The Church Grew in Understanding Mary's Role
H.H. Pope John Paul II
General Audience
November 8, 1995
1. In our
preceding catecheses we saw how the doctrine of Mary's
motherhood passed from its first formula, "Mother of Jesus",
to the more complete and explicit, "Mother of God", even to
the affirmation of her maternal involvement in the
redemption of humanity.
For other
aspects of Marian doctrine as well, many centuries were
necessary to arrive at the explicit definition of the
revealed truths concerning Mary. Typical examples of this
faith journey towards the ever deeper discovery of Mary's
role in the history of salvation are the dogma of the
Immaculate Conception and the Assumption, proclaimed, as we
know by two of my venerable predecessors, respectively, the
Servant of God Pius IX in 1854, and the Servant of God Pius
XII during the Jubilee Year of 1950.
Mariology is
a particular field of theological research: in it the
Christian people's love for Mary intuited, frequently in
anticipation, certain aspects of the mystery of the Blessed
Virgin, calling the attention of theologians and pastors to
them.
Mother of
Jesus had role in salvation history
2. We must
recognize that, at first sight, the Gospels offer scant
information on the person and life of Mary. We would
certainly like to have had fuller information about her,
which would have enabled us to know the Mother of God
better.
This
expectation remains unsatisfied, even in the other New
Testament writings where an explicit doctrinal development
regarding Mary is lacking. Even St Paul's letters, which
offer us a rich reflection on Christ and his work, limit
themselves to stating, in a very significant passage, that
God sent his Son "born of woman" (Gal 4:4).
Very little
is said about Mary's family. If we exclude the infancy
narratives, in the Synoptic Gospels we find only two
statements which shed some light on Mary: one concerning the
attempt by his "brethren" or relatives to take Jesus back to
Nazareth (cf. Mk 3:2 1; Mt 12:48); the other, in response to
a woman's exclamation about the blessedness of Jesus' Mother
(Lk 11:27).
Nevertheless,
Luke, in the infancy Gospel, in the episodes of the
Annunciation, the Visitation, the birth of Jesus, the
presentation of the Child in the temple and his finding
among the teachers at the age of 12, not only provides us
with some important facts, but presents a sort of
"proto-Mariology" of fundamental interest. His information
is indirectly completed by Matthew in the account of the
annunciation to Joseph (Mt 1:18-25), but only with regard to
the virginal conception of Jesus.
Moreover,
John's Gospel deepens our knowledge of the value for
salvation history of the role played by the Mother of Jesus,
when it records her presence at the beginning and end of his
public fife. Particularly significant is Mary's presence at
the Cross, when she received from her dying Son the charge
to be mother to the beloved disciple and, in him, to all
Christians (cf. Jn 2:1-12; Jn 19:25-27).
Lastly, the
Acts of the Apostles expressly numbers the Mother of Jesus
among the women of the first community awaiting Pentecost
(cf. Acts 1:14).
However, in
the absence of further New Testament evidence and reliable
historical sources, we know nothing of Mary's life after the
Pentecost event nor of the date and circumstances of her
death. We can only suppose that she continued to live with
the Apostle John and that she was very closely involved in
the development of the first Christian community.
3. The sparse
information on Mary's earthly life is compensated by its
quality and theological richness, which contemporary
exegesis has carefully brought to light.
Moreover, we
must remember that the Evangelists' viewpoint is totally
Christological and is concerned with the Mother only in
relation to the joyful proclamation of the Son. As St
Ambrose observed, the Evangelist, in expounding the mystery
of the Incarnation, "believed it was better not to seek
further testimonies about Mary's virginity, in order not to
seem the defender of the Virgin rather than the preacher of
the mystery" (Exp. in Lucam, 2, 6:
PL 15, 1555).
We can
recognize in this fact a special intention of the Holy
Spirit, who desired to awaken in the Church an effort of
research which, preserving the centrality of the mystery of
Christ, might not be caught up in details about Mary's life,
but aim above all at discovering her role in the work of
salvation, her personal holiness and her maternal mission in
Christian life.
Faith of the
simple recognized Mary's holiness
4. The Holy
Spirit guides the Church's effort, committing her to take on
Mary's own attitudes. In the account of Jesus' birth, Luke
noted how his mother kept all these things, "pondering them
in her heart" (Lk 2:19), striving, that is, to "put
together" (symballousa), in a deeper vision, all the
events of which she was the privileged witness.
Similarly,
the people of God are also urged by the same Spirit to
understand deeply all that has been said about Mary, in
order to progress in the knowledge of her mission,
intimately linked to the mystery of Christ.
As Mariology
develops, the particular role of the Christian people
emerges. They co-operate, by the affirmation and witness of
their faith, in the progress of Marian doctrine, which
normally is not only the work of theologians, even if their
task is indispensable to deepening and clearly explaining
the datum of faith and the Christian experience itself.
The faith of
the simple is admired and praised by Jesus, who recognized
in it a marvellous expression of the Father's benevolence
(cf. Mt 11:25; Lk 10:21). Down the centuries it continues to
proclaim the marvels of the history of salvation, hidden
from the wise. This faith, in harmony with the Virgin's
simplicity, has led to progress in the recognition of her
personal holiness and the transcendent value of her
motherhood.
The mystery
of Mary commits every Christian, in communion with the
Church, "to pondering in his heart" what the Gospel
revelation affirms about the Mother of Christ. In the logic
of the Magnificat, after the example of Mary, each
one will personally experience God's love and will discover
a sign of God's tenderness for man in the marvels wrought by
the Blessed Trinity in the woman "full of grace".
Taken from:
L'Osservatore Romano
Weekly Edition in English
15 November 1995
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