Robert Barron - Why Mary Matters
Peace be with you. Friends, we come to the fourth Sunday of Advent. We're now coming to the culmination of our preparation for Christmas, and the church has introduced us to a number of Advent figures: Isaiah, John the Baptist, et cetera. But we come on this fourth Sunday to the Advent figure par excellence. So, as we're preparing for the coming of Christ, this is the figure who matters the most. And it's, of course, the Blessed Mother, Mary, the Mother of God. Now, I know, in Catholic-Protestant polemics over the past 500 years, there's been a lot of talk about Mary, "Catholics are obsessed with Mary, and you worship her and she takes the place of Jesus".
And of course, all that is so much nonsense. There's no worship of Mary. Every Catholic knows Mary isn't God, she's not Christ. At the same time, there is, within the Catholic spiritual and theological framework, a sort of Marian maximalism. We want to say a lot about the Blessed Mother. And if Marian maximalism is on the table, I plead guilty as charged. Now, here's why. Here's why. So again, without mistaking for a second that she's not Jesus, she's not God, none of that. However, if the Christian life is all about Christ coming to birth in us, right? It's all about Christ coming to dwell and to live in us, who are the two figures responsible for the coming of Christ in history? The answer is the Holy Spirit and the Blessed Virgin Mary, right?
So, we believe "in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, conceived by the Holy Spirit and incarnate of the Virgin Mary". There's the ancient Nicene Creed, so not some recent Catholic development. That's a very old statement of Christian faith. The Lord is "conceived by the Holy Spirit" and "incarnate of the Virgin Mary". So, the two figures responsible for the birth of Christ are the Holy Spirit of God and the Blessed Mother. Our spiritual tradition teaches the same two figures remain the essential ones when it comes to Christ being born in us: the Holy Spirit and the Blessed Mother. And so do we take her seriously? Yes, indeed. Simply as an inspiring example from long ago? No, no, no, no. As someone who is actively present in our spiritual lives today.
So, what I want to do in this homily is look at some of these classical titles of Mary the church has used, and to see them not just as sort of pious exclamations. I get that. And sometimes people, in their piety, they'll say extravagant things. No, no, the church means something very substantive when it uses this exalted language of Mary. So, here's the first one, and this is very ancient, it goes back to a figure like Irenaeus of Lyon. Irenaeus, who dies around the year 200, he's writing in the second half of the second century. So again, this is no recent Catholic accretion, this is a very ancient idea, that Mary is the new Eve. The new Eve.
Now, Eve in the Bible, the mother of all the living. Who's Mary? She's the mother of all those who are now living life in Christ. She's the mother of the spiritual life in us. That wonderful thing, maybe I shared with you already, of... again, an ancient idea is that the Eva, E-V-A for Eve, is reversed by the ave, A-V-E, that the angel says to Mary. Think of the old Eve, who succumbs to temptation of a fallen angel; the new Eve, who acquiesces to the invitation of a holy angel. Think of the great yes to self in the old Eve. "I'll do things my way, I'm going to grasp the tree of the knowledge of good and evil". And then Mary, who doesn't do that, but rather says, "Let it be done to me, according to your Word".
The idea here is that Mary, think of the Ave-Eva, is she reverses the momentum of the old Eve. Very powerful. She's also called, and it's an ancient title, recognized by the church fathers, Irenaeus is a good example, she's recognized as the true Ark of the Covenant. Now see, with that in mind, read the Gospel for today, for the fourth Sunday of Advent, because it's full of these Ark of the Covenant themes. The Ark, of course, was the receptacle for the 10 Commandments, it goes back to Israel's wandering in the desert. It was carried in battle, carried with Israel. Eventually, King David finds the Ark in the hill country of Judah, and then he escorts it back into his holy city, where it becomes the central piece of the temple. All of that, all of that.
What do we hear in the Gospel for today, which is the story of the Visitation, but that Mary proceeds in haste to the hill country of Judah? That's where Elizabeth lives. But see, any attentive reader in the first century would've said, "Ah, the hill country of Judah, that's the place where the Ark of the Covenant was". And so Mary, bearing within her own body the presence of Christ, is the Ark of the Covenant in the fullest sense. A beautiful detail, and again, the church fathers saw it, is Elizabeth says, "Hey, the minute your greetings sound in my ears, the baby in my womb leapt for joy".
So, the infant John the Baptist leaps for joy. The church fathers saw this, that just as David danced with exuberance before the Ark, so the unborn John the Baptist dances with exuberance in the presence of the Ark. There's all these wonderful Davidic themes developed now, as we talk about Mary. Speaking of which, I love this from the great Litany of Loreto. Look it up online, this litany of titles of the Blessed Mother. And one of them, beautifully, is Turris davidica Tower of David. Tower of David. It's meant to signal all these David associations, but the Tower of David in Jerusalem was a symbol of strength. It was a fortification, a way of defending the holy city.
