Autor: Little, Joyce

Buch: The Church and the Culture War

Titel: The Church and the Culture War

Stichwort: Misstrauen, Verdacht (Feminismus) - Vertrauen (Maria); Redemptoris Mater

Kurzinhalt: It is precisely Mary's faith which marks the beginning of the new and eternal Covenant of God with man in Jesus Christ; this heroic faith of hers "precedes" the apostolic witness of the Church ...

Textausschnitt: Chapter Seven -- Feminist Suspicion vs. Marian Trust

145a Pope John Paul II's encyclical on Mary, Redemptoris Mater (RM) , identifies Mary with the "Life of the Pilgrim Church". Her role in this regard is strikingly summarized in a single passage of the document, where John Paul II notes,

It is precisely Mary's faith which marks the beginning of the new and eternal Covenant of God with man in Jesus Christ; this heroic faith of hers "precedes" the apostolic witness of the Church, and ever remains in the Church's heart, hidden like a special heritage of God's revelation. All those who from generation to generation accept the apostolic witness of the Church share in the mysterious inheritance and in a sense share in Mary's faith (RM 27). (Fs)

145b This passage is particularly important for two reasons. First, the Pope identifies the inauguration of the New Covenant with Mary's Fiat, thereby underscoring the fact that the covenant brought fully into existence by Christ's death on the cross is not solely his work, but also involves the complementarity and cooperation of the "woman" (Jn 2:4, 19:26-27). (Fs) (notabene)

145c Second, the Pope points out that Mary's journey of faith "precedes" the apostolic witness of the Church and is shared by all who respond to that witness. In so doing, the Pope suggests that Mary's "non-apostolic" role (in the strict sense of the term) not only precedes but also in some sense provides the necessary foundation for such witness. Those sent out to baptize all nations do so for the purpose of drawing all of humanity back in to the heart, i.e., the faith, of the Church, which is in reality a share in Mary's faith. (Fs)

145d The Pope does not stop there, however. He goes on to make an extraordinary observation about God's relationship to Mary. First, he notes that the Church places great trust in Mary and then adds that "it must be recognized that before anyone else it was God himself, the Eternal Father, who entrusted himself to the Virgin of Nazareth, giving her his own Son in the mystery of the Incarnation" (RM 39). The Eternal Father entrusted his Son to Mary. Mary placed her faith in God, and the Father, in turn, placed his Son in her care. This is an extraordinary act of reciprocity between Creator and creature. (Fs)

146a Did Mary prove trustworthy? Here we have the testimony not of the Father, who entrusted the Son, but of the Son himself, who at the culmination of his hour, from the cross, entrusts to her his fledgling Church (Jn 19:26-27). It is significant that the beloved disciple, who stands for the community of believers, is entrusted to Mary before she is entrusted to him. As the Pope points out, "The redeemer entrusts Mary to John because he entrusts John to Mary. At the foot of the cross there begins that special entrusting of humanity to the Mother of Christ, which in the history of the Church has been practiced and expressed in different ways" (RM 45). (Fs)

146b This theme of "entrusting" is, in the Pope's encyclical, important for the light it sheds on Mary's role in the life of her Son and in the mission of the Church. But it is also important for the light it sheds on the role women in general are called to play in the lives of their children and in the mission of the Church. For it is precisely as the one to whom God entrusted his Son that the Pope sees Mary as illuminating the value and significance of the female: "The figure of Mary of Nazareth sheds light on womanhood as such by the very fact that God, in the sublime event of the Incarnation of his Son, entrusted himself to the ministry, the free and active ministry of a woman" (RM46). (Fs)