Salve, Regina, Mater Misericordiae.
Hidden the mystery of our redemption from the fall of mankind,
for our Lord kept the apostles in a sort of ignorance,
but there was one who was dwelling among them,
who understood full well the mystery of our Christ's passion
and the words he spoke to the apostles this day.
The Son of Man is to be handed over to men
because the Blessed Virgin Mary would be intimately involved in the sacrifice of Christ.
And until it was completed, that mystery essentially was held in the heart of Christ,
in the heart of Mary, and to some degree,
some of the apostles who had some understanding,
but truly did not have even close to the depth of the understanding of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
And so, in today's Gospel, our Lord refers to that mystery,
that mystery that was first told to our first parents,
that one would come whom there would be enmity between the woman and the seed,
and that jointly they would conquer the kingdom of death
and open the gates of heaven to all mankind.
And so, Christ would be handed over to them,
he would be handed over to men,
he would suffer, he would be crucified,
and he would die for them.
And when that mission was accomplished,
he had reconciled all mankind to God,
and all that is left is for us to make up,
as Saint Paul tells us, what was lacking in the suffering of Christ.
That is, Christ and his mother freely offer themselves
and are slaughtered for the sake of mankind,
and it is to man to respond to that offering.
God will not force this mystery upon us,
he simply undergoes the mystery and offers it for all mankind.
And so, if we constantly seek and strive by prayer to acquire that virtue of humility,
we come to understand more and more deeply this mystery of our salvation,
and to understand more deeply the mystery of the Immaculate Virgin Mary,
the one who was ordained by God to be the Mother of God from all eternity,
and indeed, as we can understand,
our Lord would be telling us this very clearly,
that he had her in mind from the beginning of all time,
he had her in mind for all eternity,
and he had her in mind for one mission and one mission only,
that the creature would give flesh to the Creator,
and so it was that Christ ordained the Immaculate Virgin Mary
to be the one who would form the flesh of mankind,
and so,
as man, our Lord gives the Father perfect glory,
and he is able to do that because of the Blessed Virgin Mary,
and so we have a most profound mystery,
Christ formed Mary in order that Mary may form Christ,
and so we must strive always and everywhere
to acquire those same dispositions and thoughts of our Lord
towards his ever-blessed Virgin Mary.
We must simply not be devoted to her
in a superficial way,
but we must strive to understand her
as the Lord understands her,
and then we will see the central role she shares with Christ
in the mission of salvation
and the most extraordinary graces that were bestowed upon her,
that in the Blessed Virgin Mary,
God is more pleased by a simple word from her
than all the words of all the angels and all the saints combined.
All the praise of the Church,
does not give more pleasure to God
than a single word from his Mother,
a single command from his Mother
to do this in the Holy Home of Nazareth,
or to do that,
and so,
we are truly confronted here with a mystery,
a mystery that we will ponder for all eternity
if we strive always and everywhere
to enter into the mystery of our salvation,
the handing over of Christ to men
in order that men may slaughter their Savior,
and in that slaughter,
the gates of heaven can be opened
to the very ones who were the cause of his death,
and that is not simply those
who dwelt in the time of our Lord,
but it is all of us,
save the Blessed Virgin Mary,
for all of us at one time in our lives
came under the rule of Satan
because we, unlike her,
were conceived in original sin,
and we immediately begin to recognize
the uniqueness of the Blessed Virgin Mary,
that all of us at one time in our lives
were slaves of Satan,
and that we are freed because
the Blessed Virgin Mary
never came under the dominion of Satan,
not even for an instant in the womb of her mother
by the stain of original sin,
but that she was preserved from all sin
from the first moment of her conception,
so that she could become the Mother of God
and form the Savior of the world,
and so,
let us truly rejoice
and truly try to enter into that mystery
of our consecration
to the Blessed Virgin Mary,
that in forming Christ,
she also formed us,
for in giving her fiat to the angel Gabriel,
she gave her fiat to the mystical body,
and so,
when the child Christ was born of her,
so also we were born of her,
and we are truly her children,
unlike our relationship to God the Father,
by which we come, his children, to adoption,
the Blessed Virgin Mary
is truly our mother in the higher order,
because she is the mother of all humanity
in the supernatural order,
and so,
we cannot merely resolve to love her
as if she was our mother,
but we must resolve to love her as our mother,
for that is what she truly is,
and if we remain her children,
then she will deliver us
from the wickedness and snares of the devil,
and ultimately bring us to that home
where we will join the angels,
and saints,
praising and pondering that mystery of our redemption
for all eternity,
not suffering anything that could diminish
our understanding of this mystery,
for there we have no fear of the devil
gaining access to us,
for there is an abyss between heaven and hell,
and so,
let us strive always
to have our minds and our hearts set on that gold,
set out for us by our most holy mother,
and our blessed Lord,
her son,
and let us strive always
to ponder that mystery of Mary,
try always to think like Christ
towards his mother,
so that she also
can form Christ in us,
so that we,
like our Lord,
will not hesitate
when we are called
to make that ultimate sacrifice
in reparation for our sins
and for the sins of the world,
that is our death,
whether it comes through a martyrdom,
or whether it comes through the ravages of old age,
or the ravages of disease,
or whether it comes unexpectedly
by an accident,
let us always
find ourselves
ready, willing, and able
like Christ and Mary
to enter into that mystery of suffering
that ultimately will culminate
in the greatest sacrifice we can make,
and that is why
consecration to the mother of God
is so important,
for by consecrating ourselves to her,
we in a certain sense
undergo a modest death
each and every day of our lives,
because
what a martyr does
is truly die to himself,
and a soul consecrated to the mother of God
dies each and every day,
or tries to die each and every day,
by giving to the mother of God
all the faculties of soul and body,
so that everything we have received
we may give back to God
through the Immaculate,
and then she will give to us
that greatest of all rewards,
union with her Son
for all eternity.
All eternity in heaven.
Amen.