This text suggests two perspectives – Mary’s personal feelings and the attitude we, her children, should manifest.
Mary’s sentiment is clear, very clear. She does not merit anything. All has been given to her: “My heart proclaims the greatness of the Lord… he has done great things for me” (Lk 1, 46ff). With this attitude she gives us an example. With gratitude she receives the Word in her womb and with her blood she nourishes the assumed humanity. Thus a reality begins that is not usually explained to us. And it is a pity. It has to do with Jesus’ Marian experience. Benedict XVI would say: “The mother is the woman that gives life, but she also helps and teaches how to live. Mary is mother, the mother of Jesus to whom she gave her blood, her body.” (Audience 31 December, 2005).
I emphasize: “Helps and teaches how to live”. Psychologists and medical doctors point out the two great needs of the child right from the mother’s womb: suckling and relationship. That is to say: the need for food and for affection. The lack of them affects both health and future psychological balance. Even those who deny the divinity of Jesus doff their hat to his astonishing personality. Martinetti wrote: “one has to recognize in him the most eminent of all religious personalities out of which, even today, a spiritual strength incomparable in history could spring forth in an incessantly renewed manner.”
Can we imagine the fire of love that enveloped the boy at the home of Mary and Joseph? That fire made the little boy to grow in “age, wisdom and grace” (Lk, 2, 25). Let us imagine the explanations the boy received when, like everyone, he would ask: “why this Imma? (mama in Aramaic).
The second perspective is reduced to a line. Thank you Jesus, my elder brother, because you have made your mother and mine marvelous. She deserves my love and my unconditional service.