The Fourth Sunday of Advent
“Blessed are you among women.” Lk. 1:4
“Mary: The Most Powerful Woman in the World.”
These are not the words of some Catholic newspaper. They are instead the title of the lead article found in an issue of National Geographic magazine!
The article is written by a journalist who spent three years traveling throughout the world trying to understand more fully why Mary, the mother of Jesus, is so crucially important to millions of people.
Here are some of Maureen’s words:
“Mary is everywhere: Marigolds are named for her. Hail Mary passes save football games. The image of Mexico of Our Lady of Guadalupe is one of the most reproduced female likenesses ever. Mary draws millions each year to shrines such as Fatima, in Portugal, and Knock in Ireland, sustaining religious tourism estimated to be worth billions of dollars a year …. She inspired the creation of many great works of art and architecture … as well as poetry, liturgy, and music. And she is the spiritual confidante of billions of people.”
Amazing!
But, why? What is it about Mary that “praying for the Virgin Mary’s intercession is a global phenomenon,” according to National Geographic?
I’d like to suggest two possibilities, with the reservation that there are surely countless others.
First, Mary was a “being” person rather than a “doing” one. She was a “listener” rather than an attention seeker.
Now, with the proliferation of social media, many of us have become almost addicted to “telling it all” on Facebook and Instagram, and all the rest.
That wasn’t Mary. She embraced a certain quietude. She seemingly experienced a deep joy through being alone with the Lord in meditation. She was a contemplative who seemingly spent most of her time in quiet prayer – something many of us would consider “useless.”
She wasn’t a preacher. She wasn’t an evangelist. She wasn’t an activist. Instead, Mary was one who paid attention, who reflected, who listened.
All those Advent qualities.
She chose to perhaps be among the first to embrace the message later adopted by Francis of Assisi: “Preach the Gospel at all times, and when necessary, use words.”
Present. Open. Available. Receptive. Quiet.
That’s the kind of person Mary was. And it was likely that it was that collection of gifts that most enticed God, and so many people down through the centuries.
But I would also like to suggest another major gift of Mary’s personality – her life experience that has been repeated continuously by millions of people even to this day:
Mary and Joseph’s journey to Bethlehem due to a census that is now being mirrored by millions who are being displaced from their ancestral homes; Mary and Joseph’s flight into Egypt to avoid the death threats of the tyrannical King Herod, just as today millions of refugees are doing the same; Mary’s loss of her child by an unjust state execution now paralleled by the disappearance and murder and caging of beloved children under dictatorial regimes – the Herod’s of today.
Women possibly find in Mary a sister to the lives of marginalized women in oppressive situations throughout the world – women who are without food, without clean drinking water, without housing, without education, without healthcare, without employment, without security from rape, without human rights.
To all of them, Mary stands up on their behalf and speaks words of hope to the neediest – such as these choice words from her great prayer, the Magnificat:
“… O my God, … You have shown great strength with your arm … You have put down the mighty from their thrones and lifted up the lowly.”
Mary is ultimately seen as the “God bearer.” She is the heart of the Gospel. When asked what Mary meant to him, Pope Francis answered with one word: “She is my mama.”
May our “mama”, the one who is “blessed … among women,” assist each of us in birthing anew the Child that falls from heaven into our arms … our hearts … our souls.
Ted Wolgamot, Psy.D.
