Mary for Today 0898701902

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MARY FOR TODAY

HANS URS VON BALTHASAR

MARY FOR TODAY Translated by

ROBERT NOWELL With illustrations by

VIRGINIA BRODERICK

IGNATIUS PRESS

SAN FRANCISCO

Title of the German original: Maria fur heute © 1987 Verlag Herder Freiburg im Breisgau, West Germany First English edition: © 1987 St. Paul Publications All rights reserved Middlegreen, Slough SL3 6BT, England

The Scripture quotations contained herein are from the Revised Standard Version Bible, Cath­ olic Edition, copyrighted 1965 and 1966 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA and are used by permission. All rights reserved.

Cover by Victoria Hoke Lane Reprinted in 1988 by Ign atius Press, San Francisco, with permission of St. Paul Publications ISBN 0-89870-190-2 Library of Congress catalogue number 87-83506 Printed in the United States of America

CONTENTS

I.

In the Wilderness a. b. C.

2.

Giving Birth in Pain a. b. C.

3.

a. b.

Mary's pondering Mary and Pentecost The teacher of the Church

Marriage and Virginity a. b. C.

5.

Advent "My little children, with whom I am again in travail' ' Giving birth to heaven

Mary, the Memory of the Church

C.

4.

The woman and the dragon Spat upon and nourished The woman's children wage war

The heritage of Israel Mary and Joseph Mary and John

7

9

14 18 21

23 26 29 33

35 39 42 47 49 52 53

The Poor

57

a. b.

59

Magnificat "Do whatever he tells you''

61

c. 6.

'J\nd his mother and his brethren came''

The Wound Provides Space a. b. c.

Humility is unconscious Wound as refuge Her protective cloak

I

IN THE WILDERNESS

IN THE WILDERNESS

a. The uJotnan and the dragon The best \\ray to learn something about Mary and ho\v she is related to our present age is to start with chapter 12 of Revelation. This question is at the core of this last book of the Bible. \vhich uses visionary images to provide insight in to the drama of the \vorld's historv. . The "great portent ... in hea\·en. . the "woman clothed ,vith the sun. ,vith the moon under her feet, and on her head a cro,vn of t\velve stars", but crying out in the pangs of birth. is without doubt first of all God·s people Israel sut:.. fering the birth-pangs of the Messiah: is it to give birth to something far more than an ordinary human being-but ho\v can this con1e about? And the pains are not just internal: joined to rhen1 is measureless fear of the monster. the fire-red dragon ,vith its seven n1ouths open \vide _..that he might devour her child ,vhen she brought it forth". But in Israel"s hevdav, in the embodin1ent of its entire hope and its entire faith .. the birth takes J

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9

place of the boy who, as a psalm says, "is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron", in other \Vords, who receives from God absolute power over crea­ tion: power even over death, power even over being swallo\ved up by the dragon, so that, rising again on the other side of this death, he can be "caught up to God and to his throne". This fulness of Israel's faith was a particular hun1an being called Mary, \vho bore the Messiah in the flesh and shared in experiencing and suffering his entire fate up to the crucifixion and being raised to the throne of God. What became of her? It says first of all that she "fled into the \vilder­ ness, where she had a place prepared by God". But before \Ve learn more about her, a decisive battle is portrayed in heaven: after the Messiah has been caught up into heaven, Michael and his an­ gels fight against the dragon and his follo\\·ers, who are not able to stand firn1: "the great dragon, that ancient serpent, \Vho is called the Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the \vhole \\·orld", is thrown do\vn from the eternity of heaven to the finiteness of earth; heaven is full of rejoicing, but woe is said to the earth, "for the devil has con1e down to you in great \vrath, because he kno\\·s that his tin1e is short. " Now the dragon and the \\·on1an are once again opposed to each other; and the dragon has no other aim than to "pursue" the \Von1an. We are now in the period after Christ, \vhich in RevelaIO

tion is always measured in the same way: "one thousand two hundred and sixty days" or ''forty­ two months" or, as here, "a time, and t\VO tin1es, and half a time". That means a time that seen1s twice as long to men and that yet (as it says elsewhere) has been "shortened (by half) for the sake of the elect". This precisely is the age in which we live, in which also lives the \von1an who was Israel, who became Mary and who fi­ nally today has become the n1other of all Jesus' brothers and sisters. In Revelation Mary becon1es the Church, since it is said that in his anger against the woman the dragon "went otT to n1ake war on the rest of her offspring, on those \vho keep the commandn1ents of God and bear testi­ mony to Jesus." The devil's rage against the Church is as great as it is because it is not able to achieve anything against her. "The won1an \Vas given the t\vo ings of the great eagle that she n1ight fly . .. into the wilderness" to a place \vhere, safe fro1n the serpent, "she is to be nourished' ' throughout the history of the world. This security is a pre­ carious security, since "the serpent poured \Vater like a river out of his mouth after the \von1an, to sweep her away with the flood." But 110\v Hthe earth came to the help of the won1an, and the earth opened its mouth and S\vallo\ved the river which the dragon had poured fron1 his n1outh." What a situation! The won1an is in flight, but 1

