J.M.J.
The figure of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the documents
of the Second Vatican Council has induced numerous publications to offer analysis
of the Marian references located in the conciliar texts.
Nearly sixty years after the solemn opening of the
Council on the Feast of the Maternity of Mary (October 11, 1962), we look again
at the explicit mention of Our Lady in eleven of the sixteen official
documents.
1. Constitution
on the Sacred Liturgy (Sacrosanctum
Concilium): 103.
2. Dogmatic
Constitution on the Church (Lumen
Gentium): 15, 46, 50, 52-69.
3. Decree on the
Catholic Eastern Churches (Orientalium
Ecclesiarum): 30.
4. Decree on
Ecumenism (Unitatis Redintegratio):
14-15, 20.
5. Decree on the
Up-To-Date Renewal of Religious Life (Perfectae
Caritatis): 25.
6. Decree on the
Training of Priests (Optatam Totius):
8.
7. Declaration
on the Relation of the Church to Non-Christian Religions (Nostra Aetate):
3-4.
8. Decree on the
Apostolate of Lay People (Apostolicam
Actuositatem): 4.
9. Decree on the
Church’s Missionary Activity (Ad
Gentes): 4, 42.
10. Decree on
the Ministry and Life of Priests (Presbyterorum
Ordinis): 18.
11. Pastoral Constitution
on the Church in the Modern World (Gaudium
et Spes): 22.
We now use four of the five headings employed in
Chapter Eight of Lumen Gentium to
identify what the Council said about Mary.
1. Mary’s function in Jesus’ salvific work. Both Sacred
Scripture and the Apostolic Tradition illustrate the part that Mary—the
Daughter of the Father, the Mother of the Son and the Temple of the Holy
Spirit—played in salvation. She, foreshadowed in the promise of victory given
by the Lord after the Fall, was the Virgin whose Son would be called Emmanuel. Mary, the Daughter of Sion and
the Mother of the Redeemer, is one of the Lord’s poor and humble ones.
Free from all sin and full of grace, Mary, who is
closest to Jesus and closest to us, gave her consent (fiat) to the Father’s plan of Redemption. As a woman (Eve) brought
about death, a woman (Mary) helped usher in life. This daughter of Adam became,
in the fullness of time, the Mother of Jesus. Her faith and obedience she
employed for our everlasting benefit.
From Christ’s conception until His Death, Mary was
inseparably linked with Jesus in His salvific work, especially in the
Visitation, the Nativity, the Arrival of the Shepherds and the Magi, the
Presentation and Finding in the Temple, the Wedding Feast of Cana, Christ’s
Preaching of the Kingdom and the Crucifixion. While on earth, Mary’s life was
like any other, filled with the labors and cares of the her husband, her Child
and the home.
Even after Jesus’ Resurrection, Mary did her part. She
prayerfully assisted the early Church as she, the Apostles, the holy women and
Jesus’ brethren actively awaited the Holy Spirit on Pentecost Sunday. After her
Assumption, Our Lady was crowned by the Lord as the Queen of the Universe,
signifying that Mary is most fully conformed to her Divine Son.
2. The Madonna’s relationship with the Church. Jesus,
Who is the one Mediator between God and men, has associated Mary to Himself.
The influence of the Mother of men cannot compete with that of her Son. All she
does draws from Christ’s merits as she leads her children to Him.
When the Father decided that His Son would become the
Word made flesh, He chose Mary to be His Mother. Our Lady is not only the
Mother of the Redeemer but also the Lord’s associate and handmaiden. As Mother,
she conceived, bore and nourished Christ as well as presented Him in the Temple
and stood near His Cross. By her obedience, faith, hope and charity, she helped
to restore God’s life to us. She is our Mother “in the order of grace.”
Mary’s Motherhood proceeds unceasingly from the
Annunciation until her sons and daughters enter Paradise. Now from Heaven, she
assists her beleaguered children on earth. No wonder she is saluted as
Advocate, Helper, Benefactress and Mediatrix—titles that do not disturb the truth
of Christ’s unique office as Mediator. The role of Mary, who aids the Faithful
in following Christ, is secondary to that of Jesus, Who freely invited Mary to
cooperate with Him.
Mary is intimately united to Christ’s Church, thanks
to Jesus for all that He has given to her. She is a pattern (type) of the
Church in faith, charity and perfect union with Jesus. Both Mary and the Church
are virgin and mother. In her faith and obedience, Mary was empowered by the
Holy Spirit to bear the Father’s Son, Who is the first among the Faithful. Our
Mother participates in the generation and formation of the Faithful.
