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II
MARY
AND CONSECRATED LIFE :
A PROFOUND HARMONY
17. After
having examined the recent crisis in Marian devotion
and the way it has been virtually overcome in the Church and religious
institutes, we think it useful to continue our reflection by looking at
Mary from our particular existential viewpoint as religious and in terms
of the service which we can render to the local Churches. The Blessed
Virgin Mary is a “good” which belongs to the entire Church and to
all generations. She performs her maternal ministry on behalf of all those
who believe in Christ and on behalf of all men and women. Because of the
purity of her acceptance of the Father's will and the Son's message, she
offers herself to everyone - men and women, bishops, priests and deacons,
religious and laity - as a perfect image of the faithful disciple of Christ.
The patristic Church expressed its conviction that the life of the Blessed
Virgin was a model for all the disciples of the Lord.25
According to the tradition and unbroken experience of the Church, therefore,
it is not possible for religious to arrogate the “Marian model” to
themselves.
A historical responsibility
18. According to the exegetes, the
New Testament (particularly the gospels of Luke and John) shows definite
traces of veneration of the Mother of Jesus by the first Christian communities.
Patristic scholars point out that the writings of the second and third
centuries contain not a few references to the Church's increasing attention
to Mary expressed in respectful honour of her dignity as the Mother of
Christ and the new Eve. Archaeologists have also unearthed evidence of
Marian devotion in various excavations, dating back to the second and
third centuries, mainly in Palestine and Rome. We therefore have a variety
of evidence that assures us that in the pre-Nicene period (before organised
forms of “religious life” emerged) there existed in the Church a
fairly well defined veneration of the Mother of the Redeemer. Yet there
can be no doubt that in both the East and the West, later developments
of Marian doctrine and devotion were largely due to the insight, commitment
and love of men and women consecrated to God in religious life. In the
patristic age this occured among the groups of ascetics, during the Middle
Ages in the monastic foundations and communities of the new orders dedicated
to the evangelical-apostolic life, all of which had a marked veneration
for the glorious Virgin. In the modern and contemporary periods, this
occurs in numerous congregations and institutes with a more clearly defined
apostolic commitment in which the Marian charism is often forcefully asserted.
A glance at the saints, men and women, who were outstanding for a particular
“Marian feature” in the eyes of the faithful or according to the
judgment of history reveals that most of them were religious.
19. It was in the monasteries that
the superb icons were painted, resplendent with that mysterious “presence”
of the Theotokos and bearing a message of beauty and doctrine. Here, too,
the great Marian hymns and homilies were written and a number of the important
feasts of the Blessed Virgin were established as well as the practice
of dedicating Saturday to her. The practice of greeting the Blessed Virgin
at the end of the canonical hours and in particular the solemn prayer
to the Regina misericordiae which concludes the daily offices,
the Angelus at daybreak, noon and evening, and the diffusion of the little
offices of St. Mary are linked with these monasteries. Most of the leading
scholars of the figure of the Blessed Virgin and many of the most fervent
defenders of her privileges were religious. Virtually all the treatises
on Marian spirituality and the most commonly practiced Marian exercises
came from the “religious” context. Many shrines dedicated to the
Blessed Virgin were and are entrusted to religious who have also been
the promoters of countless Marian associations.
We religious have to view all this
not as a reason for foolish and sterile praise of ourselves, but as a
historical fact to be reflected upon, an invitation not to squander this
“family legacy” and as an incentive to further the work that our
predecessors began many centuries ago.
20. Since the pontificate of Pius
IX (1846-1878), the Supreme Pontiffs have frequently spoken out in the
exercise of their universal magisterium to safeguard and foster Marian
devotion among the faithful. Many bishops of local Churches have followed
the example of the bishops of Rome. This is primarily their responsibility.
But without fear of falling into rhetoric, we can affirm that religious,
not because of doctrine or pastoral responsibility but because of a centuries'
old tradition, have the “historic responsibility” to be faithful
trustees of devotion to the Mother of the Lord and to promote its correct
development. This responsibility is one that we do not intend to shirk
and is a burden which, like the “yoke” of the law of Jesus (see Mt
11:30), we find easy and light.
