Looking at Mary as My Mother

Friday, Dec. 30, 2022

I may have said this before, but I have trouble identifying with the Virgin Mary as a person. She’s so consistently portrayed in art and literature as this beautiful, pale young girl with innocent eyes that it seems to me the only proper place for her is on a cloud in heaven gazing adoringly at her son.

This perception does no justice to the Queen of Heaven, whose titles also include Seat of Wisdom and Undoer of Knots.

For the past year I’ve been working to change my perception of this woman whose “yes” to God was a profound moment in salvation history, as Lumen Gentium, the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, points out.

But her role is not only in the past; she continues to act in our lives. When Mary “is being preached and venerated, she summons the faithful to her Son and his sacrifice, and to love for the Father,” Lumen Gentium states.

“For taken up to heaven, she did not lay aside this saving role, but by her manifold acts of intercession continues to win for us gifts of eternal salvation,” LG adds.

I came to these quotes by way of John Paul II’s 1987 encyclical Redemptoris Mater (Mother of the Redeemer), which in turn I was led to by the book Icon of Trust: Mary in the Gospels of Luke and John by Fr. Sławomir Szkredka, which was published earlier this year.

Fr. Szkredka’s book is a very readable exploration of Marian theology. He explores in detail each mention of her in the Bible, drawing not only on Scripture but also Church documents such as Redemptoris Mater. 

My study of Our Lady has led me to a deeper appreciation for her. I no longer view her as a passive person. How could she have been? Even as a young woman she had the temerity to stand up to an angel – a real, biblical angel who always had to assure people “Fear not” when he appeared. But Mary, rather than cowering in a corner, had the presence of mind to ponder the angel’s message, and then to question how what he heralded could come about.

A year or so later, this same young woman became a refugee, fleeing with her husband and newborn child to a foreign land to avoid a vengeful king.

Mary also was the one who encouraged her son to enter his public ministry. At Cana, Jesus tells her his hour has not yet come; she merely instructs the servants to “do whatever he tells you.” This is the first example of her interceding for mankind; thus another of her titles: Mediatrix.

Mary also was one of the few bold enough to follow her son to the foot of the Cross. John Paul II says Mary was the Church’s first pilgrim of faith; I am trying now to follow her footsteps.