The Door of Faith
Concilium Allocutio October 2012
By Fr. Bede McGregor O.P.
Spiritual Director to the Legion of Mary
The Door of Faith
Pope Benedict has invited the whole Church to celebrate a Year of Faith from the 11th of October 2012 until the 24th of November the feast of Christ the King 2013. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council and the launching of the Universal Catechism of the Catholic Church. It would be difficult to exaggerate the importance of these two events in the life of the individual Catholic and in the whole Christian community. It is also the year in which we celebrate the Synod on the New Evangelisation for the transmission of the Christian Faith. The basic focus of all these special events is the nature of our Catholic faith and Catholic identity. We are being called to deepen our knowledge and love of our Catholic faith and to celebrate the extraordinary privilege of our Catholic identity. There is nothing of greater value than the door of faith that opens the way to our sharing in the life of the Blessed Trinity and the Body of Christ, the Church and enables us to become more fully true human persons.
From beginning to end the Legion is rooted in the life of our Catholic faith: she exists because of its Catholic faith and has no other goal but to live and share this faith. The Handbook puts it so succinctly: ‘The Legion is built in the first place upon a profound faith in God and in the love he bears his children.’ The Legion seeks to live in the spirit of Mary and it is faith that characterises Our Lady’s deepest identity. ‘Blessed is she who has believed’ is how the Sacred Scripture describes Mary and that is the way her Legion seeks to be identified.
We pray every day for a deepening of our faith: ‘Confer O Lord on us who serve beneath the standard of Mary that fullness of faith in you and trust in her to which it is given to conquer the world.’ From the depths our Legion heart we never cease praying for the fullness of faith because we cannot live without faith. During this year of faith it would be good if the Legion throughout the world in harmony with the whole Church sought to know our Catholic faith more deeply, love and live it more courageously and share it ever more widely especially with those who have neglected the faith and with those who have never had the chance of hearing the Gospel adequately.
But the absolutely crucial question: What is our Catholic Faith? Well, first of all it is something radically inter-personal. It is primarily about relationships. Pope Benedict writes: ‘Christianity is not a new philosophy or a new morality. We are only Christians if we encounter Christ.’ Or again: ‘Faith does not just mean accepting a certain number of abstract truths about the mysteries of God, of man, of life and death, of future realities. Faith consists in an intimate relationship with Jesus Christ, a relationship based on love of him who first loved us.’ Blessed Pope John Paul writes in the same vein: ‘Faith is neither an abstract discourse nor a vague religious sentiment, but a personal encounter with Jesus Christ who gives new meaning to life.’
The Gospel of John tells us: ‘This is eternal life that you may know the one true God and Jesus Christ whom he has sent’ (Jn 17:3). Of course when Scripture talks of knowing God it does not mean simply an intellectual assent to his existence but a loving and intimate relationship and experience of Him. Blessed John Paul comments: ‘Revelation teaches us that heaven is not an abstraction or place in the clouds but a living, personal relationship of union with the Holy Trinity.’ So we begin to live the life of heaven by faith here and now in our present life and circumstances by living those inter-personal relationships with the Persons of the Trinity established by the reality of faith.
We underline the fact that no creature had or has a more intimate or loving relationship with Jesus Christ than Mary his mother. So following a long spiritual tradition in the Church the Legion has committed itself to seeking intimacy with Jesus Christ which is what faith is by uniting itself individually and collectively with its whole being to Mary. To Jesus through Mary is an extremely effective way of deepening our faith and cherishing our Catholic identity. May we take Mary as our guide during this year of faith and may she help us to be open to all the graces offered to us through the door of faith.