|
Rosarium Virginis
Mariae
The Rosary for Peace in Our Day
The Encyclical Rerum novarum with which, Leo XIII, the
"Pope of the Rosary", in 1891, began the modern history of the
social doctrine of the Church ends with a hymn to charity, queen of the
social virtues: "those in whose hands lies the care of the general
welfare ... must do all they can for the good of the people,
particularly by way of strenuous efforts to nourish in themselves and to
inspire in others the practice of charity, mistress and queen of all the
virtues. For indeed it is from a great outpouring of charity that the
desired results are principally to be looked for. It is of Christian
charity that we speak, the virtue which sums up the whole Gospel law. It
is this which makes a man ever and entirely ready to sacrifice himself
for the good of others. It is this which is man's most effective
antidote against worldly pride and immoderate love of self" (n.
45). Christian charity, as the Encyclical says in another beautiful and
well-known passage, paragraph 21 makes it possible to go beyond social
friendship to brotherly love.
Prayer for peace that produces charity
A little more than a century later, in the Apostolic Letter, Rosarium
Virginis Mariae, (the Rosary of the Virgin Mary), John Paul II
teaches that the Rosary "is also a prayer for peace because of the
fruits of charity which it produces" (n. 40). He points to Christian
charity, that Leo XIII put at the root of peaceful civic
coexistence. This charity depends largely on prayer, especially on our
prayer as we recite the Rosary. Peace, understood according to the
teaching of Pacem in Terris, whose 40th anniversary we will soon
celebrate, is "an order founded on truth, built according to
justice, vivified and integrated by charity, and put into practice in
freedom" (n. 167). Peace is a fruit that we can fully obtain only
thanks to "an intervention from on high" (John
Paul II, Apostolic Letter Rosarium Virginis Mariae, n. 40)
and due to a new orientation of hearts that will produce the fruits
of charity.
Marian spirit: Mary's leading us to Christ inspires charity and peace
The Holy Father, enlightening us about the bond between peace and the
Rosary, invites us to consider the entire social teaching of the Church
and its ultimate goal, peace, the gift of God, through the medium
of the Christian virtue of charity, in their close connection with
prayer and, especially, with Marian prayer. The Pope asks us to locate
the development of the Church's social teaching in the perspective of
the contemplation of Christ to be fostered by praying the Rosary.
In this way he calls us to consider the Marian spirit of the
social teaching of the Magisterium, the centrality of the mystery of
Mary in the Church's social doctrine. The Pope's Apostolic Letter on the
Rosary sheds new light on the role of the Blessed Virgin in the Church's
social teaching. This teaching, since "it proclaims God and his
mystery of salvation in Christ" (Centesimus annus,
n. 54), is firmly centred on the "yes" that Mary spoke to
the Angel, a "yes" that was the fruit of charity, an act of
charity, giving birth to charity. What the Church expresses in her
social doctrine is also a "yes": it is the acceptance of God's
design for humanity; a "yes" to renewed social relations, not
only of friendship but also of fraternal love; to the dedication to
serve one's brothers and sisters, to see them with eyes illumined by the
light that shines from the Face of Christ whom we contemplate in prayer.
In elaborating her social doctrine, the Church, in harmony with Mary,
Mother of the Church, invites us to do whatever Jesus tells us (cf. Jn
2,5). The Church also presents Christ to all peoples as if they were in
the cave of Bethlehem and calls for the realization of the virtues in
daily life as if they associated with Jesus in family activities of the
home of Nazareth. The Church formulates her social doctrine imitating
Mary who kept in her heart (cf. Lk 2,19) the will of the Lord, to
accompany humanity with "Christ who made man's way his own, and who
guides him" (Centesimus annus, n. 62). The Church's social
teaching is born at the foot of the Cross where Mary kneels: with this
teaching the Church takes on sufferings and wrongs, and points out to
everyone the horizons of a new world: "Behold, I make all things
new" (Apoc 21,5).
Mary in the Church leads to Christ
The Marian mystery illumines the message of peace that the Church's
social doctrine conveys, and embeds it more firmly in her origins, in
Christ. In various perspectives, the Marian theological dimension
of the Church is still waiting to be explored and deepened. The Pope's
Apostolic Letter on the Rosary implictly suggests this relationship and
asks for this deepening. It should not be forgotten that his last two
social Encyclicals both end with a thought and a prayer addressed to
Mary.
In this relationship between the social doctrine of the Church and
Marian prayer, so full of theological references which have yet to be
fully appreciated, we can find the close link between the Rosary and
peace which is the subject of paragraph 40 of the Pope's recent
Apostolic Letter. Through Mary as his/her "way", the Christian
can say with St Paul: "It is no longer I who live, but Christ who
lives in me" (Gal 2,20).
Life of grace in the totality of existence
This is Christian spirituality: not just devotion, but above all, the
acceptance of the life of grace in the totality of our existence. With
the prayerful contemplation of the mystery of Christ, who was born,
crucified and rose for us, the Rosary nourishes the spirituality of the
Christian which is never separation or detachment from daily life and
society. In Laborem exercens John Paul II teaches that the
problem of the development of the human being and of work can only be
resolved with a new spirituality of work (n. 26). Of course, this
applies not only to work but to every other area of historical and
social activity, as John XXIII clearly teaches in Mater et Magistra:
"As often, therefore, as human activity and institutions having to
do with the affairs of this life, help toward spiritual perfection and
everlasting beatitude, the more they are to be regarded as an
efficacious way of obtaining the immediate end to which they are
directed by their very nature" (n. 257). Christian spirituality is
not evasion but elevation. Holy lives have always produced great works,
because Christian ascetical effort is not contempt of the world but the
ability to accept and purify it.
Learn from Mary practical charity
This is the central message of paragraph 40 of the Apostolic Letter
on the Rosary. Prayer and contemplation of Christ through the
"way" of Mary produce, as I said earlier, fruits of charity.
The joyful mysteries contemplate the hidden life of the Child Jesus and
induce one to accept and promote life. In the mysteries of
light we contemplate the proclamation of the Kingdom of Christ and this
impels us to live in daily life the beatitudes. In the sorrowful
mysteries, we fix our gaze on the crucified Christ and, like Simon of
Cyrene, this involves bending over suffering man. In the glorious
mysteries we contemplate the risen Christ, but this means our dedication
to making all things new. The paragraph concludes this perspective and
points out to us, in a synthesis, the essential function of the Rosary
that "by focusing our eyes on Christ, [it] also makes us
peacemakers in the world".
The Apostolic Letter Rosarium Virginis Mariae, presents a
demanding and fascinating programme for us. It is a personal and
community programme of Marian prayer, which also produces abundant
fruits of charity. It is a programme, that is personal and for the
community, for relearning the social doctrine of the Church and of her
teachings, reinterpreted in their Marian theological dimension. The
Rosary is at the centre of both programmes, each of which is a reliable
way to obtain progress on the path of peace.
|
