As proof that you are sons,
God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!”
S aint Paul's Letter to the Galatians addressed the thorny, unexpected crisis of gentiles eagerly joining the Lord while his own Jewish people hesitated, refused, or refuted the Gospel. Who were these new people and what gave them the right to worship the Messiah whom they addressed with the Greek word Christ?
The answer: they were enthusiastically praying to the Father of Jesus with the Lord's own Hebrew expression, "Abba." Jesus had taken a Hebrew's address to their human father and converted it to a word of prayer. It expressed both respect and affection, and gentiles were delighted with it.
Perhaps it was that same reverential address to the Father that sought the complementary mother. The Jews certainly never looked for a mother in God or the Earth. If Israel was God's unfaithful wife, she was rarely called mother; and if she appeared as mother it was in shame, as in Hosea. Although Proverb 8 described Wisdom as God's clever, playful, and very wise daughter, she was not a consort of God. That was for Jews and Christians unthinkable.
(...at least until Saint Francis addressed Mary as "daughter and handmaid heavenly Father, the almighty King, Mother of our most high Lord Jesus Christ, and Spouse of the Holy Spirit.")
Christians have learned from the Lord and from his saints a child's affection for God. And we find in Jesus's explicit words, "Behold your Mother!" an invitation to know Mary which is both reassuring and insistent. We welcome the Angel's command to Saint Joseph, "Do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home." And even as we seek to do the Lord's will we hear her saying, "Do whatever he tells you!"
During the past year, Catholics in the United States enjoyed a renewed appreciation for the Blessed Sacrament, which we know as the Body and Blood of Jesus. And we remember that Mary gave human flesh to the Son of God. She opened the way for knowing the Creator and Lord of the Universe in a way unimaginable to past generations. He is the Word made Flesh, and a human being like us.
As we share the Body and Blood of the Lord we become his flesh and blood; and children of the Woman who remained with him when everyone else had fled. We are -- each one of us -- that Beloved Disciple who takes her into our homes at his behest, and because she is the Mother of God. If his lifeless body was laid in a tomb, her living body still needed our compassion and protection. And we needed her courage, faith, and devotion.
Like God himself, Mary remains with us; and we, with them. Saint Mark describes the disciples of the Lord following him almost helplessly to Jerusalem. They don't seem able to describe why they must go with him; their answers to his questions are always inadequate and sometimes wrong. Those they get right are catechism answers at best -- "You are the Christ?" -- and poorly understood. But they stayed with him. Their hearts would not let them return to the old ways of life.
So do we stay with Jesus and his Father and Spirit, with Mary his Mother, with the apostles, martyrs, and saints, and with our fellow sinners, both clergy and lay.
As Saint Francis said, "Great things have we promised unto God; but greater are the promises of God to us!"
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I love to write. This blog helps me to meditate on the Word of God, and I hope to make some contribution to our contemplations of God's Mighty Works.
Ordinarily, I write these reflections two or three weeks in advance of their publication. I do not intend to comment on current events.
I understand many people prefer gender-neutral references to "God." I don't disagree with them but find that language impersonal, unappealing and tasteless. When I refer to "God" I think of the One whom Jesus called "Abba" and "Father", and I would not attempt to improve on Jesus' language.
You're welcome to add a thought or raise a question.