The Perspective of Justice

Mary’s Peace

The passage from Numbers includes this blessing: “The Lord look upon you kindly and give you peace!”

Mary was filled with God because she was at peace, and we too should experience peace from God sending forth “into our hearts the spirit of his Son.”

What could be more peaceful than the image of a baby lying in a manger? The second prayer for this solemnity refers to Jesus as Wonderful God, Prince of Peace.

We present to the Blessed Virgin difficult individual situations, so that she may place them before her Son, asking that he alleviate and change them. But we also present to her social situations and the international crisis itself, in their worrying aspects of poverty, unemployment, shortage of food, the arms race, contempt for human rights, and situations or dangers of conflict, partial or total.

Pope John Paul II, Sollicitudo Rei Socialis, 1987:49

Gerald Darring

**From Saint Louis University