‘TIS THE MONTH OF OUR MOTHER…..

 

For those of us more “mature” folks, that song title--along with “On This Day O Beautiful Mother” and “Bring Flowers of the Fairest”--brings back memories of May devotions and May crownings of Mary’s statue. In my earlier teen years I joined the Sodality of Our Lady and, in my later teens during the last years of World War II, I along with hundreds of other Catholics in Chicago participated every Friday in the Sorrowful Mother novena.  Interestingly, once the war was over, this devotion also seemed to join history.

 

I have often wondered why devotion to Mary has ebbed and flowed in my lifetime.  I attribute some of it to our earlier understanding of Jesus; we saw Him as this divine person far removed from us; Mary, whom we saw as human like us, seemed closer and more understanding of our needs, especially in difficult times.  As Vatican II re-emphasized Jesus’ humanity and called us to see Him as a role model whom we could imitate in our daily lives, Mary became less prominent in the devotional life of many Catholics. 

 

In recent years articles and books written about Mary have challenged us to see Mary as she truly was—a young woman of Middle Eastern culture rather than blond and blue-eyed, gorgeously dressed, and standing on a pedestal.  She would have been called Miriam after the sister of Moses, a common name in that Jewish culture.  She belonged to the peasant class, which eked out its living through agriculture and small commercial ventures like carpentry.  Their lives were grinding with heavy tax burdens and frequent raids by the Roman military. With Joseph, Mary raised Jesus in what must have been difficult and oppressive circumstances.

 

 In “Mary of History” (a recent Catholic Update by Robert P. Maloney) he states that it would be a mistake to think of Mary as fragile or submissive. “Though Mary’s culture was quite different from that of our 21st century post-industrial society, it was not unlike that of women in thousands of villages as they exist today in Asia, Africa, and Latin America.  Mary’s song of praise on her visit to Elizabeth, as recorded in the gospel of Luke and which we know as the Magnificat, is filled not only with praise, but also with hope for the future when justice will be the experience of all people. As one who will experience poverty, oppression, violence and the execution of her son, Mary sings confidently that God rescues life from death, joy from sorrow, light from darkness.”

 

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the theologian-martyr executed by the Nazis in l945, spoke these words during a sermon in 1933:

          The song of Mary is the oldest Advent hymn.  It is at once

          the most passionate, the wildest, one might even say the

          most revolutionary Advent hymn ever sung.  This is not

          the gentle, tender, dreamy Mary whom we sometimes see

          in paintings; this is that passionate, surrendered, proud,

          enthusiastic Mary who speaks out here... about collapsing

          thrones and          humbled lords of this world, about the power

          of God and the powerless of humankind.

 

Contemporary scripture scholars and theologians have blessed us with a more realistic view of Mary without compromising her special place in our Catholic faith.  Each of us probably has our own preferred way of honoring Mary. One that has recently become part of my private devotion is the Sorrowful Mysteries of the rosary (Agony in the garden; Scourging at the pillar; Crowning of thorns; Carrying of the cross; Crucifixion).  Perhaps it harkens back to the Sorrowful Mother novena in WWII but, as I pray each decade, I think of those risking their lives for us today in another war: the military men and women facing death each day; those wounded physically; those returning with brain injuries and/or psychological problems; the families struggling without their loved ones; the families whose loved ones do not return.  And so we continue to pray “Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us…..”

 

Sister Marie, O.P.