🛡️Our Lady of Mercy, or Our Lady of Ransom, is the Marian invocation celebrating the Virgin's apparition to St. Peter Nolasco in the 13th century, inspiring him to found the Order of the Mercedarians. This order had the heroic mission of liberating Christian captives from the Moors, an act of supreme charity and mercy that reflected Mary's maternal aid. Today's feast commemorates this charism of redemption, which extends spiritually to liberation from the bonds of sin. As St. Bernard of Clairvaux teaches, trust in her help is unshakable: "Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that anyone who fled to thy protection, implored thy help, or sought thy intercession was left unaided."
🕊️Introit (- | Ps 44:2)Salve, sancta Parens, eníxa puérpera Regem... Hail, holy Mother, who in childbirth didst bring forth the King who ruleth heaven and earth for ever and ever. Ps. My heart hath uttered a good word: I speak my works to the King. ℣. Glory be to the Father…
📖Reading (Ecclus 24:14-16)
From the beginning, and before the world, was I created, and unto the world to come I shall not cease to be, and in the holy dwelling place I have ministered before him. And so was I established in Sion, and in the holy city likewise I rested, and my power was in Jerusalem. And I took root in an honourable people, and in the portion of my God his inheritance, and my abode is in the full assembly of saints.
✝️Gospel (Lk 11:27-28)
At that time, as Jesus was speaking to the multitudes, a certain woman from the crowd, lifting up her voice, said to him: Blessed is the womb that bore thee, and the paps that gave thee suck. But he said: Yea rather, blessed are they who hear the word of God, and keep it.
🤔Reflections
⚖️The true blessedness of Mary, as Jesus points out in the Gospel, lies not merely in her physical maternity but in her perfect adherence to the Word of God. She is more blessed for having conceived Christ in her heart through faith than in her womb through the flesh (St. Augustine, Sermon 72/A). This filial obedience makes her the "Sancta Parens" of the Introit, not only of Christ but of all the redeemed. Her power, established "in Jerusalem" according to the Reading, is the power of grace acting in the Church to free the captives, for the peace and order of the Church are the very power of Christ in action (St. Ambrose, Commentary on Psalm 47). Thus, she becomes the gate through which divine mercy reaches humanity, for, as Mother of the King, no one can approach the throne of grace except through her intercession (St. Bonaventure, Sermon on the Nativity of the B.V.M.).
👥The Gospel of Luke presents the exaltation of Mary's physical motherhood by an anonymous woman, to which Jesus responds by redefining blessedness in terms of obedience to the Word of God. This episode echoes, with a distinct nuance, the scene described in Matthew (12:46-50) and Mark (3:31-35). In those gospels, the physical arrival of Jesus' "mother and brothers" prompts His declaration that the spiritual family is the one that does the will of the Father. While Matthew and Mark focus on defining the new family of Christ in contrast to blood ties, Luke's account starts from a direct praise of the Virgin, allowing Jesus' response to serve not as a contrast, but as an elevation of the true reason for Mary's glory: her faith and obedience.
📜St. Paul deepens the theology of divine filiation that Jesus introduces. While the Gospel establishes obedience to the Word as the criterion for God's family, Paul explains the mechanism of this adoption: God sent His Son, "born of a woman," so that we might be redeemed and receive "adoption as sons" (Galatians 4:4-5). Mary's motherhood is, therefore, the entry point for our redemption and sonship. Furthermore, Jesus' emphasis on faith over carnal ties is a central theme for the Apostle, who states that we no longer know anyone "according to the flesh" (2 Corinthians 5:16), as the new creation in Christ transcends natural relationships. The work of mercy celebrated today is the practical application of this ransom that makes us children in the Son.
🏛️Pontifical documents consistently extol Mary's role as the dispenser of divine mercy. The encyclical Ad Diem Illum Laetissimum (Pope St. Pius X) teaches that, through her intimate union with Christ in the work of Redemption, she "merited to be the restorer of the lost world" and from the treasury of merits acquired by her Son, she distributes graces to us. This function as Mediatrix of Mercy is the foundation of today's devotion. Similarly, the bull Ineffabilis Deus (Pope Pius IX), in dealing with the Immaculate Conception, describes her as "filled with all heavenly graces," establishing her as the perfect vessel and the source from which God's mercy flows to those captive to sin, prefiguring the charism of the Mercedarians in liberating physical captives.
🧐See English version of the critical articles here.