Mary

Mary is the Virgin whom God chose to be the mother of his Son made man. Everything faith recognises in her flows from this motherhood: God prepared her to bear him by filling her with his grace from the first instant of her life, and on the day of the Annunciation she gave a free and entire consent through which the Saviour entered the world. “But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent his Son, made of a woman, made under the law.” Galatians 4:4

Mother of God

Mary is the Mother of God, for the one she conceived and bore is God, the eternal Son become man. A mother brings a person into the world, and the person she carried in her womb is God himself. The Church therefore confesses her Theotokos (Θεοτόκος), “she who gives birth to God”, a title the Council of Ephesus defined in 431. This name was then contested: Nestorius, bishop of Constantinople, wanted her called only mother of Christ, and not Mother of God, as though Mary had given birth solely to the man Jesus, united to the Word without being truly one with him. Saint Cyril of Alexandria answered that a mother does not bring forth a nature but a person, and that the person born of Mary is the Word of God made flesh: to refuse her the title of Mother of God would be to divide Christ in two. In confessing her Theotokos, the Church confesses first of all that Jesus is one alone, true God and true man. The child she brings into the world is God present among men. “They shall call him Emmanuel, which means: God with us.” Matthew 1:23 From this divine motherhood come all her other privileges: they befit her whose womb was the first sanctuary of the Word.

The New Eve

From the fall, God had announced a woman whose offspring would break the power of evil. “I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed: she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel.” Genesis 3:15 The one who crushes the serpent’s head is the offspring of the woman, Christ the victor over evil; but this victory passes through the woman from whom he is born and to whom he is united, so that Scripture associates them in one same enmity against the serpent. This enmity is entire: it leaves no instant in which the woman would have belonged to evil. Mary is this woman, and the Church recognises her as the New Eve. The first Eve, a virgin and without sin, listened to the serpent and brought about the fall; Mary, a virgin and full of grace, listens to the word of God and welcomes into herself the Saviour of the world. “And Mary said: Behold the handmaid of the Lord: be it done to me according to thy word. And the angel departed from her.” Luke 1:38 What the disobedience of the one had knotted, the obedience of the other unties: by her consent, Mary cooperates in the work of salvation her Son accomplishes. This reading is no novelty: as early as the second century, Saint Justin sets the virgin Eve, who welcomes the word of the serpent and gives birth to disobedience, alongside the virgin Mary, who welcomes the word of the angel and bears the Saviour; Saint Irenaeus takes up the image of the knot, which the disobedience of Eve had tightened and which the obedience of Mary has loosed. To compare the two women thus belongs to the faith of the Church from its origins.

The Immaculate Conception

The Immaculate Conception is the privilege by which Mary was preserved from original sin from the first instant of her existence, in her mother’s womb. Since the fault of the origins, every man is born deprived of the sanctifying grace God willed for humanity; this state of privation, handed on to all as an inheritance, is original sin. Mary alone was kept untouched by it, filled with grace before she could even act. The angel greets her by this name of grace before any other. “Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you.” Luke 1:28 Where English says “full of grace”, the Greek carries a single word the angel uses in place of her name, kecharitōmenē (κεχαριτωμένη): it speaks of a grace already fully accomplished in her, and which abides.

Mary too was saved by Christ, and more perfectly than any other. The other redeemed are raised after falling; Mary was kept from falling, by the merits of her Son applied beforehand at the instant of her conception. To preserve someone from the abyss is a higher deliverance than to draw them out once fallen: the salvation of Christ thus reaches Mary in the most perfect way, and she is its purest fruit. She herself acknowledges God as her Saviour. “And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.” Luke 1:47 The Church confessed from the first centuries the unique holiness of the one it called the all-holy; in 1854 it proclaimed the Immaculate Conception as a dogma of faith, and shortly after, at Lourdes, the Virgin named herself: “I am the Immaculate Conception.”

Ever-Virgin

Mary remained a virgin all her life: before, during and after the birth of Christ. The Church confesses this threefold privilege and calls her “ever-Virgin”. It speaks of Mary’s entire consecration to God and of the origin of the child she bears.

She conceives her Son by the sole power of the Holy Spirit, without the involvement of any man. To the angel who announces a son to her, she answers with the wonder of the virgin. “How shall this be done, because I know not man?” Luke 1:34 And the angel reveals to her the work of God. “The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee.” Luke 1:35 Isaiah had foretold it. “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son.” Isaiah 7:14

She brings her Son into the world without losing anything of her virginal integrity: what the Church confesses of the birth of Christ is that Mary remained a virgin in bringing him forth, as she had conceived him virginally. This childbirth does not touch her as that of other mothers; it escapes the regime of the fall and shows that her child comes from God, and not from the flesh. Ezekiel had figured her under the features of a gate of the sanctuary, through which the Lord alone passes and which remains shut. “And the Lord said to me: This gate shall be shut, it shall not be opened, and no man shall pass through it: because the Lord the God of Israel hath entered in by it, and it shall be shut.” Ezekiel 44:2

