Relative to God: Mary & Ourselves
Fr. Donald Macdonald, SMM
Mary is who she is, by her open-ended response to the creative Spirit of God. She is where she is, in relation to us, precisely because of this same Spirit. Her role is not primarily symbolic. She was chosen in fact to bring Jesus into the world, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory . . .” (J n.1214). As a maternal role it endures to this day. She has naturally been seen as part of the glory of God as reflective in Christ.
Today, advocates of a current trend might say, that this is to bury Mary beneath the ‘masculine’ reflections of the Church Fathers and says more than Scripture does. As introduced by the Gospel, Mary is seen as a woman rich and courageous in faith, possibly economically poor, sensitive to those around her, present and praying at the heart of the early community. Unless and until we return to the unpretentious Mary of Nazareth, she will not be relevant to people today, particularly to women.
There appears to be an assumption here that the closer Mary is to God the further she is from us. The presence of the Spirit, as understood by the Fathers over the centuries, seems to be at the cost of a recognizable humanity. This would be impossible in theory and it is not so in fact. Like the Queen Mother mentioned earlier (in Part I), she is a symbolic figure, but in sharing the lives of people her humanity comes through. This, of course, is seen as a reflection of the presence and concern of God. So many, for example, numb with grief, as at times life crucifies them, are found with Mary. They have not sought her out. In the experience they find her there. Now they know that she knows from experience something of what they are going through.
They are not just looking back to Mary, as a model from yesterday from whom they may draw inspiration. The relationship with Mary is a present one, an expression of what it means to live in Christ vine and branches. She mediates the intimacy there, in a wonderfully human form. Such a Spirit-filled woman, so graced by God, has in herself the feminine qualities, not as ‘taken’ from God, but as a reflection of the woman and mother Mary is in the providence of God.
Mary: Our Lady of Perpetual Help
The second and concluding article in this series by Father Donald Macdonald, SMM. See Part I here.
… that Jesus wants it known, “that all who delight in Him should delight in her with the delight that He has in her and she in Him.”
Mary Assumed
Does the person with genuine devotion to Our Lady ever separate her from God? She is seen as one with us, sharing the same organic life of Vine and branches. It is because we are in Christ that we meet her. When we compare her to the air we breathe, as did the Jesuit poet GM. Hopkins in a poem quoted by Sister Elizabeth, where do we imagine that the oxygen and she herself come from?
Outside of the Vine where would Mary be? What could she give? In an incarnational faith, as the woman chosen to be the mother of God, is she not just a lovely reflection of what it is to be loved by God in Christ?
It is defined Catholic doctrine that so much is Mary part of the reality of Vine and branches that she has been assumed body and soul into
heaven. One scarcely ever sees reference to this in contemporary writing about Mary, presumably because this is to ‘abstract’ her from everyday reality. Yet, if a woman has undergone this experience, and there reflects the glory of God on the face of Christ, literally it is unbelievable ( if, of course, one believes it), that in any consideration of Our Lady, little or no reference is made to it. It must be an astounding experience. It must have universal significance, not least for women.
As “through the assent of the humble Handmaid of the Lord, humanity begins its return to God and sees in the glory of the all—Holy Virgin the goal towards which it is journeying” (Marialis Cultus 28), the insight of faith latches on to Mary assumed as an attractive glimpse of what awaits them. Is Mary less a woman because she has realized in herself the destiny of all of us? Is to be ‘assumed,’ to be taken out of circulation, being placed on the retired list as far as her ability to help us here on earth? Does she not now ‘live’? Some contemporary trends seem to imply that to be at one with the will of God, at that unparalleled degree of intimacy, is to be at odds with us.
As a woman said of a statue of Our Lady in a newly built Cathedral, “I don’t like that. She seems to be suffering.” Clearly, she would not want to bring her troubles to someone who is already overburdened herself. Traditionally, people in Christ vine and branches, are delighted to know that Mary is assumed into heaven. They are glad for her, relieved that suffering is over for her. But they know that she feels for them. This world is no closed circle. In an unfair world not least to so many women, Mary assumed, offers hope and present understanding. She also gives that rarest of freedoms, freedom from the contemporary.
Within the perspective of Vine and branches, time in the company of Mary can provide “. . . an opportunity for growing in divine grace . . . For it is impossible to honor her who is ‘full of grace’ (Lk;1:28) without honoring in oneself the state of grace, which is friendship with God, communion with him and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit . . . The Catholic Church endowed with centuries of experience, recognizes in devotion to the Blessed Virgin a powerful aid for humanity striving for fulfilment. She shows the victory of hope over anguish, of fellowship over solitude, of peace over anxiety, of joy and beauty over boredom and disgust of life over death” (Marialis Cultus 57).
Mary is a reflection of the glory of God on the face of Christ. There is a transparency here found within the richness of an incarnational faith. To leave Mary as an inspiring figure of yesterday who we might usefully copy on our journey of faith, while transferring the feminine, maternal love she obviously enshrines for so many to God to whom it properly belongs, suggests to me that advocates of that have not met the people I have met at the grassroots. They know that the love they find in Mary is a reflection of the all-embracing love of God. Surely it is possible to congratulate Mary on her faith, so obviously blessed because she believed, and at the same time share the delight and wonder of Elizabeth in asking “why is this granted me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?’ (Lk 1:43). Mary’s name now may do as much as her voice did then~“when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit” (Lkl :41).
Delightful Company
Perhaps Julian of Norwich can sum this up. Centuries ago she was alert to the maternal love of God. The crucifix came alive for her as at Calvary. Jesus looked down at his right side bringing to mind, “where Our Lady stood during His passion; and said ‘Do you want to see her?’ In this sweet word, it is as if he had said: ‘I know well you would like to see my blessed mother, for after myself she is the greatest joy that I can show you. , . .’ More particularly, Jesus went on to say: ‘Do you want to see how I love her, that you might rejoice with me in the love I have for her and in the love she has for me . . . ?’. She was not given a vision, but something perhaps much better, a true understanding of Mary.
In speaking like this Julian understood her Lord to be speaking to everyone who is to be saved as to one person. In Mary we see how we ourselves are loved. She then drew the superb conclusion that Jesus wants it known, “that all who delight in Him should delight in her with the delight that He has in her and she in Him.” That insight cascades with delight: delight is not easily contained. If in the providence of God Mary of Nazareth is now Mary assumed, those graced to be aware of this within the living reality of vine and branches, can only echo the love which has brought her to such heights.
There may well be an urgent need for a more authentic presentation of God. Whatever the picture, it will fall short of the reality since even
the best of us has only partial vision. However it is attempted, I would be hesitant to adopt what is currently ‘politically correct’. Whoever adopts the spirit of the age is destined to be widowed in the next. This was said ages ago. Contemporary agendas, like the flavour of the month, have a very short shelf life. Much better, surely, to root ourselves in what the best of the past have found. If I make my own the delight that Julian so obviously found in Mary, for example, I shall be at one with what many in Catholic and Orthodox found in her over centuries.
Mary the woman of faith, first of disciples listening to the Word, is so much part of the story, but it is not the whole story. The delight that
Jesus takes in her invites me to savor so much more.
