GOD MADE THEM MALE AND FEMALEA homily on the feast of the AssumptionAugust 15, 2004by jonahMany Christians in both the West and the East celebrate today as the feast of the Assumption of Mary into heaven. Some modern scholars make a distinction between the Jesus of history and the Jesus of faith. The same distinction can be applied to Mary, Jesus’ mother. Of course, the Mary of history was no more divine than you or I. (However, I do profess and believe that we all are God’s children not only by adoption but even by nature. So in this sense we all, Mary included, are divine humans.) But in the popular devotion of many Christians, the Mary of faith has been elevated to the divine realm. This was recognized and endorsed by the Roman Catholic Church in the official proclamation of her “Assumption into heaven”. As you know, the gospel stories are not intended to be historical accounts. They are the Christian response to events we all experience—birth, struggle, death and the Mystery of Being. The gospels were written not by historians but by passionate believers in the good-news of Jesus Christ. The authors of the gospels were enthusiastically proclaiming the meaning they found in the events that surrounded Jesus’ life, execution and final exaltation. This meaning transcended the historical events. Historians study the gospels and speculate as to the factual events behind these stories. But the gospels were never meant to be read as historical documents. They were meant to be expressions of divine realities. While many of the gospel stories have an historical foundation, the authors do not hesitate to alter and rewrite history. Nor do they hesitate to draw upon legends and myths to express meanings that transcended the historical events. And so, when we meditate on the gospels, we are in the realm of faith where we experience the real significance and true meanings of the Jesus-event.Only in this context can we appreciated and experience the real significance and true meaning of Mary. The Mary of history was a Jewish woman who was born and raised in a small nation on the eastern shores of the Mediterranean. What made her life significant was that she was the mother of Jesus. Jesus, her first child and eldest son, may have been conceived before she was married. She apparently married a carpenter named Joseph and probably had a large family. After Jesus’ execution, she, as his mother, was honored and revered by his devout followers. This is a bare outline of what may be the historical facts concerning Mary. It does not begin to express Mary’s significance as the mother of Jesus. In early Christianity, Mary passes into the realm of faith. Like her son, Jesus, she becomes a mirror in which we can see a reflection of the Godly in ourselves. She becomes a symbol of higher realities that reside in the human psyche—a reflection of that which is Godly in women. In this realm Mary is really and truly the virgin mother of God because her son is the Word become flesh. These are indeed higher realities. These are truths that transcend mere historical facts. In Mark, the earliest of the four Gospels, we find two references to Mary. The first reference does not name Mary but simply calls her the mother of Jesus. Mark writes: “Now his mother and his brothers arrived and, standing outside, sent in a message asking for him,” (Mark 3: 31-35). Jesus responds by saying that his family members are “anyone who does the will of God.” Mary is mentioned by name in Mark 6: 2-3. In Jesus’ home town the people asked: “Where did the man get all this? What is this wisdom that has been granted him, and these miracles that are worked through him? This is the carpenter, surely, the son of Mary, the brother of James and Joset and Jude and Simon? His sisters, too, are they not here with us?” So here we have the Mary of history. But this is only the beginning of Mary’s story . Already in the gospels of Matthew, Luke and John, the Mary of history is beginning to pass into the Mary of faith. Luke, Matthew and John where all firmly convinced that Jesus was God’s anointed, the long awaited Messiah and, therefore, he was God’s beloved son. She was the mother of Jesus. Especially Luke, but also Matthew, drew heavily upon stories about Jesus’ birth and his childhood. These stories were spawned by souls devoted to Jesus and were circulated among his followers. They were stories, not historical facts. Jesus’ followers used these stories to express their faith in him. Mary, his mother, was a central figure in all of these stories. I repeat, these were not historical facts but expressions of devotion. They were the first Christians’ testimony to their faith in Jesus. But, then if Jesus is truly Christ, the Son of God, what must his mother be like. One so honored must possess every womanly virtue and grace found in our ideal of the feminine. In this manner, out of these stories, that were intended to be acclamations of faith in Jesus, a cult to Mary his mother began to evolve. Jesus followers were beginning to see in Mary a reflection of their own ideal of the feminine. This cult grew to the point where, in 431 A.D. at the Council of Ephesus, Mary was solemnly declared, by the then unified Christian community, to be the “Mother of God.” The reason Mary was given this title was in order to safeguard the Christian belief that Jesus was/is both God and man, both divine and human. As Christians psychologically started to see the face of God in our humanity, Mary started to stimulate in their psyche the image of the feminine. A unique image of motherhood began to surface. This mother was unique because she conceived and gave birth to a person who represented the divine in our humanity. She gave birth to that which is Godly in us. She was experienced not as a humble Jewish maiden but as the Mother of God. That Mary was declared to be the Mother of God in Ephesus is significant. Ephesus was the center of the worship of the Divine Feminine, Artemis Diana. In Ephesus there was the magnificent temple of the goddess, Artemis Diana who was called the “Queen of Heaven.” Some fifty years before Mary was proclaimed to be the Mother of God, in 380 A.D., the temple of Diana was rededicated to Mary, the mother of Jesus. Christianity had come and transformed Ephesus. But devotion to the Divine Feminine was deeply rooted in that culture and would not or could not be repressed. Down through the centuries, a male dominated Church has struggled to keep Mary in her place. Protestant reformers rejected the cult of Mary. Was it not because they recognized this close association between popular devotion to Mary and the pagan worship of the Divine Feminine in Artemis Diana? Even to the present day, some Protestants accuse Catholics of worshiping Mary. Catholics insist that they do not worship Mary but only venerate her. In devotional practice, however, it is often difficult to recognize the difference between worship and veneration. Catholics would acknowledge that Mary is subordinate to Jesus and to God but they venerate her as the Mother of God, as the Queen of Heaven. In their prayers many of the titles once given to Artemis Diana are also given to Mary, the Mother of Jesus. Under Pope Pius XII, the Roman Catholic Church officially recognized Mary’s place in the divine realm by the formal proclamation of her Assumption into heaven. So what is your ideal image of the feminine? Is there anyone living or dead who embodies your ideal image of the feminine? Our image of the feminine is multi-faceted—maiden, wife, mother and crone. To a great extent, these images have been re-shaped by men into playmates, wives who stand by their men, long suffer mothers, and loving grandmothers. But we do need a Godly image of the feminine. The Bible tells that we are created in God’s image and likeness and that that image is both male and female. “Male and female God created them.” (Gen. 1:27). Paul says that in Christ there is neither male nor female. Does this not imply that there is a feminine aspect to God? We know that our image of God at best is imperfect—that God is really neither male nor female; that God is both male and female but that God is ever so much more than gender. Often we play roles. We pretend to be what we think others expect us to be. But many women today are letting the world know that they are more than playmates, wives, mothers and doting grandmothers--that they are persons. We look to these women to discover the feminine face of God. To do so is to discover the Divine Feminine within their selves. We all carry deep within our being an image of the Divine Feminine. We all are called to give birth to Christ in our lives and in our world. posted by Jonah 4:09 PM . . .
