2. Limitless Availability

« O Virgin Mary, Mother of Jesus and our Mother, we entrust ourselves to you

that we may live in total availability to God for the redemption of the world.»

The beginning of the Act of Entrustment places us before the vast horizon of our mission: to collaborate with God for the redemption of the world.  We are thus invited, each morning, to place ourselves immediately there in the place that God has prepared for us: at Mary’s side, at the foot of the Cross. (Jn. 19:26-27). At the foot of the Cross even our virginal womb is made fecund by God’s gift.

The Cross is the high point of Jesus’ Mission: it is on the Cross that He brings His work to completion.  All that went before – the Incarnation, His preaching, the healings – are preparation for the Cross.  All that came after – the Resurrection, the pouring out of the Holy Spirit and the birth of the Church – are fruits of His unconditional dedication.  From the Cross, Jesus extends the merciful embrace of the Father to all of humanity, near and far, conquering death once and for all and opening the gates of Heaven to everyone. (see Deus caritas est 12)

The first FMA have handed down the memory of that gesture by which Mother Mazzarello “often in the conferences and the Good Nights and during recreation itself used to speak to them of the love and of the Passion of Our Lord, firing up their hearts to love Him and to make Him loved, to suffer everything for His love…  She used to take the Crucifix which hung about her neck into her hands, and, would point with her finger to the figure of Jesus and say: ‘He is here – and, then, turning it over and pointing to the Cross – and we are here.’  Thus she made all understand in their hearts that one had to live crucified with our Lord.” (Maccono, chap. II, p. 117). Remaining in intimate communion with the Crucified is the sure path to live our educative action without losing sight of the fact that at the heart of our vocation is the invitation to collaborate in redemption.  Don Bosco desired the very same thing for us when, in the Constitutions of 1885, he invited us to be that which we ought to be, “that is, spouses of Jesus Christ Crucified, and daughters of Mary Help of Christians.”  (XVIII,1).

Serenity of heart and pastoral fecundity are both born, therefore, of a profound communion of sentiment and of intention with Jesus: only if we are united to Him do “burdens become light, labors easy, and thorns turn into sweetness… But you must conquer yourselves for, if you do not, all will become insufferable and evil, like blisters, will spring up in our heart.”  (Letters 22, 21)  This is the plan of life that we embraced with our Profession, with great enthusiasm and, perhaps, with a bit of lack of understanding.  Not even Mary knew, in her little room in Nazareth, that her “yes” would have brought her to Calvary, but throughout her entire life she never tired of persevering in faith and welcoming, at every moment, the joys and the pains which she shared because of Jesus.

In our daily life, so many little or big occasions to complete in our flesh “that which is missing in the sufferings of Christ, for the sake of His Body, which is the Church” (Col. 1:24), are at risk of being squandered because the Lord does not find us ready to take from His Hands even one single thorn from His Crown…

Here is one little “spiritual exercise” to renew in a concrete manner our readiness to collaborate in the redemption of the world: during my morning prayer I will offer to the Lord, with the help of Mary, my readiness to welcome with love – without losing my patience and without rebelling – the little and the large thorns that will come my way throughout the day.  I will verify this in the evening when I make the examination of conscience.