Virgo facta Ecclesia:Towards a More Biblical Veneration of Mary

By the hand of Fr Gregory Krug

Two dear, dear friends of mine, a married couple active in the Catholic Charismatic Renewal, asked me recently to give some clarification on a homily they heard which seemed to give an exaggerated emphasis on Mary.  I'd like oblige for two reasons:  First, to show the deeply Biblical foundations of the Mother of Jesus' title as "Mother of the Church" and to offer a corrective to some aberrant forms of Marian piety.

The key to any Biblically sound doctrine about Mary is always, always, always--how often?  Always!--the Incarnation.  The "Word became flesh" (Jn 1:14) by way of one "Miriam of Nazareth."  Many exegetes (that is to say, Scripture scholars) believe that John 1:13, "...who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God" has, in addition to the meaning of Christians' supernatural experience of being "born again" or "born anew," a subtle allusion to the Virginal Conception of Jesus.  We have, of course, the explicit testimony of the Eternal Word's enfleshment in Mary's womb by way of Matthew 1:18, 20, 23, Luke 1:31, 35, and Nativity by way of Luke 2:5-7, Galatians 4:4, and Apocalypse 12:5 (cf Mt 2:11).

The critical element is not merely that 'Mary gave birth to the God-Man' but, above all, that in gestating Him, she enfleshed God the Word (cf Jn 1:1).  This "enfleshment" is so central to the doctrine of Christ that to deny it is to be opposed to God--

By this you know the Spirit of God:  every spirit which confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit which does not confess Jesus is not of God.  This is the spirit of antichrist... (1 Jn 4:2-3);

For many deceivers have gone out into the world, men who will not acknowledge the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh; such a one is the deceiver and the antichrist (2 Jn 2:7).

The importance of the Incarnation--of the Word's humanization--cannot be underestimated, because it took place for two principal reasons:  Revelation and Redemption.  The Word became flesh in order to reveal the Father and to redeem us for salvation.

At the end of the Johannine Prologue (Jn 1:1-18), the Evangelist tells us of this Word-made-flesh--"No one has ever seen God; the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has made him known" (Jn 1:18).  The Greek text reads, literally that Jesus Christ as "exegeted" (ἐξηγήσατο) the Father, the same word we use to describe unpacking any historical text.  It is in this sense that Christ told the Apostle Philip, 

"Have I been with you so long, and yet you do not know me, Philip?  He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how can you say, 'Show us the Father'?  Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me?  The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does his works.  Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me; or else believe Me for the sake of the works themselves" (Jn 14:9-11; cf 12:45).

In other words, in becoming Man, the Son 'displayed' the Father from whom He came forth (cf Jn 8:42); not only that, but his Manhood or human nature meant that He was able to perform works as "signs" (cf Jn 2:11) to show forth visibly the truth about His Father.  Later, the Evangelist tells us that "For this reason the Son of God appeared (ἐφανερώθη) was to destroy the works of the devil" (1 Jn 3:8).

St Paul the Apostle uses slightly different but no less potent language in describing the Incarnation:  Epiphany, which is the Greek term for "manifestation"--

Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of our religion:  He was manifested (ἐφανερώθη) in the flesh, vindicated in the Spirit, seen by angels, preached among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory (1 Tim 3:16);

...and now has manifested (φανερωθεῖσαν) through the appearing (ἐπιφανείας) of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel (2 Tim 1:10).

This is at the heart of the "Twelfth Day of Christmas," that is, of Epiphany, because we wrap up the Season of the Lord's Nativity by commemorating Christ's manifestation to the world.  It was this manifestation which enlightened us, thus "destroying the works of the devil."  Hence did the aged Simeon say, when he beheld the Infant God in his arms, "...for my eyes have seen your salvation which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, light for revelation to the nations..." (Lk 2:30-31).

In conceiving and giving birth to Our Lord Jesus Christ, Our Lady was thus an instrument in the Father's self-disclosure to the world by way of God the Word Incarnate.  Hence--

That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and touched with our hands, concerning the Word of Life--the Life was made manifest (ἐφανερώθη), and we saw it, and testify to it, and proclaim to you the eternal life which was with the Father and was made manifest (ἐφανερώθη) to us--that which we have seen and heard we proclaim to you... (1 Jn 1:1-3).