A profound harmony
21. We have already
mentioned that Mary's life can be taken on by all the disciples of the
Lord according to the norms of the evangelical life. Nevertheless, because
of her unique and unrepeatable vocation lived in very particular circumstances,
the role of model which is Mary's as true mother and perfect virgin is
seen in different ways according to the various states of life; she is
seen in one way for example in the life of those who live in matrimony
and in another way in the life of those who have embraced celibacy for
the Kingdom. John Paul II has stated that “marriage and virginity or celibacy
are two ways of expressing and living the one mystery of the covenant
of God with his people.”26
Virginity and matrimony are two distinct expressions of the same necessary
following of Christ.
The
family of Nazareth as model
22. Those
who are united in holy matrimony feel that Mary and Joseph, because of
their communion of faith, affection and life, are a shining point of reference
for them. The birth of Jesus, son of God and son of man, took place within
a family established according to the law of the Lord and made up of a
just man (see Mt 1:19) of the house of David (see Mt 1:20; Lk 1: 27) and
a divinely favoured woman (see Lk 1:28). After Joseph, following the command
of the angel, took Mary into his home as his wife (see Mt 1:20, 24), their
life seems marked by profound wedded communion: together, they faced the
hardships brought on by the census decreed by Augustus Caesar (see Lk
2:1-5); together, they lived the salvific event of the birth of Jesus
in joy and in poverty (see Lk 2:7); together, they are seen in the fulfillment
of the sign given to the shepherds by the angel (see Lk 2:16); together
they carried out the rites prescribed by the law of the Lord: the circumcision
of the child and the giving of a name (see Lk 2:21), the presentation
of the newborn in the Temple (see Lk 2:27) and “their purification” (Lk
2:22); after the words of Simeon (see Lk 2:29-32), together “the child's
father and mother marvelled at what was being said about him” (Lk 2:33)
and together they were blessed by the old holy man (see Lk 2:34); together,
they faced the difficult trials of the persecution by Herod and the flight
into Egypt (see Mt 2:13-15); after returning to Nazareth, together they
“used to go every year to Jerusalem for the feast of the Passover” (Lk
2:41); with the same feelings of sorrow they lived through the prophetic
episode of the loss of Jesus (Lk 2:48)- together they sought him, found
him and were astonished; Jesus returned to Nazareth with them and was
obedient to them as their son (see Lk 2:51); together, they lived a humble,
hidden and active life in such a way that Jesus was considered to be “the
son of the carpenter” (Mt 13:55) or simply “the carpenter” (Mk 6:3).
Because of all this, the home in Nazareth
has remained in the memory of the Church as the example of where we learn
“what the family is and what communion in love is its austere and simple
beauty, its sacred and enduring character.”27
In particular Mary, because of her physical motherhood and educational
role in the life of the child Jesus, is celebrated as the model for Christian
mothers. At this point we permit ourselves to express a two-fold hope:
—
That those who live in matrimony or are preparing
to celebrate it will attain their desire for communion and love also in
light of the married life of Joseph and Mary. That life seems characterised
by two elements: it was lived “according to the law of the Lord” and it
expressed a mutual willingness to face together, as we have seen, the
great and small events that confronted them. Further, thinking of the
virginal marriage of Mary and Joseph, Christian spouses will be able to
understand the ultimate meaning of sexuality (which was also lived by
Mary and Joseph, though in a unique way)28
and experience their mutual giving of self as
a moment of profound communion and participation in the mystery of life
within the context of the plan that comes from the Lord.
—
That after the many voices (usually those of celibate
theologians) which have described the various aspects of the motherhood
of Mary throughout the centuries, it be described also by women who have
lived the same human experience.
Supreme
model of consecrated virginity
23.
And yet this woman Mary, so truly mother, has since the second century
been considered the “virgin” par excellence, the “Virgin of the Lord.”29
Very early, Christian thought understood the dogmatic implications
of her virginity and beginning in the third century Mary was primarily
presented as the model or most excellent image of consecrated virginity.
