MARY THE MOTHER OF JESUS

By Daniel C Arichea Jr
Introduction
Let me start this presentation by expressing my gratitude for having been invited to this 3rd Asia
Oceania Mariological Conference. I wish my wife and I could have come at the beginning of the
conference and could stay until the end. But alas, we have duties to perform and commitments to
fulfill.
Mary the Neglected Mother of Jesus
I need to start my presentation with a word of apology. I apologize for the apparent neglect of
Mary in the United Methodist Church to which I belong. We as a church have been so Christcentered that we have neglected the family from which Jesus came. The genealogy of Jesus as
contained in the Gospel of Matthew is not exactly a popular passage that is used by pastors in
their preaching, and even if they do, they will concentrate on the first part of Matthews
genealogy: The genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, and the son of Abraham. And if
ever they get to the part that mentions Mary, the focus is not on Mary but on Joseph, who as the
Matthean massage indicates, is the more important participant in the story.
I searched our theological statements, and there is no trace at all of any doctrinal statement that
gives importance to Mary. Mary is mentioned only twice, in Article II, which reads: The Son,
who is the Word of the Father, the very and eternal God, of one substance with the Father, took
mans nature in the womb of the blessed Virgin
The other reference to Mary is in Article II of the Evangelical United Brethren Church, which
merged with the then Methodist Church to form the present United Methodist Church. That
article reads:
We believe in Jesus Christ, truly God and truly man, in whom the divine and the human natures
are perfectly and inseparably united. He is the eternal Word made flesh, the only begotten Son
of the Father, born of the Virgin Mary by the power of the Holy Spirit
We do use in United Methodist churches the Apostles Creed and the Nicene Creed, both of
which mention the role of the Virgin Mary in the incarnation.
Mary in the Worship of the Church
If our doctrinal statements do not give us any clue as to how we should view Mary, where can
we look? Is it hopeless to hope for anything in the United Methodist Church that gives
importance to Mary the Virgin mother of Jesus?
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Well, if doctrinal statements do not help us, let us look somewhere else. One place that is
pregnant with possibilities is the worship and liturgy of the church. So instead of going through
the Book of Discipline of the United Methodist Church, I decided to look instead in the United
Methodist Book of Worship and the United Methodist Hymnal, which are both official
publications of the United Methodist Church. What can we find in these two publications? Can
these be of help to us? And could this in fact be a starting point for a new and proper emphasis
on the place of Mary in the life of the church, as well as a starting point for some conversation
between the United Methodist Church and the Roman Catholic Church on this matter? But we
are jumping the gun. Let us give some specific examples.
In the celebration of Advent, there is an item entitled An Advent Service of Lessons and
Carols, which contains seven lessons. The sixth lesson is what interests us here. The Scripture
lessons for this sixth lesson are: Luke 1:26-35 and 38:
Announced
\p \v 26 In the sixth month of Elizabeth's pregnancy God sent the angel Gabriel to a town in
Galilee named Nazareth. \v 27 He had a message for a young woman promised in marriage to a
man named Joseph, who was a descendant of King David. Her name was Mary. \v 28 The angel
came to her and said, Peace be with you! The Lord is with you and has greatly blessed you!
\p \v 29 Mary was deeply troubled by the angel's message, and she wondered what his words
meant. \v 30 The angel said to her, Don't be afraid, Mary; God has been gracious to you. \v 31
You will become pregnant and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus. \v 32 He
will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High God. The Lord God will make him a
king, as his ancestor David was, \v 33 and he will be the king of the descendants of Jacob
forever; his kingdom will never end!
\p \v 34 Mary said to the angel, I am a virgin. How, then, can this be?
\p \v 35 The angel answered, The Holy Spirit will come on you, and God's power will rest
upon you. For this reason the holy child will be called the Son of God. \v 36 Remember your
relative Elizabeth. It is said that she cannot have children, but she herself is now six months
pregnant, even though she is very old. \v 37 For there is nothing that God cannot do.
\p \v 38 I am the Lord's servant, said Mary; may it happen to me as you have said. And the
angel left her.
The same thing happens in the worship activities for Christmas.
Then there are the carols about the Virgin Mary. Six of these carols are hymn versions of the
Magnificat.
One carol (No. 215, To a Maid Engaged to Joseph consists of the conversation between the
angel and Mary as found in Luke 1. The ending is interesting: Behold, I am your handmaid, she
said unto her God. So be it; I am ready according to your word.

