MARY AND THE CHURCH - I

COUNCIL
May is the month that is traditionally given over by devout Catholics to special veneration of the Blessed Virgin Mary and to an annual period of reflection on her particular place in God's economy and His plan for the salvation for the human race. From the most ancient period of Christianity down through the centuries, the mystery of Mary always was joined in thought and meditation to the mystery of the Catholic Church. This was illustrated most vividly during the Second Vatican Council, when the Fathers of the Council on October 29, 1963, voted to incorporate the doctrine they intended to teach about the Blessed Virgin Mary into the principal document of that Council, which is the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church. The entire eighth chapter of that dogmatic constitution concerns Mary and her relationship with Christ and with His Church. It was in his closing allocution at the end of the third session of that Ecumenical Council, on November 29, 1964, that Pope Paul VI officially bestowed on Mary the title, "Mother of the Church".

Pope Leo XIII, quoting Berengard, a Church Father, had noted that while "Mary belongs to the Church and, in a sense, is the Church's daughter, it is also true, at an even deeper level, that she can be called the Mother of the Church." Bruno of Asti remarked that, "Since she is the daughter of Jerusalem who is our mother from on high, she must then be the Mother of the Church which we constitute." Bossuet called Mary "the Mother of the New People of God", and Saint Ephrem said, "Mary is the earth in which the Catholic Church was sown."

The Catechism of the Catholic Church states, "By her complete adherence to the Father's will, to His Son's redemptive work, and to every prompting of the Holy Spirit, the Virgin Mary is the Church's model of faith and charity. Thus she is, (as the Second Vatican Council claims), a preeminent and wholly unique member of the Church. Indeed, she is the exemplary realization of the Church."

ICON
The Catechism goes on to call Mary "the eschatological icon of the Church", saying, "After speaking of the Church, her origin, mission, and destiny, we can find no better way to conclude than by looking to Mary. In her we contemplate what the Church already is in her mystery on her own pilgrimage of faith, and what she will be in the homeland at the end of her journey. There in the glory of the most holy and undivided Trinity, in the communion of all the saints, the Church is awaited by the one she venerates as the Mother of the Lord and her own Mother." The Second Vatican Council remarks, "In the meantime the Mother of Jesus, in the glory which she possesses in body and soul in heaven, is the image and beginning of the Church as the Church is to be perfected in the world to come. Likewise she shines forth on earth until the day of the Lord shall come, a sign of certain hope and comfort for the People of God."

Father Olier said, "The holy Religion of Jesus Christ has its beginning in the secrecy of the heart of the most holy Virgin." Pope Saint Leo the Great, citing Saint Augustine, noted that Mary conceived Christ in her heart before she conceived Him in her womb. Father Passaic remarked, "When, as the silent Mother of the silent Word, Mary held blindly in her life to the mysteries of God, watching all things and keeping them and pondering them in her heart, (Luke 1:29 & 1:51), she prefigured that long train of memory and intense meditation which is the very soul of the Sacred Tradition of the Church."

VIRGIN & MOTHER
Saint Mary, who was present by God's providence with the Apostles when the Holy Spirit came down upon the incipient Church which Christ founded (Acts of the Apostles 1:14), is the model and image of the Catholic Church both in her unsullied virginity and in her divine maternity. Honorius of Autun wrote, "The glorious Virgin Mary stands for the Church, Who is also both a virgin and mother. The Catholic Church is a mother because every day she presents God with new children in Baptism, made fruitful by the Holy Spirit. At the same time she is a virgin because God does not allow her to be in any way corrupted by the defilement of heresy and false doctrine, since she preserves inviolate the integrity of the faith."

Carl Feckes stated, "As Mary bore the earthly Christ, so the Church bears the Eucharistic Christ. As the whole life of Mary is centered upon bringing up and protecting Christ, so again the deep life and solicitude of the Church are centered on the Holy Eucharist. As Mary gives the earthly Christ to the world and from this Gift are born the children of God, so also the Eucharistic Flesh and Blood made present by the Church form the living children of God. As Mary offered up Christ together with Himself at the foot of the cross, so the whole Church, at every Mass, offers His sacrifice with Himself to the heavenly Father."

Isaac of l'Etoile wrote, "Our Lady and the Church both give to God the Father a posterity. Mary, sinless gave the Mystical Body a Head, while the Church, in the remission of sins, (John 20:23), gives the Head its Body (Ephesians 1:22-23). Both are thus the Mother of Christ, but they bear Him not one without the other."

REDEEMED
In speaking about the Blessed Virgin Mary, it is well to stress, in order to avoid any undue exaggerations, that, although she is the most eminent and important member of the Church and greatest of all creatures that have come from the hand of God, she is still "one of the vast family of the redeemed". As for each of us, God is also her Savior (Luke 1:47) and all her greatness comes only "from the redemption which is in Christ Jesus". Our Redeemer is her Savior. Like all of us, she was in need of grace and mercy which could only come from God. She was included in the "sentence incurred by the sin of Adam and involved in his debt just like us, but because of Him Who was to redeem us on the cross, the debt was remitted her by anticipation".

As Blessed Pope Pius IX observed, "She is redeemed like ourselves but in a manner altogether different, a manner more sublime." Preserved free from sin from the instant of her conception in the womb of Saint Ann, her mother, God filled her with grace (Luke 1:28) "so that His divine Son might be born of her and with Him the Church in her wholeness...For it was in her womb that the universal Church was betrothed to the Word and united to God by an eternal alliance." As Pope John Paul II noted, "It can be clearly seen how the relationship between Mary and the Church is a fascinating comparison between two mothers." Because the Catholic Church "does the will of God" and "hears the word of God and acts on it", she, like Mary, is called by Christ Himself His Mother (Luke 8:21; Matthew 12;50; Mark 3:35)

Reprinted from April 30, 2004