INTRODUCTION

“The name you bear must entice you to become what you should be” (Bl. Joseph Allamano) .

The name “Consolata Missionaries” identifies us in the Church and in the world, and attests to our specific charism ad gentes, and to our Marian characteristic lived as consolation. We are Consolata missionaries and we live the mission as God’s consolation: mission and consolation are intimately connected. What kind of consolation? Is there a consolation that is different from the human kind of consolation? If yes, what are its characteristics? We will go into the pages of Sacred Scripture in order to find an adequate answer to these questions.

The paradigm of biblical consolation, tribulation/consolation, that comes from the Old Testament and blends into the New, is a constant in the sacred text: it forms a transversal block with several variations. St Paul sums it up thus:

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all consolation, who consoles us in our every affliction, so that we may be able to console those who are in any affliction with the consolation with which we are ourselves consoled by God. For as Christ’s sufferings overflow to us, so through Christ does our consolation also overflows. If we are afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation; if we are consoled, it is for your consolation which enables you to endure the same sufferings that we suffer.” (2 Cor 1:3-7).

In this text, the apostle considers himself afflicted, consoled and consoler. He touches the core of the subject that consists in a synthesis of the history and of the theology of liberation and the salvation by the consoling God who enters the life of man of yesterday and of today. First, the fact: God consoles us in every tribulation. Then there is the first requirement: so that we too console all the afflicted. Finally, we see the need of solidarity with Christ who is consoler of the tormented, and of solidarity with the others, because the consolation received is for all the others too.

At the same time, the theological reflection on Mary as Mother of the Consoler and Mother of Consolation begins with the consideration that Mary is a member of the new people of God: in the temple, Mary, the ideal Zion, offers to God the consoling Messiah (cf. Lk 2:22-32). Then, going backwards into the Old Testament, where she was foreshadowed, we look at her as Mother and instrument of consolation.

1. Extra-Biblical Consolation

All nations desire to console those who are sad. In their cultures there exist mechanisms whose purpose it is to solve situations of pain and sadness, situations that are produced by natural, psychological or moral events. Whoever loses a dear one, or finds himself/herself in some sort of loss, such a one deserves consolation. In parallel fashion, every person is called to console those who suffer. Everyone feels the moral obligation of consoling those who are bereaved. We might mention, for example, the consoling letters written by philosophers in antiquity, such as Cicero, Seneca and Apollonius of Tiana. All possible and imaginable arguments and motives of consolation were used by the consoler.

Philosophers and poets console people with their writings. Before being executed, Boethius writes his De Consolatione philosophiae. In it, he looked for consolation in neo-Platonic thoughts based on the human craving for God’s happiness. The cultural patrimony of every people, expressed in proverbs, enigmas and other literary forms, shows how far man will go in order to console others. In this area, each one may recall his own culture and his own missionary experience that brought him closer to other cultures and aided him to come to know other forms of human consolation.

Biblical consolation, however, is deeper than a purely human form of consolation. The prophets announced a different kind of consolation: the plenitude of consolation, the Consolation of God in Jesus Christ.

2. A Path of Consolation

The Old Testament presents the consolation that has its roots in God. He scatters it with an intense determination of gathering all his children. According to biblical teaching, it is not just question of a superficial consolation, a consolation that is external to man, but of something that is so deep that it can be identified with God himself: “I am your consoler”. (Is 51:12) People answer this unknown gesture of God by becoming instruments of consolation.

The Protoevangelium

The creation of the world, of the animals, of man and woman is presented as a manifestation of the power and of the goodness of God in an environment of consolation, the Garden of Eden, as a place of pleasure and happiness: “Then the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and he placed there the man whom he had formed. Out of the ground the Lord made several trees grow that were delightful to look at and good for food, with the tree of life in the middle of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” (Gen 2:8-9).

In this symbolical context, sin is considered as the passage from enjoyment to the land of suffering and pain. Man goes away from the God of goodness-consolation: “They heard the sound of God moving about in the garden in the breezy time of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the Lord God among the trees of the garden” (Gen 3:8) But God does not abandon man, rather, he promises him consolation again, already from that first moment, pointing out to them the redeemer-consoler. In parallel fashion, explicit reference is made to the woman, who is, she too, object of consolation and intimately united to this work of salvation-consolation of humanity.

