REDEMPTORIS MATER
ENCYCLICAL LETTER OF H.H. JOHN PAUL II
On the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Life of the Pilgrim Church
March 25, 1987
Blessing
Venerable Brothers and dear Sons and Daughters,
Health and the Apostolic Blessing.
INTRODUCTION
1.
The Mother of the Redeemer has a precise place in the plan of
salvation, for "when the time had fully come, God sent forth his
Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were
under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And
because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into
our hearts, crying, 'Abba! Father!'" (Gal. 4:4-6)
With these words of the Apostle Paul,
which the Second Vatican Council takes up at the beginning of
its treatment of the Blessed Virgin Mary,1
I too wish to begin my reflection on the role of Mary in the
mystery of Christ and on her active and exemplary presence in
the life of the Church. For they are words which celebrate
together the love of the Father, the mission of the Son, the
gift of the Spirit, the role of the woman from whom the Redeemer
was born, and our own divine filiation, in the mystery of the
"fullness of time."2
This "fullness" indicates the moment fixed
from all eternity when the Father sent his Son "that whoever
believes in him should not perish but have eternal life" (Jn.
3:16). It denotes the blessed moment when the Word that "was
with God...became flesh and dwelt among us" (Jn. 1:1, 14), and
made himself our brother. It marks the moment when the Holy
Spirit, who had already infused the fullness of grace into Mary
of Nazareth, formed in her virginal womb the human nature of
Christ. This "fullness" marks the moment when, with the entrance
of the eternal into time, time itself is redeemed, and being
filled with the mystery of Christ becomes definitively
"salvation time." Finally, this "fullness" designates the hidden
beginning of the Church's journey. In the liturgy the Church
salutes Mary of Nazareth as the Church's own beginning,3
for in the event of the Immaculate Conception the Church sees
projected, and anticipated in her most noble member, the saving
grace of Easter. And above all, in the Incarnation she
encounters Christ and Mary indissolubly joined: he who is the
Church's Lord and Head and she who, uttering the first fiat of
the New Covenant, prefigures the Church's condition as spouse
and mother.
2. Strengthened by the presence of Christ
(cf. Mt. 28:20), the Church journeys through time towards the
consummation of the ages and goes to meet the Lord who comes.
But on this journey- and I wish to make this point
straightaway-she proceeds along the path already trodden by the
Virgin Mary, who "advanced in her pilgrimage of faith, and
loyally persevered in her union with her Son unto the cross."4
I
take these very rich and evocative words from the Constitution
Lumen Gentium, which in its concluding part offers a clear
summary of the Church's doctrine on the Mother of Christ, whom
she venerates as her beloved Mother and as her model in faith
hope and charity.
Shortly after the Council, my great
predecessor Paul VI decided to speak further of the Blessed
Virgin. In the Encyclical Epistle Christi Matri and subsequently
in the Apostolic Exhortations Signum Magnum and Marialis Cultus5
he expounded the foundations and criteria of the special
veneration which the Mother of Christ receives in the Church, as
well as the various forms of Marian devotion- liturgical,
popular and private-which respond to the spirit of faith.
3.
The circumstance which now moves me to take up this subject once
more is the prospect of the year 2000, now drawing near, in
which the Bimillennial Jubilee of the birth of Jesus Christ at
the same time directs our gaze towards his Mother. In recent
years, various opinions have been voiced suggesting that it
would be fitting to precede that anniversary by a similar
Jubilee in celebration of the birth of Mary.
In fact, even though it is not possible to
establish an exact chronological point for identifying the date
of Mary's birth, the Church has constantly been aware that Mary
appeared on the horizon of salvation history before Christ.6
It is a fact that when "the fullness of time" was definitively
drawing near-the saving advent of Emmanuel- he who was from
eternity destined to be his Mother already existed on earth. The
fact that she "preceded" the coming of Christ is reflected every
year in the liturgy of Advent. Therefore, if to that ancient
historical expectation of the Savior we compare these years
which are bringing us closer to the end of the second Millennium
after Christ and to the beginning of the third, it becomes fully
comprehensible that in this present period we wish to turn in a
special way to her, the one who in the "night" of the Advent
expectation began to shine like a true "Morning Star" (Stella
Matutina). For just as this star, together with the "dawn,"
precedes the rising of the sun, so Mary from the time of her
Immaculate Conception preceded the coming of the Savior, the
rising of the "Sun of Justice" in the history of the human race.7
Her
presence in the midst of Israel-a presence so discreet as to
pass almost unnoticed by the eyes of her contemporaries-shone
very clearly before the Eternal One, who had associated this
hidden "daughter of Sion" (cf. Zeph. 3:14; Zeph. 2:10) with the
plan of salvation embracing the whole history of humanity. With
good reason, then, at the end of this Millennium, we Christians
who know that the providential plan of the Most Holy Trinity is
the central reality of Revelation and of faith feel the need to
emphasize the unique presence of the Mother of Christ in
history, especially during these last years leading up to the
year 2000.
4. The Second Vatican Council prepares us
for this by presenting in its teaching the Mother of God in the
mystery of Christ and of the Church. If it is true, as the
Council itself proclaims,8
that "only in the mystery of the Incarnate Word does the mystery
of man take on light," then this principle must be applied in a
very particular way to that exceptional "daughter of the human
race," that extraordinary "woman" who became the Mother of
Christ. Only in the mystery of Christ is her mystery fully made
clear. Thus has the Church sought to interpret it from the very
beginning: the mystery of the Incarnation has enabled her to
penetrate and to make ever clearer the mystery of the Mother of
the Incarnate Word. The Council of Ephesus (431) was of decisive
importance in clarifying this, for during that Council, to the
great joy of Christians, the truth of the divine motherhood of
Mary was solemnly confirmed as a truth of the Church's faith.
Mary is the Mother of God (= Theotókos), since by the power of
the Holy Spirit she conceived in her virginal womb and brought
into the world Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who is of one being
with the Father.9
"The Son of God...born of the Virgin Mary...has truly been made
one of us,"10
has been made man. Thus, through the mystery of Christ, on the
horizon of the Church's faith there shines in its fullness the
mystery of his Mother. In turn, the dogma of the divine
motherhood of Mary was for the Council of Ephesus and is for the
Church like a seal upon the dogma of the Incarnation, in which
the Word truly assumes human nature into the unity of his
person, without cancelling out that nature.
