Mary in the Year of Grace

07 Dec 2012

By The Record

In this article published by the Archdiocese of Perth’s Faith Centre and written for Australia’s Year of Grace, Archbishop Timothy Costelloe SDB reflects on Mary’s role in this special year and what she has to offer each of us.

The words which Mary speaks in the story of the miracle at the wedding feast in Cana in St John’s Gospel can be taken as words which she addresses to all of us: “Do whatever he (Jesus) tells you” (John 2:5).

In this Year of Grace, Mary once again points us away from herself towards her Son.

Just as she contemplated him lying in the manger, sitting in the Temple among the doctors of the Law, and lying lifeless in her arms on Calvary, so she invites us today to contemplate his face so that, in the words of Pope John Paul II, our witness to him will not be hopelessly inadequate but will be a living response to the needs of the people of our own time (see Novo millennio Ineunte 16).

Who is this woman who listened to the word of God and put it into practice?

What place can she have in our Year of Grace? Perhaps that prayer which is so often on the lips of Catholics, the Hail Mary, might help us to understand her place in our lives and in our faith as we seek to “start afresh from Christ”.

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you.

When Mary first hears these words of the angel Gabriel she is, according to St Luke’s Gospel, “deeply disturbed” (Luke 1:29).

Some scholars suggest that “terrified” might be a better translation. Perhaps it is the sudden appearance of the angel which frightens her, but it is more likely to be the nature of the greeting Gabriel offers her.

For those who are familiar with the writings of the ancient prophets, it is possible to see in this greeting a recognition that Mary is one who in some way captures in herself the dignity and the vocation of the Chosen People of God.

No wonder Mary, a simple Jewish girl but one who is no doubt steeped in the traditions of her people, is terrified.

This fear is perhaps intensified by the angel’s assurance to Mary that “the Lord is with you”.

This phrase would be very familiar to a devout Jewish girl. It is used over and over again in the Old Testament when someone is being asked by God to undertake a daunting task.

It is what God says to Moses, for example, when he asks him to lead the Chosen People out of Egypt (see Exodus 3:12).

The angel’s greeting, then, is not a simple one: it is the announcement of a special vocation. God has stepped into Mary’s life in a profound and unexpected way – and she is frightened.

It can often be the same for us. In many different ways, we too can become aware that God is asking something of us and we can become frightened.

Are we going to be able to respond? Do we have the courage and faith we will need? What if it is all too much for us? At such times it can be helpful for us to remember that Mary, too, was frightened and unsure.

She knows that it is not always easy to welcome the sometimes disrupting, challenging and daunting presence of God in our lives. She understands our fear.

As the angel seeks to reassure Mary, telling her not to be afraid, he explains to her what God is asking of her: that she should conceive and bear a son and give him the name Jesus.

On hearing this news Mary becomes confused. “How can this be” she asks, “since I am a virgin?” (Luke 1:34).

Like Mary, we too can become confused as God’s plan for us unfolds and we realise that it is not what we had ourselves planned for our lives.

“Surely” we think, “God cannot be asking this of me. What he is asking is beyond me. It is not what I had thought my future would be.”

As we open our lives to God, this is often the pattern of our response.

At first, we are frightened and upset, and then we become confused and uncertain.

How did Mary move from this to her wonderful response of faith – “Here I am, the servant of the Lord. Let what you have said be done to me”? (Luke 1:38).

The answer can only be found in the words the angel speaks to her – words that Mary allowed herself to believe: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you” (Luke 1:35).

With these words Mary came to understand that she did not have to rely on herself. Rather she could rely on the power of God at work in her – and it was this that enabled her to say “yes”, to give her “fiat”.

The same words are spoken to us. They are the words that reveal the deeper meaning of our Baptism and our Confirmation.

The Holy Spirit has come upon us. The power of God does overshadow us. And because of this we can, with Mary, give our “yes” to God if we too allow ourselves to believe and put our trust in God.

Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus.

In Luke’s gospel, when Mary visits her cousin Elizabeth, she breaks out in a joyful song which we know as the Magnificat.

“My soul magnifies the Lord,” she exclaims, “and my spirit rejoices in God my saviour” (Luke 1:46,47). Mary then goes on to make this prophecy: “all generations will call me blessed” (Luke 1:48).

That prophecy has been richly fulfilled of course. Still today, we dedicate grand cathedrals and humble parish churches in her honour. Still today, in many cities around the world, street corners are marked by shrines built to house her image.

Still today, countless thousands flock to her shrines in such places as Lourdes and Fatima. Still today, people faithfully and devoutly pray her Rosary.

