Well! What does it mean to be faithful? When we say a person is faithful, we generally mean that he or she is true, loyal to a superior, to a friend, to a cause, or truthful and exact in fulfilling obligations. A faithful friend is one you can depend upon to be true to you in misfortune and failure. A faithful servant adheres to his master, no matter what danger or difficulty comes in the way. A faithful person is “full of faith” in the sense that you can fully trust in him or her.
Role of Mary in the plan of salvation is irrevocable. She was ever most faithful to Jesus, She was all for Him, all His. This is well expressed in the words of the Angel Gabriel, “the Lord is with Thee,” one meaning of the prayer is that Our Lord is with Her inseparably. She is ever holding Him up to us, even in Her very statues and pictures, saying: “Whatsoever He shall say to you, do ye.”
Never was there a heart as faithful as Mary’s. First of all, in Her own life on earth, She was always true to Our Lord and stood by him. From the sufferings and privations of his Infancy, to the terrors of the Flight into Egypt, and all through His Passion and Death on the Cross, She was always with Him; ministering to Him, and even at the last, when She could do nothing more for Him, She just stood by the Cross fixing her gaze on him, fearing no danger to Herself. This is very well expressed in the phrase: “There stood by the Cross of Jesus Mary, His Mother.” These words are a history, a picture, of Mary’s fidelity, its crown and consummation. We may, again, interpret “faithful” as “full of faith” and it is very true in the words of St. Elisabeth to Mary. “Blessed art Thou that hast believed,”
But there remained what was perhaps a still more searching test of Her fidelity to Jesus. Jesus left Her bereft of His visible presence. He left Her the care of His Church, His Mystical Body, then in its infancy as it were, just born, and needing a mother’s care. Her whole Heart was with Jesus; without Jesus earth was to Her nothing but a blank wilderness, and yet She did this last hard task for Her Son’s sake, just as She had done so many others. For fifteen long, weary years She lived patiently on without Him, fulfilling the charge Jesus had left to Her, ministering the Church, as She had done to Jesus in His Infancy, watching over His Apostles and disciples, sympathizing with them in their difficulties, advising them in their doubts, encouraging them in their trials, assisting in every way and saving souls by Her example and Her mighty intercession.
Now in Heaven, to this very day, She is the same steadfast, loyal, faithful Virgin, so true to Her servants and Her children, that all those who have recourse to her been repaid a hundredfold. Who could count the souls of sinners saved by Her, just because they had showed Her small honor or done Her some little service. She has been faithful to them; She will be faithful to us. Let us, in turn, be faithful to Her. Once St. John Berchmans, when asked what was the best devotion to Mary? He answered: “Anything, no matter how small, provided one is faithful to it.”
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