Paul and Mary

Saint Paul whose two-thousandth anniversary of birth we are celebrating this coming year (June 29, 2008-June 29, 2009) never used the name of Mary in his writings; neither did he make a direct reference to the mother of Jesus.  This may come as a surprise, since there is hardly a sacred author more Christo-centric that Paul. Jesus Christ and our being in Christ are the central theses of his epistles.

The time of Mary as individual had not yet come.  However, Paul because of his omnipresent en Christo, was also a champion of the Incarnation.  As such he gives us the earliest reference to Jesus Christ "born of a woman," thus foreshadowing the reality of Mary.

• Pauline Foreshadowing of a Jewish Woman

The foreshadowing in Paul occurred in the mid-fifties.  The full portrait of Mary will be perceived only around 85-90 as the following presentation shows.

• Progressive emergence of Mary in Scripture

by Father Johann G. Roten, S.M.

N.B. A Zenit article posted on June 22, 2008, notes the following pre-Angelus greeting of Benedict XVI on this topic:

... I invite you, then, dear brothers and sisters, to prepare yourselves to celebrate with faith this Pauline Year, which, if it may please God, I will solemnly open next Saturday evening at 6 p.m. in the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls, with the first vespers for the Solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul. From this moment we entrust this great ecclesial initiative to the intercession of St. Paul and Mary most holy, Queen of the Apostles and Mother of Christ, source of our joy and our peace.

URL for this page is http://campus.udayton.edu/mary/PaulandMary.html