\\

II

this succeeds, since she is given the wings of the great eagle: the wings of God, who like the eagle takes his young on his wings so that they may lose their fear and carries them out of the nest into the air. This was how Yahweh treated Israel. But to the young who are carried out into the empty spaces this expanse must seem nothing but wilderness. Nevertheless, it is precisely the \vil­ derness that is the "place of safety " to \vhich God brings the woman and where in a miraculous way he sees to her nourishment in the time of history, just as he had fed Israel in the desert. Then it \Vas a geographical desert which today we can cross in an airplane in a short time. But this side of the end of time, that is not possible with the \vilderness where the Church has to live. Then there \Vas an exodus toward a promised land. -roday that does not exist for the Church except \vhat is pron1ised the other side of history: a new heaven and a ne\v earth. The Church means existence bet\veen \vhat the dragon spews forth and the nourishn1ent of heaven, threatened with death and yet protected in a place prepared by God, but at the san1e time, for all the Church's children, existence in an inces­ sant war being waged against the satanic po\vers. The Church is not some entity differentiated from its children: she lives in then1, as her chil­ dren live through and in her. Hence their fate is hers: exposed to the rage of the serpent and .. if 12

they fight, protected and nourished by God. "Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experience of suffering is required of your broth­ erhood throughout the world" (1 Pet 5:8--9)."Put on the whole armor of God, that you n1ay be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.For we are not contending against flesh and blood, but ... against the world rulers of this present darkness" (Eph 6: I I-I 2). They are angry powers, not indifferent ones. After Christ they have developed into a trinity opposed to God, as Revelation describes then1 in detail: in the beast rising out of the sea, the old dragon created for himself a form don1inating world history in which it was "worshipped" and to which the power was given "to n1ake war on the saints and to conquer them".The Church can suffer defeats, be decimated and humiliated, until the final torment and distress of which Christ spoke in the Gospels, until the encirclen1ent of the "beloved city" mentioned in Revelation. "Now when these things begin to take place, look up and raise your heads, because your reden1ption is drawing near" (Lk 21 :28). In the history of the Church it is not therefore a question of a battle which will go in her favor on earth; for even when the childen are fighting her she remains-and therefore her "'otTspring" too13

until the end of time in the wilderness. It is there, and only there, that, borne by the wings of God, she is protected. The wilderness is her promised land. b. Spat upon and nourished

Mary, the "Mother Church" and at the san1e time "Mother of the Church" (she can be both, be­ cause at the foot of the Cross with the beloved disciple she becarne the original image and cell of the community founded by the Crucified One and at the same time received the apostle and in him all Christians as her children) in the hidden seclusion of her earthly life already experienced beforehand everything that her children \Vould later encounter in the \vay of unpleasantness and consolation. What someone like Paul proclaimed out loud about his own fate as an exan1ple for everybody-that he was weak, despised, hon1e­ less, indeed regarded as the world's rubbish, and yet was never abandoned, never in despair, never annihilated-can be glimpsed in much n1ore re­ strained tones in the life of Mary. What must it have been like for her as her pregnancy, about \vhose origins she gave no hint or indication, became clear to those round about-certainly not just Joseph, in \vhose house she was not yet living, but others who. unlike her 14

bridegroom, gave their tongues free rein? And what help was it with regard to these people when Joseph, enlightened in a dream, took her as his wife? This did not mean that the trouble that flickered around her and around her child too was done a\vay with. Nor could Joseph make any kind of statement that would calm things down. Peo­ ple let matters rest and reconciled then1selves to the idea that this child n1ust surely be Joseph's son. In any case many thought, when the time came for the mother's purification, that she cer­ tainly needed this rite which \Vas prescribed by "the la\v of Moses" (Lk 2: 22). We cannot say whether even later, perhaps until she moved in with John, Mary did not have to suffer from a certain suspicion from people. But it is clear that after the start ofJesus' public activity she must have lived in close contact \vith his relations, who, as John reports, did not believe in him but urged him to work miracles publicly, perhaps in order to make son1e money with hin1 (Jn 7:3-5). But \vhen he \Vent too far for them and everything was going his \Vay, "his friends . . . went out to seize him, for they said, 'He is beside himself' " (Mk 3 :2 I). Mary is in the n1idst of these people; she comes together with then1 to see hin1� Jesus is told that his mother and his brethren are standing outside, they send to him and call hin1, but he lets her wait outside the door and go hon1e withont having achieved anything (Mk 3:31-35). 15

