What Are You Looking For? Part 1: The Nicene Creed

Of The Virgin Mary

Of the Virgin Mary…

            Last post I mentioned how Jesus became incarnate at a specific time in history.  He also became incarnate in the womb of a specific person.  The Blessed Virgin Mary.  Some reading this may wonder why Catholics honor Mary the way we do.  Let me just say here, no, we don’t worship her.  Never have, never will, and if we tried, she’d get really mad at us.  For her, it is, and always was, and always will be about her Son.  For a good idea on the character of Mary and the focus of her attention, consider the story of the Wedding at Cana.  Jesus and Mary are at a wedding and they run out of wine.  In the ancient world, that would have been horrible, right up there with running out of food.  To run out of wine meant there was absolutely nothing for the guests to drink.  So she tells Jesus.  Then she tells the servants to “do whatever he tells you.”  And the water became wine.  It was Jesus’ first miracle.  In the story, Mary is only a bit part.  The focus of the story isn’t her.  It’s Jesus.  It’s the revelation of who he is.  It’s the impact the miracle had on the people there.  Mary points to her Son, and quietly fades into the background.  That’s what she always does.  That’s what moms do. 

            From the time of the Holy Spirit coming upon her, Mary’s life became all about Jesus.  I don’t mean that in a smothering mother kind of way.  I mean that in the way every mom’s life becomes all about their kid.  It was her job to give birth to him.  To feed him.  To change his diapers.  To bandage his scraped knees, to tuck him in at night and sing him a lullaby.  To be his mom. 

            Hers wasn’t an easy job.  She was what we would consider a young girl.  She was pregnant.  She was engaged, but not married.  People would have talked.  Joseph wondered who the father was.  He knew it wasn’t him.  God had to send an angel to tell him what was going on.  But the rest of the town received no such angelic visitation. 

She was there for every moment of his life, both the good ones and the bad ones.  She was there when he taught in the synagogue and when he healed the sick, raised the dead and cast out demons.  She was there when he was bound to the pillar in Pilate’s courtyard and the whip cut into his flesh over and over and over.  She watched, helplessly, as he was beaten and mocked and beaten again.  She was there when the King of Kings, her baby, her boy, was crowned with thorns.  She walked with him on the Via Dolorosa.  She heard him scream in pain when the nails were hammered into his hands and feet.  The feet that she had taught how to walk.  The hands that had held on to hers.  Unable to comfort him.  Unable to take his place.  She was there when he was carefully lowered down from the cross and placed into her arms.  She knew the story hadn’t ended yet.  But even though she knew her Son would rise in three days that thought provided scant little comfort as she bore pain of the moment.

            She bore all of that.  That’s why we honor the Blessed Mother.  Just as God the Father is Jesus’ Father and our Father, Mary is Jesus’ mother and our mother.  And like all mothers, all she wants is for us to love her Son.