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The
debt we have contracted towards Mary of Nazareth is insoluble; it is a
specific perpetual "obligation" to her, not only on behalf of the
Church, but also of the entire mankind. It is not a devotional
exaggeration to state that we would not have had Jesus among us without
Mary. Historically speaking, without her –obviously after and thanks to
the Holy Spirit – we would not have had the Incarnation of the Son of
God in the actual plan of salvation and without the Incarnation of the
Word, man would not be saved. With a little more courage, we could dare
say: without Mary, the Son of God would not be a true man, the Church
would not be the true Body of Christ and we would not be the true
children of God. I would like, now, to take back these three statements
one by one.
The Mother of Christ
Without Mary Jesus would not be the Christ: a divine
person with a true human nature. In this case his identity card would be
completely false and to be made anew. We have surely caught from
the Letter to the Galatians the fleeting but dense passage about Jesus.
St. Paul tells us that Jesus is the Son of God, who was sent to us at
the fullness of time and that "was truly been born from a woman",
literally "made by a woman". This parenthesis, as rapid as a blow,
contains the oldest and most synthetic Mariological statement: Mary is
the woman who has ennobled the human nature to such an extent as "its
Maker did not disdain to be made its made one". Thus, Jesus is not some
kind of meteorite fallen from heaven on to the earth: he is truly and
perfectly man. He was really born from Mary; he has really grown up in
age, wisdom and grace; he has really eaten and drunk, he has perspired
and slept; he has been able to experience fear and to infuse trust; he
has really wept and rejoiced.
Mary enters first this defence of human flesh of the
Word, thus becoming an irrefutable, orthodox and Christological test,
namely a guarantee of the true and real humanity of the Son of God. In
this sense, according to the actually revealed saving plan, Mary is
among the most solid and not destroyable bulwarks that neutralise the
murderous assaults of the heresies concerning the identity of Christ.
Thanks to the mystery of being "made" by Mary, conceived by the work of
the Holy Spirit, thanks to the fact of physically giving birth and of
being nursed, instructed and educated by Mary, Jesus has been able to
think with a human mind, to love with a human heart and to work with
human hands. Because of being the blessed fruit of her womb, Christ has
come among us not like an impalpable ghost or a mythical super-man,
like a stratospheric being or like an elusive virtual personage, but
like a true man, in body and flesh, "having blood and flesh"(see Hebrew,
2, 14). Being Jesus in person the true Son of God and true God, Mary is
the true Mother of God, not in the absurd and contradictory sense of
giving birth to God or giving the divinity to Christ, but in the sense
that she is "the one who has given life to a person who is God".
Mary is not divine, she is a true human mother, but
the mother of a son who is true God.
"Nevertheless – St. Athanasius writes – this is
surely not a myth, as somebody are saying. Let such a thought be far
from us. Our Saviour was truly man and the salvation of the entire
humanity came from this. Therefore, in no way our salvation can be said
to be fictitious" (PG 26,1062). The title Mother-of-God is a
fastidious and sullen provocation for our mentality allergic to
supernatural realities and incurably at "zero tolerance" in natters of
God. Due to a human reason that does not forgive God for being God, the
truth of Mary’s divine motherhood is not only vertiginous and
unattainable, but also a literal scandal, a folly: an insurmountable
scandal for the Judaic religion, at least until it remains as it is.
As long as Saul remained Saul, the staunch and
irreducible Pharisee, he would feel a caponised skin at the simple
hypothesis that God had generated a Son and that this son had literally
incarnated himself. However, the title "Mother of God" is the
unbridgeable watershed between Christianity and the Greek wisdom,
totally refractory at the simple thought –judged stupid and crazy – of a
salvation reaching us through irremediably rotten and faulty elements ,
such as our body and matter.
Mother of the Church
Without Mary the Church would no longer be the Body
of Christ. Mary has not been a mere generative function, a kind of
"rented womb". She has not been called to do the part of an envelope of
a letter that, after being opened, is thrown away into the waste
paper-basket. Mary does not work as a simple instrument to the
end of giving a body of flesh to the word of God, but is fully involved
in the event of salvation. He has welcomed Jesus not only as a mother
welcomes her child, but has also opened herself to the mystery through
faith.