5. The Second Vatican Council, by
presenting Mary in the mystery of Christ, also finds the path to
a deeper understanding of the mystery of the Church. Mary, as
the Mother of Christ, is in a particular way united with the
Church, "which the Lord established as his own body."11
It is significant that the conciliar text places this truth
about the Church as the Body of Christ (according to the
teaching of the Pauline Letters) in close proximity to the truth
that the Son of God "through the power of the Holy Spirit was
born of the Virgin Mary." The reality of the Incarnation finds a
sort of extension in the mystery of the Church-the Body of
Christ. And one cannot think of the reality of the Incarnation
without referring to Mary, the Mother of the Incarnate Word.
In these reflections, however, I wish to
consider primarily that "pilgrimage of faith" in which "the
Blessed Virgin advanced," faithfully preserving her union with
Christ.12
In this way the "twofold bond" which unites the Mother of God
with Christ and with the Church takes on historical
significance. Nor is it just a question of the Virgin Mother's
life-story, of her personal journey of faith and "the better
part" which is hers in the mystery of salvation; it is also a
question of the history of the whole People of God, of all those
who take part in the same "pilgrimage of faith."
The Council expresses this when it states
in another passage that Mary "has gone before," becoming "a
model of the Church in the matter of faith, charity and perfect
union with Christ."13
This "going before" as a figure or model is in reference to the
intimate mystery of the Church, as she actuates and accomplishes
her own saving mission by uniting in herself-as Mary did-the
qualities of mother and virgin. She is a virgin who "keeps whole
and pure the fidelity she has pledged to her Spouse" and
"becomes herself a mother," for "she brings forth to a new and
immortal life children who are conceived of the Holy Spirit and
born of God."14
6.
All this is accomplished in a great historical process,
comparable "to a journey." The pilgrimage of faith indicates the
interior history, that is, the story of souls. But it is also
the story of all human beings, subject here on earth to
transitoriness, and part of the historical dimension. In the
following reflections we wish to concentrate first of all on the
present, which in itself is not yet history, but which
nevertheless is constantly forming it, also in the sense of the
history of salvation. Here there opens up a broad prospect,
within which the Blessed Virgin Mary continues to "go before"
the People of God. Her exceptional pilgrimage of faith
represents a constant point of reference for the Church, for
individuals and for communities, for peoples and nations and, in
a sense, for all humanity. It is indeed difficult to encompass
and measure its range.
The Council emphasizes that the Mother of
God is already the eschatological fulfillment of the Church: "In
the most holy Virgin the Church has already reached that
perfection whereby she exists without spot or wrinkle (cf. Eph.
5:27)"; and at the same time the Council says that "the
followers of Christ still strive to increase in holiness by
conquering sin, and so they raise their eyes to Mary, who shines
forth to the whole community of the elect as a model of the
virtues."15
The pilgrimage of faith no longer belongs to the Mother of the
Son of God: glorified at the side of her Son in heaven, Mary has
already crossed the threshold between faith and that vision
which is "face to face" (1 Cor. 13:12). At the same time,
however, in this eschatological fulfillment, Mary does not cease
to be the "Star of the Sea" (Maris Stella)
16 for
all those who are still on the journey of faith. If they lift
their eyes to her from their earthly existence, they do so
because "the Son whom she brought forth is he whom God placed as
the first-born among many brethren (Rom. 8:29),"17
and also because "in the birth and development" of these
brothers and sisters "she cooperates with a maternal love."18
PART I - MARY IN THE
MYSTERY OF CHRIST
1. Full of Grace
7.
"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has
blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the
heavenly places" (Eph. 1:3). These words of the Letter to the
Ephesians reveal the eternal design of God the Father, his plan
of man's salvation in Christ. It is a universal plan, which
concerns all men and women created in the image and likeness of
God (cf. Gen. 1:26). Just as all are included in the creative
work of God "in the beginning," so all are eternally included in
the divine plan of salvation, which is to be completely
revealed, in the "fullness of time," with the final coming of
Christ. In fact, the God who is the "Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ"-these are the next words of the same Letter-"chose us in
him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy
and blameless before him. He destined us in love to be his sons
through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to
the praise of his glorious grace, which he freely bestowed on us
in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the
forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his
grace" (Eph. 1:4-7).
The divine plan of salvation-which was
fully revealed to us with the coming of Christ-is eternal. And
according to the teaching contained in the Letter just quoted
and in other Pauline Letters (cf. Col. 1:12- 14; Rom. 3:24; Gal.
3:13; 2 Cor. 5:18-29), it is also eternally linked to Christ. It
includes everyone, but it reserves a special place for the
"woman" who is the Mother of him to whom the Father has
entrusted the work of salvation.19
As the Second Vatican Council says, "she is already
prophetically foreshadowed in that promise made to our first
parents after their fall into sin"-according to the Book of
Genesis (cf. 3:15). "Likewise she is the Virgin who is to
conceive and bear a son, whose name will be called Emmanuel"-
according to the words of Isaiah (cf. 7:14).20
In this way the Old Testament prepares that "fullness of time"
when God "sent forth his Son, born of woman...so that we might
receive adoption as sons." The coming into the world of the Son
of God is an event recorded in the first chapters of the Gospels
according to Luke and Matthew.
8. Mary is definitively introduced into
the mystery of Christ through this event: the Annunciation by
the angel. This takes place at Nazareth, within the concrete
circumstances of the history of Israel, the people which first
received God's promises. The divine messenger says to the
Virgin: "Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you" (Lk. 1:28).
Mary "was greatly troubled at the saying, and considered in her
mind what sort of greeting this might be" (Lk. 1:29): what could
those extraordinary words mean, and in particular the expression
"full of grace" (kecharitoméne).21
If
we wish to meditate together with Mary on these words, and
especially on the expression "full of grace," we can find a
significant echo in the very passage from the Letter to the
Ephesians quoted above. And if after the announcement of the
heavenly messenger the Virgin of Nazareth is also called
"blessed among women" (cf. Lk. 1:42), it is because of that
blessing with which "God the Father" has filled us "in the
heavenly places, in Christ." It is a spiritual blessing which is
meant for all people and which bears in itself fullness and
universality ("every blessing"). It flows from that love which,
in the Holy Spirit, unites the consubstantial Son to the Father.
At the same time, it is a blessing poured out through Jesus
Christ upon human history until the end: upon all people. This
blessing, however, refers to Mary in a special and exceptional
degree: for she was greeted by Elizabeth as "blessed among
women."
The
double greeting is due to the fact that in the soul of this
"daughter of Sion" there is manifested, in a sense, all the
"glory of grace," that grace which "the Father...has given us in
his beloved Son." For the messenger greets Mary as "full of
grace"; he calls her thus as if it were her real name. He does
not call her by her proper earthly name: Miryam (= Mary), but by
this new name: "full of grace." What does this name mean? Why
does the archangel address the Virgin of Nazareth in this way?