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One carol honors and exalts Mary. All four stanzas are quoted below:
Ye who claim the faith of Jesus, sing the wonders that were there
When the love of God the Father over sin the victory won,
When he made the Virgin Mary mother of his only Son.
Blessed were the chosen people out of whom the Lord did come;
Blessed was the land of promise fashioned for his earthly home;
But more blessed far the mother, she who bore him in her womb.
Therefore let all faithful people sing the honor of her name;
Let the church, in her foreshadowed, part in her thanksgiving claim
What Christs mother sang in gladness let Christs people sing the same:
Magnify, my soul, Gods greatness, in my Savior I rejoice;
All the ages call me blessed, in his praise I lift my voice;
He has cast down all the mighty, and the lowly are his choice.
The second stanza is worth repeating:
Blessed were the chosen people out of whom the Lord did come;
Blessed was the land of promise fashioned for his earthly home;
But more blessed far the mother, she who bore him in her womb.
That sounds like a Roman Catholic hymn? Well, it is in the United Methodist Hymnal!
Mary and the Scriptures
How do United Methodists view the biblical references to Mary?
I should first of all make the observation that United Methodists do not hold to one official
interpretation of Holy Scripture. We believe that Scripture is the infallible rule both of faith and
practice, but we do not impose interpretations on our people and on other people. We however
are committed to biblical scholarship. We encourage our members to engage in serious Bible
study and we encourage our pastors to use the Bible creatively and effectively in their preaching
and teaching. But we have no official positions on Scripture as a source of specific doctrinal
statements.
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Having said that, I will now speak as a United Methodist pastor and as a serious student of the
Bible and we do have some clear similarities and differences with the Roman Catholic Church
when it comes to interpreting passages that refer to Mary. Everything I have said above accents
the similarities between us: our high regard for Mary as a woman of faith and as a woman
worthy of being used by God for the fulfillment of Gods purposes. One of the differences
between us is about the perpetual virginity of Mary. We United Methodists take Mark 6 very
seriously and literally, which means that the brothers and sisters mentioned there are blood
siblings of Jesus. We interpret Matthew 1:25 in a similar manner: Joseph and Mary had no
sexual relations until she gave birth to her first born son. We do recognize that the text does
not say they had sexual relations after Jesus was born, but we hold to the possibility of this
happening.
Having said that, I will now offer my own biblical reflection on Mary. I will attempt to take
Mary out of her place in stained glass windows and make her live in our midst as a woman and
as a human being. I must emphasize that these are my own thoughts, but I hope that they would
echo the thoughts of many of you as well. At least, it is my hope that these thoughts will
contribute to meaningful reflection and conversation. So here we go.
Mary, An Ordinary Woman
The most famous Mary in the New Testament is Mary the mother of Jesus. Who is this Mary?
What do we know, what can we know about her? She was a simple village girl from the small
town of Nazareth. Outwardly, there was probably nothing that would mark her as distinguished
or as different from other women. She had neither wealth nor education. We are not even sure
of her outward appearance: her height, her complexion, or her countenance. Was she beautiful?
We simply dont know. Of course the Mary we have encased in stained glass windows looks
lovely, but one can never be sure if that is the real Mary, or if that is simply a product of the
human imagination. In fact most of the Mary figures we know contain primarily Western
features, and very little, if at all, Jewish or Middle Eastern features.
But despite the fact that Mary was ordinary and simple, she was chosen to become the mother of
the Word made flesh. Isn't that one of the mysteries in the Bible, that in fact God chooses the
ordinary for Gods purposes. The Christmas story is a good case in point - in addition to Mary,
we have Joseph, an ordinary carpenter, then the shepherds, poor and simple village folk, and yet
they were privileged to have been the recipients of the first announcement of the most important