Not only that, but by way of the body of the God-Man, a sacrifice was offered to the Father for the forgiveness of our sins.  The sacred writer of Hebrews wrote--

Consequently when Christ came into the world, He said, "Sacrifice and offerings you have not desired, but a body have you prepared for Me; in burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure.  Then I said, 'Behold, I have come to do your will, O God,' as it is written in the roll of the Book"...

...And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all (10:5-8, 10).

Clearly, the Word's enfleshment was oriented towards the Cross; when He foretold of the Temple's destruction, "He spoke of the temple of His body" (Jn 2:21).  Remember this bit, as we will come back to it.

I do not need to belabour the point of the Incarnate Word's body as the sacrificial offering on the Cross; what is crucial is to bear in mind that the Mystery of the Incarnation served both to reveal the Father by the Word Incarnate speaking, in His human nature, to the human family, in human language, and to redeem us from our sins by offering Himself on the altar of the Cross.  By His conception and gestation in Mary, the Eternal Word was furnished with a body to do just this, to reveal and to redeem.

Any devotion to the Mother of Jesus that forgets this "Incarnational key"  is a deformed devotion.

 The Temple of His Body, the Church

Just a moment ago we saw John 2:21; now we need to look closely at John 2:22, "When therefore He was raised from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this..."  Even in His Resurrection, Jesus' glorified body was still a body, as He told then-doubting Thomas to examine His flesh (Jn 20:27).  The Risen Lord made a similar point when He told the Apostles, "See My hands and My feet, that it is I myself; handle Me, and see; for a spirit has not flesh and bones as you see that I have" (Lk 24:39).  A glorified body, indeed, but still the same body carried and borne by the Virgin Mary.

When the same Evangelist St Luke said that "believers were added to the Lord..." (Acts 2:14), he was making a very precise point about the Church, namely, that by faith and baptism we are organically united to the Risen Christ.  This is why the Church is described by St Paul as "the body of Christ" (Rom 12:4-5; 1 Cor 12:12-13, 27; Eph 4:13-16).  In fact, the Church is described as "...His body, the fulness of Him who fills all in all" (Eph 1:23).

This is why it is patently unbiblical to speak of the Church as an "organisation"; she is, rather, an organism.  Hence we make use of physical, tangible things in addition to faith in order to incorporate (see the stem of "body" in that word--corpus?) into Christ by water baptism (1 Cor 12:13; Gal 3:27) and incorporated more deeply still by Eucharistic communion (1 Cor 10:16-17).  Therefore, the body of Jesus Christ which emerged from the Virgin Mary's womb continues in the "body of Christ," the Church, and in Sacrament of the Lord's Body and Blood.  It was Our Lady's "Yes!" to the Father's plan that set in motion your faith and mine.  We Christians are, therefore, part of the family tree emanating from the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Again, any veneration given to the Mother of Jesus that overlooks this "Incarnational key" is a false veneration.

Mary and the Beloved Disciple

If one looks at the Fourth Gospel carefully, one will discover that the "beloved disciple" is an anonymous figure.  In the literal sense, of course, he is St John the Apostle (or "St John the Theologian" as he is called among Byzantine Christians).  The expression "beloved disciple" and its variants appear in John 13:23, 19:26, 20:2, 21:7, 21:2.  The anonymity of this figure is a literary device:  It represents the believer's mirror-image in the gospel narrative.  Notice that all these mentions take place from chapter thirteen on, where the "Hour" of Jesus commences (cf 13:1), that is, when the Paschal Mystery takes place whereby people who come to faith in Christ are transformed.  At one level, the "beloved disciple" is the Apostle John; by making himself anonymous in the narrative, John means to have us see ourselves in him such that you and I are all of us "the beloved disciple."

This means that, in the sacramental celebration of the Lord's Supper, we are reclining at the breast of Jesus; in our believing the Resurrection, we run to the empty tomb; above all, it is in our lives that Jesus continues to do many things, and we thus continue writing the gospel (Jn 21:24-25; cf Mk 1:1).  It also means that we are at the foot of the Cross hearing Jesus speak first to His Mother, then to us--

When Jesus saw His Mother, and the disciple whom He loved standing near, He said to His Mother, "Woman, behold, your son!"  Then He said to the disciple, "Behold, your Mother!"  And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home.

Historically, the crucified Jesus gave Mary and John to each other--Mary to be the mother of the Theologian since she was a widow about to lose her only child, and John to be Mary's son to look after her and to celebrate the Eucharist with her since she intensely desired to remain close to Jesus after His Ascension.

