PERSPECTIVES ON MARY
Sun. Mass Homily 2 Sept 07 (Abbot Raymond)
There are many different ways of looking on Mary. She has many perspectives when looked on in the light of God’s great plan of salvation . There is for instance the perspective of :
The Mystic and the Poetic: This we encounter in the poetic titles from the Litany of Loreto. We call Mary the Ark of the Covenant, the House of Gold, the Mystical Rose etc.
The Basic and Dogmatic: Mother of God, Mary Immaculate etc
The Simple and the Practical: Help of Christians, comfort of the afflicted, refuge of sinners etc
The View of the Scripture Scholar: Mary is the great “Woman” of Prophecy. She is a golden thread running through the whole history of revelation from the very first chapters of Genesis onwards appearing time and time again in prophetic type and shadow down all the centuries till she is fully revealed as in all her glory as the Virgin of Nazareth.
The View of the Theologian: She is seen as God’s great “Theology Book”, written, not by pen and ink on parchment, but in living flesh and blood. Men write their books in pen and ink. God dips his finger into the inkwell of his creative power and writes what he has to say in living Characters on the pages of history.
She is the Person whose life is like the warp-threads of a great tapestry whose beautiful pattern is only seen when crossed by the woof –threads of the great mysteries of her Divine Son into a beautiful and most meaningful whole.
But, most importantly for us all perhaps: Mary is Mother – That is the title under which Jesus confides us all to her keeping when he said with his dying breath at the most solemn moment of his life: “Behold your Mother”.
We can’t all be Great Scripture Scholars or Great Theologians, or Great Saints, or even Great Sinners. These all have their own particular perspective on Mary; their own particular approach to Mary. But the one perspective we all must have on Mary is that she is a Mother to us and this is the perspective of Mary that Jesus holds up to us at the most solemn moment of his life as he hung dying on the Cross.
What does it mean that she is a Mother to us? The Role of Motherhood is as rich and varied as life itself, but let’s just focus on one particular aspect of it. Let’s focus on the relationship between a mother and her very young child - a child still not able to care for itself in anyway, a child still without knowledge of things and still very dependent and vulnerable. This is a good picture of much that we may dare to call our life in the spirit. “….we don’t even know what to pray for” as St Paul tells us.
A child at this early stage in life knows only one thing – how to cling to its Mother. It has no idea of its needs or the dangers around it. It only knows how to keep close to its Mother and panics if she is not in sight.
How do we translate this into our relationship with Mary. Let us always keep close to her realising that she knows our needs in a way that we don’t. She knows the dangers around us in a way that we don’t, and above all we must realise that she really cares for us in these things. And how do we keep close to her? By frequently saying the hail Mary for instance; by saying the Rosary; by never letting a day go by without invocation of her; without some moments at least of communion with her in prayer.
