MOTHER OF THE LORD
Marian devotion can sometimes be quite “other-worldly” in picturing Our Blessed Mother. Armand Nigro, Oregon Province Jesuit who in the 1990’s taught for several terms at Kachebere Seminary, paints here a very realistic picture of Mary. A question for the reader: does it help your devotion to Mary and her Son to be more “this worldly”?
He is her son. And he looks like her. His complexion, his bone structure and nervous system, his personality and mannerisms are inherited. They are her gifts. r emotional reactions, her likes and sensitivity have shaped his. He grew to prefer the taste of her baked bread and the sound of her voice. Her nearness and the touch of her hands reassured him, especially when strangeness or loneliness crept into his life and when others rejected him.
He is very strong and yet is a deeply sensitive man who feels for others. His commanding houts have stilled storm winds and waves and cowed bullies. But children have climbed into his lap and his gentle words reassure the depressed and unwanted that they are forgiven and loved. Her influence is always with him.
He exercises a strong leadership with men and his sensitivity to women is remarkable. He can never stand to see a woman sorrowing or grieving or in need without consoling and helping her. No one ever picked on a woman or insulted her in his presence without his becoming furious and defending her. His love and reverence for his mother colours his whole attitude to other women. She taught him by her own unselfish love.
Barefooted, she descended and climbed a dusty path twice a day carrying a water jug on her head. The village alleys (no streets in our sense) stunk with urine and animal droppings, swarming with flies. Dust was pervasive. Villagers roasted in the day’s sun and shivered at night.
Her home was probably a single room, her bed a mate rolled out when needed. Housekeeping took only a few minutes a day. The rest of the day was spent weaving, grinding grain, gathering faggots and burnable refuse, drawing and carrying water from the village well and chatting with neighbours.
Little fuel in the area for fire meant little cooking. She baked flat crusty bread loaves in a communal oven. The meals she prepared were simple: like bread, cheese, dried or fresh seasonal fruit and wine, or bread, a raw vegetable and occasional roasted or dried fish. Meat was a luxury rarely on the menu.
Her profile in the village was apparently low-keyed. So was her artisan husband’s. Their social status convinced neighbours that the son they raised could teach them little.
The monotony of her day could have been deadening. But there was something mysterious inside her. She was the sort of woman who seemed to speak little, but treasured and pondered deep things in her heart.
Her hands grew rough and scarred with work. Her face bronzed, weather-beaten, probably aged before her time. Water, home-made soap and olive oil on festive days were her only cosmetics.
No one records that she was especially physically beautiful, though often women of the Bible such as Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, Judith, Esther, Bathsheba and many others were described as beautiful. Except for her reactions to two prayerful encounters before her marriage, the only words recorded of her are her bewildering concern for her twelve-year-old son and for a bridal couple at their wedding reception. She is also recorded as calling her son when people monopolise his attention, leaving him no time for food or rest.
Everything about her appearance and life says: a simple, back-hilled wife and mother with simple concerns for her family and friends.
Unfortunately, she had no grandchildren and lived her last years as a widow. The gladness and heartbreak of her life was her only son, a gentle, loving, but strong and controversial man. She never recovered from the hurt and shame of seeing him rejected and mobbed by his own townspeople. He never came back home after that. And it was all downhill from there.
He seemed to cause division and controversy wherever he went. He brought out the best and the worst in people. No one who met or heard him could remain neutral. They either admired and loved him or rejected and hated him. Charges of religious heresy were hurled at him.
Eventually, he ran into serious trouble with the law. It happens to the sons of many poor mothers today, doesn’t it? His loving ambitions collapse in failure and total personal rejection! Those final days were terrible on his mother. She saw his few friends bail out on him and leave him to the political wolves who framed him on a treason charge and engineered his death as criminal. Only one man remained faithful to him. And not one single woman who ever met Jesus is recorded as having abandoned him – rather, explicitly they are with him to the end.
His last request was that his only loyal male friend take care of his mother and she of him. And she has been doing that ever since to all who belong to him. How she stood it, who knows? But she helplessly watched his execution.
There were a few pathetic moments with his mangled corpse before they hastily buried him. No one recorded or tried to guess what flooded her heart as her fingers closed the death-stare of his eyes or held his battered limbs. Only one other occasion is mentioned of her – at prayer with a group of confused, fearful people, when the charismatic movement first began – at the first Pentecost after Jesus’ death.
So few details are given of her life and personality. Yet she remains most dear to Jesus and to all who believe in him. Today she is what she was when she carried water on her head from the village well to her home. She is Miriam, daughter of Joakim and Anna, the wife of Yousef. She is Imma Yeshua, Virgin Mother of the Lord! She is Queen of heaven and earth, immaculately conceived and bodily assumed. She shares the joy and risen glory of her son, Yeshua (Jesus).
She is the model par excellence for all of us disciples, especially of women. She knows what it is to be pregnant before a fully recognised marriage, to be a poor woman, a refugee, young widow, living in a patriarchal society.
She is the living proof that the poor and the meek shall inherit the earth, that the peacemakers and pure of heart shall be with God, that unavoidable suffering, patiently endured, leads to eternal life, because Almighty God, to whom she’s always belonged body and soul – Almighty God who topples the mighty from thrones and lifts up the little ones, Almighty God who fills the hungry and sends empty away the complacently rich, yes, that God has done great things in her. Holy is His Name!
And hers too – forever!
Armand Nigro, S.J.
Seattle, Washington
USA
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