We fly to thy patronage,
O holy Mother of God;
despise not our
petitions in our necessities,
but deliver us always
from all dangers,
O glorious and
blessed Virgin. Amen.
What I appreciate about traditional
church architecture is its ability to communicate the faith to its visitors.
You see, for much of history, the vast majority of people were illiterate. The
Church, then, in designing worship spaces, constructed churches in such a way
as to catechize the faithful. Hence, the floorplan, the dimensions, the
building material, the statues, the art, and so forth, were not empty in
meaning. They were the “books,” so to speak, that the faithful read in order to
learn their faith.
Several years
ago, I visited a church in San Diego, CA called St. Mary Magdalene’s. Walking into
the church, I had to tilt my head back – in a way that high ceilings command
its occupants to do – and I couldn’t help but notice that it was designed as an
upside-down ship hull. This design taught what the early Church knew so well:
the Church is like a ship.[1]
Apparently, the design of the upside-down ship hull has made an impression on
the lexicon of church architecture, as the middle of church buildings – no
matter how it is designed – is still called the nave, from the Latin navis, which means “ship.”
Like a ship at
sea, we, the Church, are on a journey, in particular, we are on a journey
toward heaven. However, this is not an easy journey. Like a ship at sea, the
Church also experiences storms and is at risk of being capsized. The tempestuous
storms of temptation and worldliness and the ship-turning threats of sin and
vice try to steer us away from our heavenly destination.
In the midst of
these dark storms, we have a guiding light: Mary, the Star of the Sea (Stella Maris). Given the date of the Sub Tuum Praesidium (3rd
century), as well as the original Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore (5th
century),[2]
Mary, the Mother of God, has been for
centuries a bright star guiding the Pilgrim Church at sea toward her Son,
Jesus, our Lord and Savior.
At the wedding
at Cana, when there was no more wine, Mary told the servants, “Do whatever he
[Jesus] tells you” (Jn 2:5). Mary’s words reveal a fundamental orientation that
characterizes the whole of Mary’s life, both in the Gospels and in the Church
from its beginnings to the present-day: she always leads us to hear and do
whatever Jesus tells us. Therefore, in this talk, I will briefly examine three
events of Mary’s life in light of the Gospels and Church tradition: the
Annunciation of the Angel Gabriel to Mary, Mary at the Foot of the Cross, and
Mary’s first encounter with her resurrected Son. In these three events, I will
focus on three characteristics of Christian discipleship that Mary perfectly
modeled: embracing the will of God, perseverance, and contemplation. By
examining these three events, I hope that we can once again be guided by this
“Star of the Sea” and better orient our lives toward Jesus, without whom there
is no salvation.
At the
conclusion of the Angel Gabriel’s visit to Mary, announcing the vocation of
Mary’s motherhood to the Savior, Mary said, “I am the handmaid of the Lord; let
it be to me according to your word” (Lk 1:38). This phrase is oftentimes
summarized in the Latin word fiat,
literally, “let it be done.” Mary’s fiat
was a complete embrace of God’s will. In our culture, where abortion is
commonplace (an average of nearly 4,000 abortions occur every day in the United
States alone), our minds have been formed into separating conception from
motherhood. A baby in the womb does not mean you have to be a mother, says our
culture. Mary’s vocation to conceive Jesus, however, was not merely a
nine-month contract. It was a vocation to motherhood. What Mary embraced in
following God’s will was not temporary. In fact, it is eternal. My mother will
always be my mother. Your mother will always be your mother. Jesus’s mother
will always be His mother.
Wouldn’t it be
such an honor, a blessing, to be the mother of Jesus? Of course. However, her
motherhood alone is not what makes Mary blessed. Luke 11:27-28 reads, “A woman
in the crowd raised her voice and said to [Jesus], ‘Blessed is the womb that
bore you, and the breasts that you sucked!’ But he said, ‘Blessed rather are
those who hear the word of God and keep it!’” Mary’s hearing of the word of
God, through the Angel Gabriel, and keeping it is what makes her blessed.[3]
Mary’s fiat teaches us that our discipleship to
Jesus is not temporary. It is a complete embrace of God’s will, an embrace that
lasts for eternity. Like Mary’s fiat,
our own fiat to God should not be dictated
by any voice other than God’s and His messengers. In the words of St. Peter,
“We must obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29).