Man’s consolation will have its acme in the arrival of Christ the Redeemer, as contact is made with the liberation from any kind of slavery. As announced, Mary is united to this work: “She will bear a son and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins” (Mt 1:21). “And the angel said to her in reply: The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore, the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God” (Lk 1:35).

Praise from the Fathers

The narrative of Sirach (Sirach 44—51) is a manifold manifestation of divine consolation through the history of the people of Israel. First we have Enoch, who pleased the Lord, and is of great importance in the Jewish tradition. Noah follows, the consoler: “He named him Noah saying: ‘This one shall bring us relief from our work and the toil of the hands’” (Gen 5:29). Then, Abraham, the one in whom God blesses all the peoples; the long period of tribulation is closed leaving space for consolation in the birth of Ishmael; it afterwards continues in the birth of Isaac and, even more, in the establishment of the alliance.

The life of Isaac

The life of Isaac appears as a continuation of the vital line of his father, meaning, lived in the binomial human pain/divine consolation. In Jacob, the line of blessing/divine consolation develops (Sirach 44:25-26).

It seems that in front of discouragement, when there is no human solution, the Hebrews cry out looking for a divine answer of consolation and comfort: “The God of all consolation” listens to his people and acts to free it and cure its wounds. In front of a scared Moses there comes the “consoling God” of the patriarchal era: “The Lord said: I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob. I have witnessed the affliction of my people in Egypt and I have heard; I know what they are suffering. I have come down to rescue them… Go! I send you to Pharaoh. Lead my people out, the Israelites” (Ex. 3:6-10). This is Moses’ mission.

Josuah is the continuator of this work of liberation and consolation that God had recommended to Moses.

The Judges, liberators and consolers, appear as individuals and instruments of individual and national blessings/divine consolation. The prophets are previleged mediators and consolers; they are the consolers of the people of the covenant: Isaiah, the consoled/consoler, Jeremiah the elected/consoled who intercedes and consoles; and Ezechiel, herald of the restauration/consolation.
3. Key-Text: Isaiah 40:1-11

God himself consoles his people: “Hw‘mnhmkm” (I, I am your consoler).

We have here a poetic and theological text. The poem speaks of the return from exile of Babylon, the second exodus. It gathers past memories and brings them up to date. The sacred author uses symbols and images of glory to announce a reality that is superior to human capacities, meaning a definitive liberation: heart, cries, voice, desert, steppe, roads, valleys, mountains, glory, herbs, flowers, trophies, arms. Right from the start, the great prophecy is considered as word of God: “Thus says your God.”

The structure of the text

The poem is divided into four parts:
1st, vv 1-2: verb in the imperative: console, and its reason;
2nd, vv 3-5: these introduce the theme of the new exodus;
3rd, vv 6-8: these guarantee that this is word of God;
4th, vv 9-11: the coming of God as shepherd.

The prophet obeys God’s command (“console, console my people”) and transmits an oracle of salvation that is efficacious. The titles used serve as guarantee: (“your God” and “my people”), in the sense used by the formulas of the alliance: There is “no one to console her” (Lam 1:2); “Far from me are all who could console me” (Lam 1:16); “Zion stretches out her hands but there was no one to console her” (Lam 1:17); “Give heed to my groaning, there is no one to console me” (Lam 1:21).
The oracle must enter the heart of the people who hear it (“Speak to the heart of ‘Jerusalem”): it calls to mind the text of Hosea: “I will allure her, I will lead her into the desert and speak to her heart” (Hosea 2:16).

The author tells the reason for the consolation: finished is the time of slavery, which is considered a time of conscripted military service; the punishment is over, the time of coming back home has arrived. Israel has overcome all kinds of suffering and tribulation, and this suffering has now consolation as its recompense: God’s consolation is coming (cf. Is 49:13-16).

Yahweh has consoled his people. God consoles Jerusalem because he feels pity for her. Truly, mercy and consolation go together. Mercy is based on the memory of the covenant. Jerusalem lies in the palms of God’s hands, God will always remember her. We too can say that our hope rests in the memory of God, as a matter of fact it is God himself. And the God who consoles his people is the God of the covenant.

Some other images of affliction are: the abandonment of the woman who is not loved, the loss of love, and the son who is abandoned by his own mother.