Why was this? Why is there this singular connection between “Marian devotion”
and “religious life” which we spoke of earlier ? Vatican II provides an
answer rich in implications: the evangelical counsels that religious freely
embrace “have the power to conform the Christian man or woman more fully
to that kind of poor and virginal life which Christ the Lord chose for
himself and which his Virgin Mother embraced also.”
30 There
is, therefore, a profound consistency between the evangelical essence
of the “religious life” and certain fundamental aspects of the “life of
the Virgin” as described in the gospel. This consistency explains the
age-old, cordial relationship between “Marian piety” and the consecrated
life. By living in essence the same “ kind of life” as Mary, religious
have a more immediate grasp of certain “values” of the figure of the Virgin
and are better equipped to gain an existential appreciation of the nuances
which wholly escape others.
24. In the light of historical experience
and this recognised “profound harmony” between Mary's “kind of life” and
the consecrated life, we can say without making an axiom of it, that wherever
the gospel-inspired religious life is lived with commitment, genuine devotion
to the Mother of Jesus flourishes. Conversely, wherever there is sound
devotion to the Blessed Virgin, the most favourable conditions for the
growth of consecrated life are found. This perhaps explains what is happening
in some groups of men and women in the Reformed Churches. They have rigorously
restored the forms and structures of life that belong to the monastic-religious
tradition, including celibacy for the Kingdom, and at the same time they
have rediscovered the significance and value of the figure of Mary in
relation to the “Christian life.”
The
model of our vocation and consecration
25. Because of her civil status Mary
is a “lay woman” even if she belongs to a consecrated people (see Dt 14:2).
Yet reflecting on the gospels, the tradition of the Church presents Mary
as the epitome of the “consecrated woman,” as the most pure and the greatest
example, after Christ, of personal consecration to God and the cause of
salvation. Being consecrated by the sanctifying action of the Spirit from
her Immaculate Conception and, subsequently, by the ineffable presence
of the Word in her virginal womb, Mary freely and totally consecrated
herself to God in generously responding to his call.31
In the light of the New Testament we can say that by virtue of
her singular consecration, everything in Mary's life is in reference to
God, everything expresses a relationship with the Father, the Son and
the Spirit, and everything is oriented to the salvation of humanity.
26. The exegetes tell us that the
text of the Annunciation in St. Luke's Gospel (1:26-38) is not to be read
solely as a typical “announcement of birth” but also as a typical “account
of vocation,” the vocation to be the mother of the Messiah but a vocation
understood always as a “personal call” that demanded a “personal response.”
The same exegetes point out that no account of vocation contains such
a detailed dialogue with so much respect for a person's freedom as does
the encounter between Gabriel and Mary. Furthermore, no other account
ends with such an expressive formula of wholehearted acceptance of the
Lord's will as the one used by the Blessed Virgin in accepting the divine
plan: “I am the handmaid of the Lord, let it be done to me according to
your word” (Lk 1:38).
27. Following the teaching of the
Fathers, religious have meditated at great length on these words spoken
by the Blessed Virgin. Through the ages, they have thoroughly examined
the significance of Mary's fiat and have shown that it is an echo
of the word spoken at the beginning of time (Gen 1:3,26); that the fiat
was spoken to enable the Spirit to form Christ, the true Light and
the true New Man, in her virginal womb; that it was the obedient response
counteracting Eve's doom-laden denial; that it echoed the formula of the
“Sinai covenant” (see Ex 19:8) and to a certain extent was its first manifestation
in the economy of the new Covenant. Religious have seen that the fiat
is the wonderful encounter between the word spoken by the Son as he enters
the world (see Heb 10:5-7; Ps 39:8-9) and the word spoken by the Virgin
as she welcomed him into her womb (see Lk 1:38). It was a “consent to
marriage” in that after the fiat the Word indissolubly united his
divine nature to our human nature in Mary's womb. It was the paradigm
of all motherhood of grace in the Church which can only take place in
faith and in the Spirit. It was the word of unconditional acceptance which,
by accepting a message of liberation (see Lk 1:31-33), became a pledge
to serve. It was a word of mercy which the Virgin - privileged daughter
of Adam, yet united to all men and women- spoke on behalf of all.32
Obviously, not all these “readings” of Mary's fiat can be drawn
from the literal sense of the biblical text, but they do bear witness
to the attention which the Church and religious of all ages have paid
to that decisive word.
