CNS STORY: Pope's Marian devotion keeps clear focus on Christ

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POPE-MARY Sep-9-2007 (780 words) xxxi

Pope's Marian devotion keeps clear focus on Christ

By John Thavis
Catholic News Service

MARIAZELL, Austria (CNS) -- When Pope Benedict XVI came to the Austrian Marian shrine of Mariazell, he spoke a lot about Jesus Christ and said relatively little about Mary.

That was indicative of the "style" of this pope's Marian devotion, which Vatican officials have described as prudent, thoughtful and very Christocentric.

In general, the pope sees attachment to Mary as a wonderful way for the faithful to draw closer to Christ, but has been wary of anything that tends to exaggerate or over-sentimentalize her role in the church.

"We rest awhile with the mother of the Lord, and we pray to her: Show us Jesus ... the one who is both the way and the destination," the pope said in his sermon Sept. 8 to 30,000 people at Mariazell, where a small statue of Mary and Jesus has been drawing pilgrims for 850 years.

Later, in a prayer liturgy at the sanctuary, he noted that Mary had received the fullness of God's grace and said: "We learn to look always, like Mary, to Christ, and to make him our criterion and our measure."

A week earlier, at a Marian sanctuary in Italy, the pope recited six prayer intentions addressed to Mary -- each of which quickly proceeded to invoke the lessons of Jesus.

When he first visited Mariazell as a cardinal in 2004, church sources said the pope gave a long talk on the Christological focus of Marian devotion.

In many ways, Mariazell seems to fit that focus. It is not a place of apparitions or spectacular events, and the devotion has always been quiet and low-key. It's a small place unable to host huge crowds, yet significant in the religious history of the region.

In the Mariazell area, images of Mary always show her with Christ, Vatican officials pointed out before the trip.

When Pope John Paul II came to Mariazell in 1983, he entrusted Austria to Mary in a long prayer that seemed to leave her figure in high relief. The late pope had a strong personal devotion to Mary, and believed she had intervened in 1981 to save his life, by guiding a would-be assassin's bullet away from vital organs.

Pope John Paul's episcopal motto, "Totus Tuus," meant "Totally Yours" and expressed his dedication to Mary. He gave her great space in his writings and catechesis, and he consecrated populations and continents to her care.

As a young theologian, Pope Benedict wrote little about Mary and said that, at that time, some of her ancient titles seemed exaggerated to him.

By 2002, in the book, "God and the World," he told an interviewer that "the older I am, the more important the Mother of God is to me and close to me." But he also said that reverence for Mary "should not lead us to forget the 'first' of Christ: Everything comes from him."

For that reason, he opposed a movement to grant Mary the title of "co-redemptrix" or "co-redeemer" with Christ, saying it could give rise to misunderstandings.

In a 1985 book-length interview, he outlined six points illustrating Mary's proper importance to the faith. The first was that Marian devotion helps Christians understand Christ's incarnation.

"It is ... in direct service to faith in Christ -- not, therefore, primarily out of devotion to the Mother -- that the church has proclaimed her Marian dogmas," he said.

The other five points were:

-- Mariology expresses the correct integration between Scripture and tradition.

-- As a Jewish girl who became the mother of the savior, Mary binds together the old and new people of God, Israel and Christianity.

-- Correct Marian devotion balances mind and heart, the lucidity of reason with the warmth of affection for Jesus' mother.

-- Mary is the figure and archetype of the church as a mother, and represents the church's human face.

-- In her virginity and motherhood, Mary sheds a new light on the "mystery of woman."

The pope summed up his views by saying: "As a creature of courage and of obedience (Mary) was and is still an example to which every Christian -- man and woman -- can and should look."

In later years, the pope developed these ideas and enriched them. And although, as the Vatican's chief doctrinal official, he was very cautious about reports of Marian apparitions, he seemed to widen his views on that topic, too, saying that apparitions were a spiritual "sign of the times" that showed Mary's connection to Christ.

In "God and the World," the pope said he understands that many people feel they can "talk" to Mary in an unselfconscious way that they would not dare to do with Christ.

"This is the language of the heart," he said.

END

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