Today we celebrate Mary – Our Lady of Fatima – on this the 100th anniversary of the first apparition of the Blessed Virgin in Fatima, Portugal.
So we can pause for a moment to reflect on Mary and her Fatima message.
We can reflect on the portrait of Mary presented to us in the gospels – a life of complete adherence to the Father’s will, a life of true devotion to Jesus’ redemptive work, and a life attuned to every prompting of the Holy Spirit.
We can look to Mary as an exemplar of faith, hope, trust, obedience, humility, selflessness, patience, and fortitude.
We can look to imitate Mary’s life – a life that exemplifies the beatitudes that Jesus taught, and that testifies to the Kingdom that Jesus brings about.
We thank Mary for the role she plays in our salvation. With profound gratitude we contemplate our first encounter with Mary in the gospels, as Mary is called by God to be the Mother of our Savior. We contemplate our last encounter with Mary, as Mary is once more called by God – by Jesus from the cross – to be Mother to all of humanity, to each and every one of us.
So it is more than appropriate that we celebrate Mary on this Mother’s day weekend. And on this particular day, we pay particular attention to Mary’s Fatima message – that we turn ourselves to God and to the life that God invites us to.
And we realize that this is a message that Mary brings to us out of a Mother’s profound love for her children. We realize that this is a message that Mary brings to us out of a loving Mother’s urgent desire that we come to share in all of God’s promises, just as she has.
So we embrace Mary as our loving, nurturing, and protective Mother who desires only good things for us. We turn to our Mother and ask her to pray that we are drawn closer and closer to Jesus each day.