Ave Maria!
Feast of Our Lady of Good Hope—Patroness of the Diocese--2 September A.D. 2018
The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass in Latin and English The town of Senigallia is on the Adriatic Sea in the
"March of Ancona" in what used to be called the "Papal
States"; today, we would just say "Italy," for the Pope no longer
holds such temporal power. Roughly 200 years ago a noble lady, Catherina
Solazzi, the Countess Mastai-Ferretti took her fourth son, John-Mary to the
cathedral to pray before the altar dedicated to Our Lady of Good Hope, adorned
with a painting of our Lord and Lady, and said to be the source of many
miracles.
The painting is a curious one. The Blessed Lady is very
serious, perhaps sad, in her appearance. But the Christ-child in her arms
appears to laugh; his golden crown is cocked at an angle, and his hair appears
under it here and there.
The Countess spke solemnly to her son: "I give you to
the Madonna. She will keep you. All your brothers have chosen the world, but I
give you to the heavenly Mother. Love her, John-Mary, and she will love
you."
"I do, mamma; I will." The young boy's life would be a testimony to the help of
our Blessed Lady for all those who seek it and who dedicate themselves to her
Son's service. Just like the contrast of emotions in the painting of Our Lady of
Good Hope, his life would be filled with many difficulties, but those
difficulties would all be tempered with joy and achievement.
From early on, he wanted to become a priest, but his
father was insistent that he take up a military career befitting his noble
status. His father would relent only when he came down with epilepsy -- a
disease which, in those days, would be at least as much of an obstacle to a
priestly vocation as to a military career. In his life time, he would see two
Popes taken captive by the French, would barely make good his own escape from
radical Italian troops, and die with his own home surrounded by the armies of
Italian unification.
But the epilepsy would pass, as personally predicted by
Pope Pius VII, he would be ordained to the priesthood, be made a bishop, a
cardinal, and ultimately Pope.
He would reach out to the governments of Europe and the
Americas -- always a man of peace and justice. He had an extended correspondence
with Jefferson Davis, and the Confederate leader is said to have counted the
Brown Scapular given him by the Pope among his most prized possessions.
During his reign the political situation, which had been
worsening for at least a century, would reach its lowest as the invasion of Rome
signaled the end of the Papal States. His funeral would be interrupted by the
radicals of Rome.
But he would die having left the Catholic Church a clear
definition of the errors of the modern political and philosophical systems;
having left the Church with a mandate to return to the theology of Saint Thomas
Aquinas; and having presided over an ecumenical council that defined the scope
and the limits of Papal Infallibility and Universal Jurisdiction. The jewel in
his crown, though, was surely the definition of the Immaculate Conception: the
infallible pronouncement that his Lady and ours was free from all sin from the
first moment of her conception.
The young devotee of Our Lady of Good Hope, John-Mary
Mastai-Ferretti, would share in the sadness and joy portrayed in Her painting,
and become known to the world as Blessed Pope Pius IX.
Now, one might object that his story has little to do with
us. After all, none of us breathe the "rarified air" of the nobility
or of the Popes. Realistically, none of us will make quite the impression on the
world as made by someone like Pius IX. But the principle is really quite as
applicable to us as it was to the young Count John-Mary. Quite equally, Our Lady
extends both her good hope and her help to all those who seek it and who
dedicate themselves to her Son's service.
"I am the mother of fair love, and of fear, and of
knowledge, and of holy hope." It is the common teaching of the Church -- some day a holy
Pope will declare it a dogma -- that our Lady is the Mediatrix of All
Graces. We already have a Mass and a feastday, since the time of Pope
Benedict XV -- listen to the collect: "O Lord Jesus Christ, our Mediator
with the Father, who has appointed the most Blessed Virgin, Thy Mother, our
Mother also, and our Mediatrix before Thee: grant that those who draw near to
ask any good things of Thee, may receive them through her and rejoice." Whether we be popes or paupers, our situation is quite the
same: to serve Christ in this world, so as to be with Him in the next, we must
call upon Mary, our designated Mediatrix before her Son. Life will still have
difficulties to overcome, but through Mary alone, our Mother, can we secure the
Good Hope of eternal salvation.
Our Lady of Good Hope - September 2
Die 2 Septembris - Dómina Nostra Bonæ Spei
NOTES:
1. Francis B. Thornton, Cross Upon Cross: A life of Pope Pius IX (NY: Benzinger, 1955), p. 3.
2. Ecclesiasticus xxiv: 24.
http://www.drbo.org/x/d?b=drl&bk=26&ch=24&l=24-#x
3. Collect of the Feast, May 31 (May 8 in some places).
http://www.rosarychurch.net/english/mediatrix.html
