How Durable Are Dickies

VATICAN II AND MARY - IV

The Virgin and Child Jesus

This union of the Mother and Son in the work of salvation is manifest from the time of the virginal conception of Christ until his death. It is first when Mary, who is in haste to Elizabeth, was proclaimed blessed by it because of his faith in the promise of salvation and the precursor rejoices in the womb (cf. Lk I, 41-45).
This union occurs then the Nativity, where the Mother of God joyfully showed the shepherds and Magi her firstborn Son, he who has not injured her virginity, but sanctified. When she introduced him to the Lord in the temple once the offering of the poor, she heard Simeon announce both that the Son would be a sign of contradiction and that a sword would pierce the soul of the mother, so that may be revealed thoughts of many hearts (cf. Lk 2, 34-35). After losing the baby Jesus and have searched anxiously, his parents found him in the temple, to the things of his Father, and they did not understand the words of the Son. His mother meditated and kept all these things in her heart (Lk 2, 41-51).

The Blessed Virgin and Jesus' public ministry

In the public life of Jesus, his mother made appearances that are meaningful. From the beginning, when the wedding at Cana in Galilee, moved with compassion, she brought about by her intercession the beginning of the miracles of Jesus the Messiah (cf. Jn. 2, 1-11). During the preaching of Jesus, she heard the words which his son, placing the kingdom beyond reports and bonds of flesh and blood, proclaimed blessed those who hear and keep the word of God (cf. Mk 3, 35 Lk 11, 27-28), as it did with fidelity (cf. Lk 2, 19 and 51). Thus even the Blessed Virgin advanced in her pilgrimage of faith, and it remained closely united with her Son unto the cross. Here, it is not without divine plan she stood (cf. Jn 19, 25), she suffered deeply with her only son and joined with all her maternal heart to his sacrifice, lovingly consenting the immolation of the victim that she had caused. Finally, the same Christ Jesus dying on the cross, the mother gave to the disciple, saying: "Woman, behold your son" (cf. Jn 19, 26-27). (Vatican II: Lumen Gentium, 57-58).