Two things that really stand out in the life of St. Anthony Mary Claret are his missionary zeal and his devotion to the Virgin Mary. In Miles Jesu, we fully embrace both of these charisms and make our own St. Claret’s “definition of a Son of the Immaculate Heart of Mary”, giving it pride of place at the beginning of our constitutions: “A Son of the Immaculate Heart of Mary is one who is on fire with love of God, who spreads this fire wherever he goes, and who ardently desires and procures by all possible means to inflame the whole world with the fire of divine love. Nothing daunts him […] His only thoughts are how he can follow and imitate Jesus Christ in all his labors and sufferings, and how he can always and only look for the greatest glory of God and the salvation of souls.” St. Claret can call people who are “on fire with the love of God,” whose goal in life is to spread that fire and to imitate Jesus, “Sons [and daughters] of the Immaculate Heart” because these qualities are first and foremost Marian qualities.
A unique element of the Miles Jesu charism is our devotion to Mary under the title of “Our Lady of the Epiphany.” In every epiphany, every manifestation of Jesus, every time the Church reaches out to the world or to the individual, Mary is there. She is the model of missionaries and the embodiment of authentic missionary zeal.
A missionary is one who is sent to share the Good News of the redemption. A missionary preaches through words and, even more, through the witness of his life. As the name suggests, a missionary is occupied not with himself but with the one who sent him, and the ones to whom he is sent—his goal is to carry out a task that has been entrusted to him. A true missionary, as St. Anthony Mary Claret reminds us, is dauntless—ready to go anywhere, to do anything, to suffer and to persevere through whatever it takes. Who more than Mary fulfills the role of a zealous missionary? In this, as in all good things, she is second only to her own Son, and far beyond anyone else.
Look at Mary’s activity in the Gospels. At the Annunciation she unhesitatingly accepts an unforeseen mission from the Lord, one that changes all her ideas of what life had in store for her. She embraces the Word of God in the fullest way possible, receiving the mission of being the immediate human instrument of the incarnation.
Her first act after receiving this mission is to make a long trip to visit someone who might be in need, and to share the joy that is overflowing her own heart. God uses the mere sound of her voice to bring about the sanctification of St. John the Baptist, still in his mother’s womb. What words of any other missionary were so successful as that?
At Jesus’ birth Mary, together with Joseph, greets the shepherds and presents to them the newborn Savior. St. Luke makes it a point to mention that “Mary pondered all these things and treasured them in her heart.” (Lk 2:19); a short time later wealthy scholars from the lands of the gentiles arrive and “going into the house they saw the child with his mother Mary, and falling to their knees they did him homage.” (Mt. 2:11) Mary is the Lady of the Epiphany, in this scene and forever. It is so easy to picture her here, lifting up the infant as the magi bow down. Maybe she held him out for them to take for a moment into their own arms. The gospel story of the magi, inspired by the Holy Spirit, testifies to the fact that Jesus will always be found in the arms of Mary, and just as a miraculous star led them to the Sun of Justice, so will Mary always lead to Jesus.
Mary’s main missionary work is her humble and faithful witness of life. But she did preach a little, too. Her two great messages are, to God: “Be it done to me according to your word,” (Lk 1:38) and, to us: “Do whatever He tells you.” (Jn 2:5)
Her mission of course included suffering. On the joyful day of the Presentation, her son only a few weeks old, Simeon is inspired to remind her of the suffering the child will one day endure, and to call her attention to her own special part in it. (cf Lk 2:34-5) She shared in the Cross in a way that the Church teaches is not just “more” but different, “singular:”
“Predestined from eternity by that decree of divine providence which determined the incarnation of the Word to be the Mother of God, the Blessed Virgin was on this earth the virgin Mother of the Redeemer, and above all others and in a singular way the generous associate and humble handmaid of the Lord. She conceived, brought forth and nourished Christ. she presented Him to the Father in the temple, and was united with Him by compassion as He died on the Cross. In this singular way she cooperated by her obedience, faith, hope and burning charity in the work of the Saviour in giving back supernatural life to souls.
“[…]By reason of the gift and role of divine maternity, by which she is united with her Son, the Redeemer, and with His singular graces and functions, the Blessed Virgin is also intimately united with the Church. As St. Ambrose taught, the Mother of God is a type of the Church in the order of faith, charity and perfect union with Christ.” (Lumen Gentium, nos. 61 and 63)
After the Ascension Mary continued her earthly mission and was present when the Holy Spirit, who had descended on her at the Annunciation, descended at Pentecost on the Apostles and the Church was “born.” Having chosen her for his mother, the Son of God thus also makes her the mother of his mystical body, the Church. He proclaims this from the Cross (cf. Jn. 19:26-7) and in recent times it is explained in Vatican II’s Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium. This document emphasizes Mary’s role as both Mother of the Church and “Type” of the Church, and connects her maternal solicitude to missionary zeal:
“But while in the most holy Virgin the Church has already reached that perfection whereby she is without spot or wrinkle, the followers of Christ still strive to increase in holiness by conquering sin. And so they turn their eyes to Mary who shines forth to the whole community of the elect as the model of virtues. Piously meditating on her and contemplating her in the light of the Word made man, the Church with reverence enters more intimately into the great mystery of the Incarnation and becomes more and more like her Spouse. For Mary, who since her entry into salvation history unites in herself and re-echoes the greatest teachings of the faith as she is proclaimed and venerated, calls the faithful to her Son and His sacrifice and to the love of the Father. Seeking after the glory of Christ, the Church becomes more like her exalted Type, and continually progresses in faith, hope and charity, seeking and doing the will of God in all things. Hence the Church, in her apostolic work also, justly looks to her, who conceived of the Holy Spirit, brought forth Christ, who was born of the Virgin that through the Church He may be born and may increase in the hearts of the faithful also. The Virgin in her own life lived an example of that maternal love, by which it behooves that all should be animated who cooperate in the apostolic mission of the Church for the regeneration of men.” (LG n. 65)
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