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We live in a world where we make people disposable. They are often treated as a means to an ends. Oriental sweat shops keep our prices down and the profits up while costing American workers their jobs. There is a mounting national debt and we seem all too willing to pass it on to the next generation so that we can sustain our standards of living and government bureacracy. Disasters happen every day around the world but we never seem to care as much as when something bad happens here at home or to people we love. While human life is incommensurate we tend to put a price tag upon the value of persons and their dignity.

The Virgin Mary remains important and was not simply a minor character in the history of salvation about whom we can forget. Just as Mary is not discarded or dumped as someone who has served her purpose; all women, indeed all people, must be regarded as having immeasurable dignity and worth. Every day is an opportunity to make a difference and to live out our calling. Our commitment to God and to one another is not simply a onetime act of faith, but a continual surrender and cooperation with God’s will. Mary’s role stretched throughout the life of Jesus, his hidden private life and later his public ministry.

Indeed, Mary continues to have a maternal role to play in the lives of all believers.

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Can we love Mary too much? I doubt it. The late Pope John Paul took as his motto, “Totally Yours,” in reference to the Blessed Mother. He had lost his mother when he was a child. The only real mother he ever knew was the Virgin Mary. He would even credit her with saving his life from an assassin’s bullet.

Could Jesus love his Mother too much? If the divine love is infinite then it would seem that whatever measure we can weigh in her regard will always be lacking. Nevertheless, we seek to imitate Jesus.

Some critics act as if they are embarrassed that Jesus ever had a Mother. This is not the Catholic stance. Jesus kept the commandments, including the honoring of his parents. If Jesus could love and honor Mary, who are we not to do likewise? We love Mary and she loves us with a Mother’s heart.

Imitating Mary, women of faith are essential to the life of the Church, but they need the heart of the handmaid and not the feminist terrorist who comes to tear down. Mary loved her Son, the Great High Priest.

Women with a maternal love for priests are at the heart of the Church. Mary’s strength was creative, not destructive.

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While Mary brings spiritual children to her Son, Jesus; our affiliation with her first rests with our relationship to the Lord. Jesus gives us his Mother as our Mother. Due to his identity and the posture of the Creator to his creatures, Jesus can never be eclipsed. We find this truth in the Rosary. While many Hail Mary prayers are said, as well as the Hail Holy Queen, the meditations are almost exclusively about Jesus and his saving work. The “fruit” of her womb gives importance to the tree that is Mary. The fact that Marian devotion and pilgrimages are often associated with healing inspires a reflection as to the WHY. No doubt when Jesus was a child or even a young man at work with wood and stone, there must have been times when there were injuries. I am reminded of several paintings of Jesus as a boy helping out in his foster father’s carpentry shop. The frozen image shows Jesus holding up a cut hand or a finger with a splinter of wood in it. Blood flows from the wound. The scene prefigures his crucifixion. One of the paintings shows Mary’s response, she immediately assists him. How many times did our mothers kiss our wounds to make them better? They bandaged our hurts and cared for us when we were sick.

As a spiritual Mother, Mary seeks to bring healing to those sons and daughters who are kin with Jesus. She cares for Jesus among the community of believers.

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When many Catholics ponder the Virgin Mary, their thoughts do not pass immediately to the Gospel narratives but stray to the many apparitions, approved and dubious. Messages from heaven, albeit purportedly through visionaries and those receiving inner locutions, frequently take center stage. Pilgrims visit the sites of these visitations and there are plenty of peddlers ready to sell them trinkets. I do not mean to sound cynical, and I myself place great value in the stories around Lourdes and Fatima, but we must never forget that all this sensationalism is about private revelation. A Catholic is not obliged in faith to assent to any of it. Even the approval that the Church renders certain apparitions is rather negative in formulation. The authorities simply assert that there is nothing contrary to Catholic faith.

Of course, there are unapproved events, seers and messages which receive various levels of rebuke. The official Church verdict is still out about Medjugorie. While the local bishop insists that there is nothing genuinely supernatural going on and priest-involvement in pilgrimages is discouraged, pilgrims of faith keep coming. Miracles seem to be happening and people are repenting of sin and coming back to the Lord. Might Mary be involved with this?

Is not the movement of faith in itself something supernatural and from God?

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There are some titles given to Mary which make certain theologians squirm. One of these became controversial during the pontificate of Pope John Paul II due to rumors that he was going to define Mary as the Co-redemptrix. Another title arising from an older popular piety was Mediatrix. Usage of these titles is probably somewhat reserved or rare because of confused definitions and ecumenical concerns.

It is important to clarify that there is only one Mediator and Redeemer, and that is Jesus Christ. Mediatrix says a lot about Mary’s unique and powerful intercessory role. She is of one mind and heart with Christ. Mary submits herself entirely to the divine will and mercy. Co-redemptrix is more problematical for non-Catholics because we admit that Mary has a singular role to play as the “Mother of God.” This latter Christological title protects the divine identity of her Son. Her YES to God resonates and participates with the primary YES of Christ. So that he might die for sinners, he first had to be born. Jesus did not suddenly beam down from Heaven. Mary was there and played her part. No other human being would ever have such intimacy with Christ.

Similarly, at the Cross, although she was never a priest, she could look upon the abused body of her Son and say, “This is my body. This is my blood.”

