There were three early thresholds that Karol Wojtyla crossed in becoming a slave of love for Jesus in Mary: his family home, the parish church of Wadowice, and the Shrine of Kalwaria Zebrzydowska.
An early pilgrim
Before he became the “Pilgrim Pope”, Karol Wojtyla was a frequent pilgrim to Marian shrines from an early age. The Marian shrine he visited the most in his “earliest youth” was Kalwaria Zebrzydowska. Kalwaria is located roughly 14km from Wojtyla’s hometown. Due to it’s proximity and the rich pilgrim tradition surrounding it, Kalwaria became an early place of refuge for Wojtyla in difficult moments. It was to this shrine that his father brought him and his older brother Edmund shortly after their mother’s death. Karol Sr. entrusted his sons to Mary, telling them that she would be the mother to watch over and care for them from then on.
What the future Pope experienced that day, thanks to his father’s deep Marian faith, was a truth John Paul II would proclaim decades later during his first papal visit to the same shrine. It was the mystery of a union; the union between a mother and a son. On the occasion of that visit to Kalwaria in 1979 he said, “what chiefly draws a person here again and again is the mystery of the union of the Mother with the Son and of the Son with the Mother.”
At Kalwaria in particular—but also at every Marian shrine he visited throughout his life—Karol Wojtyla not only found a Mother, but he also found Christ. He learned from his pilgrim experiences that it was Mary’s role to bring us to Christ.
Seeking Jesus in Mary
Besides visiting Kalwaria as a young boy, as a youth, and even in his early days as a priest, John Paul II also revealed on that first Papal visit to the shrine that he had gone there many times as bishop and cardinal as well. Although he made many visits to Kalwaria during the annual diocesan pilgrimages, he also made many private trips. These personal pilgrimages, in fact, were more “frequent” than the communal ones.
He made these private pilgrimages for the sake of seeking Jesus in Mary. He sought Christ in Mary to especially help him with the difficult task of shepherding his diocese.
More frequently, however, I came here alone and, walking along the little ways of Jesus Christ and his Mother, I was able to meditate on their holy mysteries and recommend to Christ through Mary the specially difficult and uniquely responsible problems in the complexity of my ministry. I can say that almost none of these problems reached its maturity except here, through ardent prayer before the great mystery of faith that Kalwaria holds within itself.
Finding Jesus in Mary
After taking just a brief look at what being a pilgrim to Marian shrines taught St. John Paul II, we can also learn from his experience how to better marianize our lives. What Wojtyla’s pilgrim witness teaches us is the essential truth of our total consecration to Mary: that through her we want belong more perfectly to Christ. We want to marianize our life, so as to better Christianize our life. It is the “mystery of the union of the Mother with the Son.”
More concretely, it means frequently making daily acts of humble entrustment to Mary. We cannot “put on Christ” through our efforts alone. To become more like Christ requires the work of grace as much as it does a consistent effort. The most perfect conduit of such grace is Mary. If it’s Christ’s patience that we want to acquire, then we should repeatedly turn to Mary for it. If it’s Christ’s humility that we want to imitate, then we should repeatedly turn to Mary for it. If it’s Christ holy daring in the face of life’s difficulties that we want to emulate, then we should repeatedly turn to Mary for it. And the list of virtues could go on….
Finally, it is true that we can call upon Mary’s aid at anytime and practically anywhere. But in admitting such, let us not overlook the truth that in doing so within the walls and across the thresholds of her chapels and shrines, we manifest a more sincere and effective willingness to entrust ourselves to her unfailing aid. A good slave does not demand that his master come to him, but rather, he quickly runs to the feet of his master. Mary is more than our master, she is our loving Mother, which makes running to her feet all the more worthwhile.
Seize the day and make it all Hers!
