"As a result, she is our Mother in the order of grace." With these few
words Vatican II (On the Church 61) gave us a brilliant theology of the
Motherhood of Our Lady, and a marvelous help to understand the motherhood
of all Mothers. To follow it, we need to read the two sentences that come
before it: "The Blessed Virgin, predestined from eternity along with the
Incarnation of the Divine Word, as the Mother of God, on this earth was the
gracious Mother of the Divine Redeemer, His associate more than others, in
a singular way, and the humble maid-servant of the Lord. In conceiving
Christ, in bringing Him forth, in nourishing Him, in presenting Him to the
Father in the Temple, in suffering with her Son as He died on the cross,
she cooperated in the work of the Savior, in an altogether singular way, by
obedience, faith, hope and burning love, to restore supernatural life to
souls. As a result, she is our Mother in the order of grace."
We should really call her the eternal Mother - for her Motherhood of her
divine Son was planned for from all eternity, as the Council tells us. At
first sight this might seem strange, yet it is obvious when we think of it.
For all the decrees of God are as eternal as His own Person - really, they
are identified with Him who is unchangeable. Hence they always are there -
we should not simply say they were there. They are eternal. Now when God
decreed to send His Son to become man, of course that included the
provision for the Mother through whom it would take place. Hence it is
evident: she was eternally called to be His Mother.
The Council tells us that she was His Mother also in sharing His work, as
His associate, even to the extent of sharing the work of redemption, as the
text goes on to say. We think of that work of redemption especially as
accomplished on the cross, and that is true. But really, everything He did
was of itself more than enough to earn redemption for us - any act of the
God-man was infinite in worth. So the Greek Fathers of the Church liked to
speak of what is called physical-mystical solidarity. It means this: All
humanity forms a unit, a solidarity. But, the Sacred Humanity of Christ was
part of that solidarity. Further, His humanity was joined in the unity of
one Person to the divinity. Hence, as it were, power spread out across His
humanity to the rest of humanity and healed it. This picturesque way of
expressing the profound reality brings out the fact that the very fact of
the Incarnation alone, without anything following, would have redeemed us.
For that was an infinite merit, an infinite satisfaction for the Second
Person of the Holy Trinity to lower Himself so as to become man. In itself
that alone could have redeemed countless worlds. Yet by the will of the
Father, there was to be more, much more, than the mere Incarnation. He was
to do enough to redeem us, as we said, many times over. Hence the Council
adds: "In conceiving Christ, in bringing Him forth, in nourishing Him, in
presenting Him to the Father in the Temple, in suffering with Him as He
died on the Cross, she cooperated in the work of the Savior," in
redemption.
"As a result, she is our Mother in the order of grace." An ordinary Mother
does two things to gain that glorious title: she shares in bringing a new
life into being, she takes care of that life so long as she is needed, as
long as she is willing and able.
Our Lady did share in bringing forth a new life. She did not suffer the
physical pain of bringing Him forth, as ordinary Mothers do - a great work,
yet part of Our Father's plan, a work sometimes fraught with danger of
death, before the advances of modern medicine came, for they literally went
down into the valley of death to bring us to light. No, Vatican II taught
earlier (57) that "He did not diminish but consecrated her virginal
integrity" that is, the state of being physically untouched, without
lesion. Our Lady, most fittingly, did not experience those things in the
birth of Jesus. Yet she more than made up for that in the pain of bringing
us forth to new life on Calvary. For John Paul II, in his "Mother of the
Redeemer" said that there she underwent the "greatest self-emptying in
history." Yes. Any soul that is holy must align its will with the will of
God, must positively will, not just tolerate, whatever He positively wills.
Now it was and is evident, at that dark hour, it was the will of the
Father, that her Son should die, die then, die so horribly. Hence, in spite
of her love for Him, she was called on to positively will that He die, die
then, die so horribly. We said in spite of her love - in practice, love and
holiness are interchangeable terms. So when Pius IX told us in "Ineffabilis
Deus," that already at the start, her holiness was so great that "none
greater under God can be thought of, and no one but God can comprehend it"
- he told us something staggering. God could of course create a creature
capable of understanding her love - yet He has not actually done that - so,
only God Himself can comprehend her love. Yet she was called on to go
directly counter to a literally incomprehensible love by willing what that
Father willed, what Her Son willed, that He die, die then, die so horribly.