In
the language of the Bible "grace" means a special gift, which
according to the New Testament has its source precisely in the
Trinitarian life of God himself, God who is love (cf. 1 Jn.
4:8). The fruit of this love is "the election" of which the
Letter to the Ephesians speaks. On the part of God, this
election is the eternal desire to save man through a sharing in
his own life (cf. 2 Pt. 1:4) in Christ: it is salvation through
a sharing in supernatural life. The effect of this eternal gift,
of this grace of man's election by God, is like a seed of
holiness, or a spring which rises in the soul as a gift from God
himself, who through grace gives life and holiness to those who
are chosen. In this way there is fulfilled, that is to say there
comes about, that "blessing" of man "with every spiritual
blessing," that "being his adopted sons and daughters...in
Christ," in him who is eternally the "beloved Son" of the
Father.
When we read that the messenger addresses
Mary as "full of grace," the Gospel context, which mingles
revelations and ancient promises, enables us to understand that
among all the "spiritual blessings in Christ" this is a special
"blessing." In the mystery of Christ she is present even "before
the creation of the world," as the one whom the Father "has
chosen" as Mother of his Son in the Incarnation. And, what is
more, together with the Father, the Son has chosen her,
entrusting her eternally to the Spirit of holiness. In an
entirely special and exceptional way Mary is united to Christ,
and similarly she is eternally loved in this "beloved Son," this
Son who is of one being with the Father, in whom is concentrated
all the "glory of grace." At the same time, she is and remains
perfectly open to this "gift from above" (cf. Jas. 1:17). As the
Council teaches, Mary "stands out among the poor and humble of
the Lord, who confidently await and receive salvation from him."22
9.
If the greeting and the name "full of grace" say all this, in
the context of the angel's announcement they refer first of all
to the election of Mary as Mother of the Son of God. But at the
same time the "fullness of grace" indicates all the supernatural
munificence from which Mary benefits by being chosen and
destined to be the Mother of Christ. If this election is
fundamental for the accomplishment of God's salvific designs for
humanity, and if the eternal choice in Christ and the vocation
to the dignity of adopted children is the destiny of everyone,
then the election of Mary is wholly exceptional and unique.
Hence also the singularity and uniqueness of her place in the
mystery of Christ.
The
divine messenger says to her: "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you
have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your
womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will
be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High" (Lk.
1:30-32). And when the Virgin, disturbed by that extraordinary
greeting, asks: "How shall this be, since I have no husband?"
she receives from the angel the confirmation and explanation of
the preceding words. Gabriel says to her: "The Holy Spirit will
come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow
you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son
of God" (Lk. 1:35).
The Annunciation, therefore, is the
revelation of the mystery of the Incarnation at the very
beginning of its fulfillment on earth. God's salvific giving of
himself and his life, in some way to all creation but directly
to man, reaches one of its high points in the mystery of the
Incarnation. This is indeed a high point among all the gifts of
grace conferred in the history of man and of the universe: Mary
is "full of grace," because it is precisely in her that the
Incarnation of the Word, the hypostatic union of the Son of God
with human nature, is accomplished and fulfilled. As the Council
says, Mary is "the Mother of the Son of God. As a result she is
also the favorite daughter of the Father and the temple of the
Holy Spirit. Because of this gift of sublime grace, she far
surpasses all other creatures, both in heaven and on earth."23
10. The Letter to the Ephesians, speaking
of the "glory of grace" that "God, the Father...has bestowed on
us in his beloved Son," adds: "In him we have redemption through
his blood" (Eph. 1:7). According to the belief formulated in
solemn documents of the Church, this "glory of grace" is
manifested in the Mother of God through the fact that she has
been "redeemed in a more sublime manner."24
By virtue of the richness of the grace of the beloved Son, by
reason of the redemptive merits of him who willed to become her
Son, Mary was preserved from the inheritance of original sin.25
In this way, from the first moment of her conception- which is
to say of her existence-she belonged to Christ, sharing in the
salvific and sanctifying grace and in that love which has its
beginning in the "Beloved," the Son of the Eternal Father, who
through the Incarnation became her own Son. Consequently,
through the power of the Holy Spirit, in the order of grace,
which is a participation in the divine nature, Mary receives
life from him to whom she herself, in the order of earthly
generation, gave life as a mother. The liturgy does not hesitate
to call her "mother of her Creator"26
and to hail her with the words which Dante Alighieri places on
the lips of St. Bernard: "daughter of your Son."27
And since Mary receives this "new life" with a fullness
corresponding to the Son's love for the Mother, and thus
corresponding to the dignity of the divine motherhood, the angel
at the Annunciation calls her "full of grace."
11.
In the salvific design of the Most Holy Trinity, the mystery of
the Incarnation constitutes the superabundant fulfillment of the
promise made by God to man after original sin, after that first
sin whose effects oppress the whole earthly history of man (cf.
Gen. 3:15). And so, there comes into the world a Son, "the seed
of the woman" who will crush the evil of sin in its very
origins: "he will crush the head of the serpent." As we see from
the words of the Protogospel, the victory of the woman's Son
will not take place without a hard struggle, a struggle that is
to extend through the whole of human history. The "enmity,"
foretold at the beginning, is confirmed in the Apocalypse (the
book of the final events of the Church and the world), in which
there recurs the sign of the "woman," this time "clothed with
the sun" (Rev. 12:1).
Mary, Mother of the Incarnate Word, is placed at the very center
of that enmity, that struggle which accompanies the history of
humanity on earth and the history of salvation itself. In this
central place, she who belongs to the "weak and poor of the
Lord" bears in herself, like no other member of the human race,
that "glory of grace" which the Father "has bestowed on us in
his beloved Son," and this grace determines the extraordinary
greatness and beauty of her whole being. Mary thus remains
before God, and also before the whole of humanity, as the
unchangeable and inviolable sign of God's election, spoken of in
Paul's letter: "in Christ...he chose us...before the foundation
of the world,...he destined us...to be his sons" (Eph. 1:4, 5).
This election is more powerful than any experience of evil and
sin, than all that "enmity" which marks the history of man. In
this history Mary remains a sign of sure hope.
2. Blessed is she
who believed
12.
Immediately after the narration of the Annunciation, the
Evangelist Luke guides us in the footsteps of the Virgin of
Nazareth towards "a city of Judah" (Lk. 1:39). According to
scholars this city would be the modern Ain Karim, situated in
the mountains, not far from Jerusalem. Mary arrived there "in
haste," to visit Elizabeth her kinswoman. The reason for her
visit is also to be found in the fact that at the Annunciation
Gabriel had made special mention of Elizabeth, who in her old
age had conceived a son by her husband Zechariah, through the
power of God: "your kins woman Elizabeth in her old age has also
conceived a Son; and this is the sixth month with her who was
called barren. For with God nothing will be impossible" (Lk.
