and glorious mysteries and by doing so are drawn into a more intimate communion with Jesus. By embracing and entering into the decades of the rosary, we bring into the meaning of those mysteries the lives of our family and friends, our nation and Church, and in fact the whole world. The rhythm of all human life is brought into union with the cadence of our recitation of “the beads.” In a special way, the rosary is a prayer for peace in a world marked by terrorism, domestic violence and daily bloodshed. The rosary is likewise a prayer for family life that is so menaced by the forces of disintegration that would deprive it of its fundamental and irreplaceable role as the foundation of society. Without a proper understanding of marriage and the family, society cannot understand itself nor the reason for its collective meaning. It would simply be lost.
The Holy Father makes the claim that no other person has ever devoted herself more to contemplating the face of Jesus than Mary has. Her tender gaze at Christ’s birth in Bethlehem . Her questioning look upon finding him in the Temple . Her reluctant glance of sorrow from beneath the Cross. Her radiant expression of joy at the Resurrection. Her face burning bright and on fire at the Pentecost event.
In the Gospel to which we have just listened, we see Mary deeply immersed in Jesus’ life even before he intended to begin his public ministry. The scene at Cana is one to which we can all relate at one time or another in our lives. We plan ahead for that big event, making preparations so that nothing goes wrong when all of a sudden the unforeseen happens and disaster strikes: “They have no wine.” Now how can you have a great wedding reception without any vino ? Oh, it can be done, but not easily so.
Mary in knowing the heart of her Son is confident that his love for this and all married couples will not allow him to stand passively by and watch their dreams be shattered. So she moves ahead paving the way for his miraculous approach: “Do whatever he tells you.”
Of the few words that Mary speaks in the Gospels, these are surely the most memorable: “Do whatever he tells you.” Wouldn’t our world leaders in deciding issues of war and peace be well-served if they but listened to these words? Wouldn’t the Supreme Court Justices have rendered greater dignity to human life and the role of the family if they had heeded such counsel? And wouldn’t our society be so much better off in addressing issues of abortion, same-sex marriages, feeding the poor, defending the aged, protecting the farmer, giving jobs to the unemployed, taxing the wealthy and so much more if we began with that noble premise: “Do whatever he tells you.”
Then at Cana as even now in the routine of our daily decisions, Mary prepares a way for Christ in our lives by instructing us to be first attentive and then obedient to his commands, to his designs: “Do whatever he tells you.”
Our continual meditation on the mysteries of the Rosary enables us to enter into the events of Christ’s life and begin to share in his deepest feelings. No longer is this prayer on the level of the cerebral or the brain, but it passes into the realm of the visceral or the gut as well.
I remember well a homily that Cardinal John Dearden gave at my college seminary on the feast of the Immaculate Conception. The Cardinal recalled a conversation he had one day at the Second Vatican Council with a layman serving as a peritus or expert during the discussion of the section in Lumen Gentium on Mary as the Model of the Church.
The layman told the Cardinal that the first thing he did when he awoke in the morning was to tell his wife he loved her. As he left for work, he told her again he loved her. Some time during the morning, he called to see how things were and he would repeat the phrase that he loved her. When he got home from work, he’d kiss her and say it again. And the last thing he’d say to her before falling asleep was: “I love you.”
“You know,” he told the Cardinal, “I don’t think my wife ever tires of hearing me say I love her.”
Just so, the Cardinal offered, with each “Hail Mary”, with each “Ave Maria”, we are telling Mary we love both her and the fruit of her womb, Jesus. As the Holy Father so rightly points out, the Marian character of the Hail Mary has a Christological significance, which is to say it is not opposed to Jesus or takes away from his preeminence, but rather Christ is actually emphasized and increased by this petition to his Mother. Neither Jesus nor Mary ever tires of hearing us say, “I love you.”
My dear brothers and sisters, as St. Paul reminds the Ephesians, we have been chosen by God before the world began to be holy and blameless. We have been adopted by his will and favor. And we were predestined to praise his glory by being the first to hope in Jesus Christ.
Let us use the prayerful tool of the rosary, so easy to recite yet so rich in meaning, to realize the full potential of our calling. Let all parents teach their children how to say this prayer. Let all families and parish communities draw closer through its recitation. Let all priests, deacons and religious promote its use with conviction and by example. And please God, may many priestly and religious vocations be inspired and discerned in the process of it being prayed.
May the Rosary be our companion on life’s pilgrimage, leading us towards and sustaining us through the Eucharistic Liturgy.
And may Mary be our model and guide, preparing our every encounter with her Son and helping us to keep our eyes fixed on him in good times and bad, in sickness and health, in all the moments of our life and at the hour of our death.
Mary, Queen of the Most Holy Rosary, pray for us. (3 X)
Ave, Ave, Ave Maria, Ave, Ave Maria.
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