A disciple who believes invites listening to the Word

The Disciple Who Believes Invites Listening to the WordMary at Cana invites listening to the Word: she is a woman who is attentive, who observes, scrutinizes, warns. She knows how to navigate, knows whom to ask. She presents herself as a familiar, is aware of the Son’s role and her own. She acts opportunely, immediately: she has the grace of punctuality. She has competence over Christ: she knows she can ask him for a miracle. She also knows the servants (the younger children) and knows what to say to them: she asks for their availability, trust, obedience, and openness to the miracle. Mary at Cana exhorts trust in the Son and his words:> “Do whatever he tells you.” (John 2:5)«Do what he tells you» (John 2:5).After saying to Jesus, «They have no wine», Mary received from him a somewhat harsh and enigmatic response: «What is between me and you, woman? It is not yet my time» (John 2:4). This response indicates a divergence between Jesus and his Mother. One speaks of material wine, the other of the full revelation that will manifest itself at a time exclusively established by the Father. This situation, however, does not disturb Mary, accustomed as she was to preserving and meditating on the uncomprehended, patiently waiting for the full revelation, which would also be for her the third day of the Resurrection.Mary, so to speak, situates herself between the third day of Cana and the third day of the Resurrection: she lives with confidence this «in-between» time, transmitting to the servants a role of «maternal mediation» imitating the mediation task carried out by Moses on Sinai. «Do what he tells you» is the testament of the Virgin Mother: Mary teaches Christ in the very literal sense, she points him out, points to him, and leads to him, because as a mother she knows the access to his heart above all. «Do and let others do».This is the prophetic synthesis of Mary’s counsel: «Do» (the action to be undertaken). «What he tells you». Mary does not indicate solutions, by herself, for the problem that arose at the wedding of Cana, but refers to Christ. She deviates from herself to lead to obedience to what Christ «will say». Mary was born teaching: she does not keep things for herself. Today, masters are scarce: being a consensus-builder is something else than being a master. Mary is a master because she teaches Christ: she points to him, leads to him, and asks for obedience to him.Mary at Cana, as throughout her existence, believed in the science of miracles, always keeping herself distant from providentialism that deprived her of responsibilities. Thus, she showed a great balance between opposing dynamics: on the one hand, the motivating certainty that God does all. On the other, the conscious responsibility of her obedient collaboration.The first dynamic makes her believe that «everything is due to God» (principle of humility). The second positions her as a created being, however, not exempt from responding, with personal performance, to divine grace (principle of synergy). Mary testifies that she knows how to balance the primacy of God’s lordship and the duty of human collaboration.Reinstating the practice of the virtue of listening in the Christian experience becomes indispensable, under penalty of the failure of the entire disciple experience. The «cry» of filiation initiates the secret life of grace in men’s hearts, where the Spirit maintains, as an interior master, a school of the Gospel, demanding silence and listening.The silent communication of God results in a new silence as contemplation and faith’s response. It is the complex experience of faith that allows itself to be entirely summed up as acceptance of the Word and response to it, which is essentially an experience of silence.*The Disciple who Believes Educates for Wisdom through Listening*In the *Babel* of our time, no one listens to anyone else. No one has time to listen to another, not even those they love. In a civilization of noise and shouting, the space for genuine listening is inevitably reduced to its barest minimum. The ability to listen to another, but also to oneself, is thus weakened, numbed, and diminished. Mass media, besides contributing to the death of silence, has rendered men of the 20th century incapable of full, radical listening.The refusal to listen is largely attributable to the destruction of silence, to the deluge of banal, meaningless words and messages that have produced:– *The death of silence* – *Intellectual narcosis* – *A lack of love for listening**Starting Over with the Wisdom of Silence*We should never have fallen into the *hell of noise* that afflicts and bewilders our time, but now that we are there, we must at least commit ourselves to leaving it, seeking new paths that lead to *the city of silence* and persevering on these paths.Today’s man seeks a lasting silence capable of weaving his entire existence, for a passing silence bothers him. To attain possession of silence and to be possessed by it, there is no other way but to follow the educational path. Among the small and great spiritual journeys of man (beauty, love, cosmos, life), silence, acting in multiple and profound ways within man, must be counted: it defends, corrects, purifies, and nourishes.Silence accomplishes all this by creating spaces, by taking root, and by invigorating the educational action that, in the various stages of permanent formation, reaches into man’s interior to make him express himself, to make him grow, and to open him to the breath of values. Silence, because of its structural root and inextricable connection with man’s innermost core, is also capable of building an effective defense around spiritual, artistic, and cultural life. Indeed, it contains antibodies capable of resisting the virulent attacks that come from the contagious manifestations of dissipated life, when one closes oneself off from listening to the voice of Being and surrenders, with a true act of prostitution, to the stridency and violent voices of utilitarianism, efficiency, and the ephemeral.*In Babel, we save ourselves by maintaining silence.* Silence creates a protective curtain around the human spirit, deadens the heart of man against the deafening pressure of passions that disturb and can drive him to the brink of abysses from which it is difficult to escape.To deepen reflection on Mary, the disciple who listens and invites to the Word, consult the encyclical *Redemptoris Mater* by John Paul II, which presents Mary as the perfect disciple whose faith invites the whole Church to listen to the Word.Deepen your studies: explore Mariology, Marian Theology, Marian Apparitions, and a Postgraduate Degree in Mariology.