MARY, OUR MOTHER

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Special Fides News Service

25 March 2009



“Blessed are the pure in heart.” (Mt 5:8)


Mary’s Virginity and its Significance for our Times

Virginity of Faith

Virginity of the Mind

Virginity of the Heart

Virginity of the Body

Growing in Love



Some time ago a firm producing detergents advertised a product with the slogan: “The strength of purity permeates everything.” Listening to that advertisement, a Christian would not just think of clean clothes, but he might be reminded of a deeper meaning of purity. In a world often soiled with lies, sullied by greed, violence and licentiousness, a person of pure heart, honesty and unassuming character is a powerful force indeed. Our world is in need of purity. We Christians have the mission to open up our minds to truth and to be honest in everything, letting our passions be ruled by the Spirit of truth and love. There, the Virgin Mary is our model.

In the charism of the "Spiritual Family, The Work," virginity is of great importance - in the comprehensive sense, virginity of faith, of mind, of heart, and of body. Some members of the Body of Christ are chosen by the Lord to practice chastity in celibacy for the sake of the Kingdom. God’s grace gives them the strength to renounce marriage and to give the full power of their love to Christ while devoting themselves to the Kingdom of Heaven in the world. All Christians, however, are called to live virginity of faith, of heart and of mind, and are to live the virtue of chastity in accordance with their own state of life. What does that mean? Does such a vocation have meaning in our world today? Looking to Mary, Mother of God and Ever-Virgin, we hope to answer these questions.

Virginity of Faith

Saint Luke, the Evangelist, tells us of a woman, who was fascinated by Jesus Christ. Struck by what he said and moved by the miracles he worked, she spontaneously thought of his mother, exclai­ming: “Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breasts that nursed you!” (Lk 11:27). She admired his mother for having given birth to such a son, of having nurtured him and of having brought him up. The Lord, however, pointed out to her the true greatness of Mary, when he answered, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it” (Lk11: 28). It was certainly an honor for Mary, that the Son of God took flesh in her womb. Yet her true greatness lay in that she opened her heart to the Word of God. Mary is the first one to whom that beatitude applies. She, more than any other human being, listened to God, bringing His word to fruition in her life. Therefore Saint Augustine says of her: “Mary is more blessed because she embraces faith in Christ than because she conceives the flesh of Christ.” (De virg. 3). Mary’s faith was “unadulterated by any doubt” (LG 63). In her heart there were no mental reservation, no fear, and no inner proviso towards God.

All of us should desire to be open to God like Mary. To have virginity of faith means to accept the message of the Gospel unconditionally as it is proclaimed by the Church and ought to be practiced in our lives. There may be moments in our lives, in which we might want to say: “I do not understand that. The Church just demands too much. I think differently in that matter.” But if in those moments we remain open hearted, in conscience, to the truth, we will come closer to God and find peace in our hearts. Truth makes us free and is the warrant of true happiness. Many today seem to think that you can be a good Catholic, even if you do not accept certain doctrines of faith and of moral law. They claim that their own under­standing and their own conscience is the last resort in making moral decisions. Virginal faith, however, listens to God. It is a faith that has become loving trust in God, knowing that He cannot deceive us.

There will always be truths of faith, which cannot be reconciled with the spirit of the age. Many believers in today’s pluralistic society, for instance, have difficulties in acknowledging that Christ Jesus is uniquely different from the founders of other religions, and accepting that our faith is not just one of the many ways to God, but the only true way. Others, for example, take offence at the teaching of the Church, that artificial insemination and fertilization outside the womb of the mother are to be considered morally unacceptable, as these are not in agreement with the order of love and of procreation willed by God and therefore not permissible. To love the Lord im­plies to be ready to accept in gratitude the teaching of the Church in its undiluted entirety. Virginal faith has the strength to say with St Paul: “For we cannot do anything against the truth, but only for the truth” (2 Cor 13:8).

Virginity of the Mind

The dialogue between the archangel Gabriel and the virgin from Nazareth gives us a glimpse of Mary’s thinking. We recognize how in her, reason and faith worked together. When God’s messenger announced that she should give birth to a son whom she was to name Jesus (see Lk 1:30-33), she asked: “How can this be, since I am a virgin?” (Lk 1:34).[1] Her question shows first of all that Mary did not merely accept passively the message of the angel. Faith does not replace human thinking, but challenges it, widening its scope, and opening it to the mind and plans of God. Believing Christians use their reason to serve in the work of salvation. When Mary heard the words of the angel, she was confronted with the seemingly contradictory difficulty of a twofold vocation. She felt the inner call to a virginal life, yet the angel informed her that she would give birth to a son. Her pure and believing mind is manifested by her reaction. She did not reject the announcement of the archangel, she did not say, this is impossible, she only asked: “How shall this be, since I have no husband?”[2] This "how," gives us a glimpse of her virginal thinking. She did not react with the no of disbelief, but in her believing request: how she opened up to the work of God in her. The angel met her difficulty by pointing out that, beyond any human expectation, Elisabeth had in her old age conceived a child. This reminder of the fact that God can do what seems humanly impossible was enough for the humble handmaid in Nazareth. She offered herself unreservedly to God and to His plan for mankind.