One must try and imagine what must have gone on inside this mother's mind: "Don' t I count for him any more? Is he leaving me standing?" She heard a mass of partly distorted rumors, and cer­ tainly she received no letters from him; she lived in a wilderness of concern and fear. How the Holy Spirit that had once overshadowed her nourished her in this wilderness we do not know. But perhaps it was above all with what was most fruitful: the dark night of the senses and of the spirit to lead to the most naked faith, that finally enabled her to look on the horror of her child being crucified and not just to lose him but to be assigned by him in a solemn bequest to someone else as his mother. Of course she had known the joys of a mother with her tiny, helpless baby who slowly grew up: this is portrayed to the point of surfeit by hun­ dreds of thousands of pictures of the Madonna. But who has painted for us the lonely woman spending endless days in anxiety and fear, \vho without doubt did not understand what was really going on? She had heard of the sword that would pierce her own soul. But what forn1 her suffering would take she could not know in ad­ vance. When a first disaster happened, the twelve­ year-old boy left his parents without fore\varning them and explained things to them with the gen­ tle reproach that his place was in the temple: they did not understand. One cannot imagine that af16

terward, when they had returned to Nazareth, he gave them a full explanation to help dispel their lack of understanding. It \Vas enough that he "\vas obedient to them". And certainly it is stated twice in the infancy narrative that Mary kept everything that \Vas said about the child, and that he himself said, in her heart and pondered over these sayings. But the second mention comes just after the verse \vhere it is said that "they did not understand the saying which he spoke to them." So she considered \vhat could be meant by this thing she could not under­ stand. She would not have done this if she did not know that the nature and fate of this young n1an were something unique and would be suitably revealed in the future. But just as Jesus little antic­ ipated the fate that lay in store for him but let it be revealed to him from day to day by his Father, so too would his mother have anticipated little of what was to come: part of her faith (the fulfill­ ment of the faith of Abraham) was always to accept God's dispositions. That fits \Vith the pov­ erty of spirit and purity of heart extolled in the beatitudes: today heart and mind are e1nptied out so that space may be created in then1 to behold one day God and his kingdon1. It \vould be odd if in heaven Mary had denied her earthly experience of faith and had changed over to giving Christians prophetic revelations about the future (the con­ version of Russia and so on). 17

The abode assigned to the won1an by God is the wilderness, and he himself bears her there on his eagle's wings. For the whole of world history the Church must remen1ber that she receives enough nourishment fron1 God so as not to perish in the wilderness, and she is far enough away from the serpent pursuing her not to be swept away by the flood it spews forth. That n1ust suf­ fice. c. The wotnan's children wa,�e tvar The woman's children are characterized by the fact that they "keep the con1mandn1ents of God and bear testimony to Jesus". With John as with Paul, God's commandn1ents are con1prised in the one comn1andment of love: to continue bearing witness in an attitude of patient, unshakeable per­ severance despite all attacks and ten1ptations. Here all that is necessary is "the endurance of the saints, those who keep the con1n1andn1ents of God and the faith of Jesus" (Rev 14: 1 2 ). Nowhere in the New Testan1ent do Christians wage war with other weapons. Even the "whole armor of God" that Paul describes in detail (Eph 6: 13-18) only expounds n1ore clearly what Chris­ tians arm themselves with: truth, righteousness, being prepared to proclain1 the gospel, faith, con­ fidence in salvation, the sword of the Spirit which 18

