Our Lady of Mount Carmel.

Today we will reflect together on this special title of Our Lady. I will not  deal with the history of the Carmelite Order, which is very interesting, but I want to reflect on Our Lady of Carmel. Carmel is a mountain that rises above the Mediterranean Sea and reaches a height of about 550 metres. It runs out into the sea through its foothills. In the imagination of the ancients, the sea symbolised evil. And it is precisely because of its projections into the sea that Carmel becomes a symbol of spiritual warfare.

On this mountain the zeal of the prophet Elijah was already manifested, who, in a time of general religious lukewarmness and apostasy from the true God, remained faithful and re-established and restored the true reverence for God. In this sense, this mountain is also a symbol of the Virgin Mary, of whom the Church Fathers say that she never knowingly or unknowingly had contact with an evil spirit and was full of the Holy Spirit. Because of the foreseen merits of her son, she was preserved from original sin and remained unbroken in her battle with evil, Immaculate.

Grace and beauty are related, and that is why Mary is beautiful, and that beauty we call holiness. In Latin we pray: “tota pulchra” – all beautiful. Because Mary is pardoned, she is also graceful, and that by the grace of virtues. Mary is beautiful and graceful because she has the fullness of God’s favor and God’s election. This grace, related to Mary’s holiness, has one characteristic that elevates her above the grace of all other people. The Latin Church expresses it by the title “Immaculata” (Immaculate), and the Orthodox Church by the title “Panhagia” (Whole Holy). Rather, we express the negative element of Mary’s holiness – that is, the absence of all sin, including original sin.

The Orthodox Church, by its title  to the Virgin Mary, expresses  that Mary possesses all the virtues and  beauty that emanate from them. The Fathers of the Eastern tradition glorify the Mother of God as untouched by any stain of sin, as modeled by the Holy Spirit and created as a new creature. By God’s grace, Mary remained untouched by any personal sin throughout her life. The very name Carmel means in translation – fertile field, fruitful garden, God’s garden. Our Lady is indeed the fertile field and garden of God, whose fruit is Jesus Himself, the incarnate Word of God. Her alone   brought such  perfect fruit of life and  the world.

The hill in most religions represents the place where earth joins heaven. Many nations have had their sacred mountains. The hills are a symbol of God’s power and permanence. All of this is encapsulated in the character of the Virgin Mary. Her love is a love that is faithful and constant, a motherly love that loves not because of what we will one day be and what we will achieve, but because of what we are, because we are her children. Mary is not an animal mother who gives birth only in a natural way. She is the Virgin and Mother. Virgin because she is radically consecrated to God and his service.

She becomes a mother by doing the will of the Heavenly Father. “For everyone who does the will of my Father who is in heaven is my brother, sister and mother,” says Jesus. With this statement, He reveals the essence of the Divine Motherhood, which we are all to carry out by obedience to the Word of God. Carmel is also the place of God’s epiphany – God’s revelation. Mary, too, is the place of God’s epiphany, for in her the invisible Word became visible flesh. God took on our human nature in order to make Himself comprehensible and close to us.

Mary represents the true, unadulterated Israel. She is the one who wrestles with evil and wins. The mystery of Our Lady of Mount Carmel returns us once again to the foundation of that promise made to Adam and Eve, and later to Abraham and his offspring, of which she is the culmination. It is almost a rule that every Jew who finds his way to Christ will sooner or later also find his way to this blessed daughter of Zion. Our Lady still prays for the children of Abraham – and these are both Jews and Arabs – but she also prays for all the children of great-grandmother Eve. She is the Mother of us all, for through her we receive the New Life. Let us learn from her who is the fruitful garden of God, the beautiful garden of God.

She is the original paradise of God to which the serpent never had access, she is a truly blessed woman who, with her Carmelite title, also teaches us that we can only reach God at the cost of struggle and sacrifice. Just as every climb up a mountain involves some effort, so the journey to God costs sacrifice. Our time is losing its sense of sacrifice, and that is why we are so weak in the struggle against evil. We do not want to suffer for God, we are afraid of every pain and discomfort, and that is why we do not know how to be inwardly free like Our Lady. Let us ask Our Lady of Carmel today for the Spirit of zeal in God’s service. May we also be consumed with zeal for the house of God.