Mary, Mother of disciples

NOTE: The following is the conference I presented Sunday afternoon at the nearby Monte Cassino Shrine for one of the weekly October pilgrimages.   

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On the third day there was a wedding in Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus and his disciples were also invited to the wedding. When the wine ran short, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” [And] Jesus said to her, “Woman, how does your concern affect me? My hour has not yet come.” His mother said to the servers, “Do whatever he tells you.”

Now there were six stone water jars there for Jewish ceremonial washings, each holding twenty to thirty gallons. Jesus told them, “Fill the jars with water.” So, they filled them to the brim. Then he told them, “Draw some out now and take it to the headwaiter.” So, they took it. And when the headwaiter tasted the water that had become wine, without knowing where it came from (although the servers who had drawn the water knew), the headwaiter called the bridegroom and said to him, “Everyone serves good wine first, and then when people have drunk freely, an inferior one; but you have kept the good wine until now.”

Jesus did this as the beginning of his signs in Cana in Galilee and so revealed his glory, and his disciples began to believe in him.                                                                                     --John 2:1-11

 

Human beings—especially Americans, it seems—do not like being told what to do. Obedience is something we tend to resist and resent. We like our “freedom,” or what we perceive as freedom. We want to call the shots. We don’t want to listen to anybody else.

But the fact of the matter is that to get along, and even to survive as a species, we need to obey someone else or a set of rules and regulations each day. Without some measure of obedience and deference to another beyond our individual desires, society would descend into absolute chaos. For the good of everyone, there need to be “rules of the road,” so to speak.

In the life of Christian discipleship, this is even more true – and it really is a matter of spiritual life or death for each one of us. Adam and Eve, as our first parents, chose to disobey God and set the pattern of human behavior that we still struggle with today.

Mercifully, God the Father did not discard or forget us. First, he gave us the Law and the Prophets, pleading with us to “return to the Lord” and “heed his voice with all your heart and all your soul” (Dt 30:2). This is not difficult to figure out, God tells his children through Moses in the Book of Deuteronomy: “This command which I enjoin on you today is not too mysterious and remote for you. … It is something very near to you, already in your mouths and in your hearts; you have only to carry it out” (Dt 30: 11,14).

But the choice is ours, just like it was in the time of Moses: “I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse,” God says. “Choose life, then … “(Dt 30:19). What he asks us to do, in other words, is for our own good, from an eternal perspective.

But the Law and the Prophets were not enough for us stubborn, hard-hearted human beings. So, the Father in his great mercy sent his only Son, Jesus, God’s Word made Flesh, to teach us, to show us the way, to help us make the right choice, and to do most of the heavy lifting for us. Following Jesus as a disciple means doing what he did, using his example as a guide. HE is the Way, the Truth, and the Life (cf. John 14:6).

And because the fully human, fully divine Jesus took his flesh from a young woman in Nazareth, his appearance among us depended upon her assent, on her obedience to the Father’s will. When the archangel Gabriel announced this plan to her, she undoubtedly had many questions and not a few trepidations about how it would all work out (he didn’t give her many details). But Mary said “yes” anyway. “May it be done to me according to your word,” she responded (Luke 1:38).

And so, in that moment, Mary became not only the Mother of the Lord, but his very first disciple—and hence, the mother of all disciples. Her obedience was a critical counterpoint to Eve’s disobedience, just as Jesus’ obedience to the Father would offset Adam’s defiance, restoring eternal life to humanity by his death and resurrection.

In the Gospel passage we just heard, John the Evangelist presents the first of seven signs in which Jesus manifests his glory as the Son of God. The turning of water into wine at the wedding in Cana signifies the abundant transforming grace available to us all through the salvific mission of Christ. Just as the prophet Isaiah foretold, God does something new in Jesus—offering cleansing, restorative drink to his chosen but wayward people (cf. Isaiah 43).

As demonstrated through Jesus, God has the power and the will to change our tepid souls into new wine filled to the brim. But again, the choice is ultimately ours. While it is Christ who changes the water into wine, the servants (you and I) are summoned to fill the jars with water. God’s gratuitous gift of grace requires our acceptance and cooperation.

So, for this reason, Mary, the mother of disciples, tells those servants (and us): “Do whatever he tells you.”

Mary shows us how to be a disciple of Christ. “Do whatever he tells you.”

