Dear St. Rita Families,
Today’s note is a bit longer than usual, but I was really enjoying reflecting on the Annunciation and the solar eclipse of this past week. The moving of the Solemnity of the Annunciation to April 8 because of liturgical precedent was the other significant event besides the eclipse that happened on April 8, 2024. Because March 25, the usual day for the Annunciation, fell during Holy Week, it got bumped until the day after the Easter Octave concluded (Divine Mercy Sunday), putting it on April 8. Interestingly, there was also a Lunar Eclipse visible in the Americas on March 25. It was a penumbral eclipse (so, very slight), but one in which the moon is less visible than normal because the earth is between it and the sun.
You see, the moon has long been a symbol of Our Lady. As the moon does not give its own light, but only reflects the light of the sun, so Mary does not shine forth with her own glory, but rather the glory of the Lord. As she herself says, “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord” (not the greatness of herself!).
Likewise, the sun is a symbol of Our Lord, not just because it makes the moon to reflect its light, or because all things on earth on some level reflect its light. When the sun rises in the morning and dispels the darkness of night, the Christian is reminded of Christ rising from the dead and dispelling the darkness of sin. This imagery of light dispelling the darkness is found all over John’s Gospel, beginning in Chapter 1: “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (1:5). The Church uses this imagery to great effect at the Easter Vigil liturgy, when the newly blessed Paschal Candle (representing Christ), lit from the just-blessed Easter fire outside the Church, is processed into a completely dark Church. The celebrant or Deacon elevates the candle and sings “The Light of Christ” at three different times, and then individual candles that each member of the congregation has are lit from the Paschal Candle, and the flame – the Light of Christ – is passed around to all.
The rising of the sun in the east is, incidentally, also why Churches have traditionally been built on the east-west axis, so that the celebrant and people, both facing towards the east (in Latin, “ad orientem”) during Mass, can look towards the Risen Son (symbolized by the rising sun) who has conquered all darkness – all sin and death.
But here’s the thing. You can’t look directly at the sun, or you’ll go blind and be in perpetual darkness. And the Old Testament tells us that, “No one can see the face of God and live” (Ex 33:20). You’ll die and darkness will have conquered you. Likewise, St. Paul tells us that God “dwells in unapproachable light” (1 Tim 6:16). We even use in the Creed that somewhat cryptic language (to the modern mind) that the Son of God is “Light from Light”.
Well, what about during a solar eclipse? During those 4 minutes or so of a total solar eclipse, people in the path of totality could look directly at the sun without the help of special solar eclipse glasses. Do you see the role of Mary here, in particular at the Annunciation?
The Annunciation is the moment when Mary in her humility accepted the role that God had chosen for her. God became man in her womb at the very moment she said, “Yes.” The invisible face of God became visible in the man, Jesus Christ! This is why St. Paul also says of Christ, “He is the image of the invisible God” (Col 1:15), and why Christ says to Philip at the Last Supper, “He who has seen me has seen the Father” (Jn 14:9). Through the mediation of the moon, the sun became visible to us. Through the mediation of Mary, God Himself became visible to us!
She who was preserved from original sin from the first moment of her existence stands in between us and God. Like the moon during the eclipse, she completely disappears, but He becomes visible to us in a way that we can handle. She, taking the full brunt of God’s glory, completely dies to herself (since no one can see the face of God and live), and her soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord. For the moon, it’s no big deal to take the full brunt of the sun’s light. It’s just following its orbit, doing what it was made to do. Right – and so was Mary! This is why God created her, so that she might be the vessel through whom God would come to save mankind. She was only doing what she was made to do, and so she is eminently humble about it (cf. Lk 17:10) even though God made her essential in His plan of salvation for us. Perhaps for Mary it was more difficult than it is for the moon, but she will also receive greater honor and glory for all of eternity.
But all that was 2,000 years ago. What about now, when Christ is raised from the dead and has ascended into Heaven in His glory? St. Paul tells us that now we see Him only as through a glass darkly (solar eclipse glasses?), though in Heaven we will see Him face to face (cf. 1 Cor 13:12). Even this has Marian meaning, however. Not only did she mediate Him to us in His first coming, but she also mediates Him to us as we await His second coming.