The vulnerability of the abandonment in the area of love produces desolation. Behold the image: a people drowning in sorrow. An exiled people submerged in desolation, in a place where there is no room for their history, their culture, their religion. A wretched people. Facing this dark reality, the prophet feels called to cry out the announcement of consolation that comes from God: “Come, all you who pass by the way, look and see whether there is any suffering like my suffering, which has been dealt me when the Lord afflicted me on the day of his blazing wrath.” (Lam 1:12). “To what can I liken and compare you, O daughter Jerusalem? What example can I show you for your consolation, virgin daughter Zion? For great as the sea is your downfall; who can heal you?” (Lam 2:13) Israel has lived through the experience of total abandonment: “Zion said: The Lord has forsaken me, my Lord has forgotten me” (Is 49:14). Just like Jerusalem, many peoples have gone, and still go, through the same experience.

The stay in the desert looms as the triumphant path prepared by the messengers: “In the desert prepare the way of the Lord.” (Is 40:3). The prophet is the mouth of the God who has spoken. The prophet repeats: “Although the grass withers and the flower wilts, the word of God stands forever” (Is 40:8). This guarantees the promise. Everything will happen the way it was announced, since God’s word is effective and accomplishes what it promises.

However, in the last part of the poem (vv. 9-11), the prophet becomes the herald of good news: “You who bring good news to Zion” (v. 9). He comes through the desert, making roads; he climbs to the mountains so that his voice may be heard in all the towns of Israel: “Here comes with power the Lord God, who rules by his strong arm; here is his reward with him, his recompense before him” (v.10).

The prophetical announcement of Isaiah in 40:1-11 tells us that the time for salvation has already begun. God himself will console Zion. In a parallel text, he writes: “Yes, the Lord shall comfort Zion, and have pity on all her ruins; her deserts he shall make like Eden, her wasteland like the garden of the Lord; joy and gladness shall be found in her, thanksgiving and the sound of song” (Is 51:3). He adds: “I, it is I who consoles you. Can you then fear mortal man, who is human only, who fades like the grass?” (Is 51:12). God reveals a passionate love towards his people, towards any man. The last verse completes the poem in the tonality of consolation using the image of the good shepherd: “Like a shepherd he feeds his flock; in his arms he gathers the lambs, carrying them in his bosom, and leading the ewes with care” (Is 40:11).

God himself accomplishes the new salvation: the consolation of his country and the fulfillment of the promises of the “console, console my people.” This, we could say, is the frame of chapters 40-55 that compose the Book of the Consolation of Israel. What must be underlined is the intensity of the “console, console my people” and the divine origin of consolation. The prophets can and must prepare the way for God, but God himself builds the road in the solitude of the desert and in the solitude of the human heart.

One of the situations of solitude is the exile, the captivity in a foreign land. In the text we examined, consolation appears as liberation and return to their own land; and so, the prophetic ministry must be understood as ministry of consolation. God is the one who speaks to the heart; the prophets, meaning we ourselves, must simply create an environment that favors the meeting between man and the “God of all consolation”.

4. The plenitude of consolation

The plenitude of prophetic consolation enters the sphere of a new economy that is eminently consoling; as center it has Jesus Christ, the Jesus who is mercy/consolation, and the Holy Spirit who is Paraclete/consoler.

Jesus begins his mission when John the Baptist presents him as the redeemer/consoler of history. Jesus presents himself in the synagogue and proclaims the text of Isaiah that manifests divine consolation which is, in other words: to teach and do good to the poor, the prisoners, the blind, the oppressed and the slaves: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has annointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord” (Lk 4:18-19).

The Hebrew name of “Menahem” (consoler), which is given to the Messiah, makes us think of the consoling Spirit: “And I will ask the Father and he will give you another Consoler to be with you always” (Jn 14:16).

Jesus goes through all of Galilee as the preacher/consoler announced by the prophets. With his evangelizing activity, he is the light/consolation of Israel: “The dawn from on high shall break upon us, to shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death” (Lk 1:78-79); a Light for revelation to the Gentiles, and glory for your people Israel” (Lk 2:32). In fact, the element of consolation is the key that opens the door to the understanding in depth of the message of the Beatitudes – a spiritual dimension, in the vision of Matthew, that does not exclude the social dimension (Mt 5:1-12); and a dimension that is directly social without getting away from the spiritual vision of the Old Testament (Lk 6:20-23). The consolation proclaimed by Jesus Christ can be considered as a synthesis, the center and the convergence of the promises and the menaces of the Beatitudes. The Jesus of the Beatitudes traces the main lines of human and divine consolation of the new people of Israel and becomes the new consoler waited by Israel, God made man, to save his people.