1:36-37). The divine messenger had spoken of what had been
accomplished in Elizabeth in order to answer Mary's question.
"How shall this be, since I have no husband?" (Lk. 1:34) It is
to come to pass precisely through the "power of the Most High,"
just as it happened in the case of Elizabeth, and even more so.
Moved by charity, therefore, Mary goes to the house of her
kinswoman. When Mary enters, Elizabeth replies to her greeting
and feels the child leap in her womb, and being "filled with the
Holy Spirit" she greets Mary with a loud cry: "Blessed are you
among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!" (cf. Lk.
1:40-42) Elizabeth's exclamation or acclamation was subsequently
to become part of the Hail Mary, as a continuation of the
angel's greeting, thus becoming one of the Church's most
frequently used prayers. But still more significant are the
words of Elizabeth in the question which follows: "And why is
this granted me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?"
(Lk. 1:43) Elizabeth bears witness to Mary: she recognizes and
proclaims that before her stands the Mother of the Lord, the
Mother of the Messiah. The son whom Elizabeth is carrying in her
womb also shares in this witness: "The babe in my womb leaped
for joy" (Lk. 1:44). This child is the future John the Baptist,
who at the Jordan will point out Jesus as the Messiah.
While every word of Elizabeth's greeting
is filled with meaning, her final words would seem to have
fundamental importance: "And blessed is she who believed that
there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the
Lord" (Lk. 1:45).28
These words can be linked with the little "full of grace" of the
angel's greeting. Both of these texts reveal an essential
Mariological content, namely the truth about Mary, who has
become really present in the mystery of Christ precisely because
she "has believed." The fullness of grace announced by the angel
means the gift of God himself. Mary's faith, proclaimed by
Elizabeth at the Visitation, indicates how the Virgin of
Nazareth responded to this gift.
13. As the Council teaches, "'The
obedience of faith' (Rom. 16:26; cf. Rom. 1:5; 2 Cor. 10:5-6)
must be given to God who reveals, an obedience by which man
entrusts his whole self freely to God."29
This description of faith found perfect realization in Mary. The
"decisive" moment was the Annunciation, and the very words of
Elizabeth: "And blessed is she who believed" refer primarily to
that very moment.30
Indeed, at the Annunciation Mary entrusted
herself to God completely, with the "full submission of
intellect and will," manifesting "the obedience of faith" to him
who spoke to her through his messenger.31
She responded, therefore, with all her human and feminine "I,"
and this response of faith included both perfect cooperation
with "the grace of God that precedes and assists" and perfect
openness to the action of the Holy Spirit, who "constantly
brings faith to completion by his gifts."32
The word of the living God, announced to
Mary by the angel, referred to her: "And behold, you will
conceive in your womb and bear a son" (Lk. 1:31). By accepting
this announcement, Mary was to become the "Mother of the Lord,"
and the divine mystery of the Incarnation was to be accomplished
in her: "The Father of mercies willed that the consent of the
predestined Mother should precede the Incarnation."33
And Mary gives this consent, after she has heard everything the
messenger has to say. She says: "Behold, I am the handmaid of
the Lord; let it be to me according to your word" (Lk. 1:38).
This fiat of Mary-"let it be to me"-was decisive, on the human
level, for the accomplishment of the divine mystery. There is a
complete harmony with the words of the Son, who, according to
the Letter to the Hebrews, says to the Father as he comes into
the world: "Sacrifices and offering you have not desired, but a
body you have prepared for me.... Lo, I have come to do your
will, O God" (Heb. 10:5-7). The mystery of the Incarnation was
accomplished when Mary uttered her fiat: "Let it be to me
according to your word," which made possible, as far as it
depended upon her in the divine plan, the granting of her Son's
desire.
Mary uttered this fiat in faith. In faith
she entrusted herself to God without reserve and "devoted
herself totally as the handmaid of the Lord to the person and
work of her Son."34
And as the Fathers of the Church teach-she conceived this Son in
her mind before she conceived him in her womb: precisely in
faith!35
Rightly therefore does Elizabeth praise Mary: "And blessed is
she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was
spoken to her from the Lord." These words have already been
fulfilled: Mary of Nazareth presents herself at the threshold of
Elizabeth and Zechariah's house as the Mother of the Son of God.
This is Elizabeth's joyful discovery: "The mother of my Lord
comes to me"!
14.
Mary's faith can also be compared to that of Abraham, whom St.
Paul calls "our father in faith" (cf. Rom. 4:12). In the
salvific economy of God's revelation, Abraham's faith
constitutes the beginning of the Old Covenant; Mary's faith at
the Annunciation inaugurates the New Covenant. Just as Abraham
"in hope believed against hope, that he should become the father
of many nations" (cf. Rom. 4:18), so Mary, at the Annunciation,
having professed her virginity ("How shall this be, since I have
no husband?") believed that through the power of the Most High,
by the power of the Holy Spirit, she would become the Mother of
God's Son in accordance with the angel's revelation: "The child
to be born will be called holy, the Son of God" (Lk. 1:35).
However, Elizabeth's words "And blessed is she who believed" do
not apply only to that particular moment of the Annunciation.
Certainly the Annunciation is the culminating moment of Mary's
faith in her awaiting of Christ, but it is also the point of
departure from which her whole "journey towards God" begins, her
whole pilgrimage of faith. And on this road, in an eminent and
truly heroic manner- indeed with an ever greater heroism of
faith-the "obedience" which she professes to the word of divine
revelation will be fulfilled. Mary's "obedience of faith" during
the whole of her pilgrimage will show surprising similarities to
the faith of Abraham. Just like the Patriarch of the People of
God, so too Mary, during the pilgrimage of her filial and
maternal fiat, "in hope believed against hope." Especially
during certain stages of this journey the blessing granted to
her "who believed" will be revealed with particular vividness.
To believe means "to abandon oneself" to the truth of the word
of the living God, knowing and humbly recognizing "how
unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways"
(Rom. 11:33). Mary, who by the eternal will of the Most High
stands, one may say, at the very center of those "inscrutable
ways" and "unsearchable judgments" of God, conforms herself to
them in the dim light of faith, accepting fully and with a ready
heart everything that is decreed in the divine plan.
15.