She remains a virgin all her life, with no other child: her virginity is the definitive consecration of the one who bore God, the sanctuary reserved for him alone. The Gospels nonetheless speak of the “brothers of Jesus”. In the language of the Bible, the word “brother” extends beyond the immediate family: Hebrew and Aramaic have no distinct term for cousin or nephew, and a single word covers all close kinship. Thus Abraham calls Lot his brother, although Lot is his nephew. “for we are brethren.” Genesis 13:8 The Gospels, written in Greek on this Semitic ground, keep this usage: the Greek word rendered “brother”, adelphos (ἀδελφός), extends to cousins as to more distant relatives. Matthew names among these “brothers” James and Joseph. “Are not his brothers James, Joseph, Simon and Jude?” Matthew 13:55 Now these two have for mother another Mary, present at the foot of the Cross. “Among whom was Mary Magdalen and Mary the mother of James and Joseph.” Matthew 27:56 In the custom of Israel, the care of a mother left alone fell to her sons; the dying Christ nonetheless entrusts his to the disciple he loved, not to another son, a sign that she has none. Her virginity announces a new humanity, born no longer of the flesh but of God. “Who are born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” John 1:13

The New Ark

Mary is the new Ark of the covenant. The ark of old was the holiest object of Israel, overlaid with gold, where God made himself present in the midst of his people. It kept three signs of the covenant: the tablets of the Law, a portion of manna and the rod of Aaron. “in which was a golden pot that had manna and the rod of Aaron that had blossomed and the tables of the testament.” Hebrews 9:4 Mary bears the reality these three signs announced: the Word, living speech of God; the bread of life come down from heaven; the eternal priest who will offer himself for the world. What the ark kept in figure, Mary gives in person. The ark also announced her purity: made of incorruptible wood and overlaid with pure gold within and without. “thou shalt overlay it with the purest gold, within and without.” Exodus 25:11

The ark rested at the heart of the dwelling, the sanctuary where God made himself present above it. When this dwelling was completed in the desert, the cloud covered it and the glory of God filled it. “The cloud covered the tabernacle of the testimony, and the glory of the Lord filled it.” Exodus 40:32-33 In the Greek version of the Old Testament, the Septuagint, the verb that names this cloud is episkiazō (ἐπισκιάζω), “to overshadow”; it is this verb the angel takes up at the Annunciation when he announces that the power of the Most High will overshadow Mary. What the cloud did over the dwelling that sheltered the ark, the Spirit does over Mary: the glory of God comes to dwell in her, and she becomes herself the new Ark, the place of the presence.

The Gospel tells the Visitation on the model of the ark going up to Jerusalem in the time of David. Mary rises and goes in haste to the hill country of Judea, as the ark had gone up there. Before the ark, David had cried out. “How shall the ark of the Lord come to me?” 2 Samuel 6:9 Elizabeth welcomes Mary with the same words. “And whence is this to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” Luke 1:43 David danced for joy before the ark. “David danced with all his might before the Lord.” 2 Samuel 6:14 John the Baptist leaps for gladness in his mother’s womb at Mary’s approach. “when Elizabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the infant leaped in her womb.” Luke 1:41 And Mary remains about three months with Elizabeth, as the ark had remained three months in the house of Obed-Edom. “Mary remained with her about three months.” Luke 1:56

At the close of Scripture, the ark reappears in a vision: the sanctuary of heaven opens and the ark of the covenant is shown there. “the temple of God was opened in heaven: and the ark of his testament was seen in his temple.” Revelation 11:19 At once there rises a woman clothed with the sun, crowned with twelve stars. “And a great sign appeared in heaven: A woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.” Revelation 12:1 The ark and the woman are one single reality: Mary, who bears the Saviour.

The Tabernacle of God

In the time of Moses, in the desert, God made himself present in the midst of his people in a sacred tent. This tent was only a figure; what it announced came in person. “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us.” John 1:14 The Greek word rendered “dwelt,” eskēnōsen (ἐσκήνωσεν), derives from the name of this holy tent, the skēnē (σκηνή): the Word, in taking flesh, pitched his tent among us.

In this tent, and then in the Temple that succeeded it, the most withdrawn part bore the name of the holy of holies. A great veil separated it from the rest; it housed the ark, and the presence of God rested there. Its entry was closed to all, save to one man, at one moment. “into the second, the high priest alone, once a year: not without blood.” Hebrews 9:7

It is in Mary that the Word pitched his tent: her womb is the holy of holies of the new covenant, where the Lord himself rested, no longer above the ark, but in the flesh he was taking from her. And just as the high priest alone crossed the veil to stand before this presence, Christ, the eternal priest, was the only one to dwell in the sanctuary that was the body of his Mother.

The Assumption

The Assumption is the mystery by which Mary, at the end of her earthly life, was raised body and soul into the glory of heaven. The word comes from the Latin assumere, to take with oneself: God took Mary to himself entirely. Christ ascended into heaven by his own power on the day of the Ascension; Mary was raised there by the power of her Son, received into glory by the One she had borne. Ancient Tradition speaks of her dormition, that peaceful sleep at the end of her life, and the Church has left undefined the question of whether she first knew death.