Jesus categorically affirms that he is the total consolation offered to humanity, without excluding anyone: “Come to me, all you that are weary and that are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble of heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light” (Mt 11:28-29).

Here are two meaningful words: The Good Shepherd (Mt 18:12-13) that presents to us Jesus as a solicitous shepherd, and the good Father that presents to us a father with a heart of a mother (Lk 15:13-24, 27-32) in anguish over a lost son. He is the consoler, and he himself is consoled.
The passion is the crucial moment of all consolation. Jesus had talked much and given signs of consolation. Now he gives us the greatest proof of love, of loving until the last breath of life. On the cross, forgiveness for his assassins is stressed: “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” (Lk 23:34); the repentant thief is promised salvation: “Truly, I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise” (Lk 23:43); and he entrusts his mother to the beloved disciple: “Here is your mother! And from that hour, the disciple took her into his own house” (Jn 19:27).

As a whole, the Gospel is a message of consolation, liberation and salvation for the poor, the afflicted and the little. It is a call to hope, a witnessing to the mercy of the Father who engendered the consolation of those who suffer.

Salvation takes place in a personal encounter with Christ through faith, in a relationshp of faith and love with him. Jesus is the consolation of God: God comes to meet man and bring him consolation. Consolation is not something, it is Someone, it is He, the God whose face is fatherly and motherly.
Jesus and the poor reverberate through the Gospel as absolute consolation from God to humanity. The root of consolation is found in the merciful love of Jesus towards the poor, the afflicted, the blind, the oppressed, all in total gratuitousness, compassion and in the absolute favor of his total oblation for the salvation and the liberation of man: “He has sent me to bring good news to the poor, to proclaim release to the captives and sight to the blind; to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” (Lk 4:18-19; cf. Is 61:1-2).

God dries the tears of those who weep: “Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh” (Lk 6:21); “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted” (Mt 5:4). This kind of talk about tears contains a certain depth, it reveals to us the truth about the human heart. There are situations of pain that cannot be expressed but through tears. This consolation is offered to those who are overwhelmed by despair.

We cannot understand consolation outside of Jesus Christ. He is the only answer to suffering, to pain, to slavery, to the blindness of men and women, to children and adults, to the young and the elderly of all times. Without the desolation of Christ on the cross, consolation can hardly be understood in depth. Only great sorrow can liberate/console those who on earth have been lifted up on a cross.

The Risen One will entrust to the disiples the message of consolation so that it may be proclaimed to all the peoples of the world: (Cf. Mt 28:8-10; Jn 20:11-20.

The primitive Church experienced always the consoling hand of God. God consoles and categorically erases pain, slavery and tears: “See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them as their God; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them; he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more, mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away” (Rev 21:3-4).

5. Consoled to console: 2 Cor 1:3-11

The word ‘console’ is born from the idea of inviting, reinforcing, stimulating, edifying, comforting. For St. Paul, to console is a ministry that edifies the believers into God’s building; its foundation is Christ. The apostle is aware that he was called to exercise the ministry of consolation.

The apostle considers himself carrier of a deep consolation that he incorporates into his ministry: “I often boast about you; I have great pride in you; I am filled with consolation; I am overjoyed in all our affliction” (2 Cor 7:4). This consolation does not come from the human being, it originates in the God who is Father of mercy and God of all consolation.

The apostle wants to encourage the afflicted, since he too was afflicted. He wants them to experience the same kind of consolation that he himself has received: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all consolation, who consoles us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to console those who are in any affliction with the consolation which we ourselves are consoled by God” (2 Cor 1:3-4).
For Paul, consolation comes from desolation: “We do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, of the affliction we experienced in Asia; for we were so utterly, unbearably crushed that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death so that we would rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead” (2 Cor 1:8-9).

Paul underlines the foundation, the extent, the fruitfulness and every other dimension of consolation: the Risen Christ. Human suffering can arrive at limits that exceed human strength. But Paul says that God is the only hope for consolation/liberation/salvation, the God who raises the dead. Desolation can extend itself to death, but no one can deprive us of consolation because it is not in us as something superficial, but rather, it has as its foundation the Father of mercies and the God of all consolation. We are united with him through the paschal mystery of Christ. Here lies the foundation, the mystery and the greatness of our existence and the guarantee of our hope: “We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about those who have died, so that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have died. (1 Thess 4:13-14).

