Why do we need to Consecrate anything to Mary? | PadreCast Fourth Sunday of Lent

Technically, anything in this world can be consecrated, since God made it all, it can all be consecrated to His purposes, and made holy. But the only one who can consecrate someone or something is the person who possesses the authority to do so. . . .Consecration, first and foremost is dependent on the authority that the individual has over the people or the objects being consecrated. If he doesn't have the authority then he doesn't have the power. If he doesn't have the power, then it can't be consecrated. And only someone who has the power of God can consecrate someone or something.

This is why it was the Holy Father's responsibility to consecrate Russia. . . . Only the Pope can consecrate the world and any country within it. Only he has that overreaching authority.

So it was right in 1917 that the Blessed Mother asked the Holy Father to consecrate Russia, because only he could do it.

The reason the Blessed Mother said to the children of Fatima to consecrate Russia is because, if you don't, Russia will spread its errors throughout the whole world. Now, the errors our Lady was referring to, are the errors in communism. Obviously, the Popes did not do it fast enough. China is communist, many other countries of the world are communistic. Communisim is even infiltrating the United States. The Popes at the time - the early twentieth century - did not heed the warning soon enough, and so the errors began to spread. We had another world war.

Eventually they started doing it. John Paul II did it very well, and other Popes have done it too.

Whenever a Pope consecrates Russia, or any country, it does work. He is in the person of Christ. He has the power and authority. He has the keys of the kingdom, and what he binds on earth is bound in heaven. And what he looses on earth, he looses in heaven. Because it wasn't done fast enough, the errors of Communism spread instead of being stopped at their source. . . . The disease has spread and now we do the best we can. It's still effective, which is why the Holy Father has done this. So for us, we should rejoice, and be hopeful to see this consecration play out in the ensuing months and years.

But why did our Lady ask that Russia be consecrated to Her Immaculate Heart? Doesn't Jesus love the people of Russia? Doesn't He pour out His grace upon them through His Church and the Sacraments?

Why do we need to consecrate anything to Mary, as opposed to doing it directly to Christ? . . .

All Christians belong to Christ through their holy baptism. But when we sin against the Lord and the role that we're meant to live in relationship to Him, there are consequences to that. We belong to Him. He belongs to us. We fail to live up to those responsibilities, and those consequences must be fulfilled.

But if we also belong to Mary, if we are consecrated to the Blessed Virgin, she can add to our Lord's already profound and perfect love for us her own concern, and her own protection.

Consecration in essence, is giving oneself to God. But when you consecrate yourself to the Blessed Mother, you're giving yourself to God through Her. So you belong to Her first. She in turn, hands you over to Her Son.

If you think of anyone in the world (besides God) to whom you would want to consecrate yourself, it would have to be the most trust-worthy of persons. So trust-worthy, that God Himself trusted them implicitly. Clearly, Our Lady fulfills this role perfectly because, as you know, it was God the Father who trusted Her so much that He entrusted His Son to Her.

There was nothing more precious that the Father could have given to Her, nothing more valuable to His heavenly Heart.

If God the Father thinks Mary is that trust-worthy, then the least we can do is to imitate Him, and entrust ourselves to Her motherly care. . . .

When you belong to Jesus through Mary, you belong to Her. All of you. Body, mind and spirit. All your relationships, all your possessions. . . . You belong to Her. No one can take one of her possessions from Her, no one. . . . She will watch out for it, She will care for it, She will defend it. She will intercede for it.

 

Jos 5:9a, 10-12; Ps 34:2-7; 2 Cor 5:17-21; Lk 15:1-3, 11-32

 

You may watch the Mass in its entirety on our YouTube channel. Homily begins at 24:16