THE HIDDENESS OF MARY

 

THE HIDDENESS OF MARY

Saints Luke and Matthew give our Blessed Mother Mary a leading role in the first two chapters of their Gospels, but after that write very little about her.  Luke mentions her once in the Acts of the Apostles, noting that she was among those who gathered in prayer with the eleven apostles shortly before Pentecost (Acts 1:14).  Saint Mark mentions Mary’s name only once, when he records the townspeople of Nazareth calling Jesus “the son of Mary” (Mk 6:3; also, Mt 13:55).  Mary is referenced once more in Mark, Luke, and Matthew not by name but simply as Jesus’ mother when she and his relatives seek to get to him through the crowds (Mt 12:46-50; Mk 3:31-35; Lk 8,19-21).  In the Gospel of John Mary is seen at two key moments.  Her name is not given, but she is addressed by Jesus as “woman”; at the wedding feast of Cana, and in his dying moments on the Cross (Jn 2:4 & 19:26).

Saint John presents Mary very prominently in the twelfth chapter of the Book of Revelation.  There is a vision of “a woman, clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.”  She is pregnant: “Then the dragon stood before the woman about to give birth, to devour her child when she gave birth.”  The dragon is defeated in his attempts to kill the newborn boy and to capture the mother.  In frustration he “went off to wage war against the rest of her offspring, those who keep God’s commandments and bear witness to Jesus” (Rev 12:17).

Clearly, the principle focus of the New Testament is on Christ and the salvation he won for humankind by his sacrifice on the Cross.  St. Paul provides the protocol: “When I came to you, brothers, proclaiming the mystery of God, I did not come with sublimity of words or of wisdom.  For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified” (1 Cor 2:1-2).  Jesus came in fulfillment of the Law to reveal the Father to the world.  He makes this clear to Phillip, who asked him at the Last Supper to show them the Father: “Who has seen me has seen the Father; how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’…The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority; but the Father who dwells in me does his works.  Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me” (Jn 14:9-11).

Although she is not often mentioned in the Gospels and the Epistles, Mary is shown to be essential to accomplishing God’s plan of salvation.  Paul tells the Galatians that “when the fullness of time had come, God sent his son born of a woman” (Gal 4:4).  He had to be born of a woman so that he would be fully human.  His humanity was the instrument of our salvation.  When the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary her central role in salvation history was revealed to her.  The angel said, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.  And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus.  He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; and of his kingdom there will be no end” (Lk 1:30-33). 

Since Jesus is the King of Israel Mary is the Queen Mother of Israel, which in the kingdom was a higher position than the queen, the wife of the king.  In the last book of the Bible Mary is depicted as a queen, “a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars” (Rev 12:1).  Next week I will follow up with more commentary on Mary in the New Testament.  I hope to make it clear that although she is not shown as being at Jesus’ side throughout his public ministry, she was there when it mattered most.  And, of course, she is there at his side for all eternity as Queen Mother in heaven.