25 April 1991
Czestochowa, Poland

My dear Sisters and my dear Confreres,

It is with joy and emotion that I make my second visit to this shrine of Our Lady, a shrine which holds in the hearts of all Polish people a special place of affection. In the long nights of suffering which your nation has experienced at different epochs of history, it was here in this shrine of the Mother of God that you and your ancestors found the grace to live the ideal of St. Peter of being "fortis in fide," "strong in faith." It has been here that in the words of the Salve Regina you sent up your cries "mourning and weeping" to the Mother of God who as a "most gracious advocate" has turned her eyes of mercy towards you.

So I give God thanks, and His Mother, too, that I have been given the privilege of revisiting this shrine that has been sanctified by the prayers of numerous generations of pilgrims, sanctified, too, by the presence and prayer of Pope John Paul II.

When I was a very young boy at school, my companions used to say that because 4,000 years had passed from the fall of Adam until the birth of Christ, it was a good thing to try to recite during the four weeks of Advent the Hail Mary 4,000 times. I have a vague memory of trying to do it on a couple of occasions, but cannot remember now whether I ever succeeded in reaching the number 4,000.

All of us here, even the youngest, will have saluted the Mother of God in the words of the Hail Mary many more times than 4,000. Not only do we recognize Mary's unique importance in the history of humanity, but we also love her. Have we not at some time in our lives felt that it was Mary, the Mother of God, who interceded and obtained from her Son some special grace that meant a great deal to us? Yes, she is full of grace, the Lord is with her. She has prayed in a very personal way for us and will continue to do so until that moment when the "now" and "the hour of our death" of the prayer of the Hail Mary are one and the same.

The power of Mary's intercession is great because of who she is, the Mother of God. That is her most glorious title. She would never have been the Mother of God if God Himself had not chosen her and if she had not spoken those very simple words that we repeat so often when we pray the Angelus: "I am the servant of the Lord; be it done to me according to your word." She would never have reached that depth of intimacy with Him who was her Creator, if she could not have spoken from her heart those simple words that close the account of the Annunciation.

Mary's final words to the Angel Gabriel reveal two attitudes which I think we must develop in ourselves, if we are to grow in intimacy with Our Lord. "I am the handmaid of the Lord." "No, neither philosophy nor theology nor discourses," observes St. Vincent, "influence souls. It is essential that Jesus Christ be intimately united with us, or we with Him, that we operate in Him and He in us; that we speak like Him and in His spirit, as He Himself was in His Father and preached the doctrine taught Him by the Father." (Coste XI, Fr. ed., p. 343).

I am the servant of the Lord. I am the servant, or slave which is the actual word Our Lady used. I am on the lowest rung of the hierarchy in any society. For anyone who is acquainted with the spirituality of St. Vincent, there is no need to say how central humility was in his approach to God and to the poor. The opening words of the first reading of today's Mass put before us the ideal of humility: "In your relations with one another, clothe yourselves with humility, because God is stern with the arrogant but to the humble he shows kindness. Bow humbly under God's mighty hand, so that in due time he may lift you high." (1 Pt 55-56).

And Mary's other phrase, "Be it done unto me according to your word," is that not a perfect expression of the virtue of obedience? It was Mary's acceptance of God's invitation which brought God into the world and into our lives in the person of Jesus Christ. It will likewise be with us. Some time ago I came across these words of Cardinal Newman, whom the Pope recently declared Venerable: "Any religion which does not bring you nearer to God is of the world. You have to seek His face; obedience is the only way of seeking Him. All your duties are obediences. To do what He bids is to obey Him and to obey Him is to approach Him." (Newman, "Parochial and Plain Sermons").