#8 - St. JPII's Meditation on Mary

[MariaChristi]

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Chapter 5 of Mulieris Dignitatem:

**JESUS CHRIST

“They marvelled that he was talking with a woman”**

1. The words of the Proto-evangelium in the Book of Genesis enable us to move into the context of the Gospel. Man’s Redemption, foretold in Genesis, now becomes a reality in the person and mission of Jesus Christ, in which we also recognize what the reality of the Redemption means for the dignity and the vocation of women. This meaning becomes clearer for us from Christ’s words and from his whole attitude towards women, an attitude which is extremely simple, and for this very reason extraordinary, if seen against the background of his time. It is an attitude marked by great clarity and depth. Various women appear along the path of the mission of Jesus of Nazareth, and his meeting with each of them is a confirmation of the evangelical “newness of life” already spoken of.

It is universally admitted - even by people with a critical attitude towards the Christian message - that in the eyes of his contemporaries Christ became a promotor of women’s true dignity and of the vocation corresponding to this dignity. At times this caused wonder, surprise, often to the point of scandal: “They marvelled that he was talking with a woman” (Jn 4:27), because this behaviour differed from that of his contemporaries. Even Christ’s own disciples “marvelled”. The Pharisee to whose house the sinful woman went to anoint Jesus’ feet with perfumed oil “said to himself, ‘If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him, for she is a sinner’” (Lk 7:39). Even greater dismay, or even “holy indignation”, must have filled the self-satisfied hearers of Christ’s words: “the tax collectors and the harlots go into the Kingdom of God before you” (Mt 21:31).

By speaking and acting in this way, Jesus made it clear that “the mysteries of the Kingdom” were known to him in every detail. He also “knew what was in man” (Jn 2:25), in his innermost being, in his “heart”. He was a witness of God’s eternal plan for the human being, created in his own image and likeness as man and woman.

Two thoughts were uppermost in my mind after beginning chapter 5: 1) the closing remarks of Vatican II which Pope St. JPII quoted in his Introduction:

…The hour is coming, in fact has come, when the vocation of women is being acknowledged in its fullness, the hour in which women acquire in the world an influence, an effect and a power never hitherto achieved. That is why, at his moment when the human race is undergoing so deep a transformation, women imbued with a spirit of the Gospel can do so much to aid humanity in not falling (underlining is mine)

Mary our Mother was totally imbued with the Gospel; for all the Church, she is the Model, but in a special way for women who share her feminine gifts. As the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches: Mary is the “Eschatalogical Icon” of the Church. It seems to me natural as well as supernatural for JPII have written this as a “meditation on Mary” – speaking to all of us, men and women, as the Church.
2) From the Catechism of the Catholic Church, this sentence also came to mind:

CCC 487 - What the Catholic faith believes about Mary is based on what it believes about Christ, and what it teaches about Mary illumines in turn its faith in Christ.

It was important for JPII to write this chapter on Christ, for Mary being human like us, needs always to be seen in relation to and dependent on God. By His Grace may we continue to ponder the Truth of God’s plan for us, as men and women created in His Image and Likeness; and to ponder, perhaps anew, Mary’s unique place in our lives.