is the word of God, continual prayer. These are purely "godly" and in no way earthly weapons. But Revelation, as the Gospels and the various fortunes that Paul met with had already n1ade clear, indicates that these are the only effective weapons. "The weapons of our warfare are not worldly but have divine power to destroy strong­ holds. We destroy argun1ents and every proud obstacle to the knowledge of God" (2 Cor 10:45). It is fallacies that are destroyed: it is not foreign countries and cultures that are overcon1e and turned Christian by force. This does not n1ean that Christians stay at hon1e: they have been com­ manded by the Lord to go out as n1issionaries into all the countries of the world. But they are to go with no weapons other than those used by their Lord and comn1itted to then1: "Take nothing for your journey, no staff, nor bag, nor bread, nor money: and do not have two tunics" (Lk 9:3). When the Logos rides out to battle through the history of the world in his "robe dipped in blood" (Rev 19:11-16), followed by his "called and chosen and faithful" (Rev I 7:14), it is with no other weapons than those that have been n1en­ tioned. The keenest weapon is the two-edged sword that issues from the n1outh of God's Word (Rev 1:16, 19:15) and that is nothing other than itself: it came into the world to bring "a S\\/Ord" (Mt 10:34) which pierces as deeply as possible (Heb 4:12); yes or no. 19

But it should be noted that, \vhile the \Voman's children fight, the \voman herself: though she is pursued, does not. The children can be overcome by the evil po\ver (Rev 11:7, 13:7); the \voman, the Church as virgin who gives birth, cannot. For the \vhole period of the history of the \vorld she is ensconced in the "place prepared for her by God", where she does not have to struggle for her keep but is "nourished" by God. This \Vomanly, Mar­ ian Church cannot be affected by the po\ver of the dragon, "the gates of hell shall not prevail against it". The rock of Peter is safeguarded there too, which is T�vhy he is told: '4Put your S\\'Ord into its sheath." Paul and John Paul II go through the world \Vithout any S\vord: it is enough if they bear \Vitness, that is their strongest \Veapon, and the successor of Peter can al\vavs find ne\v strength, for this \Vitness is a Church of Mary.

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2

GIVING BIRTH IN PAIN

GIVING BIRTH IN PAIN

a. Advent Mary's nine-month Advent was not without pain. Even if she was preserved from original sin so as to be able to give the complete assent that was necessary for God's Word to becon1e man, this does not mean that she was therefore spared the pains that from the very beginning have been laid on woman in childbirth: "I will greatly n1ultiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children" (Gen 3:1 6). W hat Mary has to suffer is expiation for Eve and her descendants. She stands in solidarity with the n1other of the race precisely because she is free of sin; she stands more closely in solidarity with her people Israel, which as a whole is continually experiencing the birth-pangs of the Messiah. She belongs to the completion of the covenant with the people that represents mankind as a whole; and precisely be­ cause she already always belongs to the pron1ised New Covenant (Jer 31 :31 ), she is in the n1ost profound way possible linked with God's original 23

covenant, which Paul on one single occasion calls the "old covenant" (2 Cor 3:14). One does not need to begin by pointing to the embarrassment of increasingly obvious preg­ nancy: for "the handmaid of the Lord", this was the least of her worries. But would she, a weak girl, be up to the enormous promise of being able to bring into the world the Son of the Most High, as the angel had called him? That in son1e way was also the worry of the most faithful in Israel: how out of this continually sinful and divided people should something so pure and indivisible as the Messiah of the final age be able to en1erge? Even if imagination might think of hin1 existing in advance hidden in heaven, Israel would never­ theless be involved in his arrival on earth. What Mary underwent during her Advent were above all mental and spiritual sufferings: every pregnancy that is lived in a genuinely hun1an way includes a certain intercession, a certain suffering on behalf of the child on the way that is given to him at his birth as an invisible present of grace to take on the journey through life. It is a selfless hope, a commending to God or-if one does not know God-to the invisible powers that guide the fate of men and women. With what concern must Mary have prayed for the child growing within her and worried about it in advance! Did she have a premon1t1on that the Messiah would have to 24

suffer? We do not know. But son1e overpowering fate must await him. Simeon in the temple would confirm this to her: "Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is spoken against." For woman, pregnancy does not proceed without some element of fear: for Mary not without some presentiment of the Cross. From the outset she had a share in it that could not be defined. We do not know to what extent physical hard­ ships were linked with these mental and spiritual sufferings; but it is quite possible that they lasted until shortly before the birth, which in the end took place as a miracle, as the sudden beginning of what is final and definitive. At the birth every pain was dissolved in pure light. How her womb opened and closed again we do not know, and it is superfluous to speculate about an event which for God was a child's game, son1ething n1uch less important than the original overshadowing by the Holy Spirit. Someone who accepts this first mira­ cle as valid-and as a believer one has to, other­ wise Jesus would have had two fathers-should not toss and turn over accepting the second mira­ cle, the Virgin Birth. For Jews it is truly astonish­ ing that they should have been able firmly to translate into Greek with the word "virgin" the old Hebrew prophecy "Behold, a young won1an shall conceive" (Is 7: 14, where the tern1 could 25

already mean "virgin"). And thus only is it fitting that from the virginal son onward virginal fruit­ fulness should become a specific "vocation" for men and women in the Church (1 Cor 7). b . "My Ii tt le ch ildren , w itlz w lzo ,n I a, n aga i 1 1 i 11 travail "