When at the Annunciation Mary hears of the Son whose Mother she
is to become and to whom "she will give the name Jesus" (=
Savior), she also learns that "the Lord God will give to him the
throne of his father David," and that "he will reign over the
house of Jacob for ever and of his kingdom there will be no end"
(Lk. 1:32- 33). The hope of the whole of Israel was directed
towards this. The promised Messiah is to be "great," and the
heavenly messenger also announces that "he will be great"-great
both by bearing the name of Son of the Most High and by the fact
that he is to assume the inheritance of David. He is therefore
to be a king, he is to reign "over the house of Jacob." Mary had
grown up in the midst of these expectations of her people: could
she guess, at the moment of the Annunciation, the vital
significance of the angel's words? And how is one to understand
that "kingdom" which "will have no end"?
Although through faith she may have perceived in that instant
the was the mother of the "Messiah King," nevertheless she
replied: "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be to me
according to your word" (Lk. 1:38). From the first moment Mary
professed above all the "obedience of faith," abandoning herself
to the meaning which was given to the words of the Annunciation
by him from whom they proceeded: God himself.
16.
Later, a little further along this way of the "obedience of
faith," Mary hears other words: those uttered by Simeon in the
Temple of Jerusalem. It was now forty days after the birth of
Jesus when, in accordance with the precepts of the Law of Moses,
Mary and Joseph "brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to
the Lord" (Lk. 2:22). The birth had taken place in conditions of
extreme poverty. We know from Luke that when, on the occasion of
the census ordered by the Roman authorities, Mary went with
Joseph to Bethlehem, having found "no place in the inn," she
gave birth to her Son in a stable and "laid him in a manger"
(cf. Lk. 2:7).
A
just and God-fearing man, called Simeon, appears at this
beginning of Mary's "journey" of faith. His words, suggested by
the Holy Spirit (cf. Lk. 2:25-27), confirm the truth of the
Annunciation. For we read that he took up in his arms the child
to whom-in accordance with the angel's command-the name Jesus
was given (cf. Lk. 2:21). Simeon's words match the meaning of
this name, which is Savior: "God is salvation." Turning to the
Lord, he says: "For my eyes have seen your salvation which you
have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for
revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel"
(Lk. 2:30-32). At the same time, however, Simeon addresses Mary
with the following words: "Behold, this child is set for the
fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is spoken
against, that thoughts out of many hearts may be revealed"; and
he adds with direct reference to her: "and a sword will pierce
through your own soul also" (cf. Lk. 2:34-35). Simeon's words
cast new light on the announcement which Mary had heard from the
angel: Jesus is the Savior, he is "a light for revelation" to
mankind. Is not this what was manifested in a way on Christmas
night, when the shepherds come to the stable (cf. Lk. 2:8-20)?
Is not this what was to be manifested even more clearly in the
coming of the Magi from the East (cf. Mt. 2:1-12)? But at the
same time, at the very beginning of his life, the Son of Mary,
and his Mother with him, will experience in themselves the truth
of those other words of Simeon: "a sign that is spoken against"
(Lk. 2:34). Simeon's words seem like a second Annunciation to
Mary, for they tell her of the actual historical situation in
which the Son is to accomplish his mission, namely, in
misunderstanding and sorrow. While this announcement on the one
hand confirms her faith in the accomplishment of the divine
promises of salvation, on the other hand it also reveals to her
that she will have to live her obedience of faith in suffering,
at the side of the suffering Savior, and that her motherhood
will be mysterious and sorrowful. Thus, after the visit of the
Magi who came from the East, after their homage ("they fell down
and worshipped him") and after they had offered gifts (cf. Mt.
2:11), Mary together with the child has to flee into Egypt in
the protective care of Joseph, for "Herod is about to search for
the child, to destroy him" (cf. Mt. 2:13). And until the death
of Herod they will have to remain in Egypt (cf. Mt. 2:15).
17.
When the Holy Family returns to Nazareth after Herod's death,
there begins the long period of the hidden life. She "who
believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to
her from the Lord" (Lk. 1:45) lives the reality of these words
day by day. And daily at her side is the Son to whom "she gave
the name Jesus"; therefore in contact with him she certainly
uses this name, a fact which would have surprised no one, since
the name had long been in use in Israel. Nevertheless, Mary
knows that he who bears the name Jesus has been called by the
angel "the Son of the Most High" (cf. Lk. 1:32). Mary knows she
has conceived and given birth to him "without having a husband,"
by the power of the Holy Spirit, by the power of the Most High
who overshadowed her (cf. Lk. 1:35), just as at the time of
Moses and the Patriarchs the cloud covered the presence of God
(cf. Ex. 24:16; 40:34-35; I Kings 8:10-12). Therefore Mary knows
that the Son to whom she gave birth in a virginal manner is
precisely that "Holy One," the Son of God, of whom the angel
spoke to her.
During the years of Jesus' hidden life in the house at Nazareth,
Mary's life too is "hid with Christ in God" (cf. Col. 3:3)
through faith. For faith is contact with the mystery of God.
Every day Mary is in constant contact with the ineffable mystery
of God made man, a mystery that surpasses everything revealed in
the Old Covenant. From the moment of the Annunciation, the mind
of the Virgin-Mother has been initiated into the radical
"newness" of God's self-revelation and has been made aware of
the mystery. She is the first of those "little ones" of whom
Jesus will say one day: "Father, ...you have hidden these things
from the wise and understanding and revealed them to babes" (Mt.
11:25). For "no one knows the Son except the Father" (Mt.
11:27). If this is the case, how can Mary "know the Son"? Of
course she does not know him as the Father does; and yet she is
the first of those to whom the Father "has chosen to reveal him"
(cf. Mt. 11:26-27; 1 Cor. 2:11). If though, from the moment of
the Annunciation, the Son-whom only the Father knows completely,
as the one who begets him in the eternal "today" (cf. Ps. 2:7)
was revealed to Mary, she, his Mother, is in contact with the
truth about her Son only in faith and through faith! She is
therefore blessed, because "she has believed," and continues to
believe day after day amidst all the trials and the adversities
of Jesus' infancy and then during the years of the hidden life
at Nazareth, where he "was obedient to them" (Lk. 2:51). He was
obedient both to Mary and also to Joseph, since Joseph took the
place of his father in people's eyes; for this reason, the Son
of Mary was regarded by the people as "the carpenter's son" (Mt.
13:55).
The Mother of that Son, therefore, mindful
of what has been told her at the Annunciation and in subsequent
events, bears within herself the radical "newness" of faith: the
beginning of the New Covenant. This is the beginning of the
Gospel, the joyful Good News. However, it is not difficult to
see in that beginning a particular heaviness of heart, linked
with a sort of night of faith"-to use the words of St. John of
the Cross-a kind of "veil" through which one has to draw near to
the Invisible One and to live in intimacy with the mystery.36
And this is the way that Mary, for many years, lived in intimacy
with the mystery of her Son, and went forward in her "pilgrimage
of faith," while Jesus "increased in wisdom...and in favor with
God and man" (Lk. 2:52). God's predilection for him was
manifested ever more clearly to people's eyes. The first human
creature thus permitted to discover Christ was Mary, who lived
with Joseph in the same house at Nazareth.