event in the history of the world! Isn't this what Paul was writing about in one of his letters to
the Corinthians: "God purposely chose what the world considers nonsense in order to shame the
wise; and he chose what the world considers weak in order to shame the powerful. He chose
what the world looks down on and despises and thinks is nothing, in order to destroy what the
world thinks is important."
Mary thus becomes a symbol of God's concern for the ordinary, as well as God's call to the
simple in order to serve the purposes of God. Applying this to ourselves, we can affirm that God
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has a plan for all of us, for each one of us, no matter how unimportant we think we are. We
should never underestimate ourselves. God knows us, and God knows these hidden possibilities
within us that are waiting to be tapped in order that we can realize our full potential as human
beings.
Marys Place Among Women
Although an ordinary woman, Mary is pronounced as the most blessed of all women. That
statement of course came from her cousin Elizabeth. She could have said, "You are the most
blessed of all people." For in fact, Mary lived at a time when women were not given very much
importance. One just has to look at the other Gospels to realize how Mary was treated in the
story. In Matthew 1.18, she is at least mentioned by name, but the main actor in the story is
Joseph - Mary is a silent participant. In Matthew 2, it gets worse - now her name disappears, she
simply becomes the mother of the child. She is named in v. 11, but in other places, she is part of
a formula: "the child and his mother," a formula which occurs four times in the chapter. In
Mark 3, Mary is not named, and is portrayed as not understanding Jesus' ministry; in fact she
wanted to take her son home, because people were saying that he was mad. In John, again, she is
not named, and Jesus addresses her as "woman," a respectful address, to be sure, but still strange,
since that kind of address was never used by a son for his own mother.
In light of all of this, it is interesting to note that in the Gospel of Luke, Mary is not only named,
but is the main participant in the story: the angel talks with her instead of talking to Joseph; she
recites a magnificent poem, or perhaps much better, she sings a magnificent song. Who among
us has not thrilled to the beauty and message of the Magnificat: "My soul magnifies the Lord,
and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior."
In making Mary the main participant in the Christmas drama, Luke planted the seed for the
recovery of the rightful place of women in the church - a struggle that continues to the present
time. Of course we know (or should know) through Genesis 1 and 2 and Galatians 3.26-28 that
indeed sexual barriers have been (or should have been!) removed from the church, and that
women have the same rights and privileges as men. But the actual is usually quite distant and
different from the ideal. It is ironic that in the Roman Catholic Church, where Mary is lifted to a
level almost equal to God, there is still no room for women priests, simply on the grounds that
Jesus and his disciples were men, and thus ignoring the Lukan record that indeed there were
some women among the early followers of Jesus the Christ (see for example Luke 8:2-3).
Mary thus becomes a symbol for the rightful place of women within the Christian community.
Now I should say that this remark might seem out of place in our country where women have
occupied and continue to occupy the highest positions of leadership in government and in
society. But the fact remains that the Christian movement even in the Philippines and especially
in other parts of Asia is male-dominated, and that there needs to be a continuous emphasis on the
rightful place of women within the church of Jesus Christ.
Mary as the One Who Suffers
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A further emphasis of the text is that Mary is given an impossible role that actually leads her to
suffering and personal sacrifice. Mary was a Jew. Even though at the time of the angels visit
she was perhaps in her teens, I am sure she was aware of the history of her people, especially
their experience of suffering in the midst of the nations of the world. Defeated so many times in
battle, the Jews were forcibly taken from their land and exiled into various countries. And during
the time of Mary herself, all of Palestine was under captivity by the Roman Empire.

