HAIL MARY!

 

            First of all let me thank the coordinators of this Rosary Rally for inviting me to speak here this evening at Our Lady of Pompeii Church.  It is indeed a pleasure for me to be with you for several reasons: First of all, we all share two common loves, which in reality are One.  We love Our Lord.  And we love Our Blessed Mother.  Yes she is Our Blessed Mother!  We correctly say Our Blessed Mother because she is the Mother of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. She is Mother of the Church for the Church is His Mystical Body.  And, in the order of grace, she is Mother to each and every one of us in a particular way. 

 

            Second, we are doing exactly what Our Blessed Mother wants us to do.  It is a fitting tribute to her on this beautiful evening in October, the month of the Rosary.  We are praying the rosary, and the rosary is the most perfect prayer possible in the light of Catholic Faith!

 

            Why? Why?  Why is the Rosary such an important prayer and why has Our Blessed Mother asked us to say this prayer every day?  As a matter of fact, it is one of the few things she has ever asked us to do.  Well, quite simply, like a good Mother, Our Lady teaches us the things of God; she teaches us the things we need to know about Our Lord, her Divine Son.  And, through the rosary, she leads us to Our Lord. 

 

            In recent days there have been many that have said that the Rosary is an old fashioned prayer---that it is out of style or that it detracts us from Our Lord.  This is so wrong.  In fact, the Church teaches that the opposite is true.   All of the recent Popes have advocated the praying of the Rosary.  Pius XII called it a "Compendium of the Gospels".  John XXIII wrote a wonderful Encyclical Letter on the Rosary.  Paul VI called it a "Gospel prayer".  Pope John Paul I, in his own charming way, said that the repetition of the Hail Mary's of the rosary: "sweetens the soul like a song".  And all of us know of the great devotion that the present Holy Father, Pope John Paul II, has for the Rosary.  Last year, I was lucky enough to one of a small group of seven priest that con-celebrated Mass with the Pope in his private chapel.  After the Mass, he met with all of us and he pressed into the hand of every priest a rosary.  When he came to me he asked my name and then he said: "Pray this rosary every day!"  And I do!

 

            The Rosary is such a perfect prayer.  It is a Christological prayer.  That simply means that it leads us to Jesus.  It is such a Catholic thing to do.  First of all we begin with the Apostles Creed.  We affirm our faith and our allegiance to Catholic Faith. We give witness that we are one in faith and morals with the teaching Church.  We affirm that we are not "pick and choose Catholics" but Catholic in every sense of the word.  Obedient to Rome!  Obedient to the teachings of the Holy Father!  Obedient to the magisterium of the Church.  Then we say an Our Father, that perfect prayer that Our Lord taught us.  Next comes three Hail Mary's and a Glory be. We praise God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

 

            Then we begin the mysteries of the Rosary.  We enter into the secrets of the Gospels at the feet of Our Blessed Mother.  We go to the school of Mary, and she teaches us about Jesus---the Annunciation and the Visitation and the Nativity, the Presentation, and the Finding of the Child Jesus.  Next are the great mysteries of the Passion---the Agony in the Garden, the Scourging at the Pillar, the Crowning with Thorns, Carrying of the Cross, and the Death of Our Lord, for our sins.  Then there the are mysteries of the last things---the Resurrection, and the Ascension, and the Descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles, the Assumption and the Coronation.  And all along the way, we repeat that refrain that Pope John Paul I said `sweetens the soul'.  We say to Our Blessed Mother---we say, Hail Mary!

 

            Hail--The Angel Gabriel said that to her.  The great St. Thomas Aquinas said that the angels are so far superior to us in the order of creation, that it is difficult to make a comparison.  They know things intuitively.  They don't have to reason things out like we do; they just know.  And yet this great messenger of God, who stands at throne of the Heavenly Father, goes to this young Jewish maiden of no more than fifteen and he sees in her the apple of God's eye.  He sees in her perfect sinlessness.  He sees in her the Mother of Jesus Christ and his future Queen and he falls to his knees and he says: "Hail"!  Ave Maria! 