The opening line of Lumen Gentium, the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church from the Second Vatican Council, and from which the document gets its name, is “Christ is the Light of nations.” The same document affirms that Christ alone is Mediator between God and man (cf. 1 Tim 2:5) but also affirms Mary’s “salvific influence” (LG 60) as well as her title as Mediatrix (62). The document takes pains to be very clear that Mary’s role as Mediatrix does not diminish “this unique mediation of Christ” (60). Indeed, how could it, seeing as her role is analogous to the moon stepping in between the sun and the earth, thus enabling the humility, condescension, self-emptying “kenosis” (see Philippians 2:6-7) of the Son of God for the sake of mankind? He hides Himself behind her, and so makes Himself visible to us.
In other words, her mediatory ‘power’ is not something that adds to what Christ does. Her mediation happens only because she fully receives Christ (as we all are commanded to do). By receiving Him, she disappears because of His light, and yet by that disappearing, He is made visible. Thus, her mediation is only called mediation because God wants to exalt the humble (Mt 23:12). She, being conformed so perfectly to her Son Jesus Christ, dies to herself that we might live! She loves us as He has loved her (Jn 13:34), fulling that new commandment from the Last Supper. In this way, her maternal relationship to the Church (which Lumen Gentium also connects to her mediating role) is also highlighted. Just as a husband mediates life to his children through his wife, so Christ mediates life to us through His Bride, the Church, of which Mary is the pre-eminent member (LG 53). This is the meaning of His words on the Cross, “Woman, behold your son” (Jn 19:26).[1]
This reality has manifold meaning for us now. In particular, it echoes Mary’s message at Fatima in 1917, that we must pray the rosary for the conversion of sinners. In one of the last visions that the three children were given, Mary was seen shielding the earth from the just wrath of God for mankind because of their sins. This is another way to understand Monday’s eclipse – Mary shielding us from God’s wrath. So, if you are praying the rosary for this intention, keep it up! If you are not, it’s necessary to start, especially when the world seems to be on the brink of much war and destruction! You see, the eclipse was only for a brief moment. What happens when it passes, and God’s wrath is in fact poured out on mankind because of their egregious sins?
But, in all of life, it is important to go to Mary. She enables us to see the Lord in a way that is not blinding. She reflects in a particularly feminine way the glory and goodness of God, as only a mother can. She suffers as a mother at the foot of the Cross in order to bring forth new life in us. As Eve’s pain in childbearing was due to sin, so Mary suffers to bring forth spiritual children because of sin (though not her own). In this way, her suffering is united to that of Christ on the Cross, and she makes up in her own flesh “what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ” (Col 1:24) for the sake of the Church: a priestly, mediatory, and motherly act. This is not to say that women should be ordained priests, but to say that they are already priests by their Baptism – and they share in the priestly ministry of Christ in a particular way by childbearing (cf. 1 Tim 2:15).[2] This is one of the reasons that the culture of death, sexual license, and contraception is so contrary to the Gospel.
I hope the above provides plenty of fodder for fruitful reflection, meditation, and prayer. I also pray that your devotion to Our Lady constantly increases, that you have further motivation to resist temptation and sin, and, if necessary, to repent of anything that you are still holding on to. May the mantle of Our Lady cover you and protect you, and bring you to see the Face of God: Jesus Christ!
In Christ,
Fr. Christensen
[1] A very important aside here: Note that Mary does the things that Christ commands His apostles, His first priests, to do. Priests, precisely as priests, mediate God to mankind, but only because they must die so perfectly to self (like the grain of wheat of John 12:24) in humility, that Christ alone is seen. Thus, Mary is “Mother of Priests” as well, especially because the son that Christ refers to when giving His Mother is St. John the Apostle, one of the first priests.
[2] The challenge of infertility for many women presents opportunities for more spiritual insight, but that is for another time.