Really, her suffering with Him had begun years before, at the very day of
the Annunciation. For as soon as the Archangel told her that her Son would
reign over the house of Jacob forever, even an ordinary Jew - how much more
the one full of grace - would see that He was to be the Messiah. Then, if
not at that hour, at least very soon, in pondering in her heart, she would
understand the terrible words of Isaiah the prophet in chapter 53 about the
lamb, bruised for our offenses, led to the slaughter. The hardened Jews
distorted that chapter, not being able to grasp it. But she would, she did
understand it. In saying "fiat," yes, to the Archangel, she was actually
saying yes to being the associate in such suffering. The Epistle to the
Hebrews (10:5-7) tell us that "on entering into this world" He said
'Behold, I come to do your will, O God." Her "fiat" was the echo, the
counterpart of that acceptance He made from the first instant of His
conception. For already then, as several documents of the Popes assure us,
His human soul saw the vision of God, in which all knowledge is present. In
that, He saw all His future sufferings.
So in presenting Him in the Temple, she knew that she was not really buying
Him back from the service of God, as other Mothers were doing - no, she was
turning Him over to it, in the offertory of the great sacrifice. At that
moment His human soul of course echoed, or rather, continued, the obedience
He presented on entering into this world: "Behold, I come to do your will O
God." That dread pledge of consent was to continue, to exact its tremendous
toll at the foot of the cross.
So it was in this way that Our Lady fulfilled the first of the requirements
for being our Mother, namely, that of sharing in bringing a new life into
being. The cost, as we saw, was literally beyond the comprehension of any
actually existing creature. For her love was greater than, and beyond the
understanding of even the highest Seraphim and Cherubim. Yet she had to
sacrifice that love, to will the Great Sacrifice that was to bring us to
life.
And what a life that is! Compared to it mere mortal life is as nothing. The
Second Epistle of St. Peter (1:4) says that in it we are made "sharers in
the divine nature."
Let us try to explore this mystery a bit. St. Paul says that in heaven we
will see God "face to face". Now of course, God does not have a face. Nor
do souls have mortal eyes. But the solid reality is far beyond what the
words can readily convey. When I look at another person in this life, I do
not take that one into my mind - no, I take in an image. The person is
finite, limited, and so a finite image can let me know about that one. But
God is infinite. No image could begin to convey what He is like. So the
next, the inevitable step is staggering: it must be that the divinity will
join itself to the created human soul immediately, without even an image in
between, so that the soul can know Him even as His Son knows Him, as He
knows His Son. Within that divinity there as it were flow infinite streams
of knowledge and of love. For the first chapter of John's Gospel tells us
that in the beginning the Father spoke the Word. That Word is not a ripple
in the air as our words are. Now, it is substantial, it is the second
Person of the Holy Trinity. Between Father and Son there arises love -
again, not the feeble reality we know, but it too is substantial, it is
another Divine Person, the Holy Spirit, proceeding by way of infinite love.
Only a being at least partly divine could as it were plug into these
infinite streams, of knowledge, of love. Yet that is what it means to be
"sharers in the divine nature", which we are by the life of grace, which
she shared in gaining for us, at a cost so great that, as we said, only God
can comprehend it. So she really is our Mother in the order of grace.
But a Mother has a second role to fulfill: to take care of the new life, so
long as she is willing, able, and needed. In ordinary human affairs, there
comes a time when the Mother is not really much needed, for the child grows
to adult stature. But in the spiritual life ,we remain children - for
unless we become as little children we shall not inherit the kingdom. Or,
to put it more clearly, we always stand in the need of grace as long as we
have not yet entered the mansions of our Father. That grace, every grace,
comes to us through her, for, as Vatican II taught (62), she is the
Mediatrix - and in a note it referred us to the teachings of many Popes who
specify "of all graces." That was really obvious - for since she shared in
earning all graces, of course she would share similarly in giving out all
graces. So our need of her never ends in this life.
