If you look at your sheets and the translation
of one of the lines there was, “The word of God is coming, let the earth
tremble.” You could kind of feel you
know with the way the drums were playing that the earth was shaking. What a powerful way to introduce the word of
God, because God breaks into our lives.
It is hopefully something that just goes through every fiber of our
body. I mean that’s part of the beauty
of what I hear in the music this morning.
It kind of reminds me you know that our Catholic faith and tradition
covers the whole world, whether we sing in
So all this really leads
into what our feast is about today too.
What I’d like to do is just take a couple of moments and talk about this
icon of Our Mother of Perpetual Help because again it touches all of our
senses, it touches all that we are as human beings and as people of faith. Now an icon, one of the things you notice
right away are the beautiful colors in it.
The image of Our Mother of Perpetual Help is on a gold background. And in the Byzantine liturgy or art that
symbolizes heaven. So it is to remind us
that Mary, the mother of Jesus and Jesus in her arms have come to bring you and
me all the graces of heaven. That we
always are surrounded by all the graces and the blessings God wants to give
us. It’s right there in the
painting. Perhaps you can look at it and
say, “Ah, I missed it.”
The color of Mary’s robe is
blue. That was the color of the mantle
of the women in
But you notice too there are
two angels, Gabriel and St. Michael. And
what they are holding are the instruments of Jesus’ passion. When He was pierced on the cross by a lance
and water and blood flowed from his side, there’s the lance. And on the other side the angel Gabriel has
the cross and the nails that nailed Him.
And that’s part of the story’s image.
Jesus saw these angels showing Him the instruments of His passion and
death, then He ran and He jumped into his mother’s arms. And again the symbolism behind there, as our
gospel said this morning, Jesus on the cross said to John, “There is your
mother.” And to Mary, “There is your son.”
Means He gave His mother Mary to us.
So Jesus again jumping into
the arms of His mother Mary. And when
you notice, you have to look closely. One
of His little sandals is hanging loose from His foot. Again part of that imagery that if you’re
scared and frightened you run and you jump into your mother’s arms, you know
one little sandal fell off. To remind us
again that Jesus was very human. The other
sandal is firmly planted on His foot, that Jesus is divine. Jesus is both God and human. Again touches our humanity. All that’s in just that simple little
symbol.
When you look more closely
too you’ll notice that the mouth of Mary is very small in proportion to the
whole picture. What the artist is trying
to say again is that Mary is very silent.
Words do not need to be spoken all the time do they? When we are fearful, frightened, and
sometimes when we are very joyful we just kind of go quiet don’t we? And our heart and our whole body speaks to
what’s going on inside us.
Then if you notice Mary’s
eyes. Mary is not looking at her Son
Jesus. Her eyes, again out of proportion
to the whole painting. They are large
eyes and they’re looking out at you and me.
Again part of the beautiful symbol that Mary, as the mother of
Jesus. Jesus gave us His mother Mary and
Mary sees you and me in our pain, our difficulties, our hardships, all that
life brings us and we know that we can come to Mary and she will hold us as
gently in her arms as does she hold her Son, Jesus.
There are other images in
here as well. There are Greek letters
for Jesus, for Mary Mother of God, Mater, Theotokus-Mother of God, the Greek
symbols for Gabriel and Michael and also the Greek words for Jesus Christ, His
name there.
So it’s a beautiful
icon. This was entrusted to the
Redemptorists in 1866 by Pope Pius IX.
And he gave it to the Redemptorists and told them, “Make Our Mother of
Perpetual Help known throughout the world.”
They is why in every Redemptorist parish and church you go you will
always see a shrine to Our Mother of Perpetual Help. In many parts of the world they have
devotions that go all day long so many people want to come and pray to Mary
under this title. We have devotions to
Our Mother of Perpetual Help every Tuesday morning at the end of the 8:30 Mass
but you can come any time to pray before the shrine of Mary. But again hopefully when you look at the
picture again you just won’t say, “Gee that’s nice” but look deeper into all
the images and all the symbols and sometimes just stand there and let those
eyes of Mary penetrate your heart, to know again the beautiful words of the
gospel, Jesus says, “There is your mother.”
You know I was thinking the
other day, talking to somebody about my own mom. I remember when she died in 1991 and I was
back home in Grand Rapids. I had this
great experience and I don’t think my other siblings did. When mom was there. We knew she was dying. And about three days before she actually died
I came into the room by myself and I said, “Mom, you don’t have to fight this
any more. You can let go. And mom you know that Mary, the mother of Jesus
and all the angels and saints are waiting there for you and they will bring you
home to heaven. You don’t have to be
afraid. You can let go.” She looked up at me and she said and she
smiled, she said, “I know.” And then she
went back to praying her rosary. Those
were the last words that she and I spoke to each other but it reminds me again
how precious our mothers are to us. So
how great and beautiful, compassionate that Jesus gave us His mother Mary as
well. So maybe in a simple way think
about your own mothers today, about the great gift of life, your dads as well
too. But think of Mary, Our Mother of
Perpetual Help who is always there for you and for me, to bring us the graces,
the consolation, the joy, the hope of her Son Jesus. She is always with us night and day, 24 hours
a day.
So get in touch with your
humanity, get in touch with Mary the Mother of Jesus.
Our Mother of Perpetual Help
pray for us, now and at the hour of our death.
Amen.