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Satan, in the form of a serpent, tempted the first Eve and she in turn led Adam into sin. Nevertheless, Genesis 3:15, speaks of another woman, a new Eve, whose seed would crush the head of the serpent. She cooperates with the new Adam, from the time when he was hidden in her womb to when all is revealed in his crucifixion and resurrection.

Sin and death came into the world from the poisoned fruit of a living tree in the Garden; redemption and eternal life would come in the pierced flesh and spilt blood from the dead tree of the Cross upon the dusty hill of Calvary. Mary says YES, not only at the beginning of the story, but throughout. The greatest human being, apart from the divine person of Christ, is the Virgin Mary. It is for this reason that any perspective which downgrades or impugns female humanity, commits an offense against Mary who is the “honor and glory of our race.”

While Catholics would not go as far as Islamic extremists in retaliating for blasphemy and the mocking of sacred persons; neither should we quietly tolerate without response the profanation of Jesus and Mary. Mary, in particular, is often insulted by secular critics. This attacks all women.

Mary is a special safeguard for the legitimate recognition of women’s rights and gifts.

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Mary is a special model for women. I have known many women who were true daughters of Mary, supportive of their families and their parishes. Just as the holy women in the Bible followed and supported Jesus, these wonderful ladies support their pastors and make a real positive difference. Our churches are enriched by their presence. Unfortunately, while I quickly recall positive examples of Marian imitation, when I ponder the humble strength of Mary, I am also reminded of a negative event in my ministry from over a decade ago. There was an encounter with a woman who almost seemed like an anti-Mary. She attracted to herself like-minded women filled with grievances who seemed to almost hate men and those good women who did not think as they did. The experience deeply wounded me. Unlike Mary, there was nothing of humility and acceptance of God’s will.

Mary cooperated with Jesus who is the great high priest. She was strong and courageous, but always faithful. When our Lord was a boy in the temple, she sought him out. At Cana, she would ask his favor and intervention. When he was engaged in ministry and she worried about him with a Mother’s concern, she pursued him. When he entered his Passion, she followed and wanted to be near him.

Mary was close to the heart of Jesus.

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I recall reading a revised translation of the Magnificat where the word, “handmaid,” was simply translated as servant. When I read why the traditional word had been altered, it was noted that critics thought the word was sexist and demeaning. The word, “servant,” while still denoting a person of service, did not imply gender and the accompanying submission. It is my suspicion that, if they could have gotten away with it, the replacement word would have disappeared, too. While I would admit certain equivalence in the terms, I would insist upon Mary’s self-attributed title.

“Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word” (Luke 1:38). She is literally telling God that she belongs to him and to use her any way he sees fit. Mary teaches us a fundamental lesson about what it means to be a disciple of the Lord. Her humble acceptance of divine providence must come along with faith if it is to be genuine. Without humility we cannot know God as we should. Without humility, even the slightest act of charity and religious observance becomes an arduous chore.

The YES of Mary to God’s message as brought to her by an angel stands in stark conflict with the NO of Satan and of those who dissent in the Church.

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Once more prudish than our European counterparts, even depictions of naked angels in the Vatican would make American adults cringe and children giggle. As a boy, I recall a painting of Mary that disturbed me because it was not like the chaste depiction of the Sorrowful Mother in the parish church. The picture illustrated the Blessed Mother with the infant Jesus suckling at one of her exposed breasts. It did not strike me as overtly sexual, as it might for many in our oversexed society at present, just a bit embarrassing. Coming from a family of seven children, it reminded me in a shocking manner that Jesus really was like us. He was God come down from heaven, but he still depended upon his Mother’s milk. She nursed Jesus from her own flesh. In return, Jesus would give us sustenance from his Cross in the Eucharist. Reflecting both on Mary’s dependence upon Christ and her active cooperation in his redemptive work; it seems to me that she now spiritually nurses the mystical body of Christ, the Church. Everything she has is God’s gift to her. What she was given, she gives in return. It is no wonder that she, herself, is often identified in an intimate way with the Church. We call both MOTHER. Some theologians speak about how the graces of Christ might actually pass through Mary to us.

The whole Church is still held up to her breast, near that immaculate heart which beats in love for us.

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It might seem that enthusiasm for the Virgin Mary in popular devotion is on the rise; however, this perception is largely dependent upon the scope of one’s memories and historical awareness. While it is true that multitudes of the faithful present a very visible and sincere Marian spirituality; older believers can recall forty or more years ago when May Day processions took over whole neighborhoods. Altar boys dressed in cassock and surplice paraded in endless lines with the priests and faithful, often with a large statue of Mary adorned with flowers. Hymns to Mary were commonplace and almost every Catholic had a rosary and seemed to say it. The toughest thugs in bars would quickly resort to fists if anyone made the slightest slur against the Blessed Mother. Mary was as much a part of our lives as the air we breathed.

The Blue Army and Marian sodalities might be making a comeback, but we still have a ways to go before we can say that we have reached similar levels of piety today. Further, while there is growing interest in Mary, particularly by non-Catholic Christians, portrayals and insights are frequently revisionist and in conflict with earlier depictions.

We should seek to be faithful to the image of Mary portrayed in Scripture and Tradition which is presented to us by the Church.

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