Together with the ‘kerigma’ (1 Cor 15:3-4) and the Eucharist (1 Cor 11:23 ff.), Paul received the consolation through Jesus Christ. He wants to communicate this consolation to Christians as he consoles them in their sorrows. The sufferings of Christ become consolation for Paul, the Paul who is full of pain. And he is convinced that his sufferings will become consolation for the Christians in Corinth because, when he is afflicted it is for their consolation: “Just as the sufferings of Christ are abundant for us, so also our consolation is abundant through Christ. If we are being afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation; if we are being consoled, it is for your consolation, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we are also suffering” (2 Cor 1:5-6).

The ministry of consolation is based on participation in the Passion of Christ. It is a prophetic ministry because “those who prophesy speak to other people for their upbuilding and encouragement and consolation” (1 Cor 14:1-3). It is a ministry that builds up the Church, a ministry that energizes, that speaks to the heart of man in whatever situation of slavery or pain he may be, so that, through this prophetic ministry, he may listen to and find the God of consolation. Efficiency is assured because it is based on God himself. Paul realizes this ministry of consolation as collaborator of God. Paul knows that he is only an instrument. God himself comes in bringing his consolation to the inner domain of the individual, to one’s heart, which is the place of feelings and of decisions.

Our mission, just as the mission of Paul, is to help in the search for God who frees, consoles and saves. We try to favor the encounter between God and men; we are not the protagonists of the mission: “For we are God’s servants, working together; you are God’s field, God’s building”
(1 Cor 3:9).
God uses concrete people and events to bring consolation to those who suffer.

Paul also shows the path to follow. He consoles as a father: “You know that we dealt with each one of you like a father with his children, urging and encouraging you” (1 Thess 2:11); as a mother: “My little children, for whom I am again in pain of childbirth until Christ is formed in you” (Gal 4:19); as a brother: “I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable” (Rom 12:1); and with the feelings of meekness, goodness and love of Christ: “I myself, Paul, appeal to you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ” (1 Cor 10:1).

6. Linguistic analysis

a) Hebrew roots of the word “NHM” (console/consolation)

In Old Testament Hebrew, the root NHM means ‘to console’. Some other ideas can be added to this meaning, such as human nearness and aid. We find the term in the O.T. with the meaning ‘to console’, ‘to be consoled’, ‘to find consolation’, ‘to let oneself be consoled’, ‘to feel pain’. The term appears more than 60 times.
The root NHM is also found in proper names: ‘Menahem’, the consoler, ‘one who gives aid’.

Keeping in mind its etymology, we can underline some characteristics of the term ‘to console’:
• The subject:
The subject of to console is always a person: the sons of Jacob (Gn 37:35); the consolers sent by David to King Casun (2 Sm 10:2-3); the Lord (Is 49:13); 51:3, 12; 52:9).
• The object:
The object is the afflicted person: Zion and its ruins: Ps 10:2-3; Is 61:2; Lam 2:13; Jokb 42:11; Is 40:1-2; Is 51:3; Zech 1:17. A cause of affliction becomes an occasion of consolation: Gen 50:21; Is 22:4; Is 61:2; Jer 31:13; Ruth 2:13; Job 42:11.
• Symbols and rites:
Consolation is accompanied by some symbols and rites: “the cup of consolation” and “the breaking of the bread”(Jer 16:7); “the bed of consolation” (Job 7:13); “the staff” (Ps 23:4); “the gentle words” (Job 15:11).
• Concreteness and efficiency:
Consolation has a concrete and efficient character: it must arrive at the heart, to the inner person. It is something more than just words, and it must be concretized (Gen 50:21; Is 40:1-2; Job 42:11; Ps 23:4; Ps 71:21; Ps 86:17). There also are false, fastidious, superficial and woeful consolers who do not penetrate the deepest areas of the human heart (Job 21:34).
• Requirements:
True consolation demands from the consoler an availability to share the suffering. A sort of communion, a bond, is established between the two: Consoling means tenderheartedness in both: Ruth 2:13; Is 66:13; Is 49:15. A form of consolation: to restablish communion, in the sense of com-passion: Ruth 2:13; Is 66:13; Is 49:15; Is 12:1…

b) The nominal form ‘Tanhum’ (consolation)

In the nominal form, the Hebrew term “Tanhum” means “consolation”. The expression “the breast of consolation” (Is 61:11-13) brings us to the Last Supper: John reclined his head on Jesus’ breast, the place of the encounter with God as source of complete consolation which must also be shared with the others: “And he, reclining on the breast of Jesus, said to him: Master, who is it?” (Jn 13:25). Another expression, “the cup of consolation” (Jer 16:7), reminds us of the “wine of consolation” of the Wedding of Cana (Jn 2:1-11). Mary invites us to be attentive to the needs of the others in order to offer them the wine of consolation.

