The Motivating Factor

In last week’s Shalom column on Rising Prices, I suggested that the effective organizers of gathering “modern Andrews” and collecting thousands of “modern boys with five loaves and two fish” to feed the millions of poor victims of skyrocketing prices and other forms of violence, should be those persons who have consecrated themselves to Jesus through Mary.

But this suggestion is open to misinterpretation. It could be interpreted to mean that the motivating factor in making Marian consecration is the satisfaction of the people’s material needs.

This is wrong and bluntly rejected by Christ. In John’s gospel of last Sunday, Jesus says to those who kept following him after they had eaten the multiplied 5 loaves and 2 fish, “Truly, I say to you, you look for me, not because of the signs which you have seen, but because you ate bread and were satisfied. Work then, not for the perishable food, but for the lasting food which gives eternal life. The Son of Man will give it to you, for he is the one whom the Father has put his mark (6:26-27).

Then the faithless and unbelieving Israelites asked what other sign Jesus would do so they could see it and believe Him like their ancestors who were given manna in the desert to eat because they believed in Moses, and that they were given bread from heaven. Jesus gently corrected them and revealed the astonishing truth in the following verses:

“Truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave the bread from heaven, but my Father who gave the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the word. So they said to him, ‘Sir, give us this bread always.’ Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life, whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst'” (6:32-35).

So Marian consecration to Jesus (“whoever comes to me”), meaning faith in and intimate experience of Jesus and Mary is clearly equivalent to hunger and thirst for Jesus which by frequently receiving Holy Communion makes us become Christs, which to St. Paul means to “put on a new self, created in God’s way in righteousness and holiness of truth” (Eph 4:24). And that is enough! There’s no need to mention all human needs. Jesus and Mary in us will know how and when to answer them.