28. We are certain that you, bishops,
priests and deacons, and you, brothers and sisters of the laity, can understand
us. We religious, following a longstanding and solid tradition and without
any claim that we monopolise the model, interpret the vocation to the
“consecrated life” (personal call from God and the following of Christ
in a chaste, humble and obedient life at the service of the Church...)
in the light of Mary's vocation. We therefore hold that God extends certain
aspects of Mary's vocation in the vocation of virgins and religious. What
in Mary's case was the vocation to become the mother of the Messiah, to
beget Christ in heart and in flesh, bocomes the religious' call to a virginal
fecundity in the Spirit which generates Christ in accepting the Word and
fulfilling the will of the Father (see Mt 12:49-50).
We also interpret our “ religious
consecration ” in the light of Mary's consecration: the radical way in
which she “devoted herself totally as the handmaid of the Lord to the
person and work of her Son, under and with him, serving the mystery of
redemption, by the grace of Almighty God.” 33
She stands before us as the norm for living out the commitment
of love we have made to Christ and our fellow men and women and for remaining
true to the pledge we have given.
An
extension and a sign of a presence
29. The pilgrim Church on earth lives
with the consoling assurance of its Lord: “I am with you always, to the
end of time” (Mt 28:20b). The risen Christ who sits in glory at the right
hand of the Father is constantly present in the Church, his spouse. Indeed,
we know that being united to the mystery of the death and resurrection
of Christ (see Rom 6:3-11 ) all baptised Christians have been transformed
in Christ; Christ lives in them (see Gal 2:20) and they become Christ's
dwelling (see Jn 14:23).
Similarly, the Blessed Virgin assumed
into heaven, who reigns in glory beside her son, the “King of kings and
Lord of lords”(Rev 19:16), is effectively present in the life of
the Church. The Second Vatican Council, making its own the perennial tradition
of the Church, spoke with force and clarity: “Taken up to heaven, [Mary]
did not lay aside this saving office, but by her manifold intercession
continues to bring us the gifts of eternal salvation. By her maternal
charity, she cares for the brothers and sisters of her son who still journey
on earth surrounded by dangers and difficulties, until they are led to
their blessed home.”34
Contemporary theology is reconsidering the doctrine of Mary's mediation,
without rejecting its traditional content, in terms of the exercise of
her spiritual motherhood and referring to the Fathers of the Church it
speaks clearly of the “presence” of Mary in the life of the Church.35
In the same way, Paul VI and John Paul II have frequently used the expression
“active presence” in their teaching to show the actual and hidden way
in which the Virgin who already possesses “the glory of the celestial
bodies” (1 Cor 15:40) and is therefore unconstrained by time and space
shares in the activities and life of the Church in its earthly and temporal
stage.36
30. The many different
ways Christ is present in the Church are manifested through a variety
of signs. These are all well known and the Fathers of the Church, theologians,
and the bishops of Rome have written many eloquent pages on them.37
But are there any signs of the presence
of the Blessed Virgin in the Church? We believe there are.38
And we ask ourselves if among these signs we should not include
religious who by free choice are specially bound to the Mother of Christ,
and who draw their inspiration from her as the model for their own lives.
We want to respond with great caution, asking the help of the reflection
of our brothers and sisters.
31. Christ alone is the source and
supreme model of religious life. He alone presents the divine and human
realities of a life whose essence is infinite love for the Father and
total self-giving to his brothers and sisters with absolute unity and
absolute depth. But we know that despite their personal fragility, religious,
because of the state they have embraced, place themselves in relationship
to Christ as an extension and sign. As Vatican II exhorts: “ Let religious
see well to it that the Church truly show forth Christ through them with
ever-increasing clarity to believers and unbelievers alike - Christ in
contemplation on the mountain or proclaiming the Kingdom of God to the
multitudes, or healing the sick and maimed, and converting sinners to
a good life, or blessing children, and doing good to all, always in obedience
to the will of the Father who sent him.”39
32. Our Lady does not generate grace.
She has no light of her own. She reflects the light of Christ as the moon
reflects the light of the sun, as a metaphor well known to the Fathers
of the Church has it. She is merely the face which most resembles the
face of Christ, the splendour of the glory of the Father (see Heb 1:3).