However, when he had been found in the
Temple, and his Mother asked him, "Son, why have you treated us
so?" the twelve-year-old Jesus answered: "Did you not know that
I must be in my Father's house?" And the Evangelist adds: "And
they (Joseph and Mary) did not understand the saying which he
spoke to them" (Lk. 2:48-50). Jesus was aware that "no one knows
the Son except the Father" (cf. Mt. 11:27); thus even his
Mother, to whom had been revealed most completely the mystery of
his divine sonship, lived in intimacy with this mystery only
through faith! Living side by side with her Son under the same
roof, and faithfully persevering "in her union with her Son,"
she "advanced in her pilgrimage of faith," as the Council
emphasizes.37
And so it was during Christ's public life too (cf. Mk. 3:21-35)
that day by day there was fulfilled in her the blessing uttered
by Elizabeth at the Visitation: "Blessed is she who believed."
18. This blessing reaches its full meaning
when Mary stands beneath the Cross of her Son (cf. Jn. 19:25).
The Council says that this happened "not without a divine plan":
by "suffering deeply with her only-begotten Son and joining
herself with her maternal spirit to his sacrifice, lovingly
consenting to the immolation of the victim to whom she had given
birth," in this way Mary "faithfully preserved her union with
her Son even to the Cross."38
It is a union through faith- the same faith with which she had
received the angel's revelation at the Annunciation. At that
moment she had also heard the words: "He will be great...and the
Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he
will reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom
there will be no end" (Lk. 1:32-33).
And now, standing at the foot of the
Cross, Mary is the witness, humanly speaking, of the complete
negation of these words. On that wood of the Cross her Son hangs
in agony as one condemned. "He was despised and rejected by men;
a man of sorrows...he was despised, and we esteemed him not": as
one destroyed (cf. Is. 53:3- 5). How great, how heroic then is
the obedience of faith shown by Mary in the face of God's
"unsearchable judgments"! How completely she "abandons herself
to God" without reserve, offering the full assent of the
intellect and the will"39
to him whose "ways are inscrutable" (cf. Rom. 11:33)! And how
powerful too is the action of grace in her soul, how
all-pervading is the influence of the Holy Spirit and of his
light and power!
Through this faith Mary is perfectly
united with Christ in his self- emptying. For "Christ Jesus,
who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality
with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the
form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men": precisely
on Golgotha "humbled himself and became obedient unto death,
even death on a cross" (cf. Phil. 2:5-8). At the foot of the
Cross Mary shares through faith in the shocking mystery of this
self- emptying. This is perhaps the deepest "kenosis" of faith
in human history. Through faith the Mother shares in the death
of her Son, in his redeeming death; but in contrast with the
faith of the disciples who fled, hers was far more enlightened.
On Golgotha, Jesus through the Cross definitively confirmed that
he was the "sign of contradiction" foretold by Simeon. At the
same time, there were also fulfilled on Golgotha the words which
Simeon had addressed to Mary: "and a sword will pierce through
your own soul also."40
19. Yes, truly "blessed is she who
believed"! These words, spoken by Elizabeth after the
Annunciation, here at the foot of the Cross seem to re-echo with
supreme eloquence, and the power contained within them becomes
something penetrating. From the Cross, that is to say from the
very heart of the mystery of Redemption, there radiates and
spreads out the prospect of that blessing of faith It goes right
hack to "the beginning." and as a sharing in the sacrifice of
Christ-the new Adam-it becomes in a certain sense the
counterpoise to the disobedience and disbelief embodied in the
sin of our first parents. Thus teach the Fathers of the Church
and especially St. Irenaeus, quoted by the Constitution Lumen
Gentium: "The knot of Eve's disobedience was untied by Mary's
obedience; what the virgin Eve bound through her unbelief, the
Virgin Mary loosened by her faith."41
In the light of this comparison with Eve, the Fathers of the
Church-as the Council also says-call Mary the "mother of the
liing" and often speak of "death through Eve, life through
Mary."42
In
the expression "Blessed is she who believed," we can therefore
rightly find a kind of "key" which unlocks for us the innermost
reality of Mary, whom the angel hailed as "full of grace." If as
"full of grace" she has been eternally present in the mystery of
Christ, through faith she became a sharer in that mystery in
every extension of her earthly journey. She "advanced in her
pilgrimage of faith" and at the same time, in a discreet yet
direct and effective way, she made present to humanity the
mystery of Christ. And she still continues to do so. Through the
mystery of Christ, she too is present within mankind. Thus
through the mystery of the Son the mystery of the Mother is also
made clear.
3. Behold your
mother
20.
The Gospel of Luke records the moment when "a woman in the crowd
raised her voice" and said to Jesus: "Blessed is the womb that
bore you, and the breasts that you sucked!" (Lk. 11:27) These
words were an expression of praise of Mary as Jesus' mother
according to the flesh. Probably the Mother of Jesus was not
personally known to this woman; in fact, when Jesus began his
messianic activity Mary did not accompany him but continued to
remain at Nazareth. One could say that the words of that unknown
woman in a way brought Mary out of her hiddenness.
Through these words, there flashed out in
the midst of the crowd, at least for an instant, the gospel of
Jesus' infancy. This is the gospel in which Mary is present as
the mother who conceives Jesus in her womb, gives him birth and
nurses him: the nursing mother referred to by the woman in the
crowd. Thanks to this motherhood, Jesus, the Son of the Most
High (cf. Lk. 1:32), is a true son of man. He is "flesh," like
every other man: he is "the Word (who) became flesh" (cf. Jn.
1:14). He is of the flesh and blood of Mary!43
But
to the blessing uttered by that woman upon her who was his
mother according to the flesh, Jesus replies in a significant
way: "Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep
it" (Lk. 11:28). He wishes to divert attention from motherhood
understood only as a fleshly bond, in order to direct it towards
those mysterious bonds of the spirit which develop from hearing
and keeping God's word.
This
same shift into the sphere of spiritual values is seen even more
clearly in another response of Jesus reported by all the
Synoptics. When Jesus is told that "his mother and brothers are
standing outside and wish to see him," he replies: "My mother
and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it"
(cf. Lk. 8:20-21). This he said "looking around on those who sat
about him," as we read in Mark (3:34) or, according to Matthew
(12:49), "stretching out his hand towards his disciples."
