Mary In The Acts of the Apostles
Fr. Patrick Gaffney, SMM
As we bring to a close our series on Mary in the Gospels, two additional New Testament references should be included as an addendum: Mary in the Acts of the Apostles and Mary in the Book of Revelation. This installment will briefly review the role of Our Lady in the Upper Room as found in AA l:12-14. The next issue of The Queen will study the mysterious Woman of Rev 12.
Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mountain called Olivet which is near Jerusalem, a sabbath day’s journey away; and when they had entered they went up to the upper room where they were staying: Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot and Judas the son of James. All these with one accord devoted themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus and with his brethren. AA 1:12-14
I t is well presumed that this same prayer-group is present in the upper room at the feast of Pentecost. Yet, it is easy to minimize this reference to the mother of Jesus. After all, it is the only mention of Mary in the Acts of the Apostles. It appears to be nothing more than a passing, harmless statement that she and the other disciples were, as should be expected, gathered in prayer with the apostles of Jesus. A number of scholars are still more taken up with the ins and outs of the historicity of the event than with an interpretation of what the Holy Spirit has chosen to tell us about Mary.
What is to be learnt from this mention of Mary in the Cenacle?
To see if there is any special insight to be gained from AA 1:14, first of all, the context must be correctly understood. The Acts of the Apostles is the second volume of Luke’s writings (cf AA 1:1) and it can only be understood as a continuation of his Gospel. The account of the conception, birth, preaching, death and resurrection of Jesus is the subject of the 24 chapters of his Gospel; the story of the joyful growth of the persecuted Church Jesus founded is the theme of the Acts. Luke will only close his second volume when the Church has spread from Jerusalem to Rome, the center of the Empire.
Mary does not appear in the Acts, therefore, as an unknown. Luke has, more than any other evangelist, told us of this woman. Five scenes of his infancy narrative – known as the joyful mysteries (Annunciation, Visitation, Nativity, Presentation, Finding in the temple) – have already depicted our Lady as God’s handmaid of courageous faith. Overshadowed by the Spirit, Mary, so filled with grace, lovingly conceives in her womb the Messiah, the Savior, the King, the Lord.
During Luke’s account of Jesus’ public ministry, Mary is found twice. First, 8:21, where she and the brethren of Jesus are identified as “those who hear the word of God and do it.” Luke clearly counts our Lady among the disciples of her Son, 11:27-28 confirm this fundamental characteristic of Mary: “As he said this, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said to him, ‘Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breasts that fed you.’ But he said, ‘Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it.’ ” Jesus does not deny that Mary is his mother (“the womb that bore you and the breasts that fed you”), but declares that hers is a far greater blessedness, for she is among those “who hear God’s word and keep it.”
It is this woman of faith, the Mother of the victorious Redeemer who now is mentioned once again by Luke as he describes the prayer-meeting of the first Christians. What strikes the reader at the outset is that Mary is named explicitly, as the twelve are. All others are lumped together in one of Luke’s summary statements, “the women and the brethren of Jesus.” As we are told in the following verse, the number of “the brethren,” including the apostles and Mary, “was in all about a hundred and twenty.” Among this group, the only one outside the apostles who is mentioned by name is Mary. Is there any significance to this?
It would indicate, first of all, the importance of the Mother of Jesus within the early Christian community. She stands out. She is, in a special way, worthy of respect, of praise. Had not Luke written down the prophetical verse of her Magnificat Song, “all generations shall call me blessed”? (Lk 1:48) It is to the honor of the congregation that the disciple whom they call blessed, the mother of Jesus, is praying with them. She plays no role like Peter who stood up and, with authority, addressed those assembled (1:15-25). Rather, her role is the discipleship of prayer. How revealing that this only reference to Mary in the second volume of Luke should be the indication that she is the faithful woman of prayer. She has endured the dark night of Good Friday, she has faithfully persevered. Now the woman who “pondered” at the birth of her Divine Son (Lk 2:19) is depicted once again as pondering, praying, at the birth of the Body of Her Son, the Church. Mary ever-faithful, Mary the ecclesia orang, the Church at prayer: the final Lucan portrait of the mother of Jesus.
The Descent of the Holy Spirit: Louis Galloche: French painter (1670-1761)
It would indicate, first of all, the importance of the Mother of Jesus within the early Christian community. She stands out. She is, in a special way, worthy of respect, of praise. … It is to the honor of the congregation that the disciple whom they call blessed, the mother of Jesus, is praying with them. She plays no role like Peter who stood up and, with authority, addressed those assembled. Rather, her role is the discipleship of prayer. How revealing that this only reference to Mary in the second volume of Luke should be the indication that she is the faithful woman of prayer.
It becomes more and more apparent that Luke is implying that the role of Mary at the beginning of his first volume, the Gospel is similar to that of Mary at the beginning of the Acts, the second volume. Or better still, we see the Church as the reflection of its ikon, the Mother of the Lord. As the Spirit overshadows her at the Annunciation to bring forth the Head of the Mystical Body, so the Spirit overshadows Mary, the Apostles and the brethren in order to bring forth the Body of Christ, the Church. As Mary, filled with the Spirit sets out to bring the Good News to her cousin Elizabeth (Lk 1:39-45), so the Church, filled with the Spirit of Pentecost, sets out to bring the Gospel to the world. Her Hymn of Praise sung at the Visitation (Lk 1:46-55), can now be sung by the early Church which praises God “for the great things God has done” (2:11). As Mary brings forth Jesus at Bethlehem (Lk 2:1-7) so the Church brings forth new children in Jesus: “and those who accepted his (Peter’s) word were baptized and some three thousand were added to their number that day” (2:41). As Pope Leo the Great proclaims: “The origin which Christ took in the womb of the Virgin he has given to the baptismal font: he has given to water what he had given to his Mother, the power of the Most High and the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit.”
This so-called “passing reference” to Mary is a deliberate, significant statement by Luke joining both his volumes together in the Mother of Jesus, Temple of the Holy Spirit. Spirit-filled Holy Mother Church is linked indissolubly with Holy Mother Mary overshadowed by the Spirit. The roles of Mary and the Church intertwine. Paul VI, in “Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary,” states: “Mary is the attentive Virgin who receives the word of God with faith . . . The Church also acts in this way, especially in the Liturgy, when with faith she listens, accepts, proclaims and venerates the word of God; . . . Mary is also the Virgin in prayer . . . the title Virgin in prayer also fits the Church which, day by day, presents to the Father the needs of her children; . . . Mary is also the Virgin-Mother . . . type and exemplar of the fruitfulness of the Virgin-Church which ‘becomes herself a mother, for by her preaching and by baptism she brings forth to a new and immortal life children who are conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and born of God.’ Mary is the Virgin presenting offerings . .. this union of the Mother and the Son in the work of redemption reaches its climax on Calvary . . . To perpetuate down the centuries the Sacrifice of the Cross, the divine Savior instituted the Eucharistic Sacrifice, the memorial of his death and Resurrection and entrusted it to His Spouse, the Church …” (read #16-23).
Both Mary and the Church, in different ways, are Mothers of the one Son, Jesus the Lord. The explicit indication of her presence in the Cenacle is so tightly packed with meaning that only the profound prayerful study of the Church can unfold the depth of its significance.
(To be Continued in the Next Issue of The Queen: Revelations)