If in the Church virginal life in the attempt to fol­ low not just Jesus but also Mary becomes a gift of grace, then without doubt this is linked with the pains that belong to pregnancy. It n1ust be a ques­ tion of a vocation to it if this form of life is to be fruitful in a new and heightened \vay, and not a question of a bachelor's or old maid's existence . It must be a question of a conscious and free sur­ render of one's physical fertility, \vhich neverthe­ less can only bring forth what is doon1ed to die, in order to obtain a share in the ne\v fruitfulness of the Cross and Resurrection which is able to generate and bring to birth what is truly in1n1or­ tal. This is where the most profound ditTerence and distinction arise bet\veen Christian virginity and other religions' asceticisn1s that are hostile to existence: one can say that it is their direct op­ posite. This is not only because of its fruitfulness but also because it is a definite gift of God \vhich people do not take then1selves but \vhich they 26

receive as a grace. Paul may have wished that all should live as he did, but since this \Vas a matter not of one's own decision but of a calling or vocation (klesis), everyone should take up the state of life he is given by God ( I Cor 7:24). Paul, who could not yet kno\v the extent to which his virginity had a Marian character, \Vas very conscious of living it as a pregnancy linked with birth-pangs for his "children". He carried in his womb the Galatian community with its han­ kering after apostasy and \Vas "again in travail until Christ be formed in you" (Gal 4:19). He consciously suffered less for communities that were not yet born than for those which had in­ deed been established but had not yet come to full term in the apostolic womb. "Who is n1ade to fall, and I am not indignant?" (2 Cor I I :29). This pain is laid on him by God himself, and it is so intolerable that "three times I besought the Lord about this, that it should leave me". But this was not to be: "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in \veak­ ness" (2 Cor 12: 9). Once Paul had grasped this, then "I will all the more gladly boast of n1y \veak­ nesses, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecu­ tions, and calamities", for all this created in him space for Christ's effective action (2 Cor 12: �18). 27

He is not very worried that the community re­ gards him as not very gifted, because this gives him the occasion to take its failure upon himself and to bring it to new birth as strength from his weakness. "So death is at work in us, but life in you" (2 Cor 4: 1 2). And the death that is at work in him is no neutral death, nor any purely ascetic death, but solely the fruitfully reden1ptive death of Jesus Christ, who himself gives hin1 the power to beget for all time from hin1self those who believe and love. "For he was crucified in weak­ ness, but lives by the power of God" (2 Cor 1 3 :4) . Paul gives only the most detailed description of this fruitfulness that comes from the absten1ious life of Jesus, and through him of his mother, of Joseph, of John the Baptist, of the beloved disci­ ple, and of so many Christians who have followed after. One need only think of the power of spir­ itual fecundity that has been given to the great founders of religious orders like Benedict, Francis or Ignatius Loyola: a power that has not been exhausted over hundreds and thousands of years. It is the decisive reason why the Catholic Church and in its way the Orthodox too have insisted so obstinately on priestly celibacy. If it is lived con­ sciously and with a suitable readiness to "suffer the pangs of birth until Christ be forn1ed" in those entrusted to the celibate's care, if the Marian origin of this grace is understood, then it can often "be known" almost tangibly "by its fruits". 28

c. Giving birth to heaven Mary as a virgin with her son gave birth to the last age, for she is the epitome and the embodi­ ment of Israel, which awaited the birth-pangs of the Messiah as a sign that the final and definitive world had broken in on us. The Son, however, who comes from the Father and is going to the Father (Jn 1 6:28), has prepared the way to heaven for us: " I am the way; I go to prepare a place for you" (Jn 1 4:2, 6). The heaven he is preparing for us is not some ready-made place; one must rather say that it is through his going there, his ascension into heaven, that it first really comes into being for us. Being in heaven means to be "at home with the Lord" (2 Cor 5 : 8 ). "My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better" (Phil I : 2 3 ) . While we are with Christ, we share in his being in his Father's house-and still less is the Father a "place": this sharing is precisely what awaits us in heaven. Of course the transfigured Son is not alone in his heaven, but the innun1er­ able throng that is gathered around hin1 only has access to this eternity through him, "the first­ born from the dead, that in everything he n1ight be preeminent; for in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell" ( Col 1 : 1 8- I 9 ). This fullness is also the fullness of heaven: the "heavenly Jeru­ salem" is not only forever his bride, but also the 29