The author of consolation is always Yahweh: “To the Angel who talked with me the Lord replied with gracious and comforting words” (Zech 1:13). “As a mother comforts her child so I will comfort you; you shall be comforted in Jerusalem” (Is 66:13).
The concept of consolation is strictly united the the mercy of God: “Let your steadfast love become my comfort, according to your promise to your servant” (Ps 119:76).

Usage of the term:

Consolation is first of all human. All people are consolers: relatives, friends, strangers. All can and should console the afflicted.

Visiting, an occasion to console: “All his sons and all his daughters sought to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted” (Gen 37:35); “There came to him all his brothers and sisters and all who had known him before, and they ate bread with him in his house; they showed him sympathy and comforted him for all the evil that the Lord had brought upon him; and each one of them gave him a piece of money and a gold ring” (Job 42:11); so are the words of sympathy: “For thus says the Lord: Do not enter the house of mourning, or go to lament, or bemoan them, for I have taken away my peace from this people, says the Lord, my steadfast love and mercy” (Jer 16:5); the bread and the wine: “King Melchisedek of Salem brought out bread and wine; he was priest of God most high” (Gen 14:18).

However, true consolation can come only from God. To console is proper to God.

He is a God that always consoles his people through special messages: “Take courage, O Jerusalem, for the one who named you will comfort you” (Bar 4:30).
Psalm 23:4: “Even though I walk the darkest valley, I fear no evil; for you are with me; your rod and your staff -- they comfort me.”
Psalm 71:21-22: “Though You have made me feel many bitter afflictions, you will revive me again; from the depths of the earth you will once more raise me. You will increase my honor, and comfort me once again.”
Psalm 86:17: “Show me a sign of your favor, so that those who hate me may see it and be put to shame, because you, Lord, have helped me and comforted me.”
Psalm 94:18-19: “When I thought, ‘My foot is slipping’, your steadfast love, O Lord, helped me. When the cares of my heart are many, your consolations cheer me up.”

We are consoled in order to bring consolation to others:

Consoled, Jerusalem becomes consoler: “That you may suck fully of the milk of her comfort, that you may nurse with delight at her abundant breasts. For thus says the Lord: Lo, I will spread prosperity over her like a river, and the wealth of the nations like an overflowing torrent. As nurselings, you shall be carried in her arms, and fondled in her lap; as a mother comforts her son, so will I comfort you; in Jerusalem shall you find comfort” (Is 66:11-13. Cf. 2 Cor 1:4). In fact, the characteristic of the new people is that it is comforted.

Meditations on the word:

Psalm 119:50: This is my comfort in my distress, that your promise gives me life.
Psalm 119:52: When I think of your ordinances from of old, I take comfort, O Lord.
Psalm 119:76: Let your steadfast love become my comfort, according to your promise to your servant.
Psalm 119:82: My eyes fall with watching for your promise; I ask, “When will you comfort me?”
Wisdom 8:9: So I determined to take her with me, knowing that she would be my counselor while all is well, and my comfort in care and grief.”

c). The sense of the Greek word “Paraclein” (“to console”)

As we look at the several linguistic uses of the term ‘paraclein’ (in he meaning of ‘calling someone as helper, advocate’), the idea is underlined of a person who goes to another, the idea of asking, exhorting, admonishing, comforting – depending on whether the subject asks for the other, or offers to go to the other to bring consolation.

The word ‘paraclein’ is used in the sense of consoling someone who is suffering. This Greek word is the translation of the Hebrew root NHM that means ‘to comfort’ and ‘to console’. (Gn 24:67; 37:35; 38:12; 2 Sam 12:24; Job 29:25; Eccles 38:1, 23; Job 42:11; Judith 6:20; Job 2:11, 7:13, 24:2)

The verb ‘paraclein’ is used especially to promise divine consolation for the peoples and the individuals who live in pain. The translation of the LXX is very rich in its meaning: to exhort, stimulate, solicit, fasten oneself, invite, reinforce, propose, calm. It is always a stimulating word. The concept of consolation implies always a relationship of mutual trust between two people.