Mary’s thinking was simple and deep. Her mind was neither naive nor complicated. She was not caught up in thinking about herself, but her self was fully open towards God’s plan for her. Mother Julia writes about her: “Mary is completely free from that conceitedness, which manifests itself in constant self-analysis and tends to produce a split personality and mental confusion. There is nothing in her, which does not bring forth life, nothing that has not come to ma­turity; on the contrary: the whole of her wonderful and immensely great vocation to be the Mother of God, as well as all her co-opera­tion as bride and mother in God’s plan of Redemption, is based on the inviolate and virginal fidelity of her pure and Immaculate Heart, on her lifelong attitude of being in all simplicity a child of God.”

From Mary we can learn to unmask the “father of lies” (Jn 8:44). She helps us to avoid lame excuses, pretensions or half-truths, not to let pride or jealousy rule us and not to fall into a lack of trust in God. To have a virginal mind implies that we watch what we think, not permitting our thoughts to run wild. St. Paul invites us to “destroy arguments and every proud obstacle raised up against the knowledge of God, and we take every thought captive to obey Christ” (2 Cor 10:4-5). There are true and good thoughts opening up new worlds for us and keeping us orientated towards God, our highest good. But there are also dangerous thoughts, which undermine our faith and loyalty to the Church, or endanger our love for our spouse or for the vocation to priesthood or to consecrated life. As St Paul feared that the thoughts of the Christians in Corinth “will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ” (2 Cor 11:3).
Virginity of mind requires one humbly to fix one’s mind continually upon God and His truth. Persons of such a mind are open to every inspiration of truth touching them. They are honest and pure in their intentions, in their words and in their deeds. They listen to the voice of their conscience and use their intellect, will and feeling in the service of the kingdom of God. If we are such persons, we receive God’s wisdom and may count on His help and His blessing.

Virginity of the Heart

Ever since the first sin of Eve and Adam, the heart of man has been divided. Sin disrupts our inner harmony, our being one with God, with ourselves, and with others. With Mary it was different, she was free from original sin and from any personal sin. Her whole life belonged to God. When the Lord called her, she offered herself to Him unconditionally. At no moment in her life would she have revised her assent or not have lived it to the full. She helps us to attain to a pure and full self-surrender to God.

Jesus tells us in the Gospel: “No slave can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth” (Lk 16:13). Thus the Lord warns us against any kind of idol-worship, of compromise and of dishonesty. The world needs men and women, who let the light of the Gospel illuminate and govern their lives, and not half-hearted Christians. The world today needs true and trust­worthy witnesses. We are dishonest, if we expect others to live a vir­tuous life but do not strive for virtue ourselves; if we criticize the faults of others but do not work continuously at our own character; if we accuse others of wrongdoing but find excuses for our own sins. If parents pray that their children will be graced with a strong faith, they must not put obstacles in their paths, should God call them to the priesthood or religious life.

To guard the virginity of our hearts, we have to struggle against the desires of the flesh and senses. Here clear eyes and a healthy discipline of our emotions, feelings and imaginations help us, as does our rejecting of any pleasure in unclean thoughts, which would lead us astray from God’s commandments (cf. CCC 2520). Also impor­tant is a healthy modesty, which protects the intimate centre of the person and her/his mystery. It encourages “patience and moderation in loving relationships”, and invites the choice of decent clothing and of appropriate discretion and reserve (cf. CCC 2521/2).

Mother Julia writes in a prayer to Mary: “You have accomplished everything God expected of you.” This should be our desire: to accomplish what God expects of us - with joy and the full self-giving of a virginal heart.