These very words (if you haven’t noticed) are inscribed on the front of this podium. And they are important words for all Christian disciples. God the Father has set Eternal Life before us in his Son Jesus, who says later in the Gospel of John: “I came that they may have life and have it more abundantly” (John 10:10). Choose Life, the Father says. And Mary, the first disciple who chose Life with her pronouncement, “May it be done to me according to your word,” in turn says to us: “Do whatever he tells you.”

In other words: Bring your souls to Jesus. Accept his freely offered grace won on the Cross for you and allow him to fill you with the new wine of redemption. Then, enlivened by his Spirit, go, and share the love, mercy, and peace you have received. Let it spill over into the lives of others. This sentiment falls into line with Jesus’ later words to his disciples: “I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing” (John 15:5).

  Mary always points out the way to us, and she points toward her Son: “Do whatever he tells you.” She herself lived out that directive, ultimately following him to the Cross when most of his disciples had abandoned him.

In 1974 Saint Pope Paul VI wrote this about Mary:

Mary is held up as an example to the faithful for the way in which, in her own particular life, she fully and responsibly accepted the will of God (cf. Lk. 1:38), because she heard the word of God and acted on it, and because charity and a spirit of service were the driving force of her actions. She is worthy of imitation because she was the first and the most perfect of Christ’s disciples. (Marialis Cultus, No. 35) 

Mary, as the first and most perfect Christian disciple, first listened to the Word of God, and then acted on it. As our Mother in Christ, she provides us, his disciples, with an example to follow. Most of us here, at one point in our lives (or even many times) have likely heard the admonition, “Listen to your mother!” Well, Mary, as mother of disciples, says, “Listen to my Son! – Do whatever he tells you.”

This is primarily the message from God the Father himself, who spoke from the heavens during the Transfiguration, telling Peter, John, and James: “This is my beloved Son. Listen to him.”

So, it is clear that as Christian disciples, our entire lives must be ordered around this principle. That is the definition of a disciple: one who listens to a teacher, learns, and then follow’s the teacher’s example. And in the case of Jesus, God’s Word made flesh, following him is a matter of life or death, and the Eternal Life he holds out for us provides a special intimacy with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Jesus himself while on this earth said, “Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother” (Mark 3:35).

But how—practically speaking—do we listen to Jesus and then do what he tells us?

As mentioned before, it’s not all that difficult to figure out (although carrying out what he tells us often is!). Since we are created in God’s image, his Word is already written on our hearts. And Christ gives us the Church to guide us in this regard—its teachings, its liturgical life and community, and especially the sacraments. We also listen to him in prayer, which is animated by the Holy Spirit, and within the circumstances and relationships we find ourselves in each day.

But most of all, we have Scripture -- God’s Word. In particular, the gospels show us the way.

Something I’ve wanted to do for a long time is compile a list of all the things Jesus specifically and directly told his disciples to do (or not to do) in the gospels. Preparing this conference gave me the opportunity to do that. So, I scoured all four gospels and wrote down each of the things Jesus tells us—his disciples – to do. The final list is quite lengthy, but I did want to share with you some of the sayings that seem to really stand out in importance – either because they are repeated often or because they are specifically emphasized by Jesus.

Here, then, is what Jesus tells his disciples to do:

n  Take courage. Do not be afraid. Just have faith. (These three come up a lot.)

n  Follow me.

n  Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

n  Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. And love your neighbor as yourself.

n  Love one another as I love you.

n  Do to others as you would have them do to you.

n  Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

n  Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.

n  Forgive anyone against whom you have a grievance, so that your heavenly Father may in turn forgive you your transgressions.

n  Stop judging and you will not be judged. Stop condemning and you will not be condemned. Forgive and you will be forgiven. Give and gifts will be given to you.

n  Anyone who wishes to come after me must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. Whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.

n  If you wish to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to [the] poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.

n  Ask and you will receive; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.

n  Stay awake! You do not know on which day your Lord will come.

n  Go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature.

n  Go, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. I am with you always.

These, among others, are the things Jesus tells his disciples – then and now – to do. Let us, then, filled to the brim with the grace of his Holy Spirit, listen to the Word of God and then do it. Like Mary, his first disciple and the mother of us all, may we always choose the Eternal Life that Jesus holds out for us, following him to the foot of the Cross—as did his mother and the beloved disciple. There, he says to us, “She is your mother” (cf. John 19:27). And, as our mother, she says to us: “Do whatever he tells you.”