The Power of the Marian Connection (1) — Can the mother of God ‘Connect’ us to God?
1. The in-vogue mundane idea of ‘connections’
Sometime in the past, a friend had the privilege of participating in a special group audience with the pope; during which, he shaked hands with the pope, chattered briefly with him and also snapped personal pictures with him. With joy and with some sense of disbelief, he often recounts how it was made possible. That pope had visited his country a few years earlier. The glamour and the grace brought by the papal visit made a deep impression on him. The words spoken by the pope during and henceforth after the visit, became a principle of life for him. He has come to love that pope. But he could not come as near as 500 meters from where the pope was, when he was in his country. But from then on he admired the pope and longed to meet one day with him, even if for one minute. A few years later, his desire, perhaps, led him to meet and make friends with a person whose friend could make his dream come true. This friend of his friend, conveyed his desire to those who could make it possible, appealing on his behalf and vouching for him. Three months later, he was invited to meet with, talk and take photos with the pope he loved. He could have made it on his own after many years and many attempts, but his friends who were closer to the pope, made it quicker and easier for him.
The foregoing is an imaginary depiction that convey to us — though poorly — the power of social connections and how such networks of friendships or chains of relationship work, for the advantage of those who have access to it. By ‘connections’ here, we refer to the profitable usage of social contacts and networks of relationships; we refer to the leverages afforded us by the influence of the people we know or are connected with; we refer to ‘access’ permitted by human linkages and structures; or amenities granted by webs of interconnection; or patronage received in reciprocity to the merits of other people. In this sense, ‘connections’ — whether social or spiritual — are privileged persons. What we call ‘connections’ are privileged ‘insiders’ — insider persons or insider agencies or insider third-parties — that aid the better attainment of the general goals or particular aspirations or even unanticipated advantage, of outsiders; — ‘outsiders’ here, referring to persons outside the given privileged circle of influence or realm of power, and who have need of an auxiliary or an accessory, to better meet some desired ends.
By the power of ‘connections’ is intended that access or ascendancy made possible by a privileged circle of influence; or that prosperity or possibility one obtains on account of the intervention or intercession of a privileged advocate or the inter-mediation of a favoured intermediary; or those opportunities or conveniences facilitated by friendships or fraternizations; or those times when we enjoy privileges or prerogatives because of friendships or familiarity; or even those situations of exemption or vindication enabled by our acquaintance or affiliations. Here, what we call ‘connections’ is the power of third-party influence or the power of relationships or better still, the power and influence of third-party relationships. In this sense, ‘connections’ not only aid a better actualisation of plans and potentials, ‘connections’ create possibilities. In some sense, the power of connections make difficult things to become easy; in some sense ‘connections’ even make impossible things to become possible.
Nowadays, the power of ‘connections’ or ‘contacts’ and the benefits thereof, are common themes among preachers, speakers and teachers of all walks of life. Such ‘connections’ — that is, the influence of familiar relationships, networks, friendly rapports — have been rightly identified as an undeniable and even indispensable factor in the corporate world of today; in attaining certain cadres in the ladder of success or feats, in social and professional engagements; in achieving ascendancy, quickly, easily, in political and business lives of individuals; in attaining the goals of corporate groups. The benefits of the social phenomenon called ‘connections’ has been recognized and even practiced; so much so that, in some quarters of society today, people value ‘connections’ and ‘networks’ over and above dexterity and merit. While the latter situation is a regrettable misplacement of values — common in the imperfect world of man — it yet does not nullify the rightful place and power of appropriate and useful ‘connections’ as a legitimate aid in attaining desired ends or promptly accomplishing worthwhile objectives.
2. The mother of God as a providential ‘connection’ to God
In this reflection, we shall task our minds to think on how, in many ways, the Blessed Virgin Mary connects us to all of the powers of heaven, the powers that be in heaven; that is to say, how in connection with the Virgin Mary, the mother of God, we are linked, not only to the Most Blessed Trinity, but indeed to all the inhabitants of heaven; namely: the Divinity or Trinity, the hosts of angels and the multitudes of saints — that is, the glorious band of apostles, the joyful company of martyrs, as well as the legions of spirits and souls of the just made perfect. There is a real and concrete way, in which the Virgin Mary is connected to or associated with, all categories of beings in heaven. Whether we speak of the Trinity or the angels or the saints, the mother of Jesus possesses a super-privileged access to all the inhabitants of heaven, that qualifies as an exclusive prerogative, a singular, unequalled endowment. Of course, this exceptional benefaction on Mary, is linked to God’s gift to her, of the fullness of grace. (Lk 1:28) It is both biblical and historical, both mystical and factual, both transcendental and rational. Thus, no one, nothing, can do better than Mary, in linking us to Jesus and connecting us to God.
