A friend of mine recently returned
from Portugal where he had the opportunity to visit a church that houses the
Our Lady of Nazareth statue. I have since found the legend behind the statue,
and the story of how Blessed Mother saved a hunter named Dom Fuas Roupinho from
falling off a cliff 100 meters high. You can read this fascinating story about
the statue supposedly built by St. Joseph when Christ was a mere infant
here.
What struck my friend the most on this
visit was the story of the hunter. As the horse he was riding was chasing a
deer in the fog, it headed straight for a cliff and the hunter knew there was
no way to stop before reaching the cliff’s edge. The hunter cried out to Mary:
“Our Lady, Help Me!” Instantly, Our Lady helped him. This hunter saw his doom and called out for
rescue. This describes my entrustment to Mary perfectly. I am like the hunter –
I am blind and unable to keep myself from the “cliffs of life.” With Her protection – always available to me
when I cry out from the depths of my awareness – I am saved from sure doom.
Over the last month I have been
witnessing the heavy crosses of my dear ones. It overwhelms me just to know
their burdens as I cannot imagine carrying the same loads. It doesn’t take much
for me to land on my knees in desperate need of a rescue. It might be as simple
as having to make my family dinner. Or, maybe it is to shop and buy my sons’
shoes. I had an unusual experience of depression a few days ago. It started
when I went to bed on Mother’s Day and lasted until the next afternoon. I had
no reason to be depressed when it hit. It was like a wave of melancholy imposed
on me. Having had clinical depression in the past, I was keenly aware that
depression was the symptom. I made it to Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament
that day and wanted to ask “Why, Lord?” but the better question according to a
priest friend is “What for, Lord?”
What was this bout of depression
for? There was not much light until I finally got to speak with my spiritual
father. In talking with him about my current daily events of life, he helped me
to see that my crosses are really so little. He helped me to see that this was
a direct action of my entrustment to Blessed Mother. The awareness that Blessed
Mother is waiting and ready to carry me when I ask makes my cross lighter. One
could even say my burden becomes “sweet” because it reminds me I have access to
those loving arms.
I am aware that some souls can handle
heavier crosses than I can. A good example of that is St. John Paul II. His soul
was huge and because of that he could say “
Totus tuus” to Our Lady. When I was
first learning about entrustment to Mary I thought I could say “totus tuus” –
but now I see it differently. Blessed Mother says to
me "Beloved daughter, I am totally yours!" In Her faithfulness, and by the power of the Holy Spirit, She gives Her
all to me so as to rescue me from "cliffs" and to carry my crosses and lighten my burdens. It is thanks to my entrustment to Mary that I am protected from
the heavy crosses that I truly deserve.
As the years move on, I relate more and more to a letter written to Blessed Mother by someone called "tiny" in the book
The Two Pillars. Tiny's words have become my own:
I am grateful
that, although my pride constantly tries to shut, lock, and barricade the door
of my heart so that Jesus cannot enter, You always stick Your foot in the door
so that it will never shut entirely.
I am grateful
that You open me to all of Your action, especially these humiliations that wound
me. Even though I know that it is what I truly deserve, it still remains
difficult to accept. Therefore, I am grateful that You humiliate me and purify
me in Your Gentle Arms, where it hurts the least and my burden is lightest of
the possible burdens.
I am grateful
that being in Your Arms sometimes seems like being in an insane asylum, because
it reminds me that Your Embrace is really the Asylum of Divine Love for the
mentally, spiritually, and emotionally wounded.
I am grateful
that I have nothing to give You except my misery, because You transform my
misery into the most beautiful treasure — more beautiful than any illusory good
that I could give You.(S.C. Biela, TheTwo Pillars, [Ft.Collins, CO: IAMF, 2006],124.)
“Just as she did
in the case of St. Juan Diego, the Blessed Mother places you too on her back
and carries you through your life as someone defeated by your own pride. While
carrying you on her back, she unceasingly adores her Son, Jesus Christ, your
Savior who constantly blesses both her and you whom she carries as her beloved
child. You should not forget why you are being carried: you lost the fight; you
could not manage on your own. Without her you would have never advanced from
the point of defeat.” (Ibid.,
37.)
