Contemplative Focus
What Would Mary Do?
The front page of the April 12 edition of Newsweek asks in bold print, “WHAT WOULD MARY DO?” That was a clever narrative hook for the feature story. While the authors make a number of salient observations on the role of women in the church, they do not answer the question. I would like to do so, or more modestly, I would like to propose some features of Mary’s response:
I am struck by a three way gaze that the scriptures bring to our attention. First, after she has uttered her fiat, St. Luke has Mary cry out, “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord … for you have looked [gazed] with favor on your lowly servant.” Mary is the one who has been so transparent to the gaze of God, that she has enabled God to pour out a thousand graces upon her. In the same way, when we allow God to look upon us in prayer, that gaze brings grace to fruition and transforms us as it did her.
John of the Cross expresses the same idea in this way. In stanza 5 of the Spiritual Canticle, he writes, “And having looked at them, / With His image alone, / Clothed them in beauty.” He explains further that during creation when God looked at all that had been made, God instilled the divine imprint on it all and made all of creation both good and beautiful.
The traditional gospel for this feast of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel comes from John the Evangelist’s portrayal of the crucifixion. Here, John highlights the creative impact of gaze in a different way. In this scene Mary and the other women have accompanied Jesus and have witnessed the crucifixion. They have gazed upon him in his suffering. In prayer it is important that the gaze be bi-directional. We must gaze upon God as well as allow God to gaze upon us.
In Book II of the Ascent John writes, “If you desire Me to answer with a word of comfort, behold My Son, subject to Me and to others out of love for Me, and you will see how much He answers. If you desire Me to declare some secret truths or events to you, fix your eyes on Him, and you will discern hidden in Him the most secret mysteries, and wisdom, and the wonders of God….”
In this crucifixion scene, the Evangelist also writes, “When Jesus saw His mother, and the disciple whom He loved standing nearby, He said to His mother, ’Woman, behold, your son!’" Biblical commentators tell us that this scene is meant to evoke the Genesis creation story. Jesus as God accomplished a new creation in his redeeming act and looks upon his mother as the new Eve, the new mother of humanity. The beloved disciple stands in for all of us.
Jesus completes the triangle when he directs Mary to look at / see her son and then says to the disciple, "Behold / see, your mother!" Their transformation is completed when “from that hour the disciple took her into his own household”. When we gaze upon one another in the presence of God, we necessarily care for one another in a new way.
Thus the early hermits on Mount Carmel put their little church under the protection of Mary as Lady of the Place in the full courtly understanding of that term, both pledging fealty to her and asking her protection for them. They called her Mother, and importantly, they thought of themselves as the brothers of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, brothers who would care for one another. If they could call themselves her brothers, then that meant also that they had come to see her as their sister.
And so today we honor her by making her the Lady of all our little places; we look to her for a mother’s care, we come to her as to a beloved sister. And if anyone were to ask us, what would Mary do, we could answer in confidence that first she would gaze upon God in prayer and allow God to look upon her; then empowered by the Spirit, she would turn her loving eyes towards us and take us into her heart so that we might once again make all of our churches both sanctuaries that foster peace and love and also holy places that promote and protect the dignity of all people.
Judy Murray OCD
Baltimore Carmel