Mystically, however, Mary is given to us to be our Mother, and we believers are given to Mary as her children; it is to us believers that Jesus spoke from the Cross, "Behold, your Mother!"  The Evangelist makes this point even clearer in his later Apocalypse (or Revelation) of St John--

And a great sign appeared in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars; she was with child and cried out in her pangs of birth, in anguish for delivery...  she brought forth a male Child, One who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron, but her Child was caught up to God and to his throne... 

Then the dragon was angry with the woman, and went off to make war on the rest of her offspring, on those who keep the commandments of God and bear testimony to Jesus (Apoc 12:1-2, 5, 17).

By "the rest of her offspring," John means to say two things.  First, the "Woman" who gave birth to the Child--clearly Mary (but larger-than-life) who gave birth to Jesus--has for "her offspring" those who are obedient to God and preach Jesus Christ.  St John the Theologian then gives us a clear indication of Mary's spiritual maternity over Christians.

But note that her maternity is not a gratuitous, free-for-all motherhood; it is unique to those who, like her, are obedient and faithful.  We have seen, earlier, how our membership in the ecclesial body of Christ places us within Mary's "family tree"; we see here how our believing in Jesus Christ makes us her spiritual offspring.

The Luke-Acts Diptych

Of all the gospels, St Luke's was written in the most polished quality of Greek.  There is much to be read "between the lines," as they say.  Here I would like to draw your attention to the beginnings of both St Luke's gospel (Luke) and the history of the apostolic Church (Acts).  Both Luke and Acts, by the Evangelist's authorial ingenuity, possess a deeply meaningful parallelism.

At the beginning of Luke, we encounter angels who proclaimed the first Advent of Christ--in fact, it is the same angel who appear twice, first to Zechariah and then to Miriam of Nazareth (Lk 1:11f; 1:26f).  Similarly, at the beginning of Acts, we read of two angels who appeared at the Ascension of Jesus and who declared that His second Advent would take place also on the Mount of Olives.

It was "by lot" that Zechariah was appointed to offer the evening incense in the Temple (Lk 1:9), and also it was by "cast lots for them" that St Matthias was chosen to succeed Judas in the apostolic office (Acts 1:26).

By these two instances, St Luke means to gear up his readers to see yet another parallelism, that of Mary's role; just as she was instrumental at the beginning of the gospel of Luke, so also was she instrumental at the beginning of Acts.  Just as by her faith and consent she prepared herself for the coming of the long-awaited Messiah, so also by her faith and consent she prepared herself for the coming of the long-awaited Holy Spirit.  There is a definite Incarnation-Pentecost diptych to be discovered here, and in both the Virgin Mary played a decisive role.  She waited for the Son in Luke, then waited for the Holy Spirit in the gospel's sequel, Acts.

It seems, moreover, that St Luke wants to maintain Miriam of Nazareth's maternal role by way of implication.  By evoking the image of Mary at the beginning of Acts as he did at the beginning of his gospel, Luke strongly hints at Mary's maternal role in the birth of the Church, the body of Christ.  Just as the Holy Spirit effected the conception of Jesus in Mary's womb, so too does the Holy Spirit effect the conception of the Church in Mary's presence, not only because the Church is the body of Christ which "continues" the Incarnation which began in Mary, but especially because Mary is the fist Christian disciple.  Not only on the "Incarnational score" is she the mother of the Church, but also on the "discipleship score" she is, too, just as the first woman member of any group is often accorded the title of "mother."

Conclusion:  The Contribution of St Francis of Assisi

Since it was from the body of Mary that the body of Christ emerged, and since the Church is organically united to the body of Jesus especially by the power of His Resurrection, and since St John Theologian makes clear the maternal role of Mary at the Cross and by calling Christ's disciples "her offspring" and since, finally, St Luke the Evangelist shows the Pentecost scene where the first Christians "with one accord devoted themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brethren" (Acts 1:14), this Miriam of Nazareth is given the title of "Mother of the Church"  Her maternal role, or better, charism, is "duplicated" in the lives of her fellow disciples; St Paul wrote to the Church at Galatia:  "My little children, with whom I am again in travail until Christ be formed in you!" (Gal 4:19).

