At the School of Mary

Gathered with men and women of the CL Movement from all over the world, we set about responding to the stirring invitation of the founder of the Movement, Msgr Luigi Giussani, to turn to Mary, the Mother of Christ and our Mother, in the great human quest for happiness, meaning, and fulfillment.
No one who lives in the orbit of the powerful secular culture that prevails, at least in the countries of the Western hemisphere, can be unaware of the urgent and vitally important question of human and social identity. In the maelstrom of rapid technological and social change that is inescapable in our present societies, profound questions of identity emerge: Who am I? Why am I here? Who are these others around me? With joy we received the proposal from Fr Giussani to seek afresh the meaning in life, guided by the Virgin Mother, who in Dante’s splendid hymn is called the “fixed term of the eternal counsel.” Confronted with the threat of “nothingness” and the tendency in the dominant culture to succumb to this threat, we dare to learn again to trust the eyes and ears God gave us, to rejoice in the touch and taste and smell that hold out to us the offer of an encounter with what is real. This turgid, steady, concrete quality of created things reveals the One from whom they came. His stamp and seal is there to be seen in every fragment and operation of the entire cosmos. In the midst of this creation, we discover anew both the limits within which we live in the created universe wounded by sin, and our call to pass beyond these limits of space and time into the infinite realm of eternal life.

Alone and unaided we are not capable of finding our way in this journey of life. As Saint Thomas expressed it, we labor under the double darkness of sin and ignorance. With merciful love God reaches out to us, and draws us to the light and warmth of His Presence by grace. Together, with honest respectful attention to the unique wonder that every human person is as a creature of God, we help one another to rekindle the passionate hunger for life that is in us, and that can never and will never be satisfied by anything other than the living God. With simple and astonishing freshness, Christianity draws us into the pulsating heart of creation. There we find Mary, that creature of unsurpassable beauty who Dante names “humbler and higher than any other.” In her virginal purity, by the merit of her Son, Mary is totally and completely untouched by the destructive power of sin. Her being is completely open to God and she cooperates perfectly with the Author and Source of her being and ours in the Divine plan to restore and renew the whole of creation in Christ. Mary is the apotheosis of desire for God. In every fiber of her being she longs to be filled with the utter fullness of the Divine Presence. As Father Giussani warmly reminds us, “Mary is the instrument that God used in order to enter into man’s heart.” She is the means “we need for familiarity with Christ.” We remember with heartfelt love the passionate depth of Christ’s love for us, a love that lead Him to lay down His life on the Cross to win our freedom.

In the shadow of the mountain peaks that surround La Thuile, we welcomed anew that brilliant light which is Christ shining among us and in us. Reflecting on the experience of these days, I am conscious of the need for real courage and humility to come to the “School of Mary.” Mary is that preeminently real woman, the loving Virgin-Mother, who teaches by being who she is. At her school, the heart learns to rest in silence as it contemplates the Divine Presence of the Triune God dwelling within it. This burning Presence of the Source of all that is, of everything that is true and good, of the highest and most perfect beauty, communicates Himself to us as love. The Eternal Word (Logos), who is the perfect image of the Father, through whom “all things were made” (Jn1:3), comes to dwell with us in human flesh. This event in which the Word takes flesh in the Virgin Mary’s womb is the transforming moment of all history. This personal entry of God into the flesh of humanity is the transforming dynamism of our own history. In this moment, the Kingdom of God is planted in the soil of humanity. It is our gift and call to tend this seed of eternity, giving over our lives to its growth and development.

Thank you, Father Giussani, for your faithful witness to the truth, for your bold courage in proposing the Virgin Mother Mary to us to bring us anew to Christ, for your kindly paternal care that has inspired and called together such a splendid company eager to spend their lives in the service of the God of love, of freedom, and of truth.