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Introduction
In our time,
the foundation for the consolidation of the position of women within the
family as well as within her social and cultural life needs to be redefined
The Marian ideal and the attachment to the person of the Blessed Virgin Mary
when absorbed in its fullness, become a powerful and creative inspiration in
this quest.
As the
masterpiece of the new creation, Mary is a model for women of all states of
life and time.
In other words, the ens Marianum is the criterion for authentic
Christian femininity.
Marian doctrine can shed light on
the multiple ways in which the life of grace promotes woman's spiritual
beauty.
Mary’s
person represents a disquieting challenge to those, advocating the
abolishment of all differences between women and men, as well as to those
seeking to perpetuate women's subordination to men.
Mariology and femininity can best shed light on each other when the image of
woman is respected in its value. To be a woman is not a role that can be
exchanged arbitrarily. Rather it is a basic anthropological disposition
permeating one’s entire existence based on the understanding that body and
soul are interrelated (anima forma corporis).
Woman's identity cannot consist in being a copy of man, since she is endowed
with her own qualities and prerogatives, which give her a particular
uniqueness that is always to be fostered and encouraged…In virtue of her
special bond with Mary, woman has often in the course of history represented
God's closeness to the expectations of goodness and tenderness of a humanity
wounded by hatred and sin, by sowing in the world seeds of a civilization
that can respond to violence with love.
As far as the
person of Mary is concerned, there is very little we know about her exterior
appearance, her taste, knowledge, education etc. Yet, she becomes a
universal person and in that especially a model for women in view of her
religious vocation through the spiritual intervention of God in her life.
Her process of individuation is initiated by her reflection on who she is
and her mission as handmaid of the Lord.
The dialogue
of Mary with the Angel at the Annunciation reveals to us in an archetypal
manner her receptive co-operative surrender towards God. This attitude of
receptivity is woman’s preeminent gift to society and ultimately decisive
for man’s encounter with God as well.
Mary’s
virginity relates closely to her feminine receptivity and to her total
surrender initiated by her personal core. The spiritual component of
virginity, i.e. of undivided surrender to God, is innate in both sexes,
married or single, and needs to be nourished in order to faithfully abide by
one’s covenant relationship with God.
Motherhood
modeled after the image of the Blessed Virgin Mary,
8
signals the co-operation in the birth of the divine Logos in the human heart
where he can grow and be nurtured in the concrete circumstances of family
life.
Mary entrusted herself to God completely, with the full submission of her
intellect and will. ... Her "yes" had become the Good News for the whole of
humanity. Through her "yes" it is now possible for all to meet Jesus Christ
and see all of one’s deepest aspirations completely fulfilled. Now what has
been accomplished in Mary can also be accomplished in any other woman. If
given the occasion every woman can say her "yes" and have the fountain of life conceived within them.
Thus women
are encouraged to expose themselves to Mary’s education and to accept the
responsibility for the personal care in a time apt to succumb to a culture
of death. As a personal individual being Mary shows us how to relate to God
and to others. From the Annunciation to Pentecost every pericope about Mary
is relational. In virtue of the donum integritatis (Immaculate Conception) her relationality is
ordered and just. We observe a development in her dialoguing with her You:
through creative interaction, passive transformation (pondering) active
transformation (Cana); receiving and giving. She reaches her self-fulfillment in self-giving on Golgotha and at Pentecost. Mary’s
self-determination is realized in dependence/-inter-dependence of a creature
to her creator. Through the progressive emptying – assimilation of her
mission, she reaches her ultimate vocation.
11 Through
grace and receptivity, a woman can pattern her relationships in likewise
manner.12
In this way,
Mary of Nazareth can be our sister in the faith, (Paul VI) imploring for all
women the vigor needed to fulfill their mission in the postmodern era.
It should be considered quite
normal for succeeding generations of Christians in differing socio-cultural
contexts to have expressed their sentiments about the Mother of Jesus in a
way and manner which reflected their own age. In contemplating Mary and her
mission these different generations of Christians, looking on her as the New
Woman and perfect Christian, found in her as a virgin, wife and mother the
outstanding type of womanhood and pre-eminent exemplar of life lived in
accordance with the Gospels and summing up the most characteristic
situations in the life of a woman.
“Mary, in fact, is one of our
race, a true daughter of Eve, though free. . .of sin, and truly our sister,
who as a poor and humble woman fully shared our lot.”
Sr.
M. Danielle Peters
To acquire more information regarding "The Blessed Virgin and Women" click
on these links:
http://www.udayton.edu/mary/resources/newfeminism.html
http://www.udayton.edu/mary/resources/ecclesial.html
http://www.udayton.edu/mary/resources/maryfem.html
http://www.udayton.edu/mary/resources/marylight.html
http://www.udayton.edu/mary/resources/respectwom.html
Paul VI. Marialis Cultus, 34-37.
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