0. Introduction
Since
the beginning of the Church the devotion to Mary has been developed gradually.
This started mostly with the recognition of the two natures of Christ. It was
only after three centuries of discussion and debate on the divine and human
natures of Christ that the Church as a whole felt confident enough to proclaim
that Jesus who is truly a man is also truly God (Council of Nicea, A.D. 325).
And then since Mary is truly the mother of Jesus, she must also be the Mother
of God (Council of Ephesus, A.D. 431).
Similarly,
in our own time, appreciation of Mary has followed the Church’s consciousness
of Christ. In the so-called “glorious age of Mariology” – the hundred years
between the definition of the Immaculate Conception (1854) and the definition
of the Assumption (1950) – the privileges of Mary were seen in close parallel
to the attributes of Christ. From Pope Paul VI who actively encouraged devotion
to Mary by proclaiming her “Mother of the Church” and recommending a
contemporary form of devotion most eloquently in his Marialis Cultus,
many types of Marian devotions arose.
No doubt there
are many reasons for devotion to Mary. Here I would like to focus on one which
is of great significance to us today: The understanding of Mary as our model
of Faith. Surely we will not be able to cover all the challenges around
this question. We will try to read through the bible in order to find out what
is the experience of faith in Mary’s life which gave her privilege in the
community called Church. And from her experience of faith, what is the lesson
for us today?
I. Mary’s
speciality as model of faith
Advances in our
understanding of Mary have commonly followed developments in the theology of Jesus
Christ, from her most glorious title as “Mother of God” (Theotokos – literally
“God-bearer”) in the Council of Ephesus. Back in her life we see that Mary’s
spiritual journey had much in common with our own. The Gospels portray her as
someone who travelled a road that was often hard and shrouded in obscurity. The
“Sword of sorrow” foretold by Simeon (Lk 2,35) did not pierce her heart only on
Calvary. By associating herself so closely with the Saviour, she too suffered
all the contradictions that he was bound to cause.
We have said it in the introduction that we want to
understand Mary as our model in faith. And reading the bible, especially the
story of the annunciation of the birth of Jesus, we find foundations of this
affirmation that Mary is our model. At the annunciation, upon entering Gabriel
greeted her, “Rejoice O highly favored daughter. The Lord is with you.” Mary
was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might
be. But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor
with God.”
The reaction of Mary at the message of the angel is
which reveals her great faith. “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since
I am a virgin.” Comparing this question with the one of Zechariah in Lk1:18 we
find a very big difference in faith. Zechariah said: “How can I be sure of
this? I am an old man and my wife is well along in years.” A contemporary
translation would be, “Ya, right! Do you expect me to believe that? I am an old
man and my wife is an old woman.” But Mary responds in faith, it’s more like,
“Alright, just tell me what to do.”
The difference is that Mary had faith, she trusted
God with her fear. Zechariah was skeptical and sought clarity. Unlike
Zechariah, she didn’t have to doubt. She voiced her wonder and the angel gave
her more information. The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and
the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will
be called the son of God. For nothing is impossible with God.” And her ultimate
response was: “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May it be to me as you
have said.” Then the angel left her.[1]
From this story
of annunciation and throughout her life, one can see that Mary did not always
understand what was happening. She had to ponder the events of her life to see
God’s hand in the darkness (Lk 2.19,51). At times she misunderstood and had to
be challenged by her Son, as when she reproached him for staying behind in
Jerusalem (Lk 2.41-50), and when she pointed out to him the lack of wine at the
Cana festivities (Jn 2.1-10). She had to separate herself from the love of her
life, Jesus, when he set out on his public ministry, leaving his home, and
again most cruelly when on the cross he gave her over to become the mother of
someone else (Jn 19.25-27).
But despite the
darkness, the doubt and the not-knowing, Mary never wavered in her commitment
to God. The words: “Let it be done to me according to your word” may have been
said only once (Lk 1.38), but they summed up her attitude at the Annunciation
and right throughout her life. She was completely at the disposal of God, and
if at times she could not see the fullness of his plan for her, that did not
cause her ever to withdraw her consent or hedge her commitment with
reservations. There were no “ifs” or “buts” with Mary. Her faith was
whole-hearted and strong. She did not turn back or seek an easier path, even on
Calvary when all seemed dark and her hopes dashed.
The Message we can draw from this interpretation of
Mary’s life is that, “The fundamental fact of existence is the trust in God.
Faith is the firm foundation under everything that makes life worth living.”