Stemming from consolation, courage helps to overcome fear and is founded on the value of the divine promises: Ex 14:13; 20:20; 1 Kings 17:13; Zeph 3:16; Hag 2:5; Zech 8:13, 15.

The word of God possesses a vivifying power, it consoles man from his misery: Ps 119:50.

In Judaism, the expression ‘consolation of Israel’ expresses synthetically the accomplishment of the Messianic hope.

8. Brief iconography

The invocation Mary, Mother of Consolation “encompasses the dimension of the maternal presence of Mary in the Church and in the world.” The veneration of Mary under this title is very ancient in the Church and exists in the West as in the East. In many shrines, churches, hermitages and oratories in the four continents, Mary is invoked and prayed under this tender name, although the inconographic representations vary from place to place.

Around the 5th century, several Byzantine hymns were composed which were dedicated to Mary under the title of Mother of Consolation. During the following centuries, this Marian literary production develops; most of them were inspired by the hymn Akhatistos, a Byzantine poem of the 5th century. Thus do the Marian hymns multiply, the litanies of the Blessed Virgin appear, the psalters of greetings. These are prayers asking Mary for protection and aid, or special invocations and strophes to be used in the popular recitation of the psalter. The Holy Greek and Latin Fathers invoked Mary as ‘Consolatio Moestorum’, ‘Consolatio Nostra Post Deum Suprema’, ‘Consolatrix Dei cum Hominibus’, ‘Consolatrix Viventium’. Among the strophes, we mention some of the most common as an example: Illuminatrix Cordium, Consolatrix Flentium, Salvatrix Penitentium, Virginum Nova Exultatio, Miserorum Pia Consolatio.

The origins of the Shrine of the Consolata in Turin go back to the 10th century. However, according to the most recent historical and artistic criticism, the venerated painting of the Consolata which is above the main altar of the shrine would have been made in the second part of the 4th century. It is said to be a copy of the Byzantine icon venerated in Santa Maria del Popolo in Rome.

In the Middle Ages, devotion to the Virgin of Consolation exists in several European countries. In Guyans (France), in 1438 was built an oratory to Our Lady of Consolation. That same place is now a center of Marian devotion; it possesses a 14th century painting on wood of Notre-Dame de la Consolation. We find the devotion to Our Lady under this title in the shrine of Kevelaer, Germany, dating back to 1640. In Spain, in the monastery of the Capuchin Nuns of Murcia, a painting is venerated of The Virgen del Pueblo (Our Lady of the People). This painting was brought to that city by Blessed Maria Angela of Astorch, founder of the convent, around 1640. The painting, on canvas, shows an image of the Virgin that is very similar to the icon of Santa Maria del Popolo in Rome and to the painting of Our Lady Consolata of Turin.

Devotion to Our Lady Virgin of Consolation in Tortosa, Spain dates back to the year 1694. It’s a painting of Our Lady that St. Teresa of Jesus (of Avila) used to carry around when founding convents. She left it in Malagón in 1580, as her death approached. It is not the same kind of image of the Consolata that we know. Devotion to that painting became very popular in the region of Catalonia. In 1858, at Tortosa, Santa Maria Rosa Molas founded the Congregation of Our Lady of Consolation.

In several churches of the city of Moscow, Russia, there are icons that are very similar to the painting of the Consolata which is so familiar to us. Probably, they are all copies of an original model.

From the 16th century on, the devotion is extended to Latin America and to the Philippines. From 1561, the Virgin of Consolation is venerated in Tariba, Venezuela. In the church of S. Augustine in the city of Manila, in the Philippines, our Lady of Consolation is venerated as our Lady of Consolation since 1577.

Devotion to Our Lady of Consolation is inserted into the spirituality of the Augustinian, Carmelite, Franciscan and Redemptorist Religious Orders.

9. Application to our charism

We have received a special charism. The name we bear shows what it is, and on account of it we dedicate ourselves to the mission. Our Founder, Bl. Joseph Allamano, gave us the missionary charism ad gentes, in the style of Consolata, Mother and Model: We are the Missionaries of Consolata… “Yes, she is our most tender Mother… she planned our foundation.” The Allamano always considered her as foundress of the Institute. This thought is codified in the Constitutions as follows: “Our Founder was deeply convinced that Our Lady of Consolation inspired him to found our Congregation. We are named after her and we venerate her as our Mother.”

