Let us watch over our deceased with Mary

Today marks the end of the month dedicated to our deceased. It seems that the meaning of praying for the dying has been somewhat forgotten today. However, it is important to do it. It is a pity that in our materialistic society death is no longer considered a liturgical event but simply a clinical matter, entrusted to a few specialists and hidden from the rest of us.

We no longer hold wakes for the deceased. We quickly tell ourselves that the departed are in Heaven, so that we don't have to pray for them. We could say that society has completely forgotten the centuries-old and universal wisdom of the ars moriendi [the art of dying].

At the foot of the cross stood Mary, Our Lady of Compassion. That is why we firmly hope that she will assist us at the hour of our death, as she did for her Son Jesus, "the firstborn of many brothers" (Rom 8:29). Is not the Passion of the Son of God on Calvary what Jesus in John's Gospel accurately called "the hour", the hour of his death, "his hour"?

The hour of Jesus' Passion is also the hour of the Virgin's compassion. So let us pray for our own hour, that it may also be the hour of Mary, consoler of the afflicted! Experience shows that many dying people spontaneously call upon their mother. The cry of "mother" springs from all suffering and anguished lips. The need for maternal tenderness in these heartbreaking moments is deeply rooted in human nature.

The invocation of Mary at the hour of death is therefore one of the most moving expressions of Christian piety. In her great wisdom the Church, being an expert in humanity, offers her faithful words of great confidence for the decisive hour. But it is not in a nostalgic regression to an infantile age that we pray to Our Lady. On the contrary, our prayer is like a projection towards a future where we know that our Mother precedes us and awaits us (...)

She precedes us. She awaits us. She will welcome us. This is our hope. That is why the Church's liturgy calls her "the ever-open Gate of Heaven" and urges us to look to the star to reach the port of all bliss.

Adapted from the book Je vous salue Marie by Father Guillaume de Menthière, Paris 2000

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