The good news is, there is one of us who reigns with God in heaven. There is one of our human kindred who is God’s favourite. There is a human being like us who is so close to God and so directly linked to God as a mother is to a son. God has a Son and the Son of God has a mother. The mother of the Son of God is the mother of God. Yes, God has a mother! God has a mother because Jesus Christ the Son of God is also the Son of Man; Jesus Christ the son of the Virgin Mary is truly God, that is, he is one in essence and being with God, but he is also truly man, that is, he is one in essence and being with men; because Jesus Christ the Son of God is a human being, by nature, not by grace, by being not by adoption. God has a mother because, at the mystery of the incarnation of God, human nature was joined to the divine nature of Christ and both were perfectly united in the one and single person of Jesus Christ, the second person of the Divine Trinity. Jesus Christ is one person, but he possesses two natures: divine and human — which are distinct but inseparable and are perfectly united in the one person of the second person of God.
This idea of one single person who, at once, is both God and man is the proposition of the Christological doctrines of dyophysis and hypostasis. The proposition holds that the essence of Jesus’ divine nature is from his divine Father and that the essence of Jesus’ human nature is from his human mother. Therefore, Jesus is a Godman and indeed the Godman. His Father is divine. His mother is human. He is truly and fully divine. He is also truly and fully human. In this Godman — Jesus Christ — at once, divinity and humanity. dwell in one single person. The doctrine of the Godman is the mystery of the hypostatic union as defined by the Council of Chalcedon in 451 AD and expressed in the Athanasian Creed, but it has also another clue for us — God has a human mother, who is close to him in the glory and abundance of heaven. The doctrine of hypostasis is intricately linked to that of theotokos — God has a mother! This truth that God has a mother who is close or connected to him, like every mother to her son, and the fact that this mother of God is human like us, understands us and can advocate for us before God, is nothing but providential. It is providence giving humanity an insider in heaven!
This link between us and the powers of heaven, through the agency of the Blessed Virgin Mary — the mother of the Lord Jesus — is what we have called the “Marian connection’. This Marian ‘connection’, it must be said, is not a ‘connection’ we enjoy with the Virgin Mary per se — since the holy mother of God is not an end in herself, and seeks nothing for herself, but seeks out all for her son. The Marian connection, rather, is a ‘connection we enjoy with God through his handmaid, Mary; with Jesus through his mother, Mary; and with the Holy Spirit through his immaculate spouse, Mary. The Marian connection is not a search for Mary, but a search for Jesus through Mary — Jesus being the Way and Mary being the one who shows the Way. The Marian connection, has God as its origin, its purpose and its end. It has Jesus as its inspiration, its object and its consummation. The Marian connection has God as its intention, salvation as its culmination and heaven as its destination. Therefore, the idea of the Marian connection, is only a process of realising the quest of the human spirit for God, and not an end in its own self. The Marian connection always has three coordinate points, namely: the baptized or believer, the Virgin Mary and Jesus or God; corresponding to: the outsider or the seeker, the insider or the connection and the great good that is sought — in which case the Virgin Mary is but the privileged and providential insider-connection.
We shall therefore, proceed to share, in simple reflections and inferences, how it happens that when we are ‘connected’ to the most holy virgin mother of God, through her, as through a mediator, we are also connected to God the Father, to God the Son, to God the Holy Spirit, to the Angels and to the Saints; and this is the entirety of the citizenry of our heavenly homeland. We shall see how, the ‘Marian connection’ is without doubt, the most profitable and the most valuable of all possible ‘connections’ — social or spiritual — that anyone can ever possess or seek to possess; since the Virgin Mary, by reason of her person and of her purpose, connects us to the real powers that be, whether it be in the realm of heaven, of the earth or under the earth.
3. The Virgin Mary — God’s most highly favoured creature
The mother of Jesus, the Blessed Virgin Mary, is the most highly favoured and the most highly blessed of all the creatures of God — in heaven, on earth and under the earth. This is what the angel Gabriel summed up when he said ‘“Greetings, you who are highly favoured!” and when he said ““Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favour with God.” (Lk 1:28,30) It is true that, of all creatures of the entire universe of being, the Blessed Virgin Mary is the only one that enjoys a triple divine affiliation: and this is with none other than the Triune Godhead, the Most Holy Trinity. The Sacred Tradition of the Church, therefore, rightly acknowledges her as daughter of the God the Father, mother of God the Son and spouse of God the Holy Spirit.
