Mary

I will approach the topic of Mary from a personal point of view. There is something I call the concept of the three women, or the concept of the three mothers. I borrowed it from the story of Macbeth. You recall the three women that shared an eye. In my unique slant of the concept of the three women, I see the first woman or mother as the earth. Mother Earth is the “spouse” of God the Father (this is not Church teaching, but just a personal analogy). Mother Earth gives us our material person (Aristotle’s hylomorphism), through the agency of our parents, and provides us with all the material blessings we need to sustain our physical self. This mother inspires all the physical or carnal expressions of the human person as living in the world.

The second woman or mother is Mother Church. This is the spouse of God the Son, and this is actually Church teaching. Jesus is married to the Church, and has left her his body and blood, soul and divinity, for all time in the Eucharist. Mother Church gives us the sacraments that sustain our souls as they make their way to God. This mother inspires all the soulful or religious expressions of the human person as living in the community of saints. The third woman or mother is Mary. This is the spouse of God the Spirit. This too is Church teaching. Mary is spouse to the Holy Spirit, by whose power she conceived and bore Jesus Christ. Mother Mary gives us Jesus Christ as model and guide in our spiritual endeavor. She inspires all the spiritual or intellectual expressions of the human mind as it seeks to copy the ideal of rational propriety, including practical epistemology and ethics, of human persons living in informed society.

Thus the male principle of God the Father copulating with the female principle of Mother Earth (pure matter; pure potency) creates all there is in the universe, out of Love. Similarly, the male principle of God the Son copulating with the female principle of Mother Church imparts grace to our souls so that we can live up to the command to be “perfect as God the father is” (Matt. 5:48), and to do the will of God the Father. And the male principle of God the Holy Spirit copulating with Mother Mary, gives us the perfect model of human perfection, Jesus Christ whom, if we contemplate and emulate, we can base our thoughts, words and deeds on and so be able to live perfectly rational and fulfilled lives. 

At an ideal state, the human being operating on the level of God the Father acting in Mother Earth is of equal value as the person operating on the principle of God the Son acting in Mother Church, and that operating on the principle of God the Spirit acting in Mother Mary. If Adam and Eve had not fallen into original sin in the first place; had not allowed themselves to be deceived by the Serpent in the Garden (Gen. 3:1-20), then perhaps there would have been no need to send Jesus in the first place, because when God made Adam and Eve, he saw that they were already “good” (Gen. 1:31). But because Adam and Eve fell, and God who sees the end before the beginning, as if the end happened at the same time as the beginning, knew that at some point Jesus would have to redeem the “good” people he had made, the principle of the Son acting in Mother Church, and its concomitant principle of the Holy Spirit acting in Mother Mary has eternal significance. Again, this does not undermine the teaching of Mother Church. 

So, Mother Mary, the “third woman” – and by the way, Jesus calls Mary “woman” many times in the bible, such as during the Wedding at Cana; at the foot of the cross, and so on – is the Spouse of the Holy Spirit, the Mother of Jesus, and by that logic (since Jesus is God) the Mother of God. Mary exhorts us with regard to her son, “Do what he tells you” (John 2:5). Mary has also appeared in many apparitions, such as The Miraculous Medal, Our Lady of Victories, La Salette, Lourdes, Pontmain, Pellevoisin, and Fatima. In each of these apparitions and in many other ways she encourages us to be good, to pray for priests and to love and emulate her son. The Blessed Virgin Mary also gave us the Rosary and the Scapular, and shares with us numerous other religious habits by which we can become more fully Christian and disciples of Christ. Mary in short is a good mother to us.