entire complement of his members, his fully gro\vn body. Christians may rightly talk about hoping to "get to heaven"; but at the same time they also know that there is something like earning one's place in heaven, or to put it another ,vay "laying up for oneself treasures in heaven" (Mt 6:20), and therefore by means of a truly Christian life to make ready the place in heaven that has been put aside for one: indeed, one can truly talk of giving birth to one's heaven at the end of an earthlv pregnancy. Of course this is not by one's o,vn po\ver but in the po\ver of faith in Christ and being made equal ,vith him. If ,ve take this into consideration-and the idea is not presumptu­ ous-then the proclamation of Mary's physical assumption into heaven ,vill no longer seen1 so displeasing to us. Our existence began on earth .. ,ve are first of all born into the communitv,, of sinners .. and it is onlv, through baptism or by some other n1eans of grace that ,ve are taken into the con1munitv of those blessed by God through Christ. Mary on the other hand has in God's plan of salvation a place that cannot be compared ,vith this: ,,.. ithin this plan she is an indispensable con1ponent for its execution; her freedom fron1 sin is the condition for the Word of God being able to becon1e flesh. This ,vas not first of all a physical affair.. but rather it needed a con1plete agreen1ent .. like a spir30

itual womb, so that God could insert himself into the human community. Mary 's entire person, soul and body indivisibly united, was the vessel for his entry. From this insight that Mary as a whole had her origin in God's heavenly plan, the Church understands that Mary also could only be taken up into the same total reality that has now been made real and where she had always had her place. Of course one can say that she too created her heaven by suffering through her earthly "ser­ vices", her entire suffering up to the taking of Jesus' body from the Cross and his burial, but she was always so free and so determined that there could be no accident, no 1niscarriage, in her earthly pregnancy that was bearing heaven. We poor sinners pray to her for the hour of our death: she is the "gate of heaven", far n1ore than Peter the gatekeeper, who makes it possible for us to reach her son: p er Maria,n ad Ies11111. She is the help we need that our birth into heaven n1ay be successful. The Old Covenant knew nothing of heaven: the psalmist's lament that with death all praise of God finished is an alarn1ing enough indication of this. Even those who believed before Christ, who were on pilgrimage toward what was protnised and saw the homeland fron1 afar, "did not receive what was promised": "apart from us they should not be n1ade perfect" (Heb 1 1 :39-40). First the "first-born from the dead" had to be raised up 31

(Col 1 : 1 8) : "Christ the first fruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ" ( 1 Cor 1 5:23), so that the seer of Revelation can be told: "Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord hence­ forth" (Rev I 4: I 3 ). Henceforth heaven can be born from the pains of earth, and the more this history of the world follows Christ and strides toward the Cross, the more fruitful can this giv­ ing birth become. Is it not odd that the "new Jerusalem" should "come down out of heaven from God" (Rev 21 :2), where what can be meant is that the earthly Jeru­ salem, as symbol of God's city and kingdom on earth, must ultimately be raised up to heaven and transfigured? But "henceforth" there is no longer any earthly Jerusalem at all since the earthly Christ has become a heavenly but always incar­ nate Christ. Paul tells us this in a roundabout way: the present earthly Jerusalen1 "is in slavery with her children. But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother. For it is written, ' Rejoice, 0 barren one that dost not bear; break forth and shout, thou who are not in travail; for the desolate hath more children than she who hath a hus­ band' " (Gal 4:25-27 quoting Is 54:1). The "barren one" is the virginal one, it is she \vho has the many children: whether we now call her Mary or the heavenly Church or "our Mother above", it is she through whom and in relation to whon1 \Ve poor sinners can be fruitful. 32

3

MARY, THE MEM ORY OF THE CHURCH

MARY, THE MEM O RY OF THE CHU RCH

a. A1ary 's po11deri11g The description of Mary as the n1en1ory of the Church comes from the homily \vhich the Holy Father preached in St. Peter's on January I ., 1 9 8 7 , the feast of Mary, Mother of God, and in which he announced his recent encyclical on Mary, Re­ de,nptoris Mater. We need to think a little about this description. It 1nay seen1 a little ne\v and un­ familiar to us, alongside the many titles that have already been assigned to Mary, but it enables us to become aware of a quite important aspect of her relationship to the Church, to us. Twice Luke emphasizes that ., hearing what \Vas said about her child, " Mary kept all these things, pondering then1 in her heart" (Lk 2: 1 9): what the shepherds told her and what Jesus hin1self said when his parents "did not understand " his expla­ nation for staying behind in Jerusalen1 (Lk 2: 5 I ) . It was precisely because these sayings were so mysterious that Mary had occasion continually to ponder them. Indeed, already at the annunciation , 35