From the ample and rich vision of consolation that Sacred Scripture offers us, here are some elements that could help us live our charism:

1 Consolation comes from sorrow.

Consolation is always born out of a situation of suffering, pain or slavery. This can be physical, moral, individual or communitary. In front of situations for which there is no human answer in the countries where we evangelize, we must look for a divine solution, as did Israel. This awareness pushes us to be coherent when we look at painful situations in our world, in the world of our brethren, in the world where we work. There are the cries of our peoples, the new slaves, the new kinds of suffering of today; the hatred between countries, cultures and religions; economic domination; moral suffering; injustices by individuals and institutions; personal and structural sin: in a word, estrangement from God.

2. There is a human kind of consolation

All members of a country, community or family; relatives, friends and strangers -- all feel the moral need of consoling those who suffer. All cultures and religions; schools of thought and humanitarian movements in antiquity and in our own days, all have taught, and somehow practiced, imparting consolation to the afflicted, curing the sick, helping those who suffer.

3. The God of all consolation

Sacred Scripture goes beyond human consolation. Without denying the value of human consolation, the Bible offers a consolation that goes down to a deeper dimension, a deeper kind of comfort. The prophets announced a divine consolation that has as protagonist God himself, the God of all consolation who speaks to the heart of man. This consolation is not of the material kind, it is not a person, it goes beyond the margins and the surface of the individual: it enters into the person, speaks to the heart, the heart that is the center of the feelings and of the decisions.

4. All the history of salvation is seen as a great work of consolation

All the actions of God, from the moment of creation to salvation in Jesus Christ, present themselves under the light of consolation: creation as the primordial act of consolation in plenitude, the fidelity in love when man breaks the consolation. The total accomplishment arrives with the definitive consolation by the Messiah, who was sent by the Father who is the source of all consolation, and with the consolation of the Consoling Spirit who guides the Church to the Parousia, where there will be no more tears.

5. The God of consolation uses collaborators

The prophets are sent to console: “Console, console my people” (Is 40:1). Paul is God’s collaborator in the ministry of salvation. Today God, Father of all consolation, continues calling other people, other prophets, other apostles who will manifest and communicate consolation.

6. The collaborators console and are consoled.

Yesterday and today’s collaborators must experience in themselves the consoling action of God in their sorrow. We communicate what we have expereinced, what we have gone through in God’s consolation. These collaborators are not only material instruments. Only thus can we be consolers, as St. Paul, can we be what were the prophets of yesterday and of today.

7. There’s a methodolgy proper to consolation

The consoler ‘speaks’ to the heart, goes to the roots, in depth, to the inner being of the person. He doesn’t stay at the surface, because the consolation he offers is not an external kind of consolation but something deep and radical. Paul consoles as a father, as a mother, as a brother and as a friend. He leads us into adopting attitudes of nearness, of proximity, of sharing, of abandonment and donation. All this is possible if we use means such as visits, words, presence, the bread and the wine of consolation, rebuilding communion. At the same time, if necessary, we must also use the method of the prophetical denouncement, as did Moses, the prophets, John the Baptist, Jesus himself, the prophets of our times, the martyrs of today that everybody knows.

8. Consolation must be concrete and integral

Consolation must reach all the dimensions and aspects of the person; it must be real, very concrete. The Kingdom of God is already in the midst of you, come and see: “The blind receive their sight, the lame walk…and the good news is brought to the poor”, said Jesus to the messengers of John the Baptist who asked him whether he was the Messiah or had to wait for another (Mt 11:2-6). Here begins a world without evil, the world inaugurated by Christ.

9. Consolation open to the future

The work of consolation must open up to the escatological plenitude, to that final world, the new heavens and the new earth, where there will be no tears: “He will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things will have passed away” (Rev 21:4). In that definitive and total world without evil, “There will be no more night; they need no light or lamp of sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever” (Rev 22:5).

10. In this ministry, Mary is Mother and Model

She listens to, and welcomes, the word of the Annunciation. She is diligent in the services she gives, in her visit to Elizabeth. She is attentive to the needs of the others at the wedding of Cana. She shares her Son’s suffering on Calvary. She stays in prayer with the Church that is being born at Pentecost. She advanced on the path of faith, the ways of listening to the word of God, her life of contemplation. She was precise in her tasks, perfect in her donation of self.

Conclusion

We must now follow these teachings, in holiness of life, through formation, in our pastoral activites and options, in our whole being and doing, accomplishing a concrete, liberating and inculturated evangelization.

Fr. Francisco Lerma Martínez, IMC

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