Mary, Icon for Humanity

Why the emphasis on Mary at these particular times in history?

KNOXVILLE, TN (Catholic Online) - In 1854 the Catholic Church declared that Mary was immaculately conceived. In 1950 the Church declared that she was assumed into heaven, though the belief is rooted in the ancient Christian Tradition. Why the emphasis on Mary at these particular times in history? Mark Shea touches on this question in an excellent, little book called Mary, Our Mother and Guide. He suggests that Mary is being held up as an icon of our true dignity in order to counter the dehumanizing thought of the nineteenth century and the resulting horrors that followed in the bloody twentieth. In Mary, Our Mother and Guide, we see two different views of the human person. One view is based on secular thinking; the other is based on the life of Mary.

Mr. Shea states that many of the ideologies of the nineteenth century attack the dignity of the human person. He writes the following: Darwin said that human origins were accidental; Marx said humans were ingredients in a vast economic historical process; others likened humans to noble savages; eugenics said human dignity rested on "fitness"; then Freud announced that a person's sense of dignity was just a veil over unconscious processes (cf. 15). We should also recall Nietzsche, who epitomized the age with his arrogant proclamation that "God is dead." All of these ideologies, as well as others, undermine the fact that we are created by God and destined for union with Him.

Mary stands in stark contrast to these false ideologies. In her, we witness the most perfect person created by God and the depth of union that is possible between God and a person. Jesus chose Mary, a mere creature created out of nothing, to give Him her DNA and bear Him in her womb. Jesus handed Himself over to Mary as a child entirely dependent on her for His sustenance and care. Jesus came into the world through Mary, and then He gave her a primary role in His own work, the salvation of the human race. She accomplished this work when she freely offered herself and Jesus at the foot of the cross, in union with Jesus, to the Father in perfect faith and submission to the Father's will. Then Jesus gave His mother to us. At the end of Mary's life, she was assumed into heaven, body and soul. The life of Mary shows us what humanity looks like in a fallen world when it is fully united with its creator.

There are parallels between Mary's life and ours. Mary was the biggest recipient of grace in the universe, but we also receive abundant grace through the sacraments. Mary's unity with Jesus was unique in that she bore the Bread of Life in her womb, but we too are intimately and supernaturally united to Jesus every time we receive the Eucharist. Furthermore, Jesus hands His precious Body and Blood over to us in the form of bread and wine, making Himself entirely dependent on us for His care. Since His ascension, Jesus comes into the world through us, His Mystical Body. We are also given a special role in the salvation of the human race. We accomplish this work when we unite ourselves with Jesus' sacrifice during the Mass, and He presents our offering to the Father. And at the Mass we receive the promise of eternal life.

When we look at Mary and how our life parallels hers, we see that God created us for Himself and that He gives Himself entirely to us. He loves us, and He wants to be intimately united with us in this life and the next. Human dignity is based on this fact, and secular thinking cannot change it. Mark Shea sums it up when he says that we are not mere animals, statistical averages, cogs in a machine, primordial ooze, or a set of complexes and appetites (cf. 15). Nor are we made for the horrors that flow from such thinking: world war, the oven, the mass grave, state sponsored oppression, the anonymity of the street, broken families, the abortion mill, drugs, chaos, or despair. We are made for the ecstatic glory of complete union with the Triune God in eternity, like Mary (cf. 17).

Source: Mark Shea, Mary, Our Mother and Guide, Ave Maria University and Ignatius Press, 2006

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Michael Terheyden is a Catholic because he believes that truth is real, that it is beautiful and good, and that the fullness of truth is in the Catholic Church. He is greatly blessed to share his Catholic faith with his beautiful wife, Dorothy. They have four grown children and three grandchildren.

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