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In this month of the Rosary that is also dedicated to the protection and cultivation of life, let us reflect with John Paul II on Mary and her perfect expression of motherhood.
Both men and women in today’s world are starving for a role model to look up to. They thirst for a standard who can reveal to them what it means to be a man or woman. In particular, numerous Hollywood stars and popular musicians have continually presented themselves to the women of the world as exemplars of what a woman truly should be.
Yet, are they the true archetypes of woman? Do they represent what women were created to be from the beginning of the world? According to Saint John Paul II, only one woman can claim that title and she was conceived without original sin. Her name is Mary, the Blessed Virgin who gave birth to the God-Man, Jesus Christ, over 2000 years ago.
She is the one woman whom all other women can strive to image in their own lives. Mary is the archetype of woman and she retains that title because of her perfection in living out a woman’s call of motherhood. This aspect of what it is to be a woman is essential to why Mary is the prime image and archetype which all women of the world are to aspire.
Vocation to Motherhood
Mary is the archetype of woman on account of her perfect expression of the vocation to motherhood; both physical and spiritual. To begin with, Mary being a female was biologically predisposed to motherhood. Her entire body spoke of this call to both nurture and give birth to new life. The specific female anatomy which she possessed is undeniably ordered to that end. Not only that, but her biology affected her mind and soul as well.
For example, it has been scientifically proven that “female hormones are profoundly and inextricably bound up with the need to care for her child;” making a women “better equipped in all her senses for the task of child-rearing” (Moir, 144). John Paul II noticed this as well and stated, “Scientific analysis fully confirms that the very physical constitution of women is naturally disposed to motherhood – conception, pregnancy and giving birth -” (MD 18).
As a result, Mary being already prepared to act as a mother, only needed the chance to fulfill that calling. It did not take long until she responded to that innate desire for raising a child by allowing the Holy Spirit to “overshadow” her and thus conceived Jesus the Christ. Since Mary “conceives Jesus in her womb, gives him birth and nurses him,” she is able to express that motherhood which is bound up within her biology (RM 20). Mary becomes a biological mother and lives out that vocation to the full.
We do not know much about the exact happenings during the early years of Mary’s life with her son, but since her son grew up to become a full fledged man, we can assume that she nurtured and cared for him throughout his childhood. If that wasn’t the case, Jesus would have been a rather physically weak and destitute man; not able to endure any type of physical suffering. In contrast, Jesus eventually underwent the most horrible of afflictions and persevered to the end; revealing a strong and healthy upbringing.
Yet, we do know of one episode during the formative years of Christ that reveals Mary’s response to her biological motherhood. Around age 12, the “boy Jesus remained behind in Jerusalem, but his parents did not know it” and finding that he wasn’t with them, “returned to Jerusalem to look for him” (Luke 2:43, 45). Upon finding the boy in the temple, Mary exclaimed, “‘Son, why have you done this to us? Your father and I have been looking for you with great anxiety’” (Luke 2:48). In this, we can see Mary’s loving care that she had for her son, even becoming anxious at the thought of losing him. Once she realized that Jesus was not with her, she quickly responded and desired to have him close to her. This again reveals the innate structure of a woman and how a mother is “naturally responsive to the baby’s needs” (Moir, 144). Even though Mary fulfills her call to natural motherhood quite well, her motherliness has an important spiritual character about it.
Spiritual Motherhood
Mary’s innate tendencies led her to be not only the Mother of God, but also the Mother of All Creation. Once again, this spiritual reality had its roots in her biology as a woman. For example, studies of a woman’s brain have found that her brain puts the “emphasis on the personal and the emotional [which] enables her to embrace a wide variety of relationships without denying or diluting any of them” (Moir, 143). Edith Stein noticed this trend as well and saw that “woman naturally seeks to embrace that which is living, personal and whole” and “to cherish, guard, protect, nourish and advance growth is her natural, maternal yearning” (Stein, 43).
Prudence Allen, commenting on John Paul II’s teaching, notes that on account of a woman’s cycle of ovulation, her “body disposes her to receive new life these many times, even if she never gets pregnant” (PA, 20). We can see in her life that Mary chose to embrace her natural longings and to hold within her self not only her son Jesus, but the entire living world. She continually put the emphasis on the personal and strove to encompass all living things inside her grasp.
Evidence for this is in St. John’s Gospel where her “motherhood according to the spirit and not just according to the flesh” became evident and she displayed “solicitude for human beings” (MR 21). This took place at the wedding feast at Cana, where Mary recognized the need for more wine. She motioned to her son, telling him that “They have no wine,” in hopes that He would respond (John 2:3). Not only was this a practical concern, but it also “has a symbolic value: this coming to the aid of human needs means, at the same time, bringing those needs within the radius of Christ’s messianic mission and salvific power” (MR 21).
Mary truly cares about the growth and nourishment of all human beings and desires that they be brought into the saving power of Christ’s passion, death, and resurrection. This becomes even more prominent after her assumption into Heaven where she sits next to her son so that, as the prophet Simeon said, “the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed” (Luke 2:35).
In the end, Mary responded to her innate call to motherhood not only by embracing her own child, but most importantly by enfolding the entire human race underneath her loving care. She is the prime example of motherhood and is the one to look to for inspiration as to what it means to be a mother.
(MD) Mulieris Dignitatem, John Paul II
(MR) Redemptoris Mater, John Paul II