Today is the Solemnity of Mary. It is a time that we recognize the role of the Blessed Mother in our Church.

Mary, I think is given a description in today’s world that I cannot always support. We describe her as a gentle woman, meek and mild and that may have been true by the standards of her life situation in her time, it does not match  our time.

If we were to describe an archetype from American culture of what kind of woman Mary is, we would have to say, a prairie woman. She may have been meek and mild as a prairie woman, but even under those conditions she would have been a tough woman by today’s standards to survive. Remember, she was widowed sometime in her life. We don’t know when, but sometime between Jesus’ twelfth birthday and his thirtieth. For it is between those two marks that St. Joseph disappears from the bible. She could not have been overly pious for then she would have been rejected by the people of her time as being less than human and even snobby. She would have had to  been quite approachable and as we know the sign of the presence of the Holy Spirit is joy, she would have had to been joyful as well. Finally, look at her Magnificat, these are not the words of a meek and mild woman. They are strong words of God’s triumph over evil.

Mary from the Annunciation to Today

However, when we are looking at Mary, we cannot look exclusively at her from her time, but from our time as well, 2012. Why? Because especially over the last several hundred years, she has been active in interacting with humanity. Last December 12th I preached on Mary as a comforting presence to St. Juan Diego at Guadalupe teaching him of herself and more importantly her Son. He is the God to worship, the Aztec and Mayan gods did not exist and the oppression demanded in their name had ended.

But in our century, her message has been quite different especially at Fatima.

It was there that she spoke to the three shepherd children and enlisted them in an urgent call to which she enlists us: spreading the mercy of God.

Mary, the minute she said yes to the Angel Gabriel became an active participant in the plan of Salvation of the Father. She, the new Eve, became the tabernacle: the Theotokos is the word we use, the God bearer for the Savior,the New Adam. Her role in salvation history continues.

At Fatima, she communicated an urgent message to the children, that they were to pray for and spread the important message of the call to conversion of sinners and the openness to the mercy of God. Lucia, in her writings later, revealed that Mary somberly showed them a terrifying view of Hell. Those words you can read on the Vatican website.

It was there that she called the children to not only pray for conversion of sinners, but to spread the message of the conversion of sinners throughout the world. Lucia, the only one of the three who survived more than ten years, obliged throughout her over ninety years of life. Jacinta and Francisco both spent their small amount of years after the Fatima visions doing works of penance for sinners.

Salvation is from Eternal Damnation and is for Eternal Happiness in Christ

N0w, I should bring up here that often in the past when there were sermons on Hell, the preacher would talk about how one simple error could get one cast in Hell for all eternity. Or even the worse teaching that one needed to ensure that his good works outweighed his bad works or he would end up in Hell. These teachings were heretical teachings that do not jibe with the Church’s teaching on mercy and forgiveness of God. Jesus said that if we follow Him, we will have eternal life. That is his promise to us. The Sacramental life of the Church are powerful manifestations of God’s grace in our lives that we may know his salvation.

But what about those who have hardened hearts, who have allowed themselves to completely reject God and say “talk to the hand” when it comes to God. These are the people who most need the grace of conversion and mercy and you and I have a call to be agents of it. Or who have walked away from God too busy to pay Him any mind. This is where Mary’s admonition begins.

Our call is to pray for the conversion of the most hardened of sinners. This is part of our baptismal call. If we focus only on whether or not we get to Heaven we completely miss the point. We need to be agents of God’s mercy at all times.

Let me give you something to reflect upon. You are walking down the street and someone robs you with a weapon, either a gun or knife. You are unharmed minus the loss of your wallet. You rightly report the crime to the police. However, when you were being robbed, the thief looked right into your eyes with all the narcissistic hostility within him. You looked into the eyes of one who is well on is way to being one of those souls in Hell that Mary showed Lucia, Jacinta and Francisco. However, it is not God’s will that even he is condemned. Will you pray for this person? Can you? Remember, that is the extra-mile of Catholicism. When you look at this whole thing from the more eternal picture, you will realize just how chilling that incident was, more so for the perpetrator than for you.

This first day of the year, maybe it is time to understand our responsibility to those around us. Let us as a community become one that is steeped in spreading this all important message of conversion of sinners and mercy. Let us commit ourselves to prayer for the conversion of sinners with the rosary if possible and the Divine Mercy chaplet if you are so inclined to that devotion. Let us respond to Mary’s call at Fatima and our own call at Baptism and be active agents in God’s plan of salvation.

God Bless you,

Fr. Robert J Carr

You can follow him on twitter as @frbobcarr. Thoughts, comments on the homily? Let us know at Facebook