Spouse
of God, Continued
In
my post in the past week, I discussed the humility that God the Son truly
assumed to Himself in becoming man, and examined the extraordinary
fact of His obedience to the Blessed Virgin and Saint Joseph, in the
context of Saint Alphonsus de Liguori’s great work, “The Glories
of Mary,” and a passage from the second chapter of the Gospel
according to Saint Luke. This week I would like to complete the
meditation by focusing on the implications this has for the teaching
of the Church in other areas, most notably the Priesthood and the
Sacrifice of the Mass.
When
our God humbled Himself to become subject to the Blessed Virgin Mary
in obedience during His life here on earth, it was part of the larger
context of His entire intention of becoming man, a purpose of pure
charity, born from all eternity in the infinite fire of charity that
is the Most Holy Trinity. In the deepest intention of the Holy
Trinity for God the Son to become man, at the heart of this intention
was that God the Son joined Himself so intimately to mankind that He
made Himself truly vulnerable to humanity, in the person of Mary, and
through Mary, the Church. In this vulnerability, He became subject to
her throughout His life as an expression of how fully He had joined
Himself to mankind.
At
the moment of the Annunciation of Saint Gabriel the Archangel, He
awaited her fiat before He willed to be conceived in her womb. As
soon as the ‘Let it be done’ fell from her lips, the eternal and
majestic Almighty came down as simply and sweetly as a Divine Spouse;
at the moment of her assent, God descended both to compass her and be
compassed by her; to both surround and be surrounded.
Throughout
Our Lord’s life, God Himself willed to be cared for by Mary and
willed to need her. It was within His power to be utterly
self-sufficient; He could have appeared on earth and commanded
obedience immediately from every nation, with the glory of the
Godhead shining from His Face. Yet, where does He appear, but in the
arms of the Virgin? To whom does He cling, now, as a Toddler, but to
her leg? When He studies the art of carpentry, what does He eat, but
food from her table? As He matures in His humanity, growing in grace
in the sight of the Father and of men, to whom does He look, to see
the charity she has for Him and how proud of Him she is?
When
the time of His Passion came, who followed Him silently? Who gave Him
strength to endure the bitter trial of the flogging? In the injustice
of the false council and governor that condemned Him, who was in His
memories as the one who offered Him consolation? As He carried the
rough Cross, who followed the drops of Divine Blood, silently
weeping? As He was dying on the Cross, who stood under Him, the
Immaculate New Ark of the Covenant, face red with His Blood, eyes
stained with tears, and Heart torn in two? Who stood there, having a
Mother’s Right to her Son, freely offering Him to the Father for
the salvation of the world and giving Him up even as was prophesied
afore in the person of Abraham offering Isaac in submission to the
Will of God, or in the person of the great Matriarch Hannah, who
offered her only son to God in equally perfect obedience?
In
the relationship between Jesus and Mary, the Church finds Her
innermost being and constitution. All of Her doctrines flow from this
bond, all of Her strength is found in their Hearts, all the Truth of
Her practices is found in their Sacred Lives; for Christ is the
fullness of all Revelation, and He is found nowhere but in and
through Mary, and not without her. When the Priest offers the
Sacrifice of the Mass, who does he emulate but the one who stood
there at Calvary, offering her Son and releasing her right to Him on
our behalf? In his relationship to the Blessed Sacrament, which he is
the Sacred Guardian and Protector of, and in which he calls at his
word Our Lord Jesus Christ into this world, who do we see, but the
son who takes after his Mother? When he calls upon the Holy Ghost to
sanctify and change the gifts of bread and wine, does not he and the
Spirit call with one voice, just as Mary did with her fiat in the
Holy Ghost at the Incarnation? For in both cases the Spirit and the
Bride say, “Come,” and our Eucharistic Lord comes into this world
at that word. For the Blessed Virgin Mary is the Mother of the
Priesthood of Christ, and she is the Mother of His Priests; they are
fruit from her Vine, and they emulate their Mother in all things
relating to her relationship with God her Son.
In
the Church as a whole, spread throughout the world, God is truly
mediated through Her; in Her and through Her, by His design, is only
where He is to be found. For in the Eucharist the Lord is truly born
of Her into the world, and in the Tabernacle She is ever pregnant
with Him. Sacred Revelation, Scripture and Tradition, are born of the
Church and are protected by Her, and in them Christ the eternal Word
is present. Just as Mary relates to God, so the Church relates to
God; in Mary as a Son, and in a similar way in the Church. When you
look at the Church, see the Blessed Virgin Mary; when you look at the
Blessed Virgin Mary, see the Church. In this sacred relationship
between Mary/the Church and God, we find the Catholic Truth regarding
where God is to be found: in the womb of Holy Mother Church, in the
Eucharist and in Revelation, through the protection and guardianship
of the Church Herself, which models after the Blessed Virgin.
