Why We Need Mary at Our Side?

This week we see Mary in action- interceding for a family at a wedding in Cana. She did not hesitate to ask Jesus the very moment she knew the wine needed replenishing. The scene at the wedding is an interesting one where Mary asks Jesus even though it was not his time. Jesus does his first miracle upon the request of his mother.

Fulton Sheen (in The World’s First Love) explains that sometimes Mary intercedes for us even without us knowing our needs. Just as in the case of the wedding dinner, the couples were not aware of their situation, but since she was there she took care of their needs. Sometimes we too do not know what we really need. We ask for things that satisfy our “egoistic desires” and not what we really need.

“In like manner, if we do not know what our soul needs, how can we put such needs in our prayers?” He explains that it is difficult for us to receive divine graces unless we desire them.

“Until we love and serve God, we are inert and dead. It is impossible for most of us to ask for a soul-healing, for so few of us know that we are wounded.”

Mary acts on our behalf as a mother on behalf of a sick baby unable to articulate the pain and suffering. The story at Cana shows us that we need Mary at our side- she knows exactly what to do during a crisis and she will be there to intercede for what you really need even before you ask for it.