Messaggio della Consigliera per le Missioni_14 may 2021 eng

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Rome, 14 May 2021
On the third day there was a wedding in Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus
was there. Jesus and his disciples were also invited to the wedding. When the wine
ran short, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” Jesus said to
her, “Woman, how does your concern affect me? My hour has not yet
come.” His mother said to the servers, “Do whatever he tells you.” Now
there were six stone water jars there for Jewish ceremonial washings,
each holding twenty to thirty gallons. Jesus told them, “Fill the jars with
water.” So they filled them to the brim. Then he told them,
“Draw some out now and take it to the headwaiter.” So they
took it. And when the headwaiter tasted the water that had
become wine, without knowing where it came from (although
the servers who had drawn the water knew), the headwaiter
called the bridegroom and said to him, “Everyone serves good
wine first, and then when people have drunk freely, an inferior
one; but you have kept the good wine until now.” (Jn 2: 1-10)
Dearest Sisters,
I greet you with much affection and I thank you because together we have reached the
month of May, a month that is very dear to us, a month that is totally MARIAN. With this
encounter, we conclude our reflection on the passage from the Wedding at Cana, a reflection that I
encourage you to continue in your daily life, further intensifying your preparation for General
Chapter XXIV.
In the past months, we sought to study our relationship with Mary, contemplating her heart,
her gaze, her words, her hands. We contemplated a woman who knew how to connect the verbs
look, take care, act.
Today, I propose the last two verses of John’s account (1: 11-12). “Jesus did this as the
beginning of his signs in Cana in Galilee and so revealed his glory, and his disciples began to
believe in him. After this, he and his mother, [his] brothers, and his disciples went down to
Capernaum and stayed there only a few days.”
It would be good to be able to reflect on the aspect of faith, on that “believe in Him.”
Meanwhile, what strikes me most in these few lines is that Jesus, after having begun His miracles,
leaves Cana of Galilee and goes towards Capernaum. And He does not leave alone… with Him we
meet Mary, the brothers, and the disciples. We can say that the Wedding of Cana forms and
conforms the community of Jesus. It is a community in movement that participates in the life of the
people, the wedding, the feast… and that lives the faith dimension as a community of believers. It is
an ‘outgoing’ community, disciple-missionary that puts on the ‘apron’ and becomes a field hospital
to “take care of wounds and re-warm the hearts of the faithful,” that becomes close, near… a
Samaritan community!
This going down to Capernaum, suggests to us a reflection not only on the movement of the
community or the community journeying, but on the feet of those who build both the community
and the journey. “Caminante, no hay camino, se hace camino al andar” (Antonio Machado).
“Walker, there is no path, the path is made by walking.”

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Together with the brothers and disciples of Jesus, we meet Mary. It is lovely to think of
Mary’s feet, as a mother who walks with her Son Jesus and becomes a pilgrim in faith. Mary, the
mother who participates at the Wedding of Cana in a very active and proactive way, is the same one
who, after the Announcement of the Angel Gabriel, knew how to make the journey towards the
mountain because she was in a hurry to reach the city of Juda (Lk 1: 39). “How beautiful upon the
mountains are the feet of the one bringing good news, announcing peace, bearing good news,
announcing salvation, saying to Zion, Your God is King!” (Is 52: 7)
Mary’s feet hurry across the mountains… she needs to visit her cousin Elizabeth to fulfill
God’s will and His plan of love. Mary’s feet are the feet of a believer who has placed all her trust in
God and has made herself His servant. Elizabeth will welcome her into her home and, under the
action of the Spirit, she will recognize in Mary a woman of faith. “Blessed are you who believed
that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled.” (Lk 1: 45)
Pope Francis, in his message to the Pontifical Mission Societies, wrote “When she visited
Elizabeth, Mary did not do so on her own: she went as a servant of the Lord Jesus, whom she
carried in her womb. She said nothing about herself, but simply brought her Son and praised God.
It was not about her. She went as the servant of the One who is the sole protagonist of missionary
activity. Nonetheless, she wasted no time, going in haste and doing what was needed to look after
her kinswoman. She teaches us this same readiness, the haste born of fidelity and adoration.” (21
May 2020)
Observing the different representations of Mary Help of Christians, we realize that “they do
not deal with an ecstatic, contemplating, praying Madonna, but with an ‘agent’, and this fits
perfectly into Don Bosco’s spirituality and his perception of the Virgin as a mother who guides,
protects, even fights for her children, with whom she is constantly present.”
Don Bosco’s Virgin is often represented barefoot and always in an attitude of one who
walks, with one foot before the other. This is the Mother of Jesus present at the Wedding of Cana.
This is the Helper who accompanies us in our daily life and encourages us not to stop in the face of
difficulties. This is the Mother who is always present and who wants us to be ‘helpers’ among the
young people and children.
Dearest Sisters, our good Mama, Mary Help of Christians, together with the Child, is
barefoot because “the bare feet of Mary and of Jesus was handed down to us by Salesian tradition
as a sign of humility and of poverty.” Thus, we are invited to live the Novena in honor of Don
Bosco’s Virgin with this attitude, humility and poverty, recognizing the great things that God has
done in our history and asking for the powerful help of Mary to defeat the evils of the world, above
all the pandemic, the wars and violence that continue to put entire populations on their knees.
To her we entrust all the missionaries, the young, the children, families in situations of
hardship, the hopes of the world, and the mission horizons. Let us invoke her constantly during the
day as Don Bosco recommended, Auxilium Christianorum, ora pro nobis.
Holy Novena of Mary Help of Christians, the Madonna of difficult times!
With sisterly affection, a strong embrace, and in prayerful communion,
Sr. Alaide Deretti
Councilor for the Missions