The Mother of God: she's a big puzzle isn't she — a complex figure built on scant biblical evidence? This is the biblical puzzle Dr Ian Elmer explores in today's commentary which is particularly appropriate to the Advent season and the build up to Christmas.

Mary of Nazareth

Perhaps the most significant character to populate the prayers and readings of Advent, aside from Jesus, is his mother Mary. Tradition has named her Mother of God, Mother of the Church, the Blessed Virgin, Tower of David, Queen of Apostles, Queen of Heaven, Queen of Angels, Queen of Peace, and so on. Indeed, we once would chant entire litanies addressing her by a huge array of names.

Today, I'd like to take a step back from these later traditions and examine what the Gospels tell us about Mary of Nazareth. Of course, in approaching the Gospels we are still dealing with tradition (albeit earlier than the subsequent doctrinal statements about Mary) which, moreover, played a formative role in the doctrinal discussions and devotions of the later Church.

Still, the elaborate extra-biblical traditions surrounding Mary stands in stark contrast to the biblical portrayal of Mary who, despite her prominence, makes very few appearances in the New Testament. Given the scarcity of biblical data, it is a puzzle for us to explain why Mary has been idealised in so many different ways and hailed under so many different titles.

The Mary of History...

Like the so-called "Jesus of history", the historical figure of Mary of Nazareth is shrouded in mystery or, better, clothed in theological raiment. The historical evidence about the historical Mary who lived in the first century is sparse. It is difficult to distil the "Mary of history" from the "Mary of later devotion".

Although Mary is the biblical woman most often mentioned by name, many of the details of her life are unknown to us; even her date of birth and the nature of her death are unknown. Most of what we can glean of her life is derived from the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. From these sources we know that Mary was a Galilean Jew; but little else. The Gospels tell us nothing of her parentage and background.

Mary explodes into the Gospel stories of Matthew and Luke from complete obscurity, and her story begins with welter of legendary or, at least, seemingly contradictory details. Both Gospels agree that at the time of the annunciation of Jesus' birth, she was betrothed to Joseph. But from that point onwards, the agreement ends.

According to Luke's narrative, the angel Gabriel was sent to her in Nazareth with the news that Mary would become pregnant and give birth to a son (Lk 1:26–38). After Mary's visit to her cousin Elizabeth in the hill country of Judea and the birth of Christ in Bethlehem (Lk 1:39–56; 2:1–20), she is mentioned on only a few occasions: at the presentation in the temple; at the discovery of Jesus in the temple with the teachers of the law; travelling with Jesus' brothers (Lk 8:21); and at the cross (Lk 2:21–40, 41–52).

Matthew, by contrast, even raises an issue about Mary coming from Galilee. In the Matthean nativity narrative, Mary's story is relegated in favour of the story of Joseph's reaction to the divine intervention in Mary's life, and in particular how Joseph is repeatedly led by dreams to do God's will (Mt 1:26–38, 39–56; 2:5–7; 2:19, 34, 39, 48, 51). In the rest of the Gospel, as with all the other Gospels, Mary appears only occasionally: at her hometown in Nazareth (Mt 13:54-58); in the company of Jesus' brothers (Mt 12:46–50; cf. Mk 3:31–35; Lk 8:21); at the cross (Mt 27:56; cf. Jn 19:26–27); and possibly at the empty tomb (Mt 28:1-10).

While there is little by way of solid historical data that can be gleaned from the biblical record, we do see the emergence of certain common images of Mary. Images that will later form the basis of devotion within the Church as Mary's role evolves theologically.

The Virgin Mary...

Ethiopian Christian depiction of Mary and the Christ child. Image source: BibliOdyssey

The first striking image of Mary to emerge from a reading of the Gospels is that of Mary the Virgin. In the Nativity narratives of Matthew and Luke, Mary is portrayed as a (young?) betrothed virgin, who is singled out by God for momentous blessing, which will also paradoxically involve social ostracism.

The trauma of Mary's pregnancy is such that Joseph even considers divorcing her (Mt 1:19). However, these fears and worries are offset by immense joy and blessing as well, especially in Luke. When Mary and Elizabeth meet, Elizabeth prophetically greets Mary as "blessed among women … the mother of my Lord," blessed for believing "that what the Lord has said … will be accomplished" (Lk 1:42–43, 45).

Mary responds with a powerful song of praise to God (Lk 1:46–55). Her song, commonly called the Magnificat, is reminiscent of Hannah's prayer (1 Sam 2:1–10) and of the imagery of some of the psalms (e.g., Ps 113), which might suggest Mary's acquaintance with the Hebrew Scriptures. More likely, the point is to place Mary squarely in the retinue of other holy women of Biblical memory whose trust in God's promises brought personal redemption.