Not knowing sin, the Virgin already represents the new heart, the docile
heart, which is required for the new Covenant which God was to make with
his new people (see Jer 31 :31-34 ). She already possesses the “pure heart”
which her son proclaimed blessed and capable of “ secing God ” (see Mt
5:8).
By virtue of the quality of her response
to the gift of grace and the mission she received from God, the Blessed
Virgin appears to the Church as the model of mysterious holiness.
40
The Church loves to contemplate Mary to draw from her words and attitudes
inspiration for the responses it must make to its Lord in the various
events of history so that it can experience a foretaste of its destiny
of glory. Religious, too, love to contemplate Mary; it is their habit
to look to the Blessed Virgin to learn from her how to live fruitfully
their consecrated virginity, their voluntary poverty and their generous
obedience.
33. But we have to clarify this still
further. The exemplary character of the Blessed Virgin is in itself an
effect of her “active presence” in the ecclesial community; it is the
strength that is released by her person, already glorified and consumed
in love, which leads the faithful to conform themselves to her in order
to conform themselves more fully to Christ. In this way, through the action
of the Spirit and according to structures of grace that cannot be codified
the faithful conforming themselves to the model reproduce it, in reproducing
it they extend it, in extending it they make it present among men and
women.
A
great symbol of Christianity
34. The Blessed Virgin
is certainly one of the greatest symbols of Christianity; by the term
“ symbol” we mean a historical reality which embodies a set of ideal attitudes
and hence is not limited by the confines of fleeting time and which extends
its saving function to all generations in the economy of salvation and
is susceptible to becoming ever better known, but whose mystery will be
wholly revealed only at the end of time.
The founders and foundresses of many
religious families took their inspiration from the Blessed Virgin, this
inexhaustible reality-symbol. Some concentrated their attention on the
great event of the Incarnation of the Word and hence on Mary's fiat,
full of obedience and faith, whereby she became through the action of
the Spirit, the Mother of God made man and the sacred dwelling of the
Word. Drawing out the full significance and value of the expression “I
am the handmaid of the Lord” (Lk 1:38), they felt the urgent need to put
it into practice by making their own lives a service of love to God, the
Church and all men and women.
Others were attracted by the salvific
content of the episode of the Visitation in which Mary, the new ark of
the New Covenant, brought the Saviour to John and proclaimed the great
things that God had done for her and for Israel. Accordingly, these founders
and foundresses desired to make themselves Christ-bearers to all peoples
and through their lives extend the song of thanksgiving and liberation.
There were others still who saw the
wealth of meaning in the episode of the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple
and desired to take it as the paradigm for their lives. They placed before
the eyes of their followers as a constant example Mary and Joseph's loving
observance of the law: the humility of the pure Virgin, the ransom paid
with two turtledoves for the Firstborn Son who was to redeem all men and
women with the price of his blood (see 1 Pt 1 :19; Rev 5 :9); the meeting
of the Messiah with his people in the Temple (not however with the guardians
of the Temple, but with the poor, the anawim (Simeon and Anna);
above all, the prophetic words which greeted Jesus, “a light to the Gentiles
and the glory of Israel” (see Lk 2:32), and which announced to his mother
her participation in the passion of her son- the sword of sorrow (see
Lk 2:35).
Others proposed that their sons and
daughters should draw their inspiration from the operative silence of
the home in Nazareth in which Mary, at Joseph's side, was both the mother
and the disciple of Jesus, faithfully keeping and pondering in her heart
the words and events relating to their son (see Lk 2:19, 51) and not fully
understanding the significance of some of his actions (see Lk 2:50), but
giving herself wholly to pure faith.