These statements seem to fit in with the reply which the twelve-
year-old Jesus gave to Mary and Joseph when he was found after
three days in the Temple at Jerusalem.
Now,
when Jesus left Nazareth and began his public life throughout
Palestine, he was completely and exclusively "concerned with his
Father's business" (cf. Lk. 2:49). He announced the Kingdom: the
"Kingdom of God" and "his Father's business," which add a new
dimension and meaning to everything human, and therefore to
every human bond, insofar as these things relate to the goals
and tasks assigned to every human being. Within this new
dimension, also a bond such as that of "brotherhood" means
something different from "brotherhood according to the flesh"
deriving from a common origin from the same set of parents.
"Motherhood," too, in the dimension of the Kingdom of God and in
the radius of the fatherhood of God himself, takes on another
meaning. In the words reported by Luke, Jesus teaches precisely
this new meaning of motherhood.
Is
Jesus thereby distancing himself from his mother according to
the flesh? Does he perhaps wish to leave her in the hidden
obscurity which she herself has chosen? If this seems to be the
case from the tone of those words, one must nevertheless note
that the new and different motherhood which Jesus speaks of to
his disciples refers precisely to Mary in a very special way. Is
not Mary the first of "those who hear the word of God and do
it"? And therefore does not the blessing uttered by Jesus in
response to the woman in the crowd refer primarily to her?
Without any doubt, Mary is worthy of blessing by the very fact
that she became the mother of Jesus according to the flesh
("Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts that you
sucked"), but also and especially because already at the
Annunciation she accepted the word of God, because she believed
it, because she was obedient to God, and because she "kept" the
word and "pondered it in her heart" (cf. Lk. 1:38, 45; 2:19, 51)
and by means of her whole life accomplished it. Thus we can say
that the blessing proclaimed by Jesus is not in opposition,
despite appearances, to the blessing uttered by the unknown
woman, but rather coincides with that blessing in the person of
this Virgin Mother, who called herself only "the handmaid of the
Lord" (Lk. 1:38). If it is true that "all generations will call
her blessed" (cf. Lk. 1:48), then it can be said that the
unnamed woman was the first to confirm unwittingly that
prophetic phrase of Mary's Magnificat and to begin the
Magnificat of the ages.
If
through faith Mary became the bearer of the Son given to her by
the Father through the power of the Holy Spirit, while
preserving her virginity intact, in that same faith she
discovered and accepted the other dimension of motherhood
revealed by Jesus during his messianic mission. One can say that
this dimension of motherhood belonged to Mary from the
beginning, that is to say from the moment of the conception and
birth of her Son. From that time she was "the one who believed."
But as the messianic mission of her Son grew clearer to her eyes
and spirit, she herself as a mother became ever more open to
that new dimension of motherhood which was to constitute her
"part" beside her Son. Had she not said from the very beginning:
"Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be to me
according to your word" (Lk. 1:38)? Through faith Mary continued
to hear and to ponder that word, in which there became ever
clearer, in a way "which surpasses knowledge" (Eph. 3:19), the
self-revelation of the living God. Thus in a sense Mary as
Mother became the first "disciple" of her Son, the first to whom
he seemed to say: "Follow me," even before he addressed this
call to the Apostles or to anyone else (cf. Jn. 1:43).
21.
From this point of view, particularly eloquent is the passage in
the Gospel of John which presents Mary at the wedding feast of
Cana. She appears there as the Mother of Jesus at the beginning
of his public life: "There was a marriage at Cana in Galilee,
and the mother of Jesus was there; Jesus also was invited to the
marriage, with his disciples" (Jn. 2:1-2). From the text it
appears that Jesus and his disciples were invited together with
Mary, as if by reason of her presence at the celebration: the
Son seems to have been invited because of his mother. We are
familiar with the sequence of events which resulted from that
invitation, that "beginning of the signs" wrought by Jesus-the
water changed into wine-which prompts the Evangelist to say that
Jesus "manifested his glory; and his disciples believed in him"
(Jn. 2:11).
Mary
is present at Cana in Galilee as the Mother of Jesus, and in a
significant way she contributes to that "beginning of the signs"
which reveal the messianic power of her Son. We read: "When the
wine gave out, the mother of Jesus said to him, 'They have no
wine.' And Jesus said to her, 'O woman, what have you to do with
me? My hour has not yet come'" (Jn. 2:3-4). In John's Gospel
that "hour" means the time appointed by the Father when the Son
accomplishes his task and is to be glorified (cf. Jn. 7:30;
8:20; 12:23, 27; 13:1; 17:1; 19:27). Even though Jesus' reply to
his mother sounds like a refusal (especially if we consider the
blunt statement "My hour has not yet come" rather than the
question), Mary nevertheless turns to the servants and says to
them: "Do whatever he tells you" (Jn. 2:5). Then Jesus orders
the servants to fill the stone jars with water, and the water
becomes wine, better than the wine which has previously been
served to the wedding guests.
What
deep understanding existed between Jesus and his mother? How can
we probe the mystery of their intimate spiritual union? But the
fact speaks for itself. It is certain that that event already
quite clearly outlines the new dimension, the new meaning of
Mary's motherhood. Her motherhood has a significance which is
not exclusively contained in the words of Jesus and in the
various episodes reported by the Synoptics (Lk. 11:27-28 and Lk.
8:19-21; Mt. 12:46-50; Mk. 3:31-35). In these texts Jesus means
above all to contrast the motherhood resulting from the fact of
birth with what this "motherhood" (and also "brotherhood") is to
be in the dimension of the Kingdom of God, in the salvific
radius of God's fatherhood. In John's text on the other hand,
the description of the Cana event outlines what is actually
manifested as a new kind of motherhood according to the spirit
and not just according to the flesh, that is to say Mary's
solicitude for human beings, her coming to them in the wide
variety of their wants and needs. At Cana in Galilee there is
shown only one concrete aspect of human need, apparently a small
one of little importance ("They have no wine"). But it has a
symbolic value: this coming to the aid of human needs means, at
the same time, bringing those needs within the radius of
Christ's messianic mission and salvific power. Thus there is a
mediation: Mary places herself between her Son and mankind in
the reality of their wants, needs and sufferings. She puts
herself "in the middle," that is to say she acts as a mediatrix
not as an outsider, but in her position as mother. She knows
that as such she can point out to her Son the needs of mankind,
and in fact, she "has the right" to do so. Her mediation is thus
in the nature of intercession: Mary "intercedes" for mankind.
And that is not all. As a mother she also wishes the messianic
power of her Son to be manifested, that salvific power of his
which is meant to help man in his misfortunes, to free him from
the evil which in various forms and degrees weighs heavily upon
his life. Precisely as the Prophet Isaiah had foretold about the
Messiah in the famous passage which Jesus quoted before his
fellow townsfolk in Nazareth: "To preach good news to the
poor...to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of
sight to the blind..." (cf. Lk. 4:18).