We said an ordinary Mother should give care as long as she is willing and
able. Sadly, some human Mothers stop being willing. Not so our Heavenly
Mother. The children she brought into life by such tremendous pain she will
never forget. She is always willing.
An ordinary Mother may come to points at which she is unable to help,
howsoever pathetically she way wish to do so. Not so our Mother in Heaven:
Pope Benedict XV called her "suppliant omnipotence". That is, all that God
can do by His very inherent power, she can obtain by asking Him for it. And
that she does.
From what we have said, we see that she brought us forth on Calvary. Yet
there is an a sense in which we can correctly say that she became our
Mother even before that day. On June 19, 1947, Pope Pius XII sent a message
to the Marian Congress of Ottawa, Canada. He said: "When the little maid of
Nazareth uttered her fiat to the message of the angel...she became not only
the Mother of God in the physical order of nature, but also in the
supernatural order of grace she became the Mother of all who...would be
made one under the Headship of her divine Son. The Mother of the Head would
be the Mother of the members. The Mother of the vine would be the Mother of
the branches."
The thought is obvious. Her Son is the Head of the Mystical Body, of which
we are members. She really could not become the Mother of the Head without
automatically, as it were, becoming the Mother of the Members of Her Son.
Of course, that was only begun at the Annunciation. It was to be brought to
light, with immense pain, only on the hill of Calvary.
There was a mysterious day on which she and some of His relatives came to a
crowd where Her Son was teaching. Her presence was announced to Him. His
reply was puzzling (Mk 3:33-35): "Who is my Mother? Whoever does the will
of my Father in heaven is brother and sister and mother to me."
At first sight this might seem like a rejection. But no, He would never do
that. He whose Father gave the commandment to honor Father and Mother would
never break that commandment. Really, as Vatican II makes clear (56), He
was teaching dramatically, as He often did. It said: "She received His
words in which her Son, extolling the kingdom beyond the reasons and bonds
of flesh and blood, proclaimed blessed those who hear the word of God and
keep it - as she was faithfully doing."
So really, there are two forms of greatness - the one, being physically the
Mother of God - the other, hearing the word of God and keeping it. She was
at the peak in both categories. For at the Annunciation she did hear the
word of God, and kept it, thereby receiving within her womb that very Word
Himself. And throughout all the days thereafter, she faithfully continued
her "fiat," at immense cost, hearing and doing the word of God. So her
holiness was so great that, as Pius IX told us, "none greater under God can
be thought of, and no one but God can comprehend it". We saw that under the
cross, where her fidelity to the word of God, to His will, caused her to
even will the dreadful death of a Son so beloved that only God can
comprehend her love. So she was at the peak in both categories.
We might wonder why the Father put her into such difficult straits? The
answer is that any soul grows greatly not by doing easy things, but by
holding on with determination in its will to His will even when that is
difficult, even when it seems impossible. So His reply to her was seemingly
a rejection - actually, it was an act of immense love. She was, indeed, full
of grace from the start. Yet her capacity for grace could grow, and it did
that all the days of her life.
Ordinary Mothers cannot of course be both virgin and Mother. But they can
imitate, at a distance, her devotion to the Word of God, her fidelity to
His will, her carrying out of the role designed for her by our Father's
plan. Even when the need for physical care of their sons dims, the sons
still need spiritual care - and that the Mothers should provide, even as
she did.
St. Luke tells us that when young, He went down to Nazareth and was subject
to them. He, in His strictly divine humility, allowed Himself to be formed,
humanly, by His Mother and St. Joseph. Ordinary Mothers can imitate this
and should realize that to form a new life in the likeness of Jesus or His
Mother is far higher than to be a business executive, a policewoman, a tram
operator, or whatever - it is far higher and nobler than the masterpieces
of Michaelangelo, who carved in marble - Mothers carve in human souls!