This is the model of faith we have from Mary. Our aim to bring about the
elements of Mary’s life is to show that our devotion to Virgin Mary is her
veneration as woman of faith. She is our example, not because she was the
mother of God, but because she was a woman of faith; and this is which helped
her to accept God’s plan in her life.
This is not accepted without critics. A protestant
said: Catholics through the centuries have built Mary up to a high place, put
her on such a pedestal, that she is barely human anymore. They have called her
the mother of God, they have prayed to her, they have talked about her faith
being perfect in a way that human faith cannot ever be. They have exempted her
from original sin, which afflicts every human.[2]
To such a
critic, it is good to explain Mary’s time and the consequence the “yes” She
took. I don’t think we truly allow ourselves to understand Mary’s great faith
until we allow ourselves to understand the world she lived in. The fact that
she went along with what Gabriel told her is quite amazing. You see, by
agreeing to be the mother of Jesus, Mary was agreeing to begin a path down a
long a difficult road, one that would make her an outcast, one that would
eventually lead her to see her son dying on a cross at the young age of
thirty-three. Of course she didn’t know that she would experience her son’s
death. She probably believed that her son would be an earthly king, just as so
many others believed. But she did know that she would be ostracized and
gossiped about when people found out that she, an unwed was pregnant. So, when
Mary agreed to be Jesus’ mother, she was acting out in faith and facing death
to do so.[3]
And this is what we can admire of her; this is
a Mary we can all relate to. Fully a woman, she too had to suffer. Her life was
not pathed with roses. At times it was very difficult. She knew joy, but she
also suffered greatly. She had to live by faith, and at times, (like us) she
wondered what God was up to, what he was doing with her life…
We too are like
that. We have our joys and our sorrows. At times we feel God is very close to
us and we are confident that we know what he is asking of us. But at other
times he seems very remote. Things happen to us which don’t seem to fit the
original plan (as we understood it), and which are hard to reconcile with his
abiding love for us. There are times of pain, darkness and anguish. We are
thrown back on faith alone taking the example of Mary. All other comforts and
support are taken away. It is in times like these we need someone like Mary,
who went through what we are suffering and who knows what it is like. We need
the Woman of Faith.
II. Great Faith allows
God to do Great Things
There are two
traps that people tend to fall into when they see this faith of Mary. One is to
take it for granted and undervalue it. We do that when we ignore the risks she
was willing to take to be faithful to God. We do that when we convince
ourselves that anybody in Mary’s situation would have done the same thing. We
do that when we allow ourselves to think that Mary’s faith was easy. Having
faith, being faithful to God when circumstances are against you, is not meant
to be easy. It is meant to be difficult. It is meant to be work, to be hard.
Faith is not supposed to be simple. It asks much from us, sometimes our very
lives. [4]
The second trap
that some fall into is to elevate Mary’s faith up to such a height that we put
her in a place that no other mortal could possibly reach. We elevate her to the
place of goddess and look at her faith and faithfulness as superhuman. When we
do this we miss the truth that we are all called to this great faith that Mary
showed when Gabriel appeared to her.[5]
You see, Mary
isn’t someone to look up to as the perfect example that we can never reach.
Instead, when we see her step out in faith, we realize that we are called to
the same kind of life-risking faith. Without faith Mary would not have accepted
the words that Gabriel had for her. She would have told God that she was too
young or not ready. She would have said no to God’s great plan for her life and
Jesus wouldn’t have been born. God relied on the faith of one woman, Mary, and
because of her faith he was able to bring us his Son, Jesus.
And so we can
look at Mary and see her as a woman of true faith. We can see her resolve in a
difficult situation. We can see that she was willing to step out in faith even
though it would take her to a very difficult place. And we can find it in
ourselves to do the same thing. Maybe we might not have an angel appear to us
and tell us we are going to be the parent of the Savior of the world. But we do
have God asking us to step out in faith. How are we going to respond?
[1]
C.K. BARETT, The gospel according to St Luke. An introduction with
commentary and notes on the Greek text (London: SPCK, 1967), Pp. 138-140.
[2] Scot McKnight, The Real Mary: Why Evangelical Christians
Can Embrace the Mother of Jesus, (North Park University), P. 41.
[3]
Johnson A. Elizabeth, Truly our Sister: A Theology of Mary in the communion
of Saints (London and New York: Continuum, 2003), p. 210.
[4]
Scot McKnight, The Real
Mary: Why Evangelical Christians Can Embrace the Mother of Jesus,p. 28.
[5]
Ibid. p. 111.
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