Behold, your mother!
 

“Standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing beside her, he said to his mother, ‘Woman, behold, your son!’ Then he said to the disciple, ‘Behold, your mother!’ And from that hour the disciple took her into his own home.”
 

Perhaps, like many others, you went out or cycled on 1 May in this year’s glorious sunshine and enjoyed nature, alone or in a distinguished group. In our part of the world, May, as the month of spring, stands for life blossoming in abundance.

As Labour Day, the May holiday is celebrated internationally. In the Catholic world, May has long been regarded as the month of Mary. That may be a coincidence, but it fits well: images of the Mother of God as a woman of the (working) people are found in all Catholic countries, especially in the poorest huts in the world. Mary is regarded by many as a bearer of hope in hopeless situations. “Standing by the cross of Jesus was his mother” (John 19:25). As the Mother of God, Mary is often still stereotypically portrayed as the humble, meek “handmaid of the Lord” (Luke 1:38) who accepts everything. In the Bible, however, she is presented to us in a far more nuanced way.

Mary appears in the New Testament in only a relatively few passages, but there she is certainly portrayed in a complex manner.

With the Magnificat, Mary’s hymn of praise to the Lord (Luke 1:46–55), the evangelist Luke instils a socially critical attitude in virtually every devout Christian: God “brings down the powerful from their thrones and lifts up the lowly. He fills the hungry with good things and sends the rich away empty-handed” (Luke 1:52ff.).

At the wedding at Cana (John 2:1–11), Mary believes in her Son’s power. She does not hesitate to call upon his authority and ask him for help. And she does so not because it is a matter of life and death, but so that everyone may rejoice and celebrate exuberantly: ‘When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no more wine.” Jesus replied to her, ‘Woman, what concern is that to you and me? My hour has not yet come.’ His mother said to the servants, ‘Do whatever he tells you!’” (John 2:3–5) From this perspective, the joyful month of May as the month of Mary makes sense, without detracting from the Passion of Jesus and the suffering of his mother.

Why do we, as Christians, look to Mary? Like other children, Jesus learned from his parents. When, from the cross, he entrusted his mother—who remained steadfast by his side in the agony of his death—to his beloved disciple (“Behold your mother!”, John 19:27), we as faithful Christians can understand this as an invitation to take Mary as our model. With her “Fiat” (Luke 1:38), she expressed devotion and trust in God from the very beginning, thereby making Jesus’ earthly life possible in the first place. With a socially critical attitude (Luke 1:52ff.), she simultaneously embraces a life of abundance (the wedding at Cana), which springs from her intimate relationship with God.

Dear readers, the next time you encounter depictions of Mary in a church or whilst walking through nature, take this as an opportunity to view the Mother of God through the nuanced lens of the biblical Mary, and in doing so, to deepen your own following of Jesus.

Barbara Heitfeld