In contemplating her hidden sanctity, imitating her
charity and by doing the Father’s will, the Church becomes a mother. The
Church—a virgin who keeps the faith that she pledged to Jesus—brings forth
children by preaching and baptism. By emulating Mary and through the power of
the Holy Spirit, the Church is steadfast in faith, hope and charity.
In Mary, the Church has already reached perfection.
The Faithful realize their sinfulness and turn to Mary—the model of virtues. By
meditating on her, the Church as the Spouse of Christ becomes more herself.
Mary encapsulates the Church’s doctrines and takes her children to Jesus,
particularly when she is the subject of preaching and devotion. The apostolic
work of the Church, which strives to imitate Mary’s virtues, is enriched by
pondering the Woman who bore Christ. Those who labor in the Church’s mission
should be enlivened with Our Lady’s motherly love. Priests, who should always
devotedly venerate and love Mary as the Mother of the High Priest, Queen of the
Apostles and Protectress of their ministry, find a stirring example of docility
in her who, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, dedicated herself to the
redemption of men. Through the gentle and poor Virgin’s prayers, the number of
religious increases and their apostolate flourishes.
3. The Ever-Virgin is lovingly—and rightly—venerated by
the Faithful. Due to divine grace, Mary has been lifted higher than angels and
men to a place second only to that of Jesus. From very early, the Faithful have
honored in the first place Mary, using the title Mother of God, and have sought
her protection. After the Council of Ephesus, there was astonishing growth in
veneration, love, invocation and imitation of the Virgin. The cult towards the
glorious Ever-Virgin is diverse from that adoration offered to each Person of
the Most Blessed Trinity. The Church has approved forms of piety towards Our
Lady ensuring that Jesus is known, loved and glorified, and that His
commandments are given due regard. Seminarians should reverence the Woman who
was given by the dying Christ to His disciples. And the Laity should venerate
and entrust their lives to the care of Mary—the perfect model of the apostolic
spiritual life.
The Council Fathers, who with the Sovereign Pontiff
prayed that through the Virgin the nations might soon be led to the Truth,
urged that veneration of Mary, especially the liturgical cult, be fostered,
that devotion be cherished and that the Church’s traditional practice regarding
images of Jesus, Mary and the Saints be followed. In the annual liturgical
cycle of Christ’s mysteries, the Church honors Mary with a special love. Both
exaggeration and understatement concerning Mary are to be avoided by
theologians and preachers who, based on their study of Sacred Scripture, the
Fathers, the Doctors and the Sacred Liturgy of the Church, and under the
guidance of the Church’s Magisterium, are to explain Mary’s duties and
privileges as they relate to Christ—the Source of truth, holiness and devotion.
Theologians and preachers must be careful not to lead baptized non-Catholics
into error about the Church’s authentic teaching. The Faithful recall that true
devotion to Mary is not mere affection or belief based on the slightest
evidence but is rooted in faith by which we acknowledge Our Mother’s excellence
and strive to imitate her virtues. In Mary, the Church admires and exalts the
most excellent fruit of redemption.
4. The Mother of Jesus gives hope and solace to her
wayfaring children. To contemplate Mary, who is in Heaven body and soul, is to
see the faultless image and beginning of the Church as the Church desires,
hopes and truly will be. The influence on earth of Our Lady, who is a sign of
hope and comfort to the People of God as they progress along the way to
Everlasting Life, will continue until the Second Coming of her Divine Son.
Among those separated from the Catholic Church, the
Council Fathers noted, are those who honor Mary, especially the Orthodox and
the members of the Eastern Christian Churches. Eastern Christians use beautiful
hymns to honor Mary, whom the Council of Ephesus proclaimed as the Mother of
God. True, differences exist between some Christians and the Catholic Church
concerning Mary’s role in the work of salvation, but all Christians of the East
and West are to pray daily that through Mary’s assistance all may be one.
Muslims honor Mary and at times devoutly invoke her. Christians pray to the Mother
of God and Mother of men who by her prayers helped the Church at her beginning
and is now exalted above the Angels and the Saints. In union with the Saints,
Mary intercedes with her Son until all peoples—Christians and
non-Christians—may be gathered in peace and harmony into the one People of God
for the glory of the Most Holy and Undivided Trinity.
Without
question, Mary, the Mother of God, figured prominently in the documents of the
Second Vatican Ecumenical Council. More than four decades after the Council
opened, we ask the Lord for a deeper appreciation of Our Lady’s position in the
life of Jesus and in the life of His Chaste Bride the Church.
“Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and
at the hour of our death. Amen.”
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