 

            FULL OF GRACE---St. Theresa of the Child Jesus, tell us that the Blessed Virgin was so totally pleasing to God that, well, she compared her, in her child-like way, to a glass of water that was fill to the brim.  If one more drop of water were poured in, it would spill.  It is perfectly full.  And that is how full of grace Our Lady is before God. 

 

            The Lord is with thee and blessed art thou among women--- and blessed she is, indeed.  Mary is indeed blessed among women because in her the promise of the Savior that would redeem us was fulfilled: in her virginal womb, Jesus, the Eternal Word of God became man.  In her humility and obedience to the Father, she became the means by which Jesus entered the world (Angelus Message of August 15, 1990).   For her life was one of perfect humility and perfect obedience before God.  Her whole life was a "fiat", perfect conformity with the will of God.  And don't you see that is how we must be---humble and obedient before God, and obedient to His Holy Church.  Can I say that I am a son of Mary and be disobedient to His Holy Church?  Of course not!  Can I say: "I dissent".  Our Blessed Mother wouldn't even know what we would be talking about.  That would be a contradiction in terms.  For Jesus Christ and the Church are one and the same reality!

 

            And blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.   The Hail Mary is a prayer of unending praise of Jesus Christ.  Think of all of the blasphemies that are said each day---how the Holy Name of Jesus is desecrated, not only by His enemies but by His so-called friends, those who use His Holy Name as an explicative---Jesus Christ this, and Jesus Christ that.  And now we have the ultimate blasphemy---that horrible film whose name I would not even mention among God's holy people.  That horrible film that would suggest that our Lord is capable of sin.  By saying the Holy Name with reverence and respect, in some small way we make reparation for these terrible blasphemies.  We bow our heads in reverence for the Name of Jesus.  For as St. Paul tells us at the Name of Jesus, every knee should bend in heaven and on earth.

 

            Holy Mary, MOTHER OF GOD.  What a beautiful expression!  How can a mere human be the Mother of God?  But Mother of God she is!  The Church teaches us that Our Lord is true God and true Man.  But that Manhood, that Human Nature resides in a Divine Person.  And so we must call her Mother of God!  There are many today that would make of the Lord Jesus a mere man.  They would make of Him someone who walked the street of Jerusalem not knowing who He is, not conscious of His own Divinity.  No wonder the film makers can depict Our Lord in this sacrilegious way.  No wonder we have a youth today that is wondering who they are.  We have presented to them a Saviour who doesn't know who He is!  Maybe that is why there are some who don't want the Rosary recited.  Because every time we say the Mother of God, we affirm that Jesus Christ is Divine!  He is the Son of God!  He is Our Lord and our God! 

 

            PRAY FOR US.  Is there someone here that does not need the prayers of the Mother of God!  How all of us need her intercession.  Look at the world about us.  Look right outside those doors.  Drugs and violence and stealing and drunkenness and families destroyed by a contraceptive mentality and materialism and abortion and lust.  And our young are being devoured by the pagan world about us.  How we need her prayers!  PRAY FOR US, SINNERS.  We admit our sinfulness and our need for the love and forgiveness of the Heavenly Father who is "rich in mercy" and forgives us in the sacrament of Confession through the Priesthood of Jesus Christ.  When we pray the Hail Mary we ask ourselves: "When is the last time I have been to confession!"  For all of us are sinners.

 

            And then we say the part that is most important to us. 

 

PRAY FOR US, Sinners, NOW AND AT THE HOUR OF OUR DEATH---AT THE HOUR OF OUR DEATH.  Now and at the hour of our death, at the hour of our death---over and over again!  Is there anyone here that doubts that, if we ask Our Blessed Mother to be with us at the hour of Our death, and we ask her fifty times a day, every day---is there anyone here that doubts that she will be there?  And when we have to pass from this life to the next, she will be waiting and she will take us by the hand and she will leads us to the throne of her Divine Son, and she will intercede for us. And she will say:  "My Son!  My Son!!  Here too, is my faithful and my devoted child!  Be merciful!"  And Our Lord will not be able to refuse her request!

 

Holy Mary!  Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death!  AMEN!!!

 

Homily given by Father Richard J. Rego, S.T.L., at Rosary Rally Mass, Our Lady of Pompeii Church, 826 East Fourth Street, Bethlehem, Pa. 7:30 P.M.