Mass readings for the Solemnity of Mary, The Holy Mother of God:
Numbers 6.22-27 Psalm 67.1-2, 3-7 Galatians 4.4-7 Luke 2.16-21
Today we celebrate Mary; the first disciple, the mother of God who gave of her flesh so that the incarnation might happen.
There’s so much to contemplate in that brief statement. No homily could do it justice, and I daresay this one won’t come close, but what we need to be doing as disciples, those who’ve agreed to the discipline of continuous learning from our Lord, is beginning again in this calendar year, in this annual liturgical cycle of the Church, to contemplate again what Mary means to us today.
Mary is of significance to all of us, men and women, as she serves as a model of discipleship. Yet, she also embodies eternal wisdom with regard to the feminine, what is human and female, and that is of tremendous importance to us as we have seen what has become of women in our current civilization. They are unhappy, unfulfilled, and plagued by mental distress and despair. Now, that can be found in the other half of the population. But I touched on that a couple of weeks ago as we contemplated the person of St. Joseph as a model of manhood and so, the antidote to the malaise found among men. And in addressing both, we might hope then to close the widening gap between men and women. Government statistics, media commentary, a survey of social media posts from men and women, indicate growing alienation.
With Mary, we have a singular example of the ideal woman, but I’m well aware of how such an assertion is received by the world, and those whose thinking has been shaped by the secular ideologies of the modern era. To put forward Mary as an ideal is ridiculous, and even supposedly threatening to the aspirations of women to be free, to have agency in the world. Being both virgin and mother, to the world anyway, is a contradiction and so, a proof against Christian claims. Yet, as we consider that Mary stands as the new Eve, the mother of the new creation, she embodies the sources of feminine dignity and power. Outwardly, it is virginity and motherhood, and we can place these in the broader categories of innocence and nurture. And by innocence, we aren’t to take that as synonymous with naivete and ignorance. No, the innocence of Mary is informed, educated, appreciative of her precious nature. There is a wisdom in what seems to be inexperience – this kind of innocence speaks of prudence, patience, and of course, chastity – all regarded through the ages as virtues. Her innocence elicits the protective instinct of Joseph; and in women this quality has an equal effect upon society: we move to protect and preserve them from harm. And even where innocence has been lost, a society that values Mary looks to help women recover their dignity, as Christ restored Mary Magdalene.
And there is this nurturing quality, the maternal instinct that is obviously directed by a woman toward her own children, but is so wonderfully expansive such that empathy and compassion are a mark of Christian civilization. However, this is care and concern tempered by wisdom, what is gained by motherhood wherein a woman learns the harsh reality of just how difficult a child can be in temperament; how heartbreaking it can be to care for a child of poor health. The mother who has these experiences brings so much wisdom to her other careers such that we all benefit. So, this isn’t a call to keep women barefoot and pregnant, in the kitchen and out of the world. Mary certainly didn’t follow such a path. She had but one child. Now, there is the theory that Joseph was an older man, a widower with children already, and so Mary may have had a houseful. But that’s speculation beyond what scripture can tell us. What we do know from the Bible is that Mary was at the heart of the early Church; there at crucifixion, a witness to the resurrection, present at Pentecost, and accompanying the Apostles in the community’s first steps out into the world. She was part of the household of the youthful apostle John, and settled in her old age in Ephesus where she was a focus of pilgrimage. Her life was not limited to that of babymaker, but rather she had a further vocation to care and nurture of the infant church through the dignity and wisdom she held from God.
But all this has been overturned. The perversity of telling girls and young women to imitate men, to conform their working lives and family lives to a male pattern has meant that so much is lost. We teach them to regard men as competitors, as those to be bested, beaten. Among men that kind of outlook on each other actually works quite well as giving incentive to be better. Between men and women, the effect has been discouragement and resentment. And it has been noted, the attempts to suppress the feminine instincts, to be like men in the board rooms, in the back rooms, on the shop floor, fail. There is concern now that just as the working environment had been too masculine in the past, it is now growing dysfunctional as it has become feminized. Does it ever illustrate God’s design: that humanity is only itself when it is both male and female, masculine and feminine, balanced, complementing and so, complete.
When we look at Mary in today’s gospel, we see a young woman, barely out of childhood herself, yet displaying the maturity that I so often admire when I encounter this in a young woman. We know from our own experience, men and women alike, that beneath the show of confidence, the exercise of competence, there is lots of doubt and fear. What inspires is that a woman carries on despite it! And we all recognize that being the more physically vulnerable of humanity’s binary, the courage must be all the greater.
And in Mary, virgin and mother, we see such humility. There is no “I am woman, hear me roar” but rather, “behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord.” She is obedient to God, understanding that she serves a higher, greater purpose; and undertakes her role even as she has only an inkling of what it will cost her – but then, she has faith.
She puts her trust in Joseph, that he will do his work, that God has chosen well for her a man to serve as protector and provider. It is for her to cooperate, to complement, to be his wife so that the greater project they’ve both agreed to might be accomplished.
Do young men and women today even know what the project is? Why they are here?
That’s why it so important for us to share the story, the stories. The good news of the gospel from which so many other messages of hope flow out to people in all their sorts and conditions. For men, the story of Joseph, for women, the story of Mary, for the aged, the stories of Simeon and Anna, for the young adult the tale of the young shepherds, the story of the Apostle John, for the lost, there is Mary Magdalene, and so on. For us all, the story of Jesus Christ.
Our Christian vocation is to share the good news, to spread the faith – a profound sense of hope for humanity, that by our loving sacrifice wed to the sacrifice of Christ, all might be saved from the barbarity of the fallen world and lifted up, carried up in the spirit to joyfully cry out to God, “Abba, Father!” It is because through Mary came the Son of God, her son Jesus, to make us all children of heavenly Father.
Amen.