Mary Can Teach Us to Look at Jesus, Says Pope

TURIN, Italy, MAY 2, 2010 (Zenit.org).- Mary is the person who more than anyone else contemplated God in Jesus' human face, and she can teach us how to gaze upon him, says Benedict XVI.

The Pope said this today when he prayed the midday Regina Caeli after celebrating Mass in Turin. The Holy Father made a one-day pilgrimage to the city to venerate the Shroud of Turin, on display until May 23.

"The Virgin Mary is she who more than any other contemplated God in the human face of Jesus," he said. "She saw him as a newborn when, wrapped in swaddling clothes, he was placed in a manger; she saw him when, just after his death, they took him down from the cross, wrapped him in linen and placed him in the sepulcher."

The Pontiff said that within her "was impressed the image of her martyred Son; but this image was then transfigured in the light of the Resurrection."

"Thus," he reflected, "in Mary’s heart was carried the mystery of the face of Christ, a mystery of death and of glory. From her we can always learn how to look upon Jesus with a gaze of love and of faith, to recognize in that human countenance, the Countenance of God."

--- --- --- 

On ZENIT's Web page:

Full text: www.zenit.org/article-29112?l=english