JESUS CARITAS

1969-2009: Our diocese at 40 years

Part seven: Vatican II and the Virgin Mary

By Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted | April 16, 2009 | The Catholic Sun 

The Diocese of Phoenix looks to Our Lady of Guadalupe with great confidence and filial devotion. Similarly, our country honors the Blessed Virgin Mary under the title of her Immaculate Conception, and the basilica with that name in our nation’s Capitol draws millions of pilgrims each year.

In the whole Church, the Mother of God receives particular honor because of her unique role in the salvation of mankind. It is not surprising, then, that Vatican II gave special attention to Our Lady. A complete chapter in the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium (Ch. 8) was devoted to the role of the Mother of God in the life of Christ and the Church. Nonetheless, contrary to the hopes and expectations of many, a dramatic decline in Marian devotion and misconceptions of Mary’s role in the Church occurred immediately following the Second Vatican Council. How could this have happened? It is worthwhile to explore how this came about.

Why the confusion about Mary?

Great efforts were made during Vatican II to improve ecumenical relations with our separated brothers and sisters in Christ, and even to include leaders of Protestant, Orthodox and other Christian communities in the theological conversations of the Council. These ecumenical efforts had the happy outcome of overcoming years of prejudice and mountains of misunderstanding, and of laying the groundwork for ongoing dialogue and mutual collaboration in works of justice and charity, which have been truly a benefit for all. We became increasingly desirous of knowing one another better and of overcoming centuries of mistrust so that our united witness to the Gospel of Christ might be more effective. Above all, we began to long and to pray for a restoration of complete unity in Christ among all the baptized.

As these new efforts to promote ecumenism were put into action, some steps were taken and some notions emerged that, while enticing in the beginning, proved to be ill conceived. One of these notions was that Marian dogmas were an ecumenical hindrance that could be jettisoned, or conveniently ignored, at this point in history. The then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger described how this tendency developed in regard to the dogma of the Assumption (“Ratzinger Report,” p. 105), “We ask ourselves whether with it we may not be placing unnecessary obstacles in the way of a reunion with our evangelical fellow Christians, whether it would not be much easier if this stone did not lie on the road.”

While showing some sympathy for the good intentions of those who raised these questions, the future pope went on to explain the vital necessity of this Marian dogma and others, so that the Church’s teaching on Christ would be preserved. He writes (Ibid), “If the place occupied by Mary has been essential to the equilibrium of the Faith, today it is urgent, as in few other epochs of Church history, to rediscover that place… Now — in this confused period where truly every type of heretical aberration seems to be pressing upon the doors of the authentic faith — now I understand that it was not a matter of pious exaggeration, but of truths that today are more valid than ever. Yes, it is necessary to go back to Mary if we want to return to that ‘truth about Jesus,’ ‘truth about the Church’ and ‘truth about man’, that John Paul II proposed as a program to the whole of Christianity.”

Mary leads us to Christ

The Church’s mission of bearing witness to Christ is not diminished by giving attention to His mother; on the contrary it is necessary for the mystery of Christ to be properly understood. The reason that the Church proclaimed Marian dogmas was to clarify and protect fundamental truths about Christ, especially about His entrance into human history and about His having both a human nature and a divine nature. As Vatican II states in Lumen Gentium (#67), teaching on Mary and devotions to her “are always related to Christ, the Source of all truth, sanctity, and piety.”

Mary always leads us closer to her Son, and she models for us the virtues that help us enter more intimately into communion with all three persons of the Blessed Trinity. She is the first and greatest follower of Jesus. As Lumen Gentium states (#65), “Mary figured profoundly in the history of salvation and in a certain way unites and mirrors within herself the central truths of the faith. Hence when she is being preached and venerated, she summons the faithful to her Son and His sacrifice, and to love for the Father.”

The Virgin Mary is an image of the Church; by contemplating her and remaining near to her, the Church has been able to avoid serious deviations from her true mission in the world. The future Pope Benedict XVI explained (“Report,” p. 108), “Beholding her the Church is shielded against the aforementioned masculinized model that views her as an instrument for a program of social-political action. In Mary, as figure and archetype, the Church again finds her own visage as Mother and cannot degenerate into the complexity of a party, an organization or a pressure group in the service of human interests… If Mary no longer finds a place in many theologies and ecclesiologies, the reason is obvious: they have reduced faith to an abstraction. And an abstraction does not need a Mother.”

Motherhood and virginity

In a time of great debate about the essence of femininity, a time of controversy about the role of women in society and the Church, it is not surprising that both motherhood and virginity have come under concerted attack. These two dimensions of womanhood, these two paths to holiness for women, are united in Mary in an exceptional and profound way. By God’s design and the action of the Holy Spirit, Mary became the Mother of Jesus while remaining a virgin. At Vatican II, the Church held up Mary as the model for all disciples of Christ, male and female, while casting special light on the vocation of women, precisely because of her motherhood and her virginity.

The key to understanding these feminine paths to holiness is found in Vatican II’s Gaudium et Spes, #24, which teaches that a human person “cannot fully find himself [or herself] except through a sincere gift of self.” Motherhood and virginity are two paths for living out this gift of self in love. Because Mary was preserved by God the Father from sin, in order that she might be a fitting dwelling place for His Beloved Son, she was able, beyond any other human person, to make a sincere gift of self out of love for God.

Vatican II gave unprecedented emphasis to the close bond between Mary and the Church, especially in the Church’s role as Virgin and Mother. Lumen Gentium teaches (#64), “The Church, moreover, contemplating Mary’s mysterious sanctity, imitating her charity, and faithfully fulfilling the Father’s will, becomes herself a mother by accepting God’s word in faith. For by her preaching and by baptism she brings forth to a new and immortal life children who are conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of God. The Church herself is a virgin, who keeps whole and pure the fidelity she has pledged to her Spouse. Imitating the Mother of her Lord, and by the power of the Holy Spirit, she preserves with virginal purity an integral faith, a firm hope, and a sincere charity.”