Pope Francis addressed 25,000 couples on Valentine's Day with these words: "We all know the perfect family does not exist. The perfect husband does not exist, and the perfect wife does not exist." And then he evoked laughter when he said, "Let's not even talk about the perfect mother-in-law."
One of the many devotions to Mary, the mother of Jesus, promoted by Pope Francis is the icon of Mary, Undoer of Knots. In 1615 a Bavarian couple on the verge of divorce went to see a Jesuit priest. The couple brought their wedding ribbon which had been used to tie their hands in unity.
The priest untied the ribbon's knots, and the white ribbon miraculously glowed whiter. The couple stayed together and a painting was commissioned of Mary, Undoer of Knots.
In our lives we have knots that need to be unbound to set us free. The devotion to Mary as the undoer of knots is over 300 years old. What can account for the popularity of this seemingly unusual devotion?
The knots we face in our lives can include family discord, parent-child conflicts, disrespect, violence, depression, marriage struggles, divorce or separation, drug addiction, alienation from the church, illness and a host of others.
Who would not trade the above knots for reconciliation? The undoing of those knots for the freedom to live in God's blessings? The promise of eternal victory, peace, blessings and reconciliation?
The image of Mary crushing the serpent's head has scriptural bases. Genesis 3:15 says, "I will make you enemies of each other: you and the woman, your offspring and her offspring. It will crush your head and you will strike its heel."
And in Revelations 12 we see "a woman, adorned with the sun, standing on the moon, and with the twelve stars on her head for a crown." She is about to give birth and a huge red dragon appears so that it can devour the child after it is born. But God takes the child to safety, which parallels the three years of the flight into Egypt.
Artists have often combined these images of Mary and the serpent into one statue of Mary crushing the snake under her bare feet. This supports the idea that the knots in our lives may represent the temptations of the devil we struggle with. As Mary crushes the serpent, who would not want to be freed from these knots?
As sons of the King our true heritage is to enjoy a sense of freedom as we are grateful for the blessings of employment, security, and peace. The blessings of this world prefigure the life of eternal joy to come.