"She has conceived the Word of God in her soul before
conceiving him in her womb, with her faith more than with flesh and
blood", the Latin Fathers state. St Thomas says explicitly that Mary
said her "yes" at the Annunciation representing the entire humanity".
She ratified her "yes" throughout her life, through a maternity that led
her up to the cross and up to the birth of the Church. As Christ was
conceived by Her at the Annunciation and given birth at Bethlehem,
equally we can say that te Church was conceived by Mary through the Holy
Spirit, on the Calvary - "Woman, here is your son" - and was given birth
by her at Pentecost.
Therefore, the divine humanity of Christ has been and
is the everlasting vital and irreplaceable root of the Church and Mary
is its first fruit: the most genuine one, the most successful and
perfect one. The whole Church was not only prefigured and announced in
symbol, but also already realised in her from the beginning, because the
Church in anticipation lived in Mary her life of faith, hope and
charity. The history of old Israel was summarised in her, with the long
waiting of the Saviour: Mary is the first "to be redeemed"; she was the
perfect and most welcoming addressee of the Spirit. She is the first
"Immaculate Church, without any stain or wrinkle, jus as the Spouse of
Christ must be and will be, the Spouse that the Holy Spirit is
preparing. If the Church were not truly "Marian", it would no longer be
the living "organism" of Christ, but one of the many philanthropic
organisations, perhaps efficient in order to some generous work of
solidarity, but totally ineffective in order to the effective salvation
of humanity.
Mother of Christians
Without Mary we would not be truly "we": true
daughters of God. Sure, if we are children of God it is because we
were born "not from the blood or will of man, but have been generated by
God". Men and women of our time," we live on earth an existence common
to everybody, full of family solicitudes and work". However, this is
exactly the description of Mary’s life painted by the Council (AA 4).
Therefore, Mary is our concern; she is not an unreachable solitary
exception, she is not the holder of singular, unrepeatable,
incommunicable privileges. Mary is one of us, a woman among women, a
mother among mothers. She has experienced the happiness of seeing the
birth of her child; she has experienced the anguish of losing him and
the joy of finding him again.
One day she experienced the suffering of every mother
on seeing her son leaving home for his way. She, too, was exalted on
hearing people praising her unique "treasure". She, too, felt her
quartering soul and broken heart at the shouting of the angry mob
against her innocent son, "Crucify, crucify him". At the ninth hour of
14 nisan, she experienced the torment of seeing the killing of her son.
Yes, Mary is one of us, rather more than we are. A
unique case among the milliards of women, of spouses, of mothers who
have been, are and will be on the face of the earth She was totally
stranger to evil. She was never slightly touched by the muddy wave of
sin. She adhered with faith, with no ifs and buts, to the designs of God
on herself and on the son she had brought to light in a mysterious
"ownership" with the Holy Spirit. She was associated in unequalled
connection with the life and the work of our Saviour. However, her being
more than we are is not a grace that she kept for herself. It is also an
incomparable gain an unmerited luck for us all. The fullness of grace
does not make her stranger, far, inaccessible for us. Though she is the
most loved creature by God, she has suffered more than any other
creature. Therefore, she is the one that more than any other, after her
Son, can come to our rescue.
In God, she knows every true need of ours. She keeps
on living her heaven on earth. She is not at peace until the least of us
all, her ungrateful and restless children, be saved. Dante was right to
define her "meridiana face di caritate" and down here, among us mortal
beings, "di speranza fontana vivace". The title "Mother of God" is there
to infuse trust in us ant to give us courage along the entire journey of
our life. Thus, we can turn to Mary with the oldest Christian text by
which Mary is invoked with the title of "Mother of God": "Under your
protection we seek refuge, holy Mother of God: do not despise the
supplications of your children in trial, and free us always from all
dangers, o glorious and blessed Mother ".
Francesco Lambiasi
Bishop of Rimini
Via IV November 35 –
47900 Rimini
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