As a self-portrait the Magnificat gives us a picture of Mary as blessed by God, of humble standing, someone who fears God. She is also a poet. She identifies herself with the "hungry" of the world and those who have longed for fulfillment of the ancient promises to Israel. This then is one image of Mary — the betrothed who became a virgin mother, the young Hebrew woman of exemplary piety.

Mary, the Mother of Jesus...

The second image of Mary presented to us by the Evangelists is that of Mary the mother of Jesus. Given what they know of Jesus' life, with all of its successes and ultimate horror, the motherhood of Mary is one that is shadowed in sorrow.

At the nativity (Lk 2:4–7) Mary is pictured as the archetypal young mother who gives birth and wraps her newborn in swaddling clothes. But there is more to this birth than meets the eye and, in all of our Gospels, Mary is given a brief introduction to life as the mother of a son who would become a celebrity in his society.

Jesus' birth is heralded by angelic and astronomic events, and Jesus' birthplace is attended by astronomers from the east and humble shepherds from the fields. We can only imagine the extent to which Mary, as Luke (2:19; 51) suggests, saw and "remembered all these things, reflecting on them in her heart". At the wedding at Cana in Galilee, where Jesus performed his first miracle, Mary seems to sense her son's divine power (Jn 2:3–5).

Even today celebrity is often an ambiguous achievement. Jesus' success as a preacher and teacher would end in his execution as a criminal of the State. His mother will be forced to witness the pain of her son's suffering and execution. And, already at Jesus' presentation in the temple, Simeon prophesied to her, "And a sword will pierce your own soul too" (Lk 2:35). This is a terrifying image that Luke never fully explains, leaving the reader to ponder the Simeon's warning to Mary as they embark on the story of Jesus' ministry.

Even from an early age Jesus would cause his mother and father anxiety. First, when he disappeared for three days, eventually to be rediscovered in the temple in Jerusalem. Later, Mary, now possibly widowed, would have witnessed Jesus' violent rejection in Nazareth (Lk 4:14–30). Mark's Gospel tells us that she joined with others of Jesus' family who sought to restrain Jesus because they thought that he was out of his mind (Mk 3:21).

Whatever, earlier qualms about Jesus' ministry, Mary seems to have later accepted Jesus' vocation. In the end she was present as Jesus was tortured and taunted on the cross (Jn 19:25–27). Luke and John both suggest, however, she was among the first to be visited by the resurrected Jesus. Luke goes on to number her amongst the first members of the Jesus' Movement at Jerusalem (Acts 1:14).

The story of Jesus' mother is full of poignancy and pain, it is ultimately one completed by joy and amazement. Once more we can only imagine how Mary would have "remembered all these things, reflecting on them in her heart".

Final Reflections...

The later tradition that isolates Mary as a unique person elevated far beyond ordinary humanity, and even humanity itself, misses the point. According to the Gospel accounts, Mary is not removed from ordinary women. In the Gospels, she does not appear as the Mother of the divine, Queen of Heaven or Queen Most High — titles that would have been more at home in pagan circles as honorifics for Astarte, Aphrodite or Venus.

In the Gospels Mary of Nazareth, by contrast, is neither a matriarchal nor a fertility symbol. She has no titles or special influence in heaven. She is an ordinary woman who responded in faith to a unique and difficult calling. This is not to say the later tradition has done Mary a disservice.

It is, in fact, the very ordinariness of Mary in the Gospels that makes her so extraordinary. We are to remember her as "blessed among women" because she represents qualities that, except for her bearing the Savior of the world, are open to any person. In the Gospels, Mary is numbered amongst the many humble servants of YHWH (often women) whose faith and trust has brought salvation and redemption to their friends and family and even generations beyond. As the words of Mary's own song in Luke puts it, "all generations will call me blessed [because] YHWH has looked on upon his handmaiden's lowliness" (Lk 1:48).

Mary is remembered as blessed for all ages as the image or, we might better say our "model", of humble servant of God, idealized virgin, mother, disciple of Christ, and sharer in Christ's suffering. This Advent season let us imitate Mary in hearing afresh the stories of Jesus' birth, life, death and resurrection, "remembering all these things, and reflecting on them in our heart".

Photo Credits:
The image used in the headline is from the DVD "The Nativity Story" available through Amazon in the : Catholica Spiritual Marketplace. Clicking on the other images accompanying this article will take you to the original source.

[Index of Commentaries by Dr Ian Elmer]