15 August 1987
Paris, France

Mother Duzan, Father Lloret and my dear Sisters,

One day within the last few months I was leaving this house, and while passing by the door of the chapel I was stopped by a man and his wife who had come from Sri Lanka. They had strayed into the alley leading to the chapel, and they seemed a little lost, at least to judge from the expressions on their faces. Hesitantly they asked me: "What is this place?" I asked them if they were Catholics, and they said "No." "Are you Christians?" "No. We are Buddhists." Where do I start, I said to myself, to explain to these two well-intentioned people the apparitions of Our Lady to St. Catherine.

Clearly 1830 was not the starting point. One must go back to Nazareth and to the stupendous event that took place when Mary gave her consent to God to become His Mother. After that something would

have to be said about the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, something, too, about the Holy Spirit, about the Church and its mission. How could one omit a word about the very prominent place Mary, the Mother of God, has held in Christian thought, and what an inspiration she has been to succeeding generations of those who believe in the divinity of Christ. Only after all that had been said could one properly situate the meaning and significance of the Chapel of the rue du Bac.

As I tried to explain very briefly to these two sincere Buddhists the mystery of the Incarnation and then the background to what happened in 1830, I became conscious of how difficult it can sometimes be to move into the mental world of people who know little or nothing of the person of Christ and His saving work. The experience was like carrying on a dialogue on a mountain with people who were far below in a valley and who were interested in knowing the best path by which they could reach the point on the mountain where I happened to be standing.

To those who have received the gift of faith is given a panoramic vision of life which is not enjoyed by those who are walking in the valleys of unbelief. Not indeed that all things are clear to the person gifted with faith. For all the certainty that faith brings to us, we still only see things, as St. Paul reminds us, "in a dark manner." (1 Cor 13:12).

However high we may be standing on the mountain of faith, we have not yet reached its highest peak. Throughout our lives we are engaged in climbing what the psalmist calls "the mountain of the Lord." (Ps 48:1). Far above the highest peak of the mountain is to be found the sanctuary of the Lord into which has entered Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, He who is, to quote the phrase of the author of the letter to the Hebrews, "the pioneer and perfecter of our faith." (Heb 12:2). Into that sanctuary, too, entered Mary, when the course of her life was ended, with her body, like her Son's, glorified.

Towards that sanctuary we also are making our way. There are days on our pilgrimage when we halt to rest and rejoice. Today is such a day. It is a day when we try to hear Mary's voice from a height far above us. Her message in today's gospel is one of thanksgiving and joy to us: "My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God, my Savior." (Lk 1:46-47). In this Marian year we could perhaps give greater prominence to prayers of praise to God for Mary, and express to Mary herself greater gratitude for what she has won for us, she who is the Mediatrix of all graces.

In the volume of prayer that we address to her, do we allow begging to displace thanksgiving? True, Christian theology from earliest times has presented Mary to us as our most powerful human advocate before God. What, however, we must not forget, is that as a Mother she loves us for what we are, even before we ever breathe a prayer to her. She recognizes in each of us who have been baptized the likeness to her Son, however much we may have disfigured that likeness by personal sin. In that most frequently recited of all prayers to the Mother of God, the "Hail Mary," the first half of the prayer vibrates with joy and thanksgiving, and only after that do we remind her of our weak, needy and sinful condition.

While we look up to the greater heights of God's mountain which we have yet to scale before we enter into our rest, we are encouraged by our conviction of faith that our bodies, like that of Mary, will at some future time be refashioned so that they too can rejoice "in the courts of the Lord." (Ps 84:11). What is still more encouraging for us is the truth emphasized by Pope John Paul II in his recent encyclical that "the glory of serving," which was Mary's in her lifetime, continues to be hers today. "Assumed into heaven," the Pope writes, "she does not cease her saving service which expressed her maternal mediation." (Redemptoris Mater, p. 41). That sentence of the Pope could also be taken as a summary of your vocation as Daughters of Charity. For is not your work, wherever obedience has placed you, a "saving service" for the poor? Are you not also by your simple, humble and loving manner of service expressing your "maternal mediation" for those who look to you to share with them your spiritual and material resources? If part of Mary's happiness today is still "the glory of serving," then your humble serving of the poor, both inside and outside the Community, will bring her closer to you. Whether you are engaged in the direct service of the poor, or whether age, infirmity or the needs of the Community itself have removed you somewhat from direct contact with the poor, each day will bring you from God Himself and from His Mother an invitation to rise to "the glory of serving." There can be no authentic devotion to the Mother of God without a readiness and willingness to serve her Son at all times in the least of His brethren.

We are all pilgrims on God's mountain. Today we pilgrims are rejoicing in the light of that faith which tells us that, at the end of her pilgrimage on earth, Mary, the humble Virgin of Nazareth, was honored by God in a unique way. Today we can hear her voice, wafted down into the valleys of this world by the breath of the Holy Spirit, giving us instructions about climbing the mountain of the Lord, "Do whatever He tells you." (Jn 2:5). Today we rejoice in the truth that Mary's exaltation has not diminished, but rather enhanced her "glory of serving."