\vhen the angel told her that God had destined a very special grace for her, \vhile she \Vas afraid (as everyone was \vho in the Bible \Vas affected by God's \vord), she "considered in her n1ind \vhat sort of greeting this might be" (Lk 1 :29). She is continually involved in mysteries the sense and meaning of \vhich to\ver over her, but instead of resigning herself to bafflement she gives then1 space in her heart in order continually to mull over them there (the Greek \Vord Luke uses at 2 : 1 9 , syn1ballei11 , really means to thro\v together, to compare and hence to consider fron1 all pos­ sible angles). This means that in no \vav at all does she understand everything completely from the first moment on\vard but has to \Vork a\vay tirelessly in order to understand all these overpo\vering ideas as \vell as she may. For this she has one basic experience: she \Vas told she ,vould conceive a son, not by a man but by the Holy Spirit. And behold, she, the virgin, conceived. And this son was described to her as the " Son of the Most High" (Lk 1 :32): how was a Je\\�ess to understand that Yahweh had a son? But the fact of her preg­ nancy \Vas there. The Incarnation is a fact on which she was continually to ponder \Vithout comprehending it. And ho,v did the incomprehensible co111e to be? " The Holy Spirit will come upon you . and the ,, power of the Most High \vill overshado\v you 36

(Lk 1 :35). The angel announced to her not just the Incarnation but fundamentally the entire n1ystery of the Trinity: "The Lord is with you"-that is Yahweh, the Father-God, whom she knows . Then to her wondering what sort of greeting this might be: "You will conceive a son" who at the same time will be the son of David. To her ques­ tion how she should behave, since this son could not come from a man: "The Holy Spirit". The Trinity is therefore included in what befell her. There was endless opportunity for pondering on the basis of that fact, which has such profundity and in which she saw the fulfilln1ent of all God's promises (with the son of David it was a question of the Mes siah) and probably also glin1psed something of his Passion. And this pondering grew more intense the n1ore the child grew, left home, founded a new family (Mt 12:46-50), \Vas finally defeated, conden1ned and crucified. Now she is used once again: she must share in the experience of this fact and will finally (in the darkness of noncomprehension) understand what Simeon had said: "A sword will pierce through your own soul also" (Lk 2 : 3 5). Let us not forget that from the start she possesses the full grace of the Holy Spirit, and that therefore this "ponder­ ing" over the facts she has experienced and lived through cannot be any stumbling in the dark but a quiet, silent growth in insight, and indeed in the insight of the simple "handmaid of the Lord". 37

How she had already grasped everything at the wedding at Cana! She had already grasped that she might plead for the poor who had nothing more to offer, because her son could put things right if he wanted to; that she should not be discouraged by his refusal-it is as if she had already understood the parables of the person knocking on his friend's door at n1idnight (Lk 1 1 :5-1 3) and of the unrighteous judge (Lk 1 8: 1 8); and that finally she should leave everything to the son-the surest means of ensuring that every­ thing prayed for would be achieved according to God's will: "Do whatever he tells you" (Jn 2:5). She had already grasped much of dogma and of the Christian life in practice, simply on the basis of her original unconditional Yes. And we n1ay boldly add that under the Cross she also under­ stood that one must say Yes to what is n1ost incomprehensible. All this remains steadfastly in her memory. Nobody else has a sin1ilarly un­ broken memory from the first n1on1ent of the Incarnation to the Cross, to the taking down fron1 the Cross, to the burial and to the Resurrection. Here Ignatius Loyola must be quoted: Jesus ap­ peared first to "the Virgin Mary, which, though not said in Scripture, is taken as said in saying that he appeared to so n1any others, because the Scrip­ ture supposes that we have understanding, as it is wntten: 'Are you also still without understand38

