Mary lost and son found

Ongkingco

I was blessed to be in the presence of both a historical and spiritual relic: our Lady of Triumph. Mary, represented in her traditional and solemn title of Immaculate Conception, victoriously crushes the serpents head under her heel.

The wooden statue, two meters tall, was carved sometime in 1756. The locals fondly call her our Lady of the Cotta since she was venerated in the old fort of their town. In 1975, she was sacrilegiously stolen from the people of Ozamiz and after over 40 years was found and restored on December 8 this year, once again to shower her children with her attractive and caring motherly countenance.

Those who have venerated the image, by simply touching her or by contemplating her face, have experience different spiritual gifts and favors. Others have gone through all sorts of spiritual conversions, big and small, that encouraged them make a firmer commitment to live their faith.

Undoubtedly, everyone agreed that the image — besides its magnetic presence — possessed some miraculous powers granting anyone his or her spiritual and material requests. How could such a simple image have such properties?

We know that only God has the power to grant favors and graces He sees most fit to aid our holiness and ease our material burdens. But He also relies on intermediaries, that is, His saints, to grant men certain favors.

Saints are not sources of grace nor are some form of spiritual ATMs of God. But God wants us, who continue to live, to imitate them so that their words and examples may serve as guides for our own holiness. Among these saints, Mary holds a singular role as God’s Mother.

Similarly, a wooden statue by itself does not possess any innate power. Rather, it serves as a reinforcing element to deepen our faith. Through such material representations of holy things and persons, our spiritually awakened senses aid our prayer and devotion to God, our Lady, St. Joseph and the saints. God who sees our childlike faith will not hesitate to grant us our petitions.

Thus, we can somewhat say that our Lady of the Cotta becomes a specific reference point of grace. Not as a source of grace itself as already explained, but because it helps to materially tweak, purify and upgrade our faith. It helps to integrate our intellect, will and passions into one act of prayer and self-offering to God through our Lady’s image.

But in this particular image of our Lady of the Cotta, I could add some unique feature that makes it a super avenue for God to grant as many favors — both seen and unseen — His children may ask: that the image had been stolen and hidden from public veneration for many years.

We are naturally joyful when something that was lost has been found. And like our Lord’s parables we rejoice and share with others our happiness. In the case of our Lady of the Cotta, I think it is the other way around: it is God who rejoices because we, who were lost, have been found through a statue of His Mother.

Man is the one capable of losing himself in sin, indifference and ignorance. And it is through a lost and found image that we allow ourselves to be found again by God through Mary, as we rejoice in finding the North Star to guide our lost hearts.

This is why God abundantly pours out his graces and favors upon us, as the father of the prodigal son who celebrated a feast for his son’s return. There is still one more motive, though not mentioned in the parable, why the father celebrates: for the mother of the prodigal son is finally consoled with the return of a son, who was lost and is now found, who was dead and has now returned to life.