Who's Mary, the mother of Christ within us? She's a warrior in the spiritual battle. Maybe we don't talk about this as much as we should, but we are up against enemies we can see, yes, indeed, but also against enemies that we can't see. In a way, the spiritual life is always this struggle, this battle. Are there invisible powers that are trying to undermine our relationship with the Lord? Yes, yes. Now, whom can we bring into this battle? Mary, who is a warrior figure. I've had this from exorcists that I know, and they say the demons, they're terrified of her. Think of the rosary. Carry it with you, by the way. But think of that rosary as a kind of weapon in a spiritual war, when you can call upon the power of the Blessed Mother.
Think of the fact too, everybody, that Israel brought the Ark of the Covenant into battle. Well, if Mary is the Ark of the Covenant, par excellence, then we should continue bringing her into battle. She's the Turris davidiva, the Tower of David. She's also called, beautifully, and John Paul II and Francis have really emphasized this, she's called the Mater Ecclesiæ, she's the Mother of the Church. See, here I'd use the reflection of one of my favorite theologians, Hans Urs von Balthasar, where he said there are three basic forms of ecclesial life. There's the Petrine, Peter, that's the role of office. There's the Pauline, associated with Saint Paul, that's all about preaching and teaching and evangelizing, engaging the culture.
Then there's the Johannine, associated with Saint John, who rested his head on the breast of the Lord, who was the beloved disciple. It stands for the prayerful, mystical, liturgical dimension of the church's life. Okay, Petrine, Pauline, Johannine. But all of them, all of them, Balthazar says, rest in, or kind of nest in, the primordial Marian form. The Marian form is the great yes. It's the fiat, right? "Let it be done to me". It's the acquiescence to the divine will that undergirds and informs all the other forms of church life. In that sense, she is the Mater Ecclesiæ; she's the mother, the matrix, if you want, of all of us who are involved in the life of the church. Here's what I love also from the Litany of Loreto. She's called the Mother of Good Counsel.
When I was in the seminary years ago, one of my first pastoral assignments as a seminarian was Our Lady of Good Counsel parish. I've always had that title in my mind since, Good Counsel. Is Mary, a warrior in the spiritual life? Uh-huh. But she's also someone who guides us, and gives us counsel and direction in the spiritual life. So, sometimes in prayer you just say, "Lord, I don't know what to do here. I don't know what's the right move. I've been trying to figure this out, but I'm a little bit lost". At those moments, everybody, turn to Mary under this title of Our Lady of Good Counsel, who'll give direction to us, guide us in the spiritual moral order. It's related, too, to that lovely title that Mary is the Sedes sapientiæ. She's the Seat of Wisdom.
And that's often depicted literally when the Christ Child is sitting on her lap. She becomes herself like a throne for wisdom. But it means Mary is the kind of... She's the model of the wise person. That means someone who is reflecting upon the things of God, and relentlessly seeing life through the lens of God's will and purpose. I would define it that way. The Seat of Wisdom. Turn to her under that title. "Mary, Seat of Wisdom, help me to understand what it is God wants me to do". She'll give good counsel to you. Here's one that Pope Francis has revived for us. They say when he was a doctoral student over in Germany back in, I guess, the 1970s or early '80s, maybe? And he was roaming around the German countryside and he found this church with a painting, and the painting was of Mary the Undoer of Knots, and it just depicts Mary there surrounded by angels, and there's a string with all kinds of knots in it, and they're feeding it to her, and then she's just very patiently trying to undo, and then it's passed on.
Other angels are here now, and they get the strand as it's undone. It struck young Jorge Mario Bergoglio as a beautiful image, and then as pope, he's made it popular around the world. And I must say it's one that I love too, because that's life, isn't it? It often presents itself as a series of knots. This knotty, complicated situation, involving all sorts of... When you have to undo a really tight, complex knot. And it takes patience, which I don't have, it's not one of my virtues, trust me. And so I'll get frustrated trying to undo a knot. In this painting, Mary, with kind of infinite serenity and patience, is just slowly undoing it.
When you find yourself faced with one of these things, invoke Mary, who's the Seat of Wisdom, Mother of Good Counsel, Mother of the Church, and also the Undoer of Knots. "Yes, Holy Mary, Mother of God, help me just to deal with this problem. You do it, you do it". That act in prayer of just handing a problem over to Mary, I think, is a beautiful thing. Maybe get an image of that Mary, Undoer of Knots, and put it in your prayer book.
And I'll just close with this. Most importantly, and we invoke Mary under this title every time we pray the Hail Mary: Holy Mary, Mother of God. It was the Council of Ephesus, 431, that gave Mary this title, Theotokos in the Greek, that she's the bearer of God. Again, not some recent Catholic development, this is a very ancient idea, that Mary, she's the mother of Christ, Christ is God, therefore, Mary is the mother of God. That's why she's so central. Along with the Holy Spirit, she's the one who brings Christ, the Son of God, to birth in us. So, maybe take out your rosary if you haven't prayed for a long time. Maybe find a holy card with Mary on it. In a conscious way, everybody, as Advent now is coming to its close, Christmas is coming close, invoke Mary, the Mother of God, Our Lady of Good Counsel, Mother of the Church, Undoer of Knots. Ask her to bring Christ to birth in you. And God bless you.