In our day and age, we have become a person striving for deeper intimacy with life. This is done so much, to the point, that we lose the meaning when we riddle ourselves—via facebook, twitter, and the like—with deep quotes that have the potential of impacting a moment in our life, but are headed or even implanted in self-taken photos that desire nothing more than attention. Imagine someone posting a picture of her (or his; guys can do it, too) new haircut with the caption:
“It is harder to judge yourself than to judge others. If you succeed in judging yourself, it’s because you are truly a wise man.”
Or
“We’re best friends not because we don’t fight, but because we forgive each other.”
Okay, okay. I’m apt
to quote from Antoine de Saint-Exupery often, so forgive me. Still, no one is going to comment on the quote;
the quote is lost in the photos and all the comments about the new look.
Better yet, think of anything with
the caption, YOLO. “You only live once”
they say, but this means that you can do whatever the hey you want. It no longer means, “think of the Big Guy
upstairs and the long run you’re taking.
Is this what you really want?”
But what am I getting at? I rant.
As we strive to become deeper
within ourselves, it is a comfort for Catholics to know that our faith is built
upon the deepest religion in history—extending from the time of the Jews and
Christ’s foundation on the rock, which Peter built it, to now. We’ve got it deep, and that’s where I’m going
at, with Mary.
Mary’s life was not just blessing
to us because of her fiat (Luke 1:38), it is a continual blessing to us. Her acceptance brought us Life. She brought us Christ, who is Eternal Good,
and who saved us from eternal death and damnation. Her fiat brought forth the Means of
redemption. If Jesus is eternal, then it
would go without saying that His mother is also eternal as His mother. As she is eternal, her fiat remains a
continual and eternal blessing. Everyday
her fiat is revisited when we think, speak, or feel Christ’s identity within
our lives. If we don’t think, speak, or
feel His identity, her fiat is still revisited when Christ forgives us for not
thinking, speaking, or believing in His identity.
Here’s
some deep for you:
Eve
rejected God’s will, bringing us death, disease and danger.
God said He would put enmity between the
woman and her seed against Satan’s.
Her (or her seed’s) heel would
strike the Serpent’s head.
Life over
death.
Mary
accepted God’s will, bringing us Jesus Christ, our source of life.
Jesus redeems us from eternal death,
disease, and danger.
The
Serpent’s head is crushed. Life over
death.
Mary,
with her acceptance, is the new Eve.
The Perfected Eve.
Some may scoff and say we’re worshiping the wrong person. Others may agree only to a certain extent.
“So what,” they can say, “ Isn't she just one of the lucky ones? She’s nothing special; she wasn’t a perpetual virgin (as Catholics believe). Isn't this just a string of coincidences that were bound to happen so somebody anyway?”
Let me propose some answers.
Catholics, at least the Catholics that know what they are doing, do not worship anybody but the one God. Nobody else. Nadie. Nein. Only God. When we refer to Mary, we refer to her with honor, grace, and esteem. This is how we would for any high-esteemed person in this world but—c’mon here, people—this is the mother of God we’re talking about! As Catholics, we try to imitate Christ.
Catholics, at least the Catholics that know what they are doing, do not worship anybody but the one God. Nobody else. Nadie. Nein. Only God. When we refer to Mary, we refer to her with honor, grace, and esteem. This is how we would for any high-esteemed person in this world but—c’mon here, people—this is the mother of God we’re talking about! As Catholics, we try to imitate Christ.
How would Jesus
Christ treat his own mother?
How would Jesus treat His own Mother?
After she raised Him up and He began His work with the public, how would
Christ still treat His Mother? After His
death, resurrection, and ascension into Heaven, how would Christ still treat
His Mother? After her death, how would
Christ still treat His Mother?
Aren’t we supposed
to mirror Christ’s love?
A: We don’t know for
sure, (so we’re okay in assuming that Jesus wouldn’t mind either way)
B: What does it matter? They’re both upstairs so we can act whichever
way!
C: Jesus is full of
love, but wouldn’t respect His own Mother.
D: Jesus is eternal
love and respect. Let us eternally love
and respect like He does.
“Okay, okay. Apart from being the Mother of God and
deserving of our love, what else? She’s
still not special.”
Au contraire, she is more than just
another person who happened to be Christ’s mother (wait, there still has only
been one mother of Jesus, hasn’t there?). She is the New Eve—the Perfected
Eve. Not only this, but she’s the Mother
of God. Besides this, she is still a
virgin.
“Whoa! How can you say that? Look, look! Mt. 1:25 says her hubby, ‘Joseph knew her not until she bore her first-born.’ After
Jesus, Joseph knew her intimately through intercourse, it says so right there!”
Yes and
no. Take it seriously, because it is the
Bible, but don’t take it too literally.
If you do, we’ve got a problem with Mt. 28:20 (among other verses). The specific verse has Jesus saying “And
behold, I am with you, unto (or—synonymously—until) the end of time.” Uh-oh.
Jesus is going to abandon us, at the end of time? Of course not! It’s imagery, as is want in the Bible. Jesus revealed His love for us and His
dedication to us in Mt. 28:20.
So what
does Mt. 1:25 mean? After seeing that
his virgin wife conceived, gave birth to his Lord, and witnessed Christ’s
presence, Joseph was revealed Mary’s
true spiritual identity. He didn’t have
to have relations with Mary to become intimate with the woman who raised his
Lord.
Take a mile in
Joseph’s shoes:
Before Mary, there
was the Ark of the Covenant.
