Mary - Mother in Mind and Body

As a Protestant, I found two verses in Sacred Scripture which dispelled in my mind the Catholic idea that the Blessed Virgin Mary was, well, anything special.  I thought Almighty God just looked down from heaven one day and found a good, young woman (teenager, even) and decided she would "be the one."  These are the golden "proof texts" which I, and others, believe prove that Mary was just...ordinary:

"Then his mother and his brethren came to him, but they could not reach him for the crowd.  And he was told, 'Your mother and your brethren are standing outside, desiring to see you.'  But he said to them, 'My mother and my brethren are those who hear the word of God and do it.'"

(Luke 8:19-21)

"As he said this, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said to him, 'Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts that you sucked.'  But he said, 'Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!"

(Luke 11:27-28)

 After converting to Catholicism,  and reading and studying numerous books on Mariology,  I found this quote, from a sermon by St. Augustine, the most concise and most pleasing refutation of my old misconceptions:

Stretching out his hand over his disciples, the Lord Christ declared:  "Here are my mother and my brothers, anyone who does the will of my Father who sent me is my brother and my sister and my mother."  I would urge you to ponder these words.  Did the Virgin Mary, who believed by faith and conceived by faith, who was the chosen one from whom our Savior was born among men, who was created by Christ before Christ was created in her - did she not do the will of the Father?  Indeed the blessed Mary certainly did the Father's will, and so it was for her a greater thing to have been Christ's disciple than to have been his mother, and she was more blessed in her discipleship than in her motherhood.  Hers was the happiness of first bearing in her womb him whom she would obey as her master.

Now listen and see if the words of Scripture do not agree with what I have said.  The Lord was passing by and crowds were following him.  His miracles gave proof of divine power, and a woman cried out:  "Happy is the womb that bore you, blessed is that womb!" But the Lord, not wishing people to seek happiness in a purely physical relationship, replied:  "More blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it."  Mary heard God's word and kept it, and so she is blessed.  She kept God's truth in her mind, a nobler thing than carrying his body in her womb.  The truth and the body were both Christ:  he was kept in Mary's mind insofar as he is truth, he was carried in her womb insofar as he is man; but what is kept in the mind is of a higher order than what is carried in the womb.

The Virgin Mary is both holy and blessed, and yet the Church is greater than she.  Mary is part of the Church, a member of the Church, a holy, an eminent - the most eminent - member, but still only a member of the entire body.  The body undoubtedly is greater than she, one of its members.  This body has the Lord for its head, and head and body together make up the whole Christ.  In other words, our head is divine - our head is God.

Now, beloved, give me your whole attention, for you also are members of Christ; you also are the body of  Christ.  Consider how you yourselves can be among those of whom the Lord said:  "Here are my mother and my brothers."  Do you wonder how you can be the mother of Christ?  He himself said:  Whoever hears and fulfills the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and my sister and my mother."  As for our being the brothers and sisters of Christ, we can understand this because although there is only one inheritance and Christ is the only Son, his mercy would not allow him to remain alone.  It was his wish that we too should be heirs of the Father, and co-heirs with himself.

Now having said that all of you are brothers of Christ, shall I not dare to call you his mother?  Much less would I dare to deny his own words.  Tell me how Mary became the mother of Christ, if it was not by giving birth to the members of Christ?  You, to whom I am speaking, are the members of Christ.  Of whom were you born?  "Of Mother Church," I hear the reply of your hearts.  You became sons of this mother at your baptism, you came to birth then as members of Christ.  Now you in your turn must draw to the font of baptism as many as you possibly can.  You became sons when you were born there yourselves, and now by bringing others to birth in the same way, you have it in your power to become the mothers of Christ. (Office of Readings for November 21)

Mary is the mother of Christ both in mind and body.  She is mother of the Church and our mother.  We, too, become mother and brother and sister of Christ, by virtue of our baptism and our "yes" to Almighty God.  A lifetime isn't enough to meditate on these beautiful truths. 

Today is the Feast of the Presentation of Mary.  You may read about it here.