These adulations are not merely emotion-driven or superficial; they are not unfounded or unbiblical. They flow consequentially from the Virgin Mary’s God-assigned historical role in the economy of human salvation. They are predicated on her duty as the mother of Jesus Christ and as that chaste spouse on whom the divine Spirit descended and in whom he generated the Godman and incarnated the word-made-flesh. But first and above all, they are hinged on her total self-relinquishment and utter self-submissiveness as the handmaid of God. Mary is that true daughter of Zion, who harkens to the voice of the Lord, the God of Israel and whose beauty the King has desired. (Ps. 45:9–11) Mary is that handmaid who bows before the King and serves Him with all her heart, with all her soul, with all her mind and with all her strength. (Ps. 45:10; Dt. 6:5; Mt. 22:37) And this is the path to high favour!
The Virgin Mary is the woman who found such great favour with God. Mary is God’s ‘most highly favoured’ one; and for this the angel declared to her the assurance of God “Fear not … the Lord is with you.’ (Lk. 1:30,28) Mary is the maiden favoured, chosen and endowed by the Lord of all things; and with whom God himself abides. Mary is that maiden of ancient messianic prophecy, who shall conceive and bear a son, whose name shall be Emmanuel; the Messiah, the one who shall reign on the throne of David forever. (Lk. 1:32: 2Sm. 7:12–13; Is. 9:6–7) Mary is that vessel of honour set aside for the purposes of God (Rm. 9:21); she is the new ark of the new covenant, prepared and adorned for the Incarnation of God, who is the priest and progenitor of the new law. Mary is the undefiled temple made fitting for the dwelling of the divine Spirit. (1Cor. 3:16; 6:19) Mary belongs to God and possess God more than anyone can ever do, now or in the future. Mary is so conformed to God that she shares even her human form with God. Mary is so yielded to God that only God is found in her. Mary so belongs to God, that the human form of God can came directly from her. If Mary so belongs to God, then all who truly belong to Mary, belong too, to God, on account of her.
The quintessence of the Blessed Virgin Mary is in her favour with God. The excellence of the Virgin Mary is in God’s gift to her of the fulness of grace. The ever-blessedness of the ever-virgin Mary is first and always the work of God — the author of all good. But the Virgin Mary had also a role to play in it. The Virgin Mary had a hand in the realisation and fruition of her blessedness and high favour. She was not a passive channel of grace or an inactive conduit of the incarnation; she was not an ‘envelop’ for Christ, as some Protestant anti-Mary malefactors would say. Like all creatures, Mary had a choice to yield to the gift of grace and to submit to the plan of God or to reject it — since God only woos but never compels us. God never violates our freewill. He did not constrain Mary, he gave her grace and allowed her to cooperate with it. Just as he gave Adam and Eve freedom to choose between his directives and those of the serpent, God gave Mary a chance to say yes or no to the message of Angel Gabriel. Gladly, Mary freely gave her consent, saying: “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord, be it done to me according to your word” then the angel happily left her. (Lk 1:38) Thus, Mary’s unsurpassable, unendable, favour is also a function of her perfect conformity to the will of God.
Here again, the Virgin Mary comes to our aid! Here she teaches us, in the mystery of her own life and her own ‘favour’ the path to the favour of God. Here she teaches us the secrets of ‘blessedness’ according to the parameters of God. One day, a woman said to Jesus “Blessed is the womb that bore you, and blessed are the breasts that nursed you!” But He replied, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it.” (11:27–28) Exactly as his own mother did. Mary heard the word of God and obeyed it. The events of the life of the Virgin Mary are lessons in the science of the ways of God. One of such lessons is the sapience of resignation of the will and abandonment of the self to God’s plan, even when we do not know all the details. Mary trusted the plan of God, as announced to her by the angel and signed up to it, with confidence in divine providence. She did not know all the details. That was why she asked the angel “How can this be” (Lk 1:34). But at the assurance that the Holy Spirit would be in charge of the process, she gave her consent and like Abraham, proceeded on the journey to the unknown. Even before Jesus spoke the words “blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed” (Jn 20:29) Mary had already put it into action. When we come to Mary, she teaches us the secret of her ‘connection’ with God. When we come to Mary she shows us the way to find favour with God. But the greatest of the ‘favours’ she obtains for us is to learn and live the science of the ways of God.
Michael Richmond Duru
24th May 2022
https://michaelrichmondduru.medium.com/subscribe
