Take Mary Into Your Home

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When Joseph was considering what to do about the pregnancy of Mary, an angel of the Lord came to him saying Joseph, do not be afraid to take Mary into your home. So did as the angel commanded and took Mary into his home. He was not the only one, in fact three important people took Mary into their home: Jesus, Joseph and St John the Apostle. And to take Mary into their home meant far more than the physical place where they lived.

We learn more from John 19:26-27, the scene of Jesus on the Cross surrounded by Mary and the Apostle John, the beloved disciple: “Seeing his mother and the disciple he loved standing near her, Jesus said to his mother, 'Woman, this is your son. Then to the disciple he said, 'This is your mother.’ And from that moment the disciple made a place for her in his home.”

St Ambrose says that the original Greek text of this passage suggests a deeper meaning than simply John taking Mary into his physical home or taking care of Mary. The Greek test “eis ta idia,” means John took Mary into his interior life, that is, into his soul.[1

From the Cross Jesus offered Mary to John to be his Spiritual Mother. John accepted this gift, he took Mary into his interior life, into his soul, as his Spiritual Mother and he began to live as her son. In the act of Consecration to Mary, we receive from Christ, Mary as our Spiritual Mother, we take her not into our physical home but into our soul and we begin to live as her son or daughter.

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Jesus was the first Person to Consecrate Himself to Mary

What was the very first thing the Son of God did to save the world? Worked miracles, preached to the multitudes, died and rose on third day. He did all those but the very first thing the Son of God chose to do to save us was to entrust, give, or consecrate himself entirely to Mary, to be a helpless embryo in her womb and her little child in her care. Is it possible to depend upon on another person more than this?

As His mother, what did Mary do for Jesus? In a word, everything. By the power of the Holy Spirit, Mary conceived and gave birth to Jesus, she nourished him, protected and provided for him, educated and formed him, intuited and prompted the beginning of his public ministry at Cana, stood by him at the Cross and laid him in the tomb.

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At the word of the angel Joseph did more than take Mary into his home and provide for her. Joseph took Mary as his wife. Marriage is a total mutual gift of self to the other person. Mary gave herself totally to Joseph and he in turn gave himself unreservedly to her. Joseph belonged to Mary and Mary to Joseph. Then they lived together, they share life together, they shared everything together. What a great image and example of Consecration to Mary and Consecration to Joseph. We should imitate both Joseph and Mary. Consecrate ourselves to both of them and then share everything in our life with them. And who was in the middle of this union between Joseph and Mary? Jesus. Likewise, if we take Mary into our home, into our soul, and consecrate ourselves to Joseph, then we too will find Jesus in our soul in an even greater way.

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In John 19:27, Jesus said to the world, “Behold your mother.” Jesus proclaimed Mary to be the Spiritual Mother of all people. Not it is up to all people to chose whether they will accept this gift of Mary as their Spiritual Mother and take her into their home, or more accurately, into everything that is their own, into their soul.

Have you accepted this great gift from Jesus? Have you taken Mary into your soul, consecrated yourself to her?

As Christians, what will the Holy Spirit and Mary do for us?

·       Everything…

·       The Holy Spirit and Mary conceive and give birth to the life of Jesus in us through Baptism;

·       they watch over, protect and provide for us;

·       they educate and form us in the likeness of Christ. 

·       They want to inspire and carry forth all that we do 

·       They walk with us as we carry our cross and support us at the moment of death: “pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.”

Then what should we do if we want to live in imitation of Jesus?

·       Begin by walking on water, preaching to the multitudes, raising the dead…

·       Begin the way Jesus did

·       Entrust or consecrate oneself entirely to Mary to be her little son or daughter.

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St John Paul II said: The maternity of Mary is a gift that Christ makes to each man personally, each must accept personally. By Consecration (Entrustment) we take Mary for our Spiritual Mother[2]

By consecration to Mary

·       we accept Mary as our spiritual mother

·       we begin to live a relationship with her as her children

·       we experience her powerful maternal care.

Consecration is an unconditional gift of self to Mary so that the Holy Spirit and Mary may form Jesus within you

·       Then to live in imitation of Jesus’s relationship with Mary;

·       from infancy to childhood; from adolescence to adulthood; all the way to our death and resurrection

·       that Christ may be fully formed in us

It involves three steps:

1.  To entrust or consecrate oneself to Mary as Jesus did in the Incarnation;

2.  To live the Consecration by a lived relationship with Mary 

3.  To learn Christ in the School of Mary in the Rosary. 

[1] Ignace de la Potterie, Mary in the Mystery of the Covenant, Alba House, 1992, P.225-228

[2] Redemptoris Mater 47