I am also sure that she was aware of the difficulties of women in her day. They were secondclass citizens, instruments in the hands of men, carriers of babies, slaves of their own husbands,
and straight-jacketed into specific roles.

So when the angel came, Mary would of course expect nothing less than a call to a womans
role. But far did she expect that she would be called to participate in an impossible task! The
angel, who is male, of course starts the conversation with flattering words

Peace be with you! The Lord is with

you and has greatly blessed you!

Mary of course, being a woman and therefore gifted with wisdom in reading between the lines
and behind the words, did not take the angels words at face value. Instead, as the text tells us,
she was deeply troubled by the angel's message. How right she was to be disturbed!
When the angel switched from the generic to the specific, Mary knew she was in for trouble!
Don't be afraid, Mary; God has been gracious to you. 31You will become pregnant and give
birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of
the Most High God. The Lord God will make him a king, as his ancestor David was, 33 and
he will be the king of the descendants of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end!

I wonder if Mary heard the rest of the words after she was told that she would become pregnant!
Even teenagers know a little bit about pregnancy! Mary had reasons to be skeptical and to
complain! How can this be? We can imagine her conversing with the angel: Hey sir, Let me
tell you something about me that you don't know: I am a human being, and as a human being, I
go through certain processes in order to have a child. What you say is not possible at all." And
when the angel told him about the Holy Spirit, the problem became much more complicated.
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Now she was confronted with the problem of communicating such news to Joseph her fianc.
Let us suppose that she went to Joseph and said to him, "Look, Joseph, I am pregnant; it is not
from you, but it is from the Holy Spirit." Do you think that Joseph would have believed such a
statement? Or would he suspect that she had been unfaithful? Wouldnt the natural thing for
Joseph to say be Whos the father? (In the Gospel of Matthew, it was only after the angel
spoke to Joseph that Joseph finally believed Mary.)
That is an impossible role that Mary was called to perform. But of course being a woman, she
was capable of it! And women will tell you, they are often called to perform impossible roles.
They know and believe that with Gods help, nothing is impossible. The biblical witness is that
with God, the boundary between the impossible and the possible is removed, that in God the
impossible has become possible, and that when are dealing with God, God confronts us with
possible impossibilities. So the angel tells Mary, and he tells other women too, there is nothing,
repeat anything that God cannot do.
Furthermore, the role that Mary was called to play was one that would lead to suffering and selfsacrifice. Here again, the tendency to make Mary superhuman has somehow hidden or at least
minimized the hurt. God does not guarantee freedom from suffering and pain for those whom he
had chosen. In fact, the opposite is more true: those who are faithful to God are more apt to
suffer, to experience pain, anguish, agony and despair. Mary learned this truth. She becomes
pregnant while engaged to be married. And if Luke is to be believed, she gave birth to her firstborn son in very difficult situations; in fact she gives birth before she and Joseph were married!
And then, to be told that a sword will pierce her heart because if her son. And then, to watch this
son grow strong and loved by God and by the people. And then, to see him suffer the ridicule of
the crowd, the hatred of the religious authorities. And then, to see his own beloved son nailed to
the cross, with blood oozing out of his mutilated body, his skull pierced by a crown of thorns.
You can't begin to imagine and appreciate the pain and the agony, the heartache and the sadness
that the mother of Jesus experienced.
Marys call was a call to suffering. But she also knew that it was a call to purposeful suffering.
The angel was right in calling it a blessing from God. For any purposeful suffering is a blessing.
Suffering in this sense is a manifestation and an instrument of the grace of God. So the angel
says to Mary: The Lord has been gracious to you!
How can we apply this to the present situation particularly of women? There is so much talk
today about violence against women, and it is right to talk about such injustice and cruelty.
Women have suffered and continue to suffer violence and injury from men and from society as a
whole. It is right that we should demand that suffering should cease. It is right that we should
work for the elimination of violence against women.
But it does not mean that women should be exempt from suffering. Mary did not escape it, nor
did she reject the challenge and the call to suffer. Why? Because what she is called to participate
in is not mere suffering, but meaningful suffering, suffering for the sake of a greater good,
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namely, the fulfillment of Gods will and the liberation of Gods people and all of creation from
the power of sin. Mary seems to have understood that. And so in the end, doubt and fear are
conquered by trust and obedience:

I am the Lord's servant, may it happen to me as you have said.

Mary thus becomes a symbol of purposeful suffering. We too suffer for others. May God make
clear to us that when we suffer, our pain and agony have a purpose, that indeed through our
suffering we can and do find God's will for ourselves and for those whom we love. Like Mary,
let us become aware that what is important is not that we are free from suffering, but that our
suffering and pain have meaning and significance. Mary becomes a symbol for us Filipinos and
Filipinas, helping us to face life with faith, and with God's help, we will overcome.

Daniel C Arichea Jr
April 5, 2013

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