MARY, THE HOLY MOTHER OF GOD
A Spiritual Reflection (Monday 1 January)
Jack Finnegan SDB
Today we remember something astounding. The Maiden has given birth to her Saviour! In her womb our Morning Star has risen! The Lamb of God is flesh of her flesh. The infant John in Elizabeth’s womb leaps in a moment of startling recognition, and Mary herself recognises God’s favour. That is why, today, we are moved by a spirituality of profound generosity, a spirituality rooted in an ancient blessing, that finds inspiration and seeks to live in the reality of care, light, loving-kindness, and peace (see Numbers 6:22-27). It is a spirituality of blessing, a call to prayer, given to a people in the wilderness. When we allow our lives to be guided by these ancient qualities, when we pray, we step into a world of blessing that is full of power and ever effective. The privileged icon of this spirituality is Mary, the Holy Mother of God.
At the word of an angel, Mary opened her whole being to God’s living Word and gave Life to the world. Because of her earth-shaking yes, we are now able to embrace the dignity of God’s daughters and sons. Because of her cooperation with God, because she opened herself to the Spirit, we who were slaves under the law become heirs with her Son in freedom. And our freedom is no illusion. It is something real, as real as the flesh of the woman who bore him. Blessed are you, Mary, among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb!
The task of Christian spirituality, today, has two moments in it. The first is to grasp the meaning of what happens in and through Mary. The second is to make it real through Christian prayer and practice in the world. Prayer and spiritual practices not only make spirituality real in the world, they let the light of the sacred permeate lives and hearts and places. Today, with Mary, we can choose to stand on holy ground. With her we can choose to enter a thin place, a caol áit, full of sacred promise and the songs of angels. We can choose to rejoice!
There is a profound connection between today’s solemnity and the festival of Christmas just passed. Where is the link? In a stable in Bethlehem. Open your scriptures and read again the passage in Luke 2:16-21. Two things stand out. First, the shepherds joyfully spread the good news and return praising God. Then, Mary, woman of prayer, opens her heart in meditation and reflection, something she was to do several times in the story of her journey with Jesus as it has come down to us over the long years. Today, we can follow her example and make space for meditation and reflection.
What comes through most insistently in the story is that Mary trusts, even when she cannot fully know. One thing she does know, however, is that her son’s name means “God saves”. Her son is the living meaning of what we mean when we say God is compassionate and saves. Do not be afraid to come into his loving presence. Let his love speak and bring you freedom from whatever holds you back. As you enter his divine presence with Mary you will not lose your humanity or your individuality. You will not lose what makes you unique. Instead, you will discover again what it means to be loved, what it means to be a person.
In the Christian tradition Mary is known as Theotokos, a Greek word that means the Birth-giver, the mother in whose life an awesome moment of grace unfolds in an awesome moment of true humanity. This is the moment when God gifts humankind with full awareness of divine reality in the new-born Jesus, Mary’s son. In him, the human family shines with divine light and all life is saved, transformed, made new. In him, God’s beauty shines and all beauty begins to rediscover its original nature, to reveal God. This is a thought that demands time and reflection.
Try to find time to sit with it and pray and reflect with Mary. Let her lead you back to your own original beauty. Surround yourself with lovely things. Light a candle to symbolise your desire to sit in transforming light. Choose a flower. Create a sacred space. If you have an icon or picture of Mary place it near. Let it symbolise your desire for her company. Reflect on your relationship with her son. Let his Spirit come alive in you and be your breath. Pray for your mother, your birth-giver. Pray for yourself and what you have received from her. Pray for mothers everywhere, and their children. Pray for orphans. Pray for mother-earth.
Pray with St Francis, Praise be to you, my Lord, through our Sister, Mother Earth, who sustains and governs us, and who produces various fruit with coloured flowers and herbs. Remember Pope Francis’s recent words: Everything is related, and we human beings are united as brothers and sisters on a wonderful pilgrimage, woven together by the love God has for each of his creatures and which also unites us in fond affection with brother sun, sister moon, brother river and mother earth (Laudato Si, 92). And the link shines with the fullness of grace and favour in Mary, the Birth-giver.
In the company of Mary, the Birth-giver, we learn that there is nothing abstract about our loving God. There is nothing abstract about Mary’s love in the world. It is always practical, thoughtful, responsive to the Spirit, caring. The way we live in the world will determine what our world becomes. What do I want to produce today: anger or fear or love? I become a living bearer of the quality I intentionally choose to live because it influences what I feel and what I say or do. Am I ready to become, with Mary, a God-bearer in the world? Am I ready to become with her a bearer of love, a bearer of compassion, a worker for peace and reconciliation? She said yes to God’s invitation. How will I respond in the changing cycles and circumstances of my life?
