STORY - "May-Time, Mary-Time "

Aurora invited Sr Marie Farrell to reflect on Mary, the Mother of Jesus, for our May edition. May is traditionally “Mary’s month”. Marie is a Singleton Sister of Mercy who, for many years, taught theology (including Marian theology) and spirituality at the Catholic Institute of Sydney. Her recent book “Gathering with Mary under the Southern Cross” is well known in the diocese. “She Who Believed: Australian Images of Mary” will be published shortly.

In his jubilant May Magnificat Gerard Manley Hopkins wonders why May is Mary’s month. The poet asks Mary herself. She replies, “What is Spring?”

Reflecting on the sheer abundance of ‘Spring’s eternal bliss’, Hopkins urges us to celebrate the memory of Mary’s ‘mirth till Christ’s birth’ and to exult with her in God who ‘was her salvation’ – whose salvation, of course, continues as the church’s mission enables Christ to be born anew and increase in the hearts of the faithful.

Although autumn here, the month of May arrives within our celebration of Eastertide – liturgical springtime in the church – and so we rejoice again in Mary’s mothering of Christ, the eternal Springmaker.

Understanding a ‘contemporary’ Mary invites renewed appreciation of Vatican II’s concern with divesting her of pious distortions accrued from exaggerated, superstitious and even goddess influences. These had for centuries so idealised Mary as to render her a sign of contradiction within the church of the West.

Since Vatican II, Marian theology and spirituality have emphasised Mary’s role and active presence within (vs ‘above’) the church. As Woman of Faith and pre-eminent Disciple, Mary is venerated within the total context of the mystery of the Incarnation. Thus, devotion is directed not to Mary-in-herself but is simultaneously Christ-centred, church-centred, creation-centred, and honours the most Holy Trinity.

A profoundly scriptural image from Vatican II presents the church as the Pilgrim People of God journeying through history towards fulfillment in Christ. Mary emerges as our Pilgrim-companion, our Soul-friend and ‘truly our sister’ on this journey of faith.3 Some ‘soundings’ from Luke’s Gospel will illustrate.

Faith constitutes the core of Mary’s discipleship – a faith that surpasses familial blood ties with Jesus: My mother and my brothers [and sisters] are those who hear the word of God and do it… (Lk 8:21). When we allow the full impact of Mary’s let it be done to me according to your word (Lk 1:38), to ’hit home’, we experience something of the steadfast faith that accompanied a soul-wrenching discernment involved in her unconditional ‘yes’.

Mary’s discipleship compelled her to go with haste into the hill country (Lk 2:39-56) on a mission of mercy. Her encounter with Elizabeth has given us the Magnificat. Although this prophetic cry exudes an exuberant joy accompanying Mary’s free and courageous ‘yes’ to become the Mother of the Lord, her ecstasy and the agony of spiritual travail predicted by Simeon (Lk 2:33-35), mark the pilgrimage of every disciple.

As a Mary/Church canticle, the Magnificat challenges all disciples to know their need of God, to remember with thanksgiving the great deeds of God throughout history. The Magnificat’s incisive ‘reversals’ catapult conventional wisdom! Who are the proud? The tyrants? The greedy rich? Luke’s Mary implicitly warns disciples against accusing others before confronting seeds of evil in their own hearts and in the Church. The Magnificat reflects Mary as a ‘Mirror of Justice’; she personifies the trust that God does hear ‘the cry of the poor’, that the divine Presence is to be discovered whenever injustice is suffered. Mary is Disciple amongst disciples who co-operate in Jesus’ mission for the Reign of God.

Luke’s Mary is ‘her own person’, dynamically open to the Spirit. Modern artwork favours ‘strong’ images rather than erstwhile ‘docile’ images of Mary. Modern litanies call on Mary as Disciple-Woman of the Gospels to pray with us and for us.

Marie Farrell rsm

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