An interview with Chiara Lubich
…
The Movement consi¬ders Mary to be the model of in¬spiration in doing the will of God. Why?
The Movement could not but look at Mary in our desire of doing God’s will.
Mary is, in fact after Jesus, the one who best and most perfectly was able to say “yes” to God.
Her holiness and her greatness lie especially here.
In the world, not everyone can do everything, but if we all do our part, we will participate in the good of the whole. Eyes can see, ears can hear, hands can serve things, but all the parts participate in the life of the body, finding in this their reason for be¬ing. God who sees each one of us and humanity as a whole, knows which service each one is supposed to give. For this reason, it is very important to pay the greatest at¬tention to what God wants from us.
The focolarini see in Mary the person, who being faithful to the particular task entrusted to her, participated in the life of all of humanity.
Mary did not found anything in the Church, but she gave life to its Founder, and she is considered the Mother of the Church.
She did not work at a particular project in order to spread the faith, but she gave to the world the Word made flesh, and is considered the Queen of the Apostles.
As far as we know, she did not work in a particular way for the poor, the alienated, the sick, etc., but she is called: “Health of the Sick,” “Consolation of the Afflicted,” “Refuge of Sinners,” and “Help of all Christians.” All those who know her go to her as to a mother.
Mary did not start a contemplative order, but she contemplated “Heaven” in her own womb, so we call her the “Gate of Heaven.”
She said her “yes” to God and not to herself and, for this reason, she became the mother of God.
And since she said “yes” to God, knowing how to let go of even her own Son-God on the cross, she has been associated with Christ in his redemption.
Mary, like all the young Jewish girls of that time, was thinking in her heart about the one who was to become the mother of the Messiah, and she teaches us that if we engraft our life onto the plan of God, we end up fulfilling what we most dream of, and certainly more than that.
Following her example, doing as she did the will of God, makes us participate in the deepest possible way in the history of mankind, and be protagonists in it.
(from “An interview with Chiara Lubich” in Living City, Volume 20, March 1981, p.6-8)
