Totus tuus: The Pope, Mary and the Eucharist
Fr. Roch Kereszty, O. Cist.

The motto John Paul II chose for his life and ministry are two Latin words: “Totus tuus: fully yours.” These two words seem to provide the key to his spirituality. “Fully yours” means that he fully belongs to Mary, he gives himself over to Mary. At first hearing, this seems like an exaggerated, “maximalist” mariology. We feel we should totally belong to Christ, not to Mary. However, the Pope knew that Mary alone understood her Son, that, being immaculate and full of grace, Mary alone knew the heart of her Son. She alone appreciated fully the treasure she received from God, she alone consented entirely unselfishly to the sacrifice of her Son. (For us sinners it is easy to accept that the Son of God died for us, but for his mother that consent to the will of the Father at the foot of the Cross was the greatest imaginable sacrifice.) Mary alone understood the frightening burden of all the sins her Son was carrying, she alone responded fully to the love by which Jesus loved the Father and pleaded for us with his Father. At the same time, her joy also was greater than any other human being’s joy when she met her risen, glorified Son.

John Paul understood that the more he gives himself to Mary, the more he enters the heart of Christ. Mary’s heart is the heart of the Church, each one of us participates in the fullness of grace she has received. The Pope understood that when we celebrate the conception of Jesus in Mary’s womb, we celebrate the beginnings of the Church’s Eucharist: Mary received the Son of God in her womb, and Jesus began to grow in her as she sheltered him both in her body and in her love. This is what the Pope tried to imitate in every holy communion of his. Like Mary, he allowed Jesus to grow in him and to take over his life and rule his actions.

John Paul has shown that belonging to Mary has nothing to do with being sentimental and effeminate. On the contrary, his relationship with Mary helped him grow into a strong, mature human being, full of joy and fully alive. The pope was so full of joy and fully alive in his young years and so serene even on his deathbed because he trusted that, just as in Mary’s life, God’s plan was going to be fulfilled also in his own life and ministry. Mary’s beauty of being fully transfigured by the splendor of grace strengthened the faith of the pope in humankind’s future: in spite of all the horrors and filth of human history past, present and future, God’s plan calls for a glorious consummation in which all the saved will share in the beauty, splendor and immaculate holiness of Mary. Perhaps this joy has motivated the Pope’s last words to the nuns who took care of him: “I am happy; you, too, should be happy.”

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