The Blessed Virgin Mary and the woman - Prof. Aldrich – Taiwan (29.5.02)
Where is Mary in the lives of women? We stand at the crossroad of our Catholic faith in general and our devotion to Mary in particular. Like many pilgrims, we pause, in order to look around, to listen and to learn from the Blessed Mother for the future.
In order to provide some insights to the two questions raised above, we shall try to take two steps by quickly reviewing two church documents on Mary written after Vatican II.
Pope Paul VI.’s apostolic exhortation Marialis Cultus was published ten years after Vatican ll. (1974). Its stresses that devotion to Mary must find its origin and effectiveness from Christ, find its complete expression in Christ and lead through Christ in the Spirit to the Father. Devotion to Mary must be rooted in the great themes of salvation history; it should be shaped by the feasts of the liturgical year, especially to the centrality of Christ; and be attuned to the situations of time and place.
There is a strong emphasis on Mary’s ‘active and responsible consent’ especially for women who participate in decision making in the community. By this we can say that the Pope offers a ‘pleasant surprise’ for women, when he stresses that the Blessed Virgin has been a woman of strength, who experienced poverty and suffering, flight and exile.‘ This offer new hope to those contemporary women who are finding their own determination by imitating the Sorrowful Mother, realising their feminine vocation as consecrated virgins or as mothers and wives of families richly blessed with many children.
Pope John Paul ll.’s encyclical Redemptoris Mater was written on the feast day of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary to initiate the Marian Year 1987. The Marian Year was meant to celebrate the two thousandth anniversary of the birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It is also meant to be preparatory celebration for the coming two thousandth commemoration of the birth of Jesus. This encyclical has a different purpose than that of Marialis Cultus. Its focus is more doctrinal than devotional, but doctrinal reflection is intended to lead to a renewal of devotion.
Redemptoris Mater took up some of the issues still left open during Vatican II. This document stresses the ‘singularity and uniqueness of Mary’s place in the Mystery of Christ and her ‘active and exemplary presence in the life of the Church.‘ Her mediation is mediation in Christ. Her mediation is linked to her motherhood, which distinguishes her as mediatrix from the mediation of all other creatures. Finally, her mediation is from within and not from above the Church, which embraces the whole of humanity.
In the Church’s mission of love and service, Mary leads the new evangelisation in bringing the compassion of Jesus, the healer and reconciler, to the Asian people. Her evangelical presence witnesses to her compassionate heart, expressed through her silent and discreet, but efficacious interventions.