From the Cross, Jesus entrusts His Mystical Body, the Church, to Holy Mary, in the person of Saint John. He knew that we would constantly need a Mother to protect us, to lift us up, and to intercede for us. From that moment on, "She safeguards it and will safeguard it with the same fidelity and the same strength with which she safeguarded her Firstborn: from the manger in Bethlehem, through Calvary, to the Upper Room of Pentecost, where the birth of the Church took place. Mary is present in all the vicissitudes of the Church (...). In a very particular way, she is united to the Church in the most difficult moments of its history (...). Mary appears particularly close to the Church, because the Church is always like her Christ—first a Child, and later Crucified and Resurrected."⁵
The Blessed Virgin Mary intercedes so that God may imprint upon the souls of Christians the same eagerness that He placed in hers: the co-redemptive desire for all men to become friends of God once more. "The faith, hope, and ardent charity of the Virgin at the summit of Golgotha, which make her Co-redemptrix with Christ in an eminent way, are also an invitation for us to grow, to be strong humanly and supernaturally in the face of external difficulties; to persist, without losing heart, in apostolic action, even if on occasion it seems there are no fruits, or the horizon appears darkened by the power of evil.
"Let us fight—fight yourself!—against that getting used to things, against that monotonously just getting by, against that conformism which amounts to inaction. Look at Christ on the Cross, look at Holy Mary beside the Cross: before their gaze, betrayal, mockery, and insults break through with shocking certainty...; yet Christ, and Mary, seconding that redemptive action, remain strong, persevering, full of peace, with optimism in the midst of pain, fulfilling the mission that the Trinity has entrusted to them. It is a wake-up call for each of us, reminding us that at the hour of pain, of fatigue, and of the most horrendous contradiction, Christ—and you and I must be other Christs—fulfills His mission (...). I resolve to advise you to turn your eyes to the Virgin, and ask her, for yourself and for everyone: Mother, may we have absolute confidence in the redemptive action of Jesus, and—like you, Mother—may we want to be co-redemptors..."⁶
To participate in the Redemption, to cooperate in the sanctification of the world, to save souls for eternity: could there be a greater ideal to fill an entire life? The Virgin co-redeems now beside her Son on Calvary, but she also did so when she pronounced her fiat upon receiving the Angel's message, and in Bethlehem, and during the time she stayed in Egypt, and in her ordinary life in Nazareth... Like her, we can be co-redemptors every hour of the day, if we fill them with prayer, if we work conscientiously, if we live out an amiable charity with those we encounter in our duties and in the family..., if we serenely offer up the setbacks that each day brings with it.
HCD