ing ? ' " (Sp iritual Exercises , translated by Joseph Rickaby, S.J . , London , 1 9 3 6, p. 1 9 3 ). And if Mary is now handed over to John and thus to the apostles and to the Church as their mother, we see her then praying to gether \Vith the assembled Chu rch for the Holy Spirit (A cts 1 : 1 4). Does Pentecost have a meaning for her too? b. A1ary and Pentecost Here we should trust ourselves to the \visdom of Rom ano Guardini : There must have been something divinely great when by the light of the S pirit everything beca me clear to her \vho � kept all these things in her heart" : the context and interconnection of J esus' exis tence \Vere revealed . Throughout the years of Jesus' public life she had to m aintain her con­ fidence in heroic faith : no\\" she received the an­ swer, resplendent and solving everything . It is easy to think that she must ahvays have unders tood the Lord, better than anyone else. H u m a n l y s pe aking-to the extent th a t in this context one can talk of the human-\vithout a doubt this was s o . His toricallv no one else \Vas able like her to provide information about hin1 . But o n the o ther side i t i s not \Vithout pu rpose that the Gospel says that she '' did not understand the saying which he spoke to then1 " . Probably 39

she could j ust not have borne a real, co1nplcte understanding . The way of genuine experience of life lived in faith and love is greater than the anticipation of things which in God's guidance have their place only later. To recognize that the child, the boy, the youth, the man who lived in her company was the Son of God in the sense that became manifest after Pentecost would probably have put her in an intolerable situation . That se­ curity without which existence as a mother is not possible would have disappeared . N ow however God's mystery can be revealed, to the extent that this is possible on earth . She does not any longer need any protection against what is too great for human understanding . She is able to carry to­ gether in her mind the two statements, " He is the Son of the eternal Father" and " He is your son " , without breaking down or merely becoming con­ fused. Indeed, in this unity she recognizes the ineffable content of her vocation .

This description by Guardini of the effect of the Spirit on Mary at Pentecost, when, as innun1er­ able medieval representations of the event portray her, she becomes the center and focus of the Spirit-enlightened Church, does her perfection no harm but rather enables it to be s�en as son1e­ thing genuinely human. What is unique about her is that the Spirit of Pentecost basically does nothing other than to present to her the content of her own experience as her men1ory had retained it: a memory that contains all the central dogn1as 40

of revelation in their complete unity and inter­ wovenness. We do not know if Mary received communion at a celebration of the Eucharist; but she knows better than any saint or sinner what it means to accept the Son completely into oneself; she stands as it were behind every communion as the ecclesia immacu lata which makes up to completion and perfection what we have done incompletely and imperfectly. Certainly she did not receive the sac­ rament of penance, but nobody else has laid his entire soul so bare before God, and this not just from time to time but at every moment of her existence. In this sense she is for the Church the "seat of wisdom", not because she knows more abstract truths than the most learned theologian but because she has most perfectly "heard the word of God and kept it" (Lk I I :28) and has been most completely and perfectly enlightened by the Holy Spirit about this acceptance by her of God's word. In Augustine's well-known phrase, she conceived the Son of the Father "first with her spirit and then with her body", and hence she also bore him "first with her spirit and then with her body" and gave him to the Church and to the world, and this not just at one single n1on1ent in history but at every moment of the history of the Church and of the world. In her it can be recog­ nized that perfect faith, which shared in n1aking the Son's Incarnation possible, helps toward per41

feet experience and perfect knowledge. Certainly she finally came to know the entire depth and breadth of her place in God's plan of salvation when she was assumed body and soul into heaven and kept this knowledge to be handed out among the faithful. c. The teacher of the Church

What Mary wants throughout the ages of the Church is not that we should venerate her as an individual but that we should recognize the depth of God's love in the work of his Incarnation and redemption. Since she lived in the house of the beloved disciple, it would be astonishing if the Gospel of the love of the triune God made n1an­ ifest in Christ had not been inspired also by her presence and what she had to say. Certainly it is characteristic that the first apparition of our Lady about which we learn fron1 trustworthy sources is the vision of Origen's pupil Gregory the Wonder­ worker, recounted by Gregory of Nyssa, while he had when preparing to be ordained as a bishop. While one night he was pondering on the word of faith, a form appeared to hin1, an old n1Jn in the attitude and dress of a priest, who told hin1 he would show him the divine wisdon1 in order to remove his uncertainty. Then he gestured side­ ways with his hand and showed hin1 another fonn 42

of more than human dignity and aln1ost unbear­ able splendor. This figure said to John the Evan­ gelist that he should expound the mystery of faith to the young man, whereupon John said he would gladly con1ply with the wishes of the Mother of the Lord and explained the n1ystery of the Trinity to Gregory in clear words. Gregory wrote down at once what was said and later preached on this to the people (Patrologia