If anyone so much as
touched the Ark, they would be struck down and killed.
After that, Mary’s
womb held the Most Sacred Thing in the world.
Knowing that, would
you even contemplate having that womb be touched by something else?
“Christ’s birth
didn’t end Mary’s virginity (or her intention to remain a virgin)
Christ’s birth
sanctified it”
Catechism: 499
Still
say she isn’t something special? Well,
Mary is Queen of Heaven and Earth. Think
of it this way. In the Old Testament,
the kings had many wives; it would be impossible to have that many queens. Imagine the chaos if each wife were a
queen? So who was significant enough to
be the queen? Well, the mother of
course! After all, each king had only
one mother, so the mothers were regarded as the queens in the Old
Testament.
Take a
quick look at Mt. 1 in the New Testament, and we see that Jesus a genealogical
descendent of the kings. He’s definitely
going to be the perfect king, right? The
King of Heaven and Earth? If you
answered yes, you are correct. Who else
could be the queen, but His mother? This
ties in the way Christ would treat his Mother/Queen—with decency, respect,
honor, and love.
“Well,”
you may say, “we don’t need to honor her.
We can just go straight to God.”
True,
but here’s another interesting tidbit:
In the
Old Testament, queens acted as respected mediators
between the people and their king.
One example of this is in 1 Kings 2:12-20. Somebody named Adonijah went to the queen,
Bathsheba, to petition a request.
Adonijah says that the king, Bathsheba’s son Solomon, “will not refuse
you” and Bathsheba agrees. Get this, Bathsheba
goes to her son, Solomon.
“There
is a favor I ask of you, my son. Don’t
refuse me.” She says.
“Ask it, my
mother. I will not refuse you.” The king
replies.
He
could have refused, but Solomon’s respect for his queen was so much, he knew he
couldn’t disrespect.
This is the same way Jesus reacted
to Mary at the wedding in Cana. She
asked, Jesus said yes. How could He
refuse His own mother? He couldn’t, he
wouldn’t. Jesus is so filled with love;
of course He would listen to His mother.
Go to the mother, and you’ve gotten another aide in your request to the
Son.
“But Jesus called Mary ‘Woman.’ Surely He can’t be respectful—in the
least—He’s not exactly going out of His way to be friendly with Mary. Right?”
Well
let’s first target the absurdity of this statement. Imagine you were a living saint attending a
wedding (don’t get too entertained by the idea of being a living saint…). Your mother came to you and asked you to do
something you knew was in your power.
Would you roll your eyes and say, “omg, WOMAN! C’mon, mom! Why should I do that?” Or would you say something along the lines
of, “you know me too well. Thanks for recognizing my abilities and being proud
of your son!” and then complete the task?
What would others expect of you?
Exactly.
So when
Jesus says “Woman” what does He mean?
Jesus has a way of speaking that usually alludes to something more,
right? So why should this be any
different?
Go back
to Genesis 3:15. “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between
your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his
heel.”
Could
it be? Could it be that Jesus was
referring to something of this when he spoke at the wedding? Could it be that Jesus was referring to Mary
as the Woman—the New Eve? If this is
true, than Jesus was referring to Himself as the one who would crush Satan’s
head? The One to defeat the evil
one? Again, Mary’s fiat brings Life over death.
Seeing
how Jesus does this in other instances, could this be a possibility? In any case, it is more of a possibility that
the Son of God would publicly disrespect His own mother.
We can go straight to Jesus, to
God. But we can also ask His mother to
help us out. After all, we’re the
low-lifes asking God for a request.
Shouldn’t we give it to His mother so she can make our words just a
little bit more eloquent?
A pastor once told me, “If I were
to walk down the street and happened to see Mary, the Mother of God on the
other side, I would cross over to her and raise my hat in honor. She would then
say to me, ‘do not give me the honor, but give it to God instead.’ And that’s
why I wouldn’t do anything special for her.”
I was young, afraid and too
ignorant to respond wisely to him at the time, but now I would say,
“And I will do no such thing for
you mother!”
Just kidding! I would agree that Mary would show humility,
just as many holy people living in this world.
But it doesn’t mean we don’t give honor and respect where it is
due. God gave us this sense of respect
not so that we give it only to Him, but that we can share it with others in the
hope of sharing what our whole life represents:
good, and God.
Here’s
one last little tidbit to get you thinking…
In
today’s day and age, everyone enjoys the story of someone’s fate being handed
to them. They didn’t choose it, maybe
they didn’t even want it. In any case,
it came upon them. Think of comic books,
movies, tv shows. All those stories with
the usual line saying
“I
didn’t want any of this. I didn’t wish
for this. I didn’t ask for this.”
Usually
this results in the likely response…
“Yes,
but fate has a way of making the best of people. It’s a matter of you accepting your
fate.”
What does it matter to us?
We enjoy the hero; just watch any movie, any show, or read any
book.
Maybe
Mary didn’t ask for it, but she did not doubt
when she heard the angel’s words. She
had enough faith. Her response was the
epitome of faith.
Mary is
that hero.
It
could have been anyone. Maybe it could have been anyone.
But it
still doesn’t mean we don’t root for the hero.
“Am I not here, I, who am your Mother? Are you not under my shadow and
protection? Am I not the source of your
joy? Are you not in the hollow of my
mantle, in the crossing of my arms? Do
you need anything more? Let nothing else
worry you, disturb you.”
Take care,
Damien