Others proposed to concentrate on
living their lives in terms of the event of the Hour of the Paschal Mystery
- the event of pain and glory, of death and life - in which important
prophecies seem to find fulfillment in Mary: the prophecy of the Woman
(see Gen 3:15) who, as she stood by the tree of life, was to be called
to work with the new Man for the salvation of the human race, and the
prophecies relating to the Daughter of Zion, mother of all peoples (see
Zep 3:14; Zech 2:14; 9:9; Ps 86 [87]:5-7). Mary personifies the Daughter
of Zion, standing by the side of Christ who draws all peoples to himself
as he is uplifted on the Cross (seeJn 12:32) and gathers together in the
Church (seeJn 10:16) “all the children of God who are scattered abroad
” (Jn 11:52 ). In that Hour, the necessary condition for becoming a true
disciple of Christ is fulfilled also for Mary: to follow him even to the
Cross (see Lk 9:23). By contemplating the mystery of Calvary, these founders
and foundresses discovered the means of exhorting their sons and daughters
to be present as Mary was at the crosses of their brothers and sisters
in whom the passion of Christ is extended.
Others strongly desired their communities
to be so many Cenacles where religious, gathered together with “Mary,
the Mother of Jesus” (Acts 1:14) and in communion with the successors
of the apostles and all the Lord's brothers and sisters, would be united
in constant prayer to implore the unceasing gift of the Spirit for the
Church.
Lastly, there were others who found
inspiration for their lives in certain events of grace which God worked
in Mary and which form part of our profession of faith: the Immaculate
Conception, in which the Church acknowledges her own secret beginning
and sees her image, as in a spotless mirror, as the Spouse without wrinkle
or blemish (Eph 5 27);41
her Assumption into heaven, in which the Church contemplates the fulfillment
of the glorious destiny that awaits her; or the fruitful virginity which
the Church accepts as a means of keeping the faith whole, and preserving
her love for Christ exclusive and watchful.
35. These are but a few examples,
yet they are far from secondary. They refer to existential experiences
that have gradually enriched the life of the Church and that concern considerable
numbers of groups within the Church. They are experiences that have been
raised up by a founding charism, useful in “building up the community”
(1 Cor 14:12) and recognised as such by the Apostolic See; experiences
that have produced, and continue to produce, fruits of holiness.
* * *
We are now in a better
position to answer the question raised earlier: religious who live an
evangelical life inspired expressly by Mary, by virtue of their stabile
commitment rooted in a charism raised up by the Spirit, extend the “ active
presence” of the Virgin in the Church and they manifest that same presence.
They are a sign of that presence.
The Blessed Virgin, assumed into heaven,
is still at the service of the work of salvation and keeps watch over
the Church, visiting it, comforting it,42
and performing her maternal duty through the words, deeds and hearts of
religious who have consecrated themselves to her.
Mary,
the witness of Christ
36. We should not be afraid that the
attention paid by religious to one or other episode relating to the Blessed
Virgin and taken as the inspiration for their consecrated life might distract
them from their fundamental commitment of following Christ and serving
the Church. It can be noted that all these episodes relate first and foremost
to Christ. And they are episodes that have profound implications for the
Church and, therefore, necessarily relate to the Church. We can truly
say that there is no episode relating to Mary in the gospels which cannot
be read in terms of the mystery of Christ and of the Church.
37. Like John the Baptist
(see Jn 1:29-31), Andrew (see Jn 1:41-42), Philip (see Jn 1:45) and Peter
(see Jn 6:68-69), Mary is a witness of Christ, and like them the Blessed
Virgin refers all to him, the new lawgiver, and to his precepts: “Do whatever
he tells you” Jn 2:5). By virtue of this “commandment” of the Blessed
Virgin, in which some exegetes notice echoes of the formulae of the covenant,43
we find that Christ is the only absolute, the only way that leads to the
Father (see Jn 14 :6). This is the function of Marian devotion. It is
clearly expressed in the iconographic concept of the odighitria
of the Blessed Virgin: she points towards Jesus who is the Way.
But even Jesus, in a certain way,
directs us towards his mother, for when we contemplate Christ in his real-life
human and saving existence, from the cradle to the cross, we see Mary
at his side. When he was a child, the Magi from the East were presented
with the sight of “the child with Mary his mother” (Mt 2:11); when he
died on the cross, Jesus entrusted his mother to John, saying, “Behold
your mother” Jn 19:27). In the monastic-religious tradition, these words
and actions of our Lord have been interpreted as an indication of a path
leading to him.
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