Dear brothers & sisters in Christ,
Last week, you have heard about how Mary is linked to the priesthood by the Mystery of the Incarnation. We saw parallels in Mary and the priest’s role in making possible God the Son’s presence in the world for our redemption; in engendering life and being at the service of mankind or life; in their motherhood in the Holy Spirit; in the offering of their lives to God as a worship; and in offering Christ to the Father for the expiation of our sins.
Drawing further from Cardinal Rivera’s text, presented in the second International Encounter of Priests in 1997, we shall now see Mary’s presence in the priest’s pastoral ministry.
The Virgin is an “operative presence” throughout history, especially in the “centre of the pilgrim Church”, where she performs multiple functions: cooperating with the birth of the faithful into the life of grace, showing how to follow Christ, and providing “motherly mediation”. In their pastoral ministry in the life of the Church, priests live out this motherly presence when God’s word, faithfully welcomed and given through preaching and baptism, engenders into new and immortal life the children conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of God.
Mary’s spirit of service is shown by the concrete service, i.e. to the Church, that must animate the spiritual existence of every priest, because of his configuration with Jesus Christ, Head and Servant of the Church.
The parallels show how Mary and priests are both committed to the mission of proclaiming, bearing witness to and giving Christ to the world. This is partly why she loves them specially, said Pope Benedict XVI in his General Audience on 12 August 2009. The other reason is that they are more like Jesus, the supreme love of her heart. But Mary’s preferential love for priests is above all due to the special relationship of motherhood existing between them. Nearing His death on the Cross, Jesus entrusted His mother to His beloved disciple and vice versa. The Holy Father pointed out that this beloved disciple prefigures all the people called by the Lord to be the “beloved disciple” and thus also particularly priests. St. John took Jesus’ mother, Mary, “to his own home”; in Greek translation this means that he took Mary into the depths of his being, bringing her into the dynamism of his own entire existence. Because the priest is identified with and sacramentally conformed to Jesus, Son of God and Son of Mary, every priest can and must feel that he really is a specially beloved son of this loftiest and humblest of Mothers, so said the Pope.
Now, does the priestly nature of Mary’s role in our redemption point to God’s approval of women priests ordination? The answer is no. Why? Because Jesus Christ did not allow it. I quote Pope John Paul II, “…the priest represents Christ himself in his relationship to the Church. Now, this relationship is spousal in nature: Christ is the bridegroom…; the Church is the bride…. Because the relationship between Christ and the Church is validly expressed in sacramental Orders, it is necessary that Christ be represented by a man. The distinction between the sexes is very significant in this case and cannot be disregarded without undermining the sacrament.” (unquote)
He further stated: “Mary was not called to the ministerial priesthood. But the mission she received had no less value than a pastoral ministry; indeed, it was quite superior. She received a maternal mission at the highest level--to be the mother of Jesus Christ, and thus the Mother of God. This mission would broaden into a motherhood for all men and women in the order of grace.” (unquote) Thus Mary showed us that by total obedience to God’s plan for us, which He would assign according to our nature as man or woman, we will bear fruits for His kingdom.
We have seen Mary’s link to the priesthood from the theological and pastoral and spiritual viewpoints. Thus is Mariology, the theology concerned with Mary, crucial in the formation of priests, as Cardinal Rivera stressed. I quote him, “The spirituality that the Church wants in her priests is inspired in the spirituality of Mary.” Such is the importance of our Blessed Mother in the priestly vocation, which we will share with you next week.
Amen.
References:
C., Norbeto Rivera. 9 July 1997. The Blessed Virgin Mary in the Life and Ministry of the Priest, Conference of Mons. Norberto Rivera, Yamaussoukro. Retrieved 11 January 2010 from the Vatican website: http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cclergy/documents/rc_con_cclergy_doc_ 19071997_ conri_en.html
Benedict XVI. 12 August 2009. General Audience, Papal Summer Residence, Castel Gandolfo. Retrieved 11 November 2009 from the Vatican website: http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/ benedict_xvi/ audiences/2009/documents/ hf_ ben-xvi_aud_20090812_en.html
John Paul II. 27 July 1994. General Audience: Women and the Ministerial Priesthood. Retrieved 15 January 2010 from the Vatican website: http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/audiences/ alpha/data/aud19940727en.html
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