Mother Mary

The sermon was on Mary's Song during our Protestant worship this morning.  It was a blessing to hear the story of Mary from a perspective I was familiar with as a child.  It took me back.  Mary, so young and innocent and trusting--how important to honor this example of youthful Christianity.  It was helpful to take my eyes off the image I've become accustomed to meditating upon:  Mother Mary watching her son being crucified, her pain impossible to imagine, a woman of surreal faith and strength.  The sermon reminded me of Christmas.  Now is the time to remember her first words noted in Scripture, "how can this be?"  Now is the time to remember her wonder.

But I can't do it.  I'm trying!  But I can't.  I want to stand up in the church service and say, "You're wrong!  Mary is not an example of all Christians!  She bore the GODHEAD.  That makes her extraordinary--holier than ANYONE."  We don't pray to Mary.  Unless by "pray" you mean, "ask for prayer."  We don't worship Mary.  Unless by "worship" you mean, "honor the singular human being who birthed God."  Protestants have worked so hard to communicate the personal nature of our relationship with Jesus, that we have forgotten about the Transcendent Majesty of  God choosing to dwell in the HUMAN FLESH of a young girl.  She became a Tabernacle.  She fed GOD with her breasts.  We can not simplify this reality.  We can not make it ordinary so as to neutralize the adoration of a feminine icon.

Remembering Mary calls us to emulate her humility, to remember we are simple and small and asked to do great things.  Yes.  This is all true.  But remembering Mary also calls us to stand in awe of a unique person in human history.  She is The Mother.  She is given to the Apostle John as a Mother while Jesus hung from the cross, and in turn, she is the Mother of the Church.  She is our Mother.  She is constantly pointing us to Jesus, just like she did at the Wedding in Cana.  Those who came to her with the problem of no wine (which is a REAL problem) were directed to Jesus.

I laugh when I see the bumper-sticker, Obedient Women Never Made History.  Ha!  What an ignorant statement if I ever heard one!  Mary, the most famous of all women, was of all the most obedient.  She is not God.  She is not meant to be revered more than God....she would never want that!  But she is WAY more than a special teenage girl that we can reflect upon during Christmas.  She was the Tabernacle of the Most High God.

And just to make my rant a little longer (please smile), this is precisely why the Catholic Church believes she was EVER-virgin.  Joseph cared for her as a devoted husband, but their marriage was never consummated.  She was a holy, holy tabernacle that he honored and did not touch.  The End.