I am worried that so much of the "devotion to Mary" amounts to little more than "fandom" and that it falls short of that true veneration and honour which the Church encourages.  The esteem and childlike love for the Mother of Jesus cannot be had while forgetting the Incarnational key we discussed earlier in this post.  "Imitation is the best form of flattery," they say, and so Christians' devotion to Mary must imitate her love and obedience to her Son.  On this note, St Augustine counsels us:

Just see if it isn't as I say.  While the Lord was passing by, performing divine miracles, with the crowds following him, a woman said:  Fortunate is the womb that bore you.  And how did the Lord answer, to show that good fortune is not really to be sought in mere family ties?  Rather blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it (Lk 11:27-28). So that is why Mary, too, is blessed, because she heard the word of God and kept it.  She kept truth safe in her mind even better than she kept flesh safe in her womb. Christ is truth, Christ is flesh; Christ as truth was in Mary's mind, Christ as flesh in Mary's womb; that which is in the mind is greater than what is carried in the womb (Sermon 72/A, 7, underlined emphasis added).

The essence of this truth was made crystal-clear through St Francis of Assisi, who understood that Mary is the paradigm of the Church.  Recent theologians have spoken of the "Marian form" of the Church (in contrast to the simultaneous "Johannine form" or "Petrine form").  By the Church's "Marian form," we mean that dimension of the Christian life of fidelity to the Scriptures, quiet obedience, and a behind-the-secnes working on behalf of Christ, as Our Lady did and continues to do.  The prayer Virgo facta Ecclesia, "Virgin Made Church," composed by St Francis captures this well:

    Hail, O Lady, holy queen,
    Mary, holy Mother of God,
    Who are the Virgin made Church,
    chosen by the most holy Father in heaven
    whom he consecrated with his most holy beloved Son
    and with the Holy Spirit the Paraclete,
    in whom there was and is
    all fullness of grace and every good!

This is why, during the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, the bishops assembled voted to treat of Mary in the very last chapter of the dogmatic constitution Lumen gentium.  There was put the question to the Council Fathers whether, in addition to the sixteen documents of the Council, a seventeenth should be added, treating of Mary alone.  The vote came back with a majority of the bishops preferring that Mary be given attention in the context of the Church.  In so doing, the bishops hoped to re-contextualise the Mother of Jesus within its proper Christological framework rather than--as many ill-catechised believers had done--to approach Mary as a "standalone."  Hence the title of Chapter Eight, "The Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God in the Mystery of Christ and His Church" re-integrated her within the Incarnational framework.  The Council, following St Augustine, taught of Mary's motherhood:

At the same time, however, because she belongs to the offspring of Adam she is one with all those who are to be saved. She is "the mother of the members of Christ...having cooperated by charity that faithful might be born in the Church, who are members of that Head" [De S. Virginitate, 6: PL 40, 399].  Wherefore she is hailed as a pre-eminent and singular member of the Church, and as its type and excellent exemplar in faith and charity.  The Catholic Church, taught by the Holy Spirit, honors her with filial affection and piety as a most beloved mother (Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen gentium, n. 53).

The couple I referred to at the start of this post are my "spiritual parents," people who mentor me in my following of the Lord Jesus Christ.  In their company, I sense the grace of the Lord's presence, and I look to their example in their love for the divine Scriptures, their unyielding pursuit of holiness, and their uncompromising commitment to prayer.  How I love them, I would hope, would help us to rightly love the Mother of Jesus whose example in fidelity to the Scriptures, to holiness, and to prayer ought to be the motive behind our veneration of her which, in turn, fortify my following of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Thus, we hear Mary speak to us, in the authoritative tone of a mother (and a Jewish mother, to boot!):  "Do whatever He tells you!" (Jn 2:5).  This is why I am convinced that the Byzantine approach to Mary is the healthier one--as the icon above shows, Mary is the Panagia Platytera or Bozhey Materi Znamenie, "More Spacious Than The Heavens," who bore in her womb Him whom the heavens cannot contain.  Byzantine iconography is loath to depict Mary alone, preferring to show her always with Christ.  This is because her vocation has meaning only in the context of Christ; in the icon, she not only bears Him in the womb, but also in faith, and with her open hands and outstretched arms, invites us to do the same, always saying, tirelessly beckoning us, and maternally insisting:  "Do whatever He tells you!" 

To my Spiritual Parents, R. and J.,
who model for me the life of surrender to the Holy Spirit
and assiduous reading of the Bible,
with filial love this post is dedicated.