Reflections on a Statue of Our Lady Help of Christians

May 24: Feast day of Our Lady Help of Christians

We see many beautiful aspects in this statue. The first and most beautiful of them is Our Lady with the Child Jesus in Her arms, something we should meditate on today.

What is the link between Our Lady as Help of Christians and Our Lady as holding the Infant Jesus in Her arms?

There is a time when the child is still very small, when the mother governs him, and that he, as it were, lives from her very life. This special time is when the mother has the most intimacy with her child; when the child’s love for his mother penetrates his soul and is set to endure for a lifetime.

Also, it is during a child’s infancy that motherly love expands to such an extent that all the love she will have for him for the rest of his life is merely an overflow of that first love she had for him while an infant in her arms.

Now, let’s consider this: The Child that plays in Our Lady’s arms is God Almighty, Creator of Heaven and Earth, and of all things visible and invisible. This fact is really marvelous and incredible. He wants to be carried by Our Lady. He wants to be held in that simple unpretentious manner. He wants that intimacy, kindness and dependency towards the Blessed Mother.

To measure this fact, please remember this: there was a saint who once received an apparition from his guardian angel. Upon seeing the angel, so splendorous and magnificent, the saint knelt and wished to adored him as God. The angel told the saint he was not God, but his guardian angel. And we know that Guardian Angels are members of the lowest angelic choir. If a Guardian Angel is so magnificent, what about the highest Seraphim? And the highest of Seraphims is absolutely nothing compared to God. For sake of comparison, we would think it incredible to see Our Lady holding a seraphim and playing with him like She played with Our Lord.

Try to imagine what it means, therefore, for Our Lady to play with God Almighty Who is seated on Her lap. While His majesty is infinite, in His sanctity there is an aspect that is legitimately childlike.

God’s goodness is infinite, yet He assumes a childlike size to depend on Our Lady and to be more easily presented to us. The infancy of Jesus is an infinitely precious gift that Our Lady gives to mankind. The person who plays with God on Her lap has everything that God can give. Evidently, Our Lady’s omnipotent power of supplication is hereby described in a splendid manner.

This reflection aids us in understanding how Our Lay can help us. She wants to help us because She is the detonator of all the mercy of a God who has made Himself a Child for our benefit. She can help us because the Child completely depends on Her.

This is the link between Our Lady as help of Christians and as holding the Child Jesus in Her arms. If She were not holding Our Lord, She could not help us in the least.