Virginity of the Body

From the beginning the Church confessed that Mary conceived in her womb the Son of God by the working of the Holy Spirit, and without the involvement of any man. As the Catechism of the Catholic Church confirms, “Mary’s virginity manifests God’s abso­lute initiative in the Incarnation” (CCC 503) and “Jesus is the new Adam, who inaugurates the new creation” (CCC 504).The Son of the Virgin Mary comes from God and all, who want to become his brothers and sisters, have to be born anew, from above. “Participation in the divine life arises ‘not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God’ (Jn 1:13)” (CCC 505).
In our society we are widely confronted today with a strong and even unhealthy over-stress on sexuality. The alleged hostility of earlier times against the body is to be overcome and the ecstasy of love, especially in its sexual dimension, is to be fully tested and consumed. But in this way the human body is not respected in its God-willed dignity. Pope Benedict XVI writes in his encyclical letter Deus Caritas est: “the contemporary way of exalting the body is deceptive. Eros, reduced to pure ‘sex’ has become a commodity, a mere ‘thing’ to be bought and sold, or rather, man himself becomes a commodity. This is hardly man’s great ‘yes’ to the body” (5). The human person who is body and soul can only then attain true happiness and genuine love, if he is ready to go on “a path of ascent, renunciation, purification and healing” (5). The virtue leading us along this path is chastity. It helps us so that we do not let sexual passions rule us, but integrate sexuality into our lives in a mature way, as a precious gift of the Creator which belongs to our being man or being woman. What does this mean in practical life?

Every baptised person is called to chastity. For a married couple this implies that they remain united with one another in genuine love and keep faithful to one another, until death separates them. They are called to give themselves to one another “in holiness and honour, not with lustful passion, like the Gentiles who do not know God” (1 Thes 4:4). This implies that in responsible parenthood they may make use of the natural methods of birth-control towards the possible conception of a child and even against it, should they have serious reasons within God’s commands. However, they deliberately re­nounce contraceptives, as demanded in the encyclical Humanae Vitae by Pope Paul VI. When acting in this way, they will become aware how their love for one another becomes stronger and more sincere. Such couples are a true encouragement for young, single people, be they unmarried or widowed, to live continent lives. By their example and by their witness they can help couples preparing for matrimony with God’s grace to remain chaste until they marry.

Young people may find help in groups and movements like 'True Love Waits,' which encourage them to develop an intimate friendship with Jesus and to pledge virginity before marriage. Consecration to Mary, a custom maintained or re-awakened in some places, is also a great help for the young who want to live up joyfully to the virtue of virginity. Nowadays, when the media, school and even kindergarten are flooded with often one-sided information on sexuality, parents need to be vigilant in the formation of their (even young) children to help them at the right time.

The witness of Christians, who live lives of celibacy and virginal love, is needed more than ever. In every age the Lord has chosen men and women who have voluntarily renounced, “for the sake of the kingdom of heaven” (Mt 19:12) the great good of marriage to give their love fully to Christ committing themselves to spiritual fatherhood and motherhood for the good of their fellowmen. Their life is a gift of God for the Church and a strong sign for the world, that cannot be overlooked. If priests and religious live their vocation in joy, then they have great influence on the people around them and give evidence, as it were, that in Christ true and lasting happiness are to be found.

Growing in Love

Our Lady encourages us in whatever vocation we have. The beatitude “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God” (Mt 5:8) came to fulfilment in the Virgin and Mother of God: In the Catechism of the Catholic Church we find this explained: “‘Pure in heart’ refers to those who have attuned their intellects and wills to the demands of God’s holiness, chiefly in three areas: charity; chastity or sexual rectitude; love of truth and orthodoxy of faith. There is a connexion between the purity of heart, of body and of faith” (CCC 2518).

Mary can and will help us as we strive to remain pure in heart or to regain that purity. We shall then be able to adore God in spirit and in truth and to see His goodness on the face of Jesus Christ. To see God forever we will need a pure heart. Already here and now it enables us to see the world in the light of God, to recognize the image of the Creator in others, and “to perceive the human body - ours and our neighbours - as a temple of the Holy Spirit, a manifestation of divine beauty” (CCC 2519).

Mary wants to help to trans­form us into people who love. The virginity of her faith, her mind, her heart and her body invite us to surrender fully to God’s love as she has done, always growing in love until we breathe our last. Mary’s life is a gift of God’s mercy to mankind. With Mother Julia we want to ask her: “Make my soul ever more thirsty for your love.”

The Holy Father writes in his encyclical letter on Christian love, that we should look to Mary and ask her to help us: “Mary has truly become the Mother of all believers. Men and women of every time and place have recourse to her motherly kindness and her virginal purity and grace, in all their needs and aspirations, their joys and sorrows, their moments of loneliness and their common endeavours. They constantly experience the gift of her goodness and the unfailing love which she pours out from the depths of her heart. … Holy Mary, Mother of God, you have given the world its true light, Jesus your Son - the Son of God. You abandoned yourself completely to God’s call and thus became a wellspring of the goodness which flows forth from him. Show us Jesus. Lead us to him. Teach us to know and to love him, so that we can become capable of true love and be fountains of living water in the midst of a thirsting world” (Deus Caritas est 42).