What the scriptures say about Mary helps us to see that her life always enriches our understanding of Christian spirituality. The scriptures teach us that Mary has always been committed to God’s saving work in the world, first through the birth and then through the ministry of her son, Jesus. They also present Mary as the exemplar of faith, the disciple beyond compare. She, who has always been viewed as the matchless recipient of the Holy Spirit, remained open to God’s merciful and loving will even during her darkest hours of trial and tribulation. Mary is ever and always our best model of the life of faith in its puzzling moments and in all the ups and downs of life.
Even though she had to struggle to understand her son’s baffling destiny (the family story in Mark 3:20, 31-35, makes that clear) she remains open and faithful to the end and is centre-stage at the glorious moment of Pentecost. We do well to meditate on her journey of faith and the many challenges she had to face along the way, including a period as a refugee in Egypt to save the life of her child. It should come as no surprise, then, that Mary’s name is mentioned in the liturgy from earliest times or that her Magnificat is part of the Church’s public prayer.
No wonder, then, that in El Salvador during the 1980s, when death squads were rampant, Mary was called Mother of the Disappeared, or that in Brazil she has become known as the Mother of the Excluded, titles that challenge every kind of social bias and misuse of power. These potentials and more are reflected in her life: remember the prophecy of a sword piercing her soul (Luke 2:28-35). Have you noticed how, in her Magnificat, she knits together spiritual practice, charitable works, and radical images of social justice? Are we open to doing the same?
For Mary, spirituality is a seamless garment, a dance of inner and outer work, a drama of integrity, a song of prayer and action, a brilliant robe of engaged contemplation and ecojustice. In her visit to Elizabeth in the hill country (itself dangerous territory) we glimpse a desire for social structures that support and nourish the inner and outer realms of life and bring them into dynamic harmony and balance. Mary does not evade the realities of life and generosity.
It is worth noting here that the first reference to Mary in the New Testament is not in the gospels. It is in St Paul’s Letter to the Galatians and simply affirms that Jesus was born of a woman (4:4). There is a sense in which that line says it all. Mary is above all a woman, a mother, a disciple, a bearer of God’s love to the world, a woman of radical prayer and action, a woman who said yes. She is a teacher of the spiritual life because she lived it to the full. May each of us honour Mary by opening our hearts to her Son. With her may each of us become advocates for the oppressed. May we grow in empathy and compassion for all who suffer, especially mothers.
May we seek to explore the meaning of Mary’s yes in our contemporary consumer society. May we look to Mary as our spiritual compass in a post-truth, fake-news world. Remember: at the centre of her yes is the saving yes of her son! Her yes and his yes dance together! May our yes echo theirs in the world around us.
Here are some hints for prayer based on the psalmody of Morning Prayer:
Inspired by Psalm 62/63 we pray for those who seek peace: pray that doors of peace open all over the world. Pray that many may be inspired to become activists for peace. Pray for peace-keepers everywhere. Pray for those who are trapped in violent places or relationships. Pray for those who have lost babies. Pray for foundling children and orphans. Pray for children in care or in hospital. Pray for victims of all kinds of abuse, especially rape, that dreadful crime. Pray for those who have fallen into the hands of traffickers. Pray for refugees wherever they may be. Pray for those who seek God. May all come to know the loving nearness of Mary. May all find the way to spiritual wholeness and peace.
Inspired by the Canticle of Daniel we pray blessing and gratitude: like Christmas, this, too, is a day of joy in winter. It sings and dances with a young woman’s yes to God. How will we respond? Today, we share in the reaction of John the Baptist in his mother’s womb. We become one with Elizabeth’s delight. We give voice to mother earth’s joy. We call on rivers to clap their hands. We rejoice to be able to stand on holy ground, to recognise thin places, to honour a burning bush. We rejoice that Mary’s son showers love upon us, a gentle rain nourishing our lives. We pray for mothers everywhere, especially those in pain. We pray that all parents may have joy in their children and their children’s children.
Inspired by Psalm 149 we sing a new song of gratitude for new life with people everywhere: we rejoice with Mary and all God’s people on earth. In the gift of hearts renewed we sing joyful songs of praise, and we rejoice in the company of Mary and the saints. Mary, help us to lift the two-edged sword of God’s word and Spirit as we face the darker challenges of life. Mary, be with all who seek justice and fairness today. May blessings flow to all who are experiencing limitations of any kind, or weakness, or illness or the touch of death. Mary, ask your son to show himself to all who still seek him. Mary, may your son Jesus, the light in every faithful soul, reveal the saving splendour and beauty of God to the nations in special ways today. May the ends of the earth stand in awe at God’s loving power!
MARY TREASURED ALL THESE THINGS AND PONDERED THEM IN HER HEART!