At the foot of
the cross, Mary fully experienced what the Prophet Simeon prophesied nearly 33
years earlier: “a sword will pierce through your own soul” (Lk 2:35). The
Church’s public worship, that is, the liturgy, has directed the faithful to
reflect on Mary at the foot of the cross. The liturgical calendar dedicates a
feast day to Our Lady of Sorrows on September 15. In the old liturgical
calendar, still in effect wherever the traditional Latin Mass is offered, Our
Lady of Sorrows, specifically, the Seven Sorrows of Our Lady, has two feast
days a year: the Friday before Palm Sunday and the 3rd Sunday of
September. That has been the practice, beginning with local Missals, since the 15th
century. [4]
The Stabat Mater, a hymn about the
Sorrowful Mother, has been given beautiful musical scores from many classical
composers. The hymn is also traditionally sung during the Stations of the
Cross. The famous Pieta of Michelangelo,
residing in none other than St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican, attempts to
depict this overwhelming emotional event in the Gospel.
Why this
interest in Mary at the foot of the cross? It shows us what perseverance in
Christian discipleship looks like. Mary’s fiat
is constant, even at the foot of the cross. A mother never dreams of witnessing
her son’s brutal murder. Yet, Mary shows us that even in this unbearable
moment, she must remain with her Son. So in our own unbearable moments in being
a Christian disciple amidst the storms of this life, we must remain with Mary’s
Son. Meanwhile, in the midst of these unbearable moments, we must have hope in
the resurrection.
While the Gospel
of John records Mary Magdalene as the first witness of Jesus’s resurrection,
tradition holds that Mary, as the mother of Jesus, was the first to see the
resurrected Christ. First or not, it is reasonable that Jesus, at some point,
visited the one who had remained with Him throughout His earthly life. What did
that first meeting of Jesus with His mother look like?
The last memory
Mary had of Jesus was His cruel crucifixion: she saw her innocent Son undergo
an execution reserved for criminals. Before being laid in the tomb, we can
imagine Mary asking to hold her Son, like the pieta. His moist blood clinged onto her own garments. She could
feel her Son’s cold, lifeless body, as she caressed the man she bore in her
womb for nine months. Other cherished memories came to mind, for Scripture
records – twice – that “Mary kept all
these things, pondering them in her heart” (Lk 2:19).[5]
Then came the
first Easter. When pondering in her heart the last 33 years with her Son – including
His “hidden years” and even His promises of resurrection – there He was. No
longer drench in His own blood, Jesus’s clothing was radiant with light. Obliged
as a son, Jesus wiped Mary’s tears, and she could feel His hands not cold as
when she last felt Him but warm again. The sound of Jesus’s voice: no longer
the cry of agony but an invitation to hope and peace.
As vivid as
these images are, Mary, here, gives us an example of contemplative prayer.
Again, “Mary kept all these things, pondering them in her heart.” The content
of our prayer, like the content of Mary’s prayer, ought to be the life of her
Son, Jesus. And that is the secret of the rosary, a treasured form of prayer
recommended by the Church and her saints for centuries. The rosary is not the
vain repetition of “Hail Marys.” It is essentially the pondering of Christ’s
life – called “mysteries” – in our hearts with the one who has best pondered
the mysteries of Christ’s life, Mary.
In this talk, we
reflected on three events of Mary’s life that show her a “Star of the Sea” as
we journey on our pilgrimage in the ship of the Church. I now want to conclude
with three questions in light of our reflection: (1) What does it mean to give
my life completely to the Blessed Trinity? (2) What does it mean to persevere
and trust? (3) What does it mean to pray?
O God,
who chose the Mother
of your Son to be our Mother also,
grant us that,
persevering in penance and prayer for the salvation of the world,
we may further more
effectively each day the reign of Christ.
Who lives and reigns
with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and
ever. Amen.[6]
(Originally given as a talk to a Catholic singles group on May 13, 2015.)
[1]
Cf. Apostolic Constitutions (c. 367).
[2]
The Papal Basilica of St. Mary Major was commission by Pope Sixtus III after
the Council of Ephesus (431).
[3]
See also Lk 1:45.
[4]
Phyllis D. Carpenter, “A History of the Stabat
Mater and an Analysis of the Stabat
Mater by Giovanni B. Pergolesi” (master’s thesis, University of Rochester,
1948), 4, accessed May 12, 2015, http://hdl.handle.net/1802/4558.
[5]
Lk 2:51.
[6]
Collect of the Optional Memorial of Our Lady of Fatima (May 13), Roman Missal, Third Edition.
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