Lumen Fidei - page 79

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of the idols of this world yet granting new mo-
mentum and strength to our daily lives. Let us
refuse to be robbed of hope, or to allow our
hope to be dimmed by facile answers and solu-
tions which block our progress, “fragmenting”
time and changing it into space. Time is always
much greater than space. Space hardens process-
es, whereas time propels towards the future and
encourages us to go forward in hope.
Blessed is she who believed (Lk 1:45)
58. In the parable of the sower, Saint Luke
has left us these words of the Lord about the
“good soil”: “These are the ones who when they
hear the word, hold it fast in an honest and good
heart, and bear fruit with patience endurance”
(Lk 8:15). In the context of Luke’s Gospel, this
mention of an honest and good heart which
hears and keeps the word is an implicit portray-
al of the faith of the Virgin Mary. The evange-
list himself speaks of Mary’s memory, how she
treasured in her heart all that she had heard and
seen, so that the word could bear fruit in her life.
The Mother of the Lord is the perfect icon of
faith; as Saint Elizabeth would say: “Blessed is
she who believed” (Lk 1:45).
In Mary, the Daughter of Zion, is fulfilled
the long history of faith of the Old Testament,
with its account of so many faithful women, be-
ginning with Sarah: women who, alongside the
patriarchs, were those in whom God’s promise