Book: The
True Vine and its BranchesAuthor: Fr. Edward Leen
Chapter: The Mother of the Redeemer
Year: 1938
No mere spectator but a real actor:
God, being
the author of nature, is not indifferent to any of its characteristics and
normal tendencies…God draws us to Him, by the ‘cords of Adam.’ To supernaturalize
us, He plays on all the legitimate affections of the human heart. By His divine
law, He has bidden men to be children. The supernatural life will follow
closely the analogy of the natural life, transfiguring it. It is impossible to
have the spirit and instincts and dispositions of a child unless one is
conscious of being enfolded in a mother’s care and love…
Mary is the
seedling from which grew the Vine: hence too is the seed whence issue the
branches that adhere to and adorn the Vine. Undoubtedly the divine grace by
reason of which Mary was chosen to give birth to the Vine was not her own: it
was God’s gift. It is, therefore, ultimately, to God that branches owe the life
that is in them. But after God it is from Mary that Christians derive their
life; for the divine life that is theirs comes from the living stock that
sprang from her Immaculate body. It is, for this reason that from the earliest
years of the Church she has been called the ‘Mother of the Living.’ Saint
Epiphanius writing in the fourth century says: ‘Externally it would appear as
though it were from Eve that issued from the human race, but in reality it is
by Mary that Life Itself has been introduced into the world…Mary in giving
birth to the Savior Jesus gives birth to Christians…
[S]he
consented to being intimately bound up with the scheme of salvation and to
taking her place by the side of her child in the great conflict which was to
break the power of Satan. Her fiat [yes to God] implied the acceptance of the
formation, through her, not only the individual Christ according to His human
nature, but also the Mystical Christ…Now the Blessed Virgin has conceived the
Son of God not only that He should become man, but that through the nature
received from her, he might become the Savior of men. Hence in the chaste womb
of the Virgin Mary, when Jesus took human form, He has also taken to Himself a
spiritual body formed of all those who were to believe in Him: so that it can
be said that Mary, bearing Jesus in her womb, bore also those whose life is
contained in the life of the Savior…
Mary is the Mother
of regenerated mankind because she freely cooperated with the Holy Spirit in
bringing about the rebirth of humanity…The formation of the Sacred Humanity in
Mary, and the mystical formation of the living members of that Sacred Humanity,
are the work of the Holy Spirit. To this work Mary gave her free cooperation.
She played an intimate part in it…
By the
willful act of Eve, mankind was still-born, supernaturally. Through her
disobedience and the confidence she placed in the lying words of the false
angel, Eve became the source of death for all men. On the other hand, Mary, by
her humble docility to God and the faith she put in the message of the holy
Archangel, became, through the fruit of her womb, the source of life for all
mankind…
The
sanctification of John the Baptist was the attestation of the spiritual
maternity of men that was henceforth to be Mary’s prerogative. It is clear that
it is only God that can breathe life into the dead bones of humanity. But it is
Mary’s freely acquired virtues and be her free consent to the Incarnation that
the vivifying principle was brought in contact with the dead members of humanity…
It has been
already pointed out that she was not merely a passive channel through which God
made His entry into the world. God had too much regard for her to assign to her
but this impersonal part in the Incarnation…He willed that she should be a
voluntary instrument of this great work, contributing to it not only by the
excellence of her disposition but also by a movement of her will. God, knowing what was involved in His
proposal to her, would not, unless she was perfectly willing, make her a party
to the Incarnation. This would not have been so necessary were Mary simply
called upon to give of her flesh and blood for the formation of the Sacred
Humanity, and then to remain a simple spectator of the drama of Calvary and a
happy recipient of its blessed fruits.
She was destined
to be not a mere spectator but a real actor in that terrible drama. She was
invited to enter with the Son born of her into the dread struggle with the
forces of sin, which was to issue in the regeneration of mankind. Being asked
to become the Mother of the Savior she was asked to share in the task of
salvation. Jesus was not to be alone in the decisive combat with sin. This is
the reason why the Almighty treated her with such deference, with such a divine
respect for her liberty and did not move until she gave her consent. The
destiny of mankind hung on the consent of hers…A Son was offered to her, whose
destiny was that he should be torn from her. In that tearing, her heart was to
be riven with grief…
She was not
for a moment misled as were her countrymen by the gorgeous visions in which the
reign of the Messiah was presented to the great prophets. She knew well that
certain of the psalms, and especially the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah more
closely foreshadowed the reality that was to be. She never overlooked the
suffering role of the Servant of Yahweh as depicted by the prophet. As she
pondered the words of the Angel her mind reverted to the earliest prophecy of
all, that which styled the ‘Proto-evangelium’ or the primitive Gospel. ‘I will
put enmity between you and the woman, and your seed and her seed: she shall
crush thy head, and you shall lie in wait for her heel.’ She grasped the
significance of these words. It is not the ‘seed’ alone that was to trample
down Satan and regenerate mankind. It was she and her seed. The two were to be indissolubly
linked in that combat…
Her child
was born a victim for sacrifice. His destiny was to be a victim. In consenting
to the Incarnation, she consented to that victimhood. There was not to be for
her a single day in which she could give herself up unrestrainedly, to the
gladness of having Him, without having the gladness clouded by the shadow of
the [Cross]…Hence too it was at Golgotha, at the foot of the Cross, that Mary’s
Motherhood of men attained to its final consummation and perfection…Being
impelled by the urging of the Holy Spirit to Calvary, it was decreed that she
should not assist as a mere broken hearted and sympathetic onlooker. Neither
was it granted to her to indulge, free and unrestrained, her mother’s grief. It
was demanded of her that she should, herself, take an intimate part in the
Sacrifice that was being offered on the altar of the Cross.”
