The Feast of the Assumption is “a great day” in the Church’s liturgy, the new papal nuncio to Ireland told pilgrims at Knock Shrine, and he invited them to “give a little bit of time to Mary” as “she will bring you to Christ her son”.
Archbishop Luis Mariano Montemayor was the main celebrant at a Mass on Tuesday.
It was his first official visit to the national and international Marian and Eucharistic Shrine in Co Mayo since he was appointed to Ireland in February, after serving five years as nuncio in Columbia.
The Argentinian prelate told congregation that “Mary is the most beautiful expression of human nature”.
“I recommend that – if you have not already done so – you find out for yourself the meaning of Mary’s maternal love. It is not enough just to know she is our mother and to think and talk about her as such.
“This is something that must be experienced personally. She is your mother, and you are her son or daughter. She loves you, as if you were her only child in the world.”
The 67-year-old nuncio also drew on his own family experience as one of four siblings and his mother’s care for her children to illustrate his point, that “we are all in great need of motherly care and we find that in Mary” particularly when challenged by frustrations and suffering and when we are in need and looking for signs of hope.
“The Assumption should bring eternal hope to the faithful. First of all because the end of our life is not the tomb – it is heaven.
“While the Blessed Virgin has entered into heavenly glory, this does not mean that she is distant or detached from us. Mary is always there, and she accompanies us, suffers with us, joins us in our hymn of hope.”
He continued: “Where Jesus and Mary are, we are called to be. In our pilgrimage to heaven, we are not alone.
“Jesus is there, but Mary is also there – she is with Jesus, and because she was assumed in body and soul and takes part already in the Resurrection of Jesus, there are no limits for her. She can be present everywhere at any time, particularly when there is a time of need, as we saw in the apparitions here in Knock.”
On the evening of 21 August 1879, 15 people witnessed the apparition in Knock over a period of two hours, when Our Lady appeared in the company of St Joseph and St John the Evangelist and the Lamb of God, standing in front of the Cross on an altar surrounded by angels.
Referring to the Passion of Jesus and the Stabat Mater, the thirteenth-century hymn to Mary, Archbishop Montemayor reminded the congregation that Mary received her mission to be mother of all the disciples at the foot of the cross.
“She does not shout, she does not run about frantically in despair, as Stabat Mater says she is there standing next to her son. Jesus, we cannot doubt, is comforted by the quiet, loving presence of his mother.”
Of Jesus’ entrusting of his mother to the disciple John, Archbishop Montemayor said: “At the very hour when our Lord made the ultimate sacrifice, the fullest expression of his love for us, he gave a new and dynamic dimension to our experience of family life.
“And from that hour, the disciple took her to his home. It is amazing to consider that perhaps every word written by John in his gospel was written with Mary at his side living under his roof.”
The Nuncio said this resonated with the apparition in Knock in which Mary was seen with St John, as well as St Joseph and the Lamb of God, pointing to the risen life.
“The same mother that cared for Jesus also cared for John and she cares for each one of us in the wider human family.
“We can be assured that our Mother Mary has true compassion for us. As her heart was united to that of her son on the cross, so her heart is united to each of us. As the Heavenly Father does, she knows you by name.”
He also invited people to show their love for Our Lady through devotional practices, particularly the Rosary.