Another essential element of Mary's maternal task is found in
her words to the servants: "Do whatever he tells you." The
Mother of Christ presents herself as the spokeswoman of her
Son's will, pointing out those things which must be done so that
the salvific power of the Messiah may be manifested. At Cana,
thanks to the intercession of Mary and the obedience of the
servants, Jesus begins "his hour." At Cana Mary appears as
believing in Jesus. Her faith evokes his first "sign" and helps
to kindle the faith of the disciples.
22. We can therefore say that in this
passage of John's Gospel we find as it were a first
manifestation of the truth concerning Mary's maternal care. This
truth has also found expression in the teaching of the Second
Vatican Council. It is important to note how the Council
illustrates Mary's maternal role as it relates to the mediation
of Christ. Thus we read: "Mary's maternal function towards
mankind in no way obscures or diminishes the unique mediation of
Christ, but rather shows its efficacy," because "there is one
mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus" (1 Tim.
2:5). This maternal role of Mary flows, according to God's good
pleasure, "from the superabundance of the merits of Christ; it
is founded on his mediation, absolutely depends on it, and draws
all its efficacy from it."44
It is precisely in this sense that the episode at Cana in
Galilee offers us a sort of first announcement of Mary's
mediation, wholly oriented towards Christ and tending to the
revelation of his salvific power.
From the text of John it is evident that
it is a mediation which is maternal. As the Council proclaims:
Mary became "a mother to us in the order of grace." This
motherhood in the order of grace flows from her divine
motherhood. Because she was, by the design of divine Providence,
the mother who nourished the divine Redeemer, Mary became "an
associate of unique nobility, and the Lord's humble handmaid,"
who "cooperated by her obedience, faith, hope and burning
charity in the Savior's work of restoring supernatural life to
souls."45
And "this maternity of Mary in the order of grace. . .will last
without interruption until the eternal fulfillment of all the
elect." 46
23.
If John's description of the event at Cana presents Mary's
caring motherhood at the beginning of Christ's messianic
activity, another passage from the same Gospel confirms this
motherhood in the salvific economy of grace at its crowning
moment, namely when Christ's sacrifice on the Cross, his Paschal
Mystery, is accomplished. John's description is concise:
"Standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother, and his
mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene.
When Jesus saw his mother, and the disciple whom he loved
standing near, he said to his mother: 'Woman, behold your son!'
Then he said to the disciple, 'Behold, your mother!' And from
that hour the disciple took her to his own home" (Jn. 19:25-27).
Undoubtedly, we find here an expression of
the Son's particular solicitude for his Mother, whom he is
leaving in such great sorrow. And yet the "testament of Christ's
Cross" says more. Jesus highlights a new relationship between
Mother and Son, the whole truth and reality of which he solemnly
confirms. One can say that if Mary's motherhood of the human
race had already been outlined, now it is clearly stated and
established. It emerges from the definitive accomplishment of
the Redeemer's Paschal Mystery. The Mother of Christ, who stands
at the very center of this mystery-a mystery which embraces each
individual and all humanity-is given as mother to every single
individual and all mankind. The man at the foot of the Cross is
John, "the disciple whom he loved."47
But it is not he alone. Following tradition, the Council does
not hesitate to call Mary "the Mother of Christ and mother of
mankind": since she "belongs to the offspring of Adam she is one
with all human beings.... Indeed she is 'clearly the mother of
the members of Christ...since she cooperated out of love so that
there might be born in the Church the faithful.'"48
And
so this "new motherhood of Mary," generated by faith, is the
fruit of the "new" love which came to definitive maturity in her
at the foot of the Cross, through her sharing in the redemptive
love of her Son.
24. Thus we find ourselves at the very
center of the fulfillment of the promise contained in the
Proto-gospel: the "seed of the woman...will crush the head of
the serpent" (cf. Gen. 3:15). By his redemptive death Jesus
Christ conquers the evil of sin and death at its very roots. It
is significant that, as he speaks to his mother from the Cross,
he calls her "woman" and says to her: "Woman, behold your son!"
Moreover, he had addressed her by the same term at Cana too (cf.
Jn. 2:4). How can one doubt that especially now, on Golgotha,
this expression goes to the very heart of the mystery of Mary,
and indicates the unique place which she occupies in the whole
economy of salvation? As the Council teaches, in Mary "the
exalted Daughter of Sion, and after a long expectation of the
promise, the times were at length fulfilled and the new
dispensation established. All this occurred when the Son of God
took a human nature from her, that he might in the mysteries of
his flesh free man from sin."49
The words uttered by Jesus from the Cross
signify that the motherhood of her who bore Christ finds a "new"
continuation in the Church and through the Church, symbolized
and represented by John. In this way, she who as the one "full
of grace" was brought into the mystery of Christ in order to be
his Mother and thus the Holy Mother of God, through the Church
remains in that mystery as "the woman" spoken of by the Book of
Genesis (3:15) at the beginning and by the Apocalypse (12:1) at
the end of the history of salvation. In accordance with the
eternal plan of Providence, Mary's divine motherhood is to be
poured out upon the Church, as indicated by statements of
Tradition, according to which Mary's "motherhood" of the Church
is the reflection and extension of her motherhood of the Son of
God.50
According to the Council the very moment
of the Church's birth and full manifestation to the world
enables us to glimpse this continuity of Mary's motherhood:
"Since it pleased God not to manifest solemnly the mystery of
the salvation of the human race until he poured forth the Spirit
promised by Christ, we see the Apostles before the day of
Pentecost 'continuing with one mind in prayer with the women and
Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren' (Acts 1:14). We
see Mary prayerfully imploring the gift of the Spirit, who had
already overshadowed her in the Annunciation."51
And
so, in the redemptive economy of grace, brought about through
the action of the Holy Spirit, there is a unique correspondence
between the moment of the Incarnation of the Word and the moment
of the birth of the Church. The person who links these two
moments is Mary: Mary at Nazareth and Mary in the Upper Room at
Jerusalem. In both cases her discreet yet essential presence
indicates the path of "birth from the Holy Spirit." Thus she who
is present in the mystery of Christ as Mother becomes-by the
will of the Son and the power of the Holy Spirit-present in the
mystery of the Church. In the Church too she continues to be a
maternal presence, as is shown by the words spoken from the
Cross: "Woman, behold your son!"; "Behold, your mother."
This page is the work of the Servants of the Pierced Hearts of Jesus and
Mary
Copyright © 2006 SCTJM
