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Theme 8: Mary Shares in the Saving Work of Her Son
(Novena in Honor of the Immaculate Conception of the
Blessed Virgin Mar - Nov 2020)

We believe that Jesus our Lord is truly human and divine, and that in him, these two natures are united and remain united forever.  Jesus took His divine nature from the Father and his human nature from Mary, his mother.  It was in this Sacred Humanity that Christ was able to live his life as a human person, did his ministries of preaching, healing, expelling demons, raising the dead, and many others to inaugurate the Kingdom of God on earth. Without his humanity from his mother, Mary, the earthly life of Jesus would never have been possible. Without his life on earth, he could not have shown us the ways of loving and serving the people around him.

It is also in His Sacred Humanity that Christ suffered, was crucified, and died for our sins and through which He purchased our salvation. Without his humanity from his Mother, true suffering and death of our Lord could never have been possible. Our faith teaches us it was through his suffering and death on the cross that Jesus saved us. We believe that his death was part of the divine plan and it was the way of the Father to make our salvation possible. This means also that without Jesus’ death, there would be no resurrection, and therefore, redemption of humanity could not have also taken place. 

So Mary’s role in our salvation is central and it cannot be understood apart from the Lord’s humanity and death, both essential and absolute for humanity’s salvation to happen.

What is the theme’s message to us? It would be good to reflect on our humanity and death in relation to the salvation of others.  If it is through the Lord’s humanity and death that he saved us, it can be said also albeit on a much smaller scale that we would help save the world and one another through our humanity and dying to ourselves.

With the world now suffering from the Covid pandemic and our country reeling from successive typhoons and other calamities, how do we save ourselves and those others most in need? We turn to the Lord’s examples, to put into action our love for others, to use our hands and feet to help them, to share our lives with those who need, and even to the point of enduring suffering and dying just as Jesus did…for the love of God and others…

We sincerely thank Mother Mary for giving us Jesus, and we thank our Lord Jesus for unceasingly calling us through her mother, Mary.