Mary, Mother of God

Happy Memorial Day! Here is the second part to my Thesis about women and our place in the world. Last time I talked about the Two-Fold Nature of woman: Her call to self-gift, and her receptivity to Love. Today I will talk about Jesus' Mother, Our Mother, who is the most perfect and loving and womanly lady that ever lived.

Mother Mary is the most excellent example of a woman who lives in full recognition and acceptance of her vocation. It is she who best demonstrates woman’s active receptivity to love, and the way in which this receptivity affects woman’s call to give of herself. In her Fiat to the Holy Spirit at the Annunciation, Mary accepted the love of God at the same time as she gave herself to the Christ Child. John Paul II says that “the Bride is loved: it is she who receives love, in order to love in return.”[1] Mary understood this, and when Love was offered to her, she accepted it humbly and with a sincere return of devotion. This relationship between the Lover and Beloved, demonstrated by Mary and the Holy Spirit, is a symbol of God’s relationship with the cosmos. It demonstrates the fruitful nature of self-gift that springs from the love between the Lover and the Beloved. In this role as both Bride and Mother of God, Mary receives her ultimate fulfillment. Mary abases herself, always pointing toward God and leading others who love her to the love of Christ, just as creation continually points toward the Creator. Mary, while finding happiness on this earth, is ultimately exalted in heaven above all creatures in heaven and on earth; for, being “full of grace,”[2] she was able above all women (or any person) on earth, to abase and humble herself before the Lord, and for this reason, she is and always will be the most gloriously exalted woman of all mankind. “The motherhood that is accomplished in her comes exclusively from the ‘power of the Most High’, and is the result of the Holy Spirit's coming down upon her (cf. Lk 1:35).”[3] Her only participation is her wondrously active receptivity: her ‘yes’ to the request of the Holy Spirit. Thus Mary displays the ultimate example of self-effacement before God, and so receives the ultimate glorification at his hands: the honor of being the Theotokos.

As Mother and Bride in relation to Jesus and Joseph, we can imagine that Mary found intimate joy and satisfaction in her private life, where we can easily envision that great love and happiness overflowed on account of the holiness of each member of the Holy Family. Mary offered a continual gift of self to her family, for whom she would have poured out her energies. Despite the many trials of her life, such as giving birth in a stable, fleeing to Egypt for the safety of her son, and finally, watching her only child die on a cross, she continued to accept the will of God in her life: “he who does the will of my father is my mother.”[4] Christ appreciated the loving care of his mother to such an extent that he entrusted to her the care of his beloved disciple, whom he desired should benefit from the same maternal love that he himself experienced: “behold your mother.”[5] Mary is the best example of how mothers that live holy and sacrificial lives can find a degree of that eternal fulfillment and glorification here on earth that awaits the faithful in heaven.

Mary was humble in spirit, in soul, and in mind, and the inner beauty and grace of her soul overflowed into her outward actions and lifestyle. It is a paradox that when the woman abases herself she is exalted by the Lord. It is Christ who, more than anyone, recognizes his mother’s great and hidden dignity, and who thereby exalts her above every other person in heaven or on earth. We have already discussed how she lived this humility in the concealment of the home, but after her son ascended into heaven her presence in the world (although she still retained her unique feminine attitude) became more manifest: she poured out her maternal energies into the community of the Church. We find her, in the Acts of the Apostles, sitting among the disciples, in prayer to her son: “all these with one accord devoted themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren.”[6] Mary, once Joseph and Jesus no longer needed her, did not remain hidden away
 in her home in her later life. She embraced her vocation to extend her motherly love to all the world, and enrich it through her unique gifts and charisms. It was the inward humility of her soul that allowed her to live in the world but still retain the attitude of her womanly nature: she neither exalted herself nor sought to set herself up as a queen among men, but lived to serve and to continually efface herself so that the glory of Christ her Son might be all the more visible. She sought out the company of others so that her gaze, that was so continually oriented toward Christ, might direct their eyes also to His splendid radiance. The call of woman in the world is that she utilize those qualities which are so visible in motherhood for the care and nurture of the world and society.

---

[1] Pope John Paul II, part 29

[2] Luke 1:28

[3] John Paul II, part 20

[4] Matthew 12:50

[5] John 19:27

[6] Acts 1:14