The Need to Find the Authentic Christ (Part II)

One of the most striking icons in the Orthodox tradition, is that of Mary as Guide, the one that shows the way. Her eyes are full of presence and majesty as she looks at the person before the icon. She does not ask that we look at her particularly. Her right hand points to her child Jesus who she carries in her left arm.

He is dressed in the gold of divinity, sitting upright as he holds the scroll of Scripture in one hand, and he blesses with the other. He has opened the seals of Revelation, and in him we are invited to find salvation. There is a shared dignity and intimacy as much else in the portrait. There is a beautiful balance between Mother and Son. The viewer contemplating the icon is obviously being invited to share something of this too. The intention is INCLUSIVE as we are invited to come as close as we can in faith to what is reflected in the persons of Mother and Child.

What is being said here is that the closer I am to Our Lady, the more direct my appreciation of God in Christ. In so far as I am open to her influence, I too can glimpse what she sees – the Glory of God in the face of Christ. This is so because at the Annunciation particularly, Mary was given a personally convincing experience of God – “He who is mighty has done great things for me … “ – as the Spirit of God overshadowed her. God in Christ made her His own as she gave herself wholly to the will of God in whatever was asked.

The realization grew on earth as she lived each day for God in faith. The initial circumstances of her husband Joseph’s misunderstanding and the Child’s birth in a strange town called on reserves of faith (surely, if the overall plan was from God He would take care of details in working it out?). The increasing tension of her Son’s public life leading to His crucifixion as she stood and watched, again must have sounded the deep well of her trust. The consequent understanding of the ways of God learned in such a hard school will have been deep. She then knew what she believed having kept the struggle with experience in her heart.

This, of course, is one of the reasons why she is so attractive. She learned from life in an often unfair world just as the viewers of her icon are meant to do. In that sense all of us attend the same school, though not all learn the same lesson. As the woman of faith, blessed because she believed, she can lead us along the same hard road to the narrow gate. She knows the way – from experience.

FROM THE INSIDE

Mary is far from being simply an inspiration model from yesterday whose example of living for God alone in faith I can copy today. She is, as the icon indicates, a presence for today. One can only guess at the perception of one who is immaculately conceived. The interchange between Mother and Child and later young man living for God under one roof would be too deep for any words of ours to adequately articulate. Quite literally, how can one understand what Mary now sees of the Glory of God since she is assumed body and soul into the presence of God? This is the background and present situation of Mary who shows us the way to God in Christ.

This is the second of two articles within this series. The first article may be found here.

What is clear is that such a person so graced by God is an expression of the wonder of revelation, blessed among women as no other has been. Open to her influence and willing to spend time in her company, I can find myself being drawn to what holds her – the Glory of God in the face of Christ. Having been baptized into Christ where there is no male or female, but all are one person in Christ, sharing there the same organic life of knowledge and love, I enter into a personal relationship with Mary, one with me in Christ. It is the life I live as I do with all the baptized. As the icon teaches us and millions have found true for themselves over the centuries, Mary is not a distant, unreachable model offering at best external inspiration. Through the reality of baptism, she as the One showing us the way of God in Christ, does this by way of the only path of the heart of a person – the way of knowledge and love.

Any other approach is peripheral. The law of the body into which I am baptized is simply put; “owe no one anything except to love them” (Rom: 13:8). This means, of course, that I am in debt to everyone I meet, as I can never adequately repay that. Our Lady can and does as she transparently reflects the love of God in Christ. At one with the will of God she could never lead anybody astray.

There is a beautiful cameo of this in the account of Mary calling on Elizabeth. The very sound of her voice in the greeting was electric and Elizabeth was ecstatic as she heard it: “ … the child leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit (thrilled)….that the Mother of my Lord comes to me” (Lk. 1:41-43). Self-evidently the sound of her name can do as much today for whoever welcomes her into their lives. She is Theotokos – “the one who gave birth to the One who is God.” She lives to give Christ.

Doing It God’s Way

The Most High has come down to us perfectly and divinely, by humble Mary, without losing anything of His divinity and sanctity. So it is by Mary that the very little ones are to ascend perfectly and divinely, without any fear, to the Most High. The Incomprehensible has allowed Himself to be comprehended and perfectly contained by the little Mary, without losing anything of His immensity. So also it is by the little Mary, that we must let ourselves be contained and guided perfectly without any reserve.
St. Louis de Montfort: True Devotion to Mary (No. 157)