BLOG 12/23/15. I STAND IN AWE OF MARY, MOTHER OF JESUS

BLOG 12/23/15. I STAND IN AWE OF MARY, MOTHER OF JESUS

I am compelled, before Christmas, to confess my total awe and amazement which takes place the longer I study the gospel accounts of Jesus’ mother Mary. When one grows up in the tradition of Scottish Presbyterianism what with its venerable Westminster Confession of Faith, one begins with a very jaded, if not negative view of all things that are identified with the Roman Catholic Church and its traditions—including the role of Mary and the omnipresent icons of mother and child that populate every Roman Catholic institution.

But I have mellowed, and hopefully matured over my long life. In mid-life, and at a crisis point in my own life as a teaching-pastor, I was pastored and encouraged by a dear Jesuit priest, who became a most cherished friend. No, I still don’t conceive of praying to Mother Mary as my Jesuit friend did, but I can appreciate his devotion. We protestants sing: “Yet she [the church] on earth hath union with God the three in one, and mystic sweet communion with those whose rest is won,” which somehow connects us with the spirits of saints now made perfect, which has some implications about our prayers and those of such as Mary—which leaves me less than dogmatic about praying to Mother Mary. Also in mid-career I was with a group of evangelical Protestant leaders who where guests of members of the Roman curia in Vatican for two weeks, and so many of my prejudices and misunderstandings collapsed in the warmth of the fellowship we shared, and the honesty of our conversations, and the mutual evangelical faith and edification.

So then at this Christmas observance, I stand in total awe of a very young virgin woman who is encountered by a heavenly messenger with the unexpected words: “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” And when she was puzzled by what this was all about, he continued: “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son and you will call his name Jesus.” . . . and you know the rest of the story. But Mary’s response has to be—at least for me—one of the greatest expressions of faith in all of the Biblical accounts: “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” What an incredible expression of true faith, transcending reason and not even stopping to realize what pain and heartbreak might be included. Nowhere else in the New Testament is there anything close. Jesus disciples stumbled and denied and doubted before they were persuaded, … but Mary saw with eyes of faith and never seemed to doubt. She was there from the very beginning to the very last.

“Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” God give me, and all of us, the grace to pray that every morning. At one point when Jesus was being summoned by his mother and brothers, he responded that all those who do the will of his Father were his brother and sister and mother. My Roman Catholic colleagues pray to Mary as the “mother of God” which is not an appellation used of her in scriptures, but then again, if God is Jesus’ Father, then in a real sense Mary is the mother of God also, … so I’ll not quarrel there either.

And remember: she was Jesus’ Mom! In those formative year of his youth, she (and Joseph) so instilled in him the scriptures, and undoubtedly told him of his birth, that when he was twelve and in the temple with the priests, they were amazed at his knowledge. All this provokes me to join my voice with the angel and say: “’Hail Mary, O favored one, the Lord is with you.’ You, Mary, are one of my most cherished examples of true faith. I am in awe of you.” From the cross, Jesus assigned Mary to the care of John. She was with him from first to last, watching the unfolding of that which the angel told her, and the unfolding of Simeon’s prophecy (Luke 2:35). Amazing, amazing faith. Always in the shadows, but always present for her Son, first ‘til last.

About rthenderson

Sixty years a pastor-teacher within the Presbyterian Church. Author of several books, the latest of which are a trilogy on missional ecclesiology: ENCHANTED COMMUNITY: JOURNEY INTO THE MYSTERY OF THE CHURCH, then, REFOUNDING THE CHURCH FROM THE UNDERSIDE, then THE CHURCH AND THE RELENTLESS DARKNESS. Previous to this trilogy was A DOOR OF HOPE: SPIRITUAL CONFLICT IN PASTORAL MINISTRY, and SUBVERSIVE JESUS, RADICAL FAITH. I am a native of West Palm Beach, Florida, a graduate of Davidson College, then of Columbia and Westminster Theological Seminaries.
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