Recently I had the opportunity to go to Lebh Shomea with my wife. It is east of a small Texas town named Sarita towards the coast. It is a silent retreat house donated by Sarita Kennedy to the Oblate Order. It is a wonderful place to rest in the Lord. One of its many treasures is the library filled with religious books and other resources. You can spend days and years immersed in the wisdom captured within these walls. I checked out three books but spent most of my reading time on one, a book titled, A Theology of Mary (Vollert, Cyril 1965). In it is presented the many theological and philosophical arguments that have been made of the Blessed Mother over the centuries.
It begins with the argument that the first principle of God is that God is a God of order. Thus everything in the universe is ordered. Mary’s place in the universal history of salvation is also ordered for God’s glory and unity. Theologians work is to dig deep into the mystery of Mary and identify Mary’s first principle in the order of salvation. Since it is a mystery they seem to not be able to settle the question with each argument having a counter argument.
They argue Mary is the new Eve as mother of mankind associated with Christ the new Adam in the order of reparation as Eve was associated with Adam in the order of ruin but then is the first principle of Mary that of “bridal motherhood”? The concern as a first principle is that she is not the bride of humanity, she is our Mother as the new Eve of humanity.
They argue Mary as co-redemptoris as Mother of the Redeemer in her role in the order of salvation history. She participated through her fiat in the birth of our Redeemer, but it is Jesus who saves. They argue for Mary as a co-mediatrix for she intercedes for us as a Mother who interceded as the wedding of Cana whey they ran out of wine. The concern is that “no one comes to the Father except through Jesus the one mediator. Still it is argued we go to Jesus through Mary but as a first principle it also falls short in that we also go to God in the Holy Spirit through the Son to the Father. A “conciliatory opinion” is that Mary is an “associate” of the mediator but nobody like the compromise view.
Another argument is that Mary is the prototype of the church. She is “the church in germ” meaning she is the incarnation of the church as seen in Revelations, the woman clothed with the sun, the universal church and the perfect realization of what it is to be church. In God’s salvific plan she is the “arc-type” of the Church. It is also argued that the Church is the mystical body of Christ but “the Church is not Christ and Christ is not the Church”; neither is Mary the Church or the Church Mary. “The Church is a visible society founded by Christ”.
There are other arguments like Mary is the “new Paradise” but what is not argued is that Mary is “full of grace, Mother of God”. That is the declared dogma of the Church and thus infallible in its proclamation. It is the fundamental principle of who she is in the order of salvation. Mary’s birth is the perfect sanctification through grace without sin to bring Jesus Christ into the world. It is the mystery of human salvation, the mystery of the union between God and humanity to unite our human nature to God in the Son. God becomes fully human that we may be divinized by our participation in Christ. Mary is a channel for grace in her smallness she is assumed and crowned our Queen of Heaven.
It is good to be small and humble. Pope Francis says on the Nativity of Mary that we have a tendency to believe “bigger is better”. If you are from a small town we seek to go to the “big City” as a better place to be. Children see a big gift wrapped present and believe it is better than a small gift. In scripture we see God’s preference for the “small and insignificant”. Jesus comes from Bethlehem, Mary from Nazareth. What can these small insignificant towns offer compared to the big city of Jerusalem? They offered us the savior of the world and Queen of Heaven. What is insignificant in the eyes of the world is not insignificant to God. God cares about the smallest things in our lives. He is not in the thunder but in the whisper.
Let us not fear God in hurricanes, earthquakes and disasters when they arrive in force to bring destruction. Let us search for him from within, in who he created us to be in Him. If he resides in the smallness of our being as he came into the womb of Mary then we are sanctified and give glory and praise for is God is with us, who can be against us.
God called Mary through a particular family lineage to give birth to Jesus in a particular small town at a set time in history to take her place for the world’s salvation. He calls us also in our smallness in our time to share in the divine mystery. What is my response to Him today?
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