GENERAL AUDIENCE: "MARY, ESCHATOLOGICAL ICON OF THE CHURCH"

VATICAN CITY, MAR 14, 2001 (VIS) - The theme of John Paul II's catechesis for today's general audience, held in the Paul VI Hall, was: "Mary, Eschatological Icon of the Church." As he entered the hall, the Pope passed slowly through the atrium and the center aisle, stopping frequently to greet those present.

In his catechesis the Pope observed that St. John's Book of Revelation tells of a Child's birth, which "represents the coming of the Messiah, and the woman evidently personifies the people of God, both the biblical Israel and the Church. ... Against Mary and the Church rises the dragon representing Satan and evil. ... Mary, her Son, and the Church, represent the seeming weakness and smallness of love, truth, and justice. Against them is unleashed the enormous destructive energy of violence, deceit, and injustice."

"The time of distress, persecution and trial," he continued, "is not, therefore, indefinite: at the end liberation will come and it will be the hour of glory."

John Paul II affirmed that, "contemplating this mystery in a marian perspective, we can state that 'Mary, at the side of her Son, is the most perfect image of freedom and of the liberation of humanity and of the universe'."

"We fix, then, our gaze upon Mary," the Pope added, "icon of the pilgrim Church in the desert of history, but stretched out towards the glorious goal of the heavenly Jerusalem."

The Pope concluded the catechesis: "In her glorious Assumption into heaven Mary is the image of the creature called by the risen Christ to attain, at the end of history, the fullness of communion with God in the resurrection for a blessed eternity. For the Church which often feels the weight of history and the siege of evil, the Mother of Christ is the luminous emblem of a humanity redeemed and transformed by the grace that saves."

During a brief ceremony at the end of the audience, the Holy Father received from BMW Italy a gift of a BMW 740i Protection and eight BMW C1 models for his use and that of Vatican City State.

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