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heart is touched by our intercession, yet in reality
he is always there first. What our intercession
achieves is that his power, his love and his faith-
fulness are shown ever more clearly in the midst
of the people.
II.âM
ary
,
mother of
evangelization
284.âWith the Holy Spirit, Mary is always pres-
ent in the midst of the people. She joined the
disciples in praying for the coming of the Holy
Spirit (
Acts
1:14) and thus made possible the mis-
sionary outburst which took place at Pentecost.
She is the Mother of the Church which evange-
lizes, and without her we could never truly un-
derstand the spirit of the new evangelization.
Jesusâ gift to his people
285.âOn the cross, when Jesus endured in his
own flesh the dramatic encounter of the sin of
the world and Godâs mercy, he could feel at his
feet the consoling presence of his mother and
his friend. At that crucial moment, before fully
accomplishing the work which his Father had
entrusted to him, Jesus said to Mary: âWoman,
here is your sonâ. Then he said to his belov-
ed friend: âHere is your motherâ (
Jn
19:26-27).
These words of the dying Jesus are not chief-
ly the expression of his devotion and concern
for his mother; rather, they are a revelatory for-
mula which manifests the mystery of a special
