Mary, the Mother of God

Homily for the Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God

The December, 2015, issue of National Geographic used the Blessed Virgin as its cover story; the headline proclaimed her “the most powerful woman in the world.” The article went on to say “No other woman has been as exalted as Mary. As a universal symbol of maternal love, as well as of suffering and sacrifice, Mary is often the touchstone of our longing for meaning, a more accessible link to the supernatural than formal church teachings. Her mantle offers both security and protection.

What is behind this mystique? While some proclaim her the most powerful woman in the world, it is obvious that this power comes not so much from who she was but from who she can be. Like Buddha and Jesus, she can be all things to all people - light or dark skinned, rich or poor. She has been appropriated by dozens of different interest groups, including Mexican farmworkers, feminists and anti-abortion activists.

“There is no one Virgin Mary,” one theologian said. “She becomes more powerful by the ongoing remaking of her.” She appears in graffiti in Los Angeles, in a shrine in Miami and on a pair of men’s drawstring pants, price $78. He says she is especially popular among millennials and “nones” — people with no religious identification. Young and unaffiliated people have dubbed her “super-cool,” because she isn’t trying to be cool.

That’s her special appeal to the young and unaffiliated. Mary is outside the boundaries of any institution. Young, hipster, spiritual-but-not-religious people find her appealing because she represents the power of the people. We make her in our own image.

One reason we can do this is because we know so little about Mary. She speaks only four times in the Bible, mostly in one-sentence utterances. We are told nothing of her inner life, her feelings at being singled out by God to bear Jesus, only that at the visit of the shepherds and the wise men she “pondered these things in her heart.” She is silent even at the foot of the cross, watching her son die a horrible, tortured death.

“So much of who she is and was is left to our imaginations, from that comes an ability for us to find a connection to God that is both gentle and strong, loving and bold. There is a sense of the approachability with Mary and a place of great freedom to think about her example of one who said ‘yes’ to such an amazing thing.”

Today we celebrate her as the Mother of God. This solemnity is as old as the celebration of Christmas itself. At one time, the church commemorated the circumcision of the infant Jesus, as well as a World Day of Prayer for Peace on January 1