{"id":5989,"date":"2006-09-11T09:33:00","date_gmt":"2006-09-11T09:33:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/viamedia\/2006\/09\/the-pope-in-altotting.html"},"modified":"2006-09-11T09:33:00","modified_gmt":"2006-09-11T09:33:00","slug":"the-pope-in-altotting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2006\/09\/the-pope-in-altotting.html","title":{"rendered":"The Pope in Alt\u00f6tting"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/a> <\/p>\n

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Click on all photos for captions and credit. Click here for lots more photos.<\/a><\/p>\n

The Pope prayed in the Chapel of the Miraculous Image, offered Mass in the square, then led a procession with the Blessed Sacrament and the Madonna to a new "Chapel of Adoration."<\/p>\n

His homily was marvelous, focusing on John 2, The Wedding at Cana, which was the Gospel reading for the Mass in the square.<\/a><\/p>\n

Courtesy of Vatican Radio, the text of the homily:<\/a><\/p>\n

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In the Gospel passage, Mary makes a request of her Son on behalf of some friends in need. At first sight, this could appear to be an entirely human conversation between a Mother and her Son and it is indeed a dialogue rich in humanity. Yet Mary does not speak to Jesus as if he were a mere man on whose ability and helpfulness she can count. She entrusts a human need to his power – to a power which is more than skill and human ability. In this dialogue with Jesus, we actually see her as a Mother who asks, one who intercedes. <\/p>\n

As we listen to this Gospel passage, it is worth going a little deeper, not only to understand Jesus and Mary better, but also to learn from Mary the right way to pray. Mary does not really ask something of Jesus: she simply says to him: They have no wine (Jn 2:3). <\/p>\n

Weddings in the Holy Land were celebrated for a whole week; the entire town took part, and consequently much wine was consumed. Now the wedding couple find themselves in trouble, and Mary simply says this to Jesus. She doesn\u2019t tell Jesus what to do. She doesn\u2019t ask for anything in particular, and she certainly doesn\u2019t ask him to perform a miracle to make wine. She simply hands the matter over to Jesus and leaves him to decide what to do. <\/p>\n

In the straightforward words of the Mother of Jesus, then, we can see two things: on the one hand her affectionate concern for people, that maternal affection which makes her aware of the problems of others. We see her heartfelt goodness and her willingness to help. This is the Mother that generations of people have come here to Alt\u00f6tting to visit. To her we entrust our cares, our needs and our troubles. Her maternal readiness to help, in which we trust, appears here for the first time in the Holy Scriptures. <\/p>\n

But in addition to this first aspect, with which we are all familiar, there is another, which we could easily overlook: Mary leaves everything to the Lord\u2019s judgement. At Nazareth she gave over her will, immersing it in the will of God: Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word (Lk 1:38). And this continues to be her fundamental attitude. This is how she teaches us to pray: not by seeking to affirm our own will and our own desires before God, but by letting him decide what he wants to do. <\/p>\n

From Mary we learn graciousness and readiness to help, but we also learn humility and generosity in accepting God\u2019s will, in the confident conviction that whatever he says in response will be best for us.<\/p>\n

If all this helps us to understand Mary\u2019s attitude and her words, we still find it hard to understand Jesus\u2019 answer. <\/p>\n

In the first place, we don\u2019t like the way he addresses her: Woman. Why doesn\u2019t he say: Mother? <\/p>\n

But this title really expresses Mary\u2019s place in salvation history. It points to the future, to the hour of the crucifixion, when Jesus will say to her: Woman, behold your son – Son, behold your mother (cf. Jn 19:26-27). It anticipates the hour when he will make the woman, his Mother, the Mother of all his disciples. <\/p>\n

On the other hand, the title Woman<\/em> recalls the account of the creation of Eve: Adam, surrounded by creation in all its magnificence, experiences loneliness as a human being. Then Eve is created, and in her Adam finds the companion whom he longed for; and he gives her the name woman<\/em>. In the Gospel of John, then, Mary represents the new, the definitive woman, the companion of the Redeemer, our Mother: the name, which seemed so lacking in affection, actually expresses the grandeur of Mary\u2019s mission.<\/p>\n

Yet we like even less the other part of Jesus\u2019 answer to Mary at Cana: Woman, what have I to do with you? My hour has not yet come (Jn 2:4). <\/p>\n

We want to object: you have a lot to do with her! It was Mary who gave you flesh and blood, who gave you your body, and not only your body: with the yes<\/em> which rose from the depths of her heart she bore you in her womb and with a mother\u2019s love she gave you life and introduced you to the community of the people of Israel. <\/p>\n

If this is our response to Jesus, then we are already well along the way towards understanding his answer. Because all this should remind us that in Holy Scripture we find a parallelism between Mary\u2019s dialogue with the Archangel Gabriel, where she says: Let it be with me according to your word (Lk 1:38), and the passage of the Letter to the Hebrews which cites the words of Psalm 40 about the dialogue between Father and Son – the dialogue which results in the Incarnation. <\/p>\n

The Eternal Son says to the Father: Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body you have prepared for me … See, I have come to do your will, O God (Heb 10:5-7; cf. Ps 40:6-8). The yes<\/em> of the Son: I have come to do your will, and the yes <\/em>of Mary: Let it be with me according to your word – this double yes <\/em>becomes a single yes<\/em>, and thus the Word becomes flesh in Mary. In this double yes<\/em> the obedience of the Son is embodied, and Mary gives him that body. <\/p>\n

Woman, what have I to do with you?<\/em> Ultimately, what each has to do with the other is found in this double yes<\/em> which resulted in the Incarnation. It is to this point of profound unity that the Lord is referring. Here, in this common yes<\/em> to the will of the Father, an answer is found. We too need to progress towards this point; and there we will find the answer to our questions.<\/p>\n

If we take this as our starting-point, we can also understand the second part of Jesus\u2019 answer: My hour has not yet come. <\/p>\n

Jesus never acts completely alone, and never for the sake of pleasing others. The Father is always the starting-point of his actions, and this is what unites him to Mary, because she wished to make her request in this same unity of will with the Father. And so, surprisingly, after hearing Jesus\u2019 answer, which apparently refuses her request, she can simply say to the servants: Do whatever he tells you (Jn 2:5).<\/p>\n

Jesus is not a wonder-worker, he does not play games with his power in what is, after all, a private affair. He gives a sign, in which he proclaims his hour, the hour of the wedding-feast, the hour of union between God and man.<\/p>\n

He does not merely make<\/em> wine, but transforms the human wedding-feast into an image of the divine wedding-feast, to which the Father invites us through the Son and in which he gives us every good thing. <\/p>\n

The wedding-feast becomes an image of the Cross, where God showed his love to the end, giving himself in his Son in flesh and blood – in the Son who instituted the sacrament in which he gives himself to us for all time. Thus a human problem is solved in a way that is truly divine and the initial request is superabundantly granted. Jesus\u2019 hour has not yet arrived, but in the sign of the water changed into wine, in the sign of the festive gift, he even now anticipates that hour.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Phew. And yes, there’s more.<\/a><\/p>\n

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Click on all photos for captions and credit. Click here for lots more photos. The Pope prayed in the Chapel of the Miraculous Image, offered Mass in the square, then led a procession with the Blessed Sacrament and the Madonna to a new "Chapel of Adoration." 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