The decomposition of the body in the tomb is a consequence of sin, entered into the human condition with the fault of the origins. “dust thou art, and into dust thou shalt return.” Genesis 3:19 Where sin remains absent, this corruption has no hold: Christ, given over to death without having known sin, did not see his flesh decompose. “His flesh did not see corruption.” Acts 2:31 Full of grace and preserved from all sin, Mary carried nothing that called for the corruption of the tomb. This flesh had given its own substance to Christ and borne the Author of life; it was fitting that it be raised entirely into glory, like the body of her Son.

What Mary already lives, all the saved await: at the end of time, the bodies of the just will rise and be united to their soul in glory. Mary is the first to know this victory fully, beforehand and entirely, and in her the promise made to humanity is already accomplished. “Death is swallowed up in victory.” 1 Corinthians 15:54 The Church proclaimed the Assumption a dogma of faith in 1950, gathering what Tradition had held since the first centuries.

Queen of Heaven

Raised into glory beside her Son, Mary shares his royalty. This dignity flows from her motherhood: she is the mother of the King whose reign does not end, as the angel had announced. “the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of David his father: and he shall reign in the house of Jacob for ever. And of his kingdom there shall be no end.” Luke 1:32-33 In the monarchy of David, it was the mother of the king, and not the wife, who bore the title of queen: she received an official title, sat at the king’s right hand and presented the people’s requests to him. When Bathsheba comes to her son Solomon, the king rises and seats her at his right. “The king rose to meet her and bowed before her, then a throne was set for the king’s mother, and she sat at his right hand.” 1 Kings 2:19 Mother of the promised King, son of David, Mary is the queen of his Kingdom.

The royal psalm had sung her beforehand. “The queen stood on thy right hand, in gilded clothing.” Psalm 45:10 Raised to the right hand of her Son, crowned with twelve stars in the vision of heaven, she shares the glory of his reign. Her royalty also rests on her part in the King’s work: united to him throughout her life, she stood beside him to the Cross, pierced by the same sorrow. “And thy own soul a sword shall pierce.” Luke 2:35 She who shared the offering shares the triumph.

The first of believers

Before being given as mother, Mary is the first of the disciples. She believed the word of God and gave herself to it without reserve, and it is her faith that Elizabeth proclaims blessed. “And blessed art thou that hast believed, because those things shall be accomplished that were spoken to thee by the Lord.” Luke 1:45 This faith lasted all her life: before the words and events whose meaning still escaped her, she gathered them and kept them within, letting them slowly yield their light. “But Mary kept all these words, pondering them in her heart.” Luke 2:19 Thus she advanced in faith to the foot of the Cross, the model of the one who welcomes the word of God and keeps it. “His mother kept all these things in her heart.” Luke 2:51 It is this faith that all generations recognise. “Henceforth all generations will call me blessed.” Luke 1:48

The canticle of Mary

When Elizabeth proclaims her blessed, Mary answers with a song of praise that the Church takes up each evening: the Magnificat, so named from its first Latin word, “it magnifies.” In it she speaks not of herself, but of God who acts in her. “My soul doth magnify the Lord. And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour. Because he hath regarded the humility of his handmaid.” Luke 1:46-48 Her greatness is that of a poor woman on whom the Lord has looked. Her song prolongs that of Hannah, the mother of Samuel, who had praised the God who casts down the mighty and raises the lowly. “He raiseth up the needy from the dust, and lifteth up the poor from the dunghill.” 1 Samuel 2:8 In Mary, this hope of the humble of Israel finds its fulfilment: God brings low the proud and raises up the little. “He hath put down the mighty from their seat and hath exalted the humble.” Luke 1:52

Our mother

From the height of the Cross, Christ entrusted his mother to the disciple he loved, and in him to all his disciples. “he saith to the disciple: Behold thy mother. And from that hour, the disciple took her to his own.” John 19:26-27 Mary thus became the mother of all believers and the mother of the Church. As the queen mother carried the people’s requests to the king, she presents to Christ the needs of men and obtains his grace for them; her royalty is exercised entirely in this intercession that leads back to him. At the wedding of Cana, she notices the lack and simply lays it before him. “They have no wine.” John 2:3 Then she turns every gaze away from herself to direct it toward her Son, in the words that sum up all she teaches. “Whatsoever he shall say to you, do ye.” John 2:5

To venerate her without adoring her

The Church adores God alone and venerates Mary: these two gestures are not of the same nature. Adoration, which theologians call latria, from the Greek latreia (λατρεία), recognises in God the Creator and is rendered to him alone; to give it to another would be idolatry. Christ himself recalls this in the desert. “The Lord thy God shalt thou adore, and him only shalt thou serve.” Matthew 4:10 The honour rendered to the saints is of another order: it is called dulia, from the Greek douleia (δουλεία), “service”; it honours in them the work of God’s grace, without ever putting them in his place. Because Mary is the Mother of God and the most grace-filled of creatures, the honour due to her surpasses that of all the saints: the Church names it hyperdulia, a higher veneration, but one that remains veneration and not adoration. This honour does not turn away from God, it leads back to him: all that Mary possesses she holds from him, and every praise that rises toward her returns to the One who has done great things in her. “The Mighty One has done great things for me.” Luke 1:49