In the Gospel tradition, it was Elizabeth who first proclaimed Mary “blessed” among women and who immediately linked this to Jesus, the blessed fruit of Mary’s womb.

Mary is blessed, yes, because she is the Mother of God. She is blessed because of the child she carries in her womb and to whom she will give birth.

This is what the woman cries out in St Luke’s Gospel: “Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breasts that nursed you” (Luke 11:27). But Jesus responds to this by saying “Blessed rather is the one who listens to the word of God and puts it into practice” (Luke 11:28).

For St Luke, of course, whose Gospel tells us the story of the Annunciation, Mary is the first to hear the word of God and respond to it with faith. St Augustine will say much the same thing when he writes that “Mary first conceived Christ in her mind and heart through faith before she conceived him in her womb” (St Augustine, Sermo 25).

We may not be able to imitate Mary in her role as the Mother of Christ, but we can imitate her in her response to God’s word and God’s invitation. And if we do, we too, like Mary, can become instruments of Christ’s presence in the world.

Holy Mary, Mother of God.

It was at the Council of Ephesus, in 431AD, that Mary was solemnly declared to be the Mother of God.

There was, according to the written accounts at the time, great rejoicing in the streets of the city as the people celebrated this recognition of Mary’s role in their faith.

To say that Mary is the Mother of God is to say something wonderful about Mary. It is to say something even more wonderful about Jesus.

The child who is conceived and carried in Mary’s womb and who is born of her in Bethlehem is more than someone who will grow up to be especially close to or favoured by God.

He is more than a great prophet who can unveil the mysteries of God to us. He is, rather, God himself who has come among us so that we, through our communion with him, can become one with God.

The early Fathers and Doctors of the Church will speak about this as our “divinisation” or “deification”. St Athanasius, who lived in the 4th century, wrote that “God became man so that man might become a god” (St Athanasius, De Incarnatione 54:3).

It was, perhaps, his way of explaining what Jesus meant when, in St John’s Gospel, he prayed that his followers might “all be one, just as you and I are one – as you are in me, Father, and I am in you. And may they be in us so that the world will believe you sent me” (John 17:21).

This wonderful destiny is possible only because Jesus, who unites us to himself through faith and the sacraments, especially Baptism and the Eucharist, is truly divine.

Our communion with him is our communion, our at-one-ment, with God.

In proclaiming Mary, then, as the Mother of God, as we do each time we pray the Hail Mary, we are proclaiming our faith in the divinity of Mary’s Son, Jesus.

We are also affirming our faith in our own ultimate destiny. We are giving voice to our basic Christian hope.

Pray for us sinners now, and at the hour of our death.

People who are not really familiar with our Catholic tradition sometimes suggest that Catholics give too much prominence and honour to Mary.

Some even suggest that we treat her as though she were a god herself. Why, they ask, should we pray to her. Surely we should only pray to God.

In reality, of course, we all ask people to pray for us. In times of stress, difficulty or uncertainty we turn to those we love, trust or admire and ask them to say a prayer for us.

It is an instinctive expression of our sense of connection with each other and of our desire not to be alone in time of trouble.

As believers in the Resurrection, it makes perfect sense to ask those whom we acknowledge to be already with God in heaven to also support us by their prayers.

If they cared for us in life, why would we think they no longer care for us in heaven? And if it makes sense to ask our relatives, friends and fellow Christians to pray for us, why would we not ask our heavenly friends to do the same?

This is what the last part of the Hail Mary is all about. It is simply a request to Mary, the Mother of the Lord, to support us with her prayers.

If she is the Mother of Christ, and if, as St Paul insists, we together are the Body of Christ (1 Cor 12:27), then Mary as the mother of Jesus is the mother of his Church, his body. She is our mother.

As she cared for and loved Jesus, so she cares for and loves us. It is our firm conviction, born of the Church’s experience over two thousand years, that this care and love is expressed through her prayer for us.

And as the famous prayer, the Memorare, puts it, “never was it known in any age that anyone who fled to your protection, implored your help, or sought your intercession was left unaided”.

We come to Mary with confidence, entrusting ourselves to her prayer, knowing that she has our best interests at heart.

Mother of the Lord and mother of the Church, she accompanies us through life and prays for us from a heart which beats in unison with the heart of her Son.

Perhaps there is no better expression of Mary’s heart, and of her message for us, than the words she addresses to the stewards in the story of the miracle at Cana.

In this Year of Grace, we are invited to listen to her as she says, also to us, “Do whatever he (Jesus) tells you” (John 2:5).

She beckons us to contemplate the face of her Son and start afresh from him.

If we do, our witness to him will not be hopelessly inadequate but will enable us, his Church, to respond to the urgent needs of our own time.