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Foto: Albin Moroder, „Madonna“ © 2007 |
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Recently I overtook a lorry on the Autobahn. It was advertising mineral water with the words "Perfect from its source." Unfortunately I was unable to see the trade name because of the speed we were driving, but later I checked the internet and was led to the trade name "Rheinfels Spring". The company had wanted to protect its advertising slogan as a registered name, but the European Court had turned down their application. So the search engine turned up many hits for the slogan: "Perfect from its source". I would have loved to talk to the advertising agency that had developed this slogan for mineral water. However, in all probability this will only be possible in March when I take up an offer by a company management. Since there are about 300 registered trade names for mineral water on the German market, we can be sure it will be difficult for one to stand out from the rest. It will also not be easy to work out what is special or different from the other products if you want to remain honest. With the best will in the world I can’t taste the difference between 8,6 or 11,2 milligrams of calcium ions, or 356 or only 245 milligrams of hydrogen carbonate in every litre of mineral water. Nor does this matter to the producer.
With his advertising slogan he is aiming at our longing for genuineness and perfection. He dares to do this even when "perfection" is looked down upon by some self-appointed "liberators" as "obsessive perfectionism". None of us can draw a perfect circle free handed, nevertheless we are quite able to judge whether one free hand drawing of a circle comes closer to a circle drawn by a compass than another free hand drawing. The circle is a perfect geometrical figure. Yet what makes mineral water perfect? We take if for granted that it is free of bacteria, and it should also not taste flat, but not as intensive as a therapeutic water such as from the radium spring at Bad Brambach. Ultimately "perfect" is not the same as "healthy". Let me leave it as an open question. Perhaps you will hit upon an answer and write to me about it? "Perfect from its source" – the idea that spontaneously came into my mind on the Autobahn had to do with the Blessed Mother as the Immaculata. We celebrate her feast on 8 December. "God’s unspoilt plan for humanity" – that is how a song by the Schoenstatt Girls describes our Immaculate Mother.
So if we want to see how God really envisaged human beings, we have to look at Mary
So if we want to see how God really envisaged human beings, we have to look at Mary. Fr Kentenich tellingly summarized Church teaching by saying, "Her will is strong, her mind clear, her heart pure." I can still remember a discussion following a talk on Mary in which a woman said, "I feel totally squashed by all this perfection." Later I learned from another participant that this woman easily succumbed to jealousy, and also at work was quick to judge a relationship from the point of view of rivalry. If you look at things in this way, Mary has to seem like a rival against whom we don’t stand a chance. If, however, we can liberate ourselves from constantly comparing ourselves with others, and if we can set aside all preconceptions when we encounter Mary as a human person, such an encounter will do us good. I enjoy meeting people who have a positive aura, and I feel enriched by them. How much more this applies to Mary!
In his meditation on the Immaculata, Fr Kentenich also took into account those people who are competitive and said that faith in the Blessed Mother as the Immaculata includes a Credo (= faith in the Christian image of human beings, in original sin and redemption); a Confiteor (= seeing and acknowledging our own guilt and weakness); and a Magnificat (= praise of God’s redemptive grace in Mary’s life and our own life). He considered it important that we don’t get stuck with the "Confiteor", but press on to the "Magnificat". It may not happen that when we encounter Mary we experience our own imperfection more painfully than if we see a picture of a war criminal in the newspaper and think: That couldn’t happen to me! The "Confiteor" is justified, but only as a transition. If, when we encounter Mary, we don’t close ourselves off because we feel so ashamed, but instead open ourselves to her, we will be immersed in the atmosphere surrounding her.
For him Mary became the representative and guarantor of all that is truly human
Fr Kentenich took up the Church’s teaching on Paradise and the people in Paradise, and argued: If Mary is a human being without original sin, her nature is unbroken, she is endowed with a natural-supernatural fullness of life, the courage to do battle and certainty in victory. It strikes us that Fr Kentenich did not meditate so much on the supernatural aspect and Christological dimension of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception as the liturgical texts of the feast lead us to do: "Father, you prepared the Virgin Mary to be the worthy mother of your Son. You let her share beforehand in the salvation Christ would bring by his death, and kept her sinless from the first moment of her conception." Fr Kentenich emphasized the natural consequences of freedom from original sin. For him Mary became the representative and guarantor of all that is truly human.
Although the time of Advent is more a time for mulled wine and hot tea, yet there will always be moments when you will still your thirst with mineral water. Even if you prefer one that does not say that it is perfect from its source, you will be certain that by drinking it you won’t be endangering yourself, but rather doing yourself a favour. Just as you grant your body repeated sips of mineral water, so grant your soul a repeated encounter with Mary, the completely sound and fully redeemed person. Your soul will thank you for it. And Mary is happy when she is able to encounter people in all openness – also with their treasures.
Translation: Mary Cole, Kearsley, England