Mary as a Disciple of the Trinity

Religious Studies Capstone

Lauren Bollweg
April 19th, 2019
Advisor: Dr. Amanda Osheim
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Introduction

The goodness and holiness of Mary are fruits of her dignity as a person created

in the image and likeness of God, and, as such, she followed the will of God in order to

become fully who He had created to be. Her “fiat”, or yes to the will of God, came from

her obedience, faith, and willingness to serve, and from that came her virginity. Mary

should be admired for her great example of discipleship, courage, and sensitivity to

her purpose of living as a pure vessel rather than known only for her glorified virginity.

At the root of the faithful discipleship of Mary lies her relationship with each

person of the Trinity. In order to begin to understand and discuss her Trinitarian

discipleship, it is necessary to consider who and what the Trinity is. St. Augustine’s

The Trinity, a series of writings composed over the span of fifteen to twenty years, is a

reliable source when discussing the Trinity. Augustine’s views typically take on

Neoplatonist, idealistic tones. In contrast, Elizabeth Johnson takes a more Aristotelian

approach when it comes to topics such as Mary; Johnson seeks to get to know who

Mary is at the core of her being rather than as an “ideal woman.” Because of this,

Johnson’s Truly our Sister explores in great detail the historical context Mary of

Nazareth lived in and how her Jewish roots shaped her into a woman of faith.

John Paul II wrote several documents during his papacy, and many of them

included information about Mary. However, these documents were often written more

pastorally and have a delivery similar to a homily rather than a papal encyclical. For

this reason it is important to keep in mind that John Paull II was not necessarily

using scripture in a historically critical way, and, therefore, these sources should not

be read as such; instead, the writings of John Paul II should be read as of someone

with great devotion to Mary and who understood her discipleship well.
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Several sources and authors will be quoted and paraphrased in the following

pages. The tensions and similarities in the writings of Augustine, Elizabeth Johnson,

and John Paul II will specifically be explored and noted.

John Paul II said that because Mary is the Mother of the Son of God, “she is

also the favorite daughter of the Father and the temple of the Holy Spirit.”1 However,

this relationship did not happen without reason or consent. Mary’s fiat, her ultimate

“yes” to the will of God, led to the fulfillment of her vocational role as the mother of the

“fruit of her womb,” the begotten Son of God, Jesus Christ.

1 John Paul II, “Redemptoris Mater,” (The Vatican, 1987), 9.

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The Trinity

“Even if by the power of your imagination you magnify the light of the sun in

your mind as much as you are able, either that it may be greater or that it may be

brighter, a thousand times as much or innumerable times, yet even this is not God.”2

Though scholars and theologians such as Augustine have researched and theorized in

order to understand and explain the vastness of the Trinity, the ultimate truth of the

triune God is one that cannot be fully understood without the grace of God. Augustine

writes on the importance of having faith before searching for the answers to

unanswerable questions: “We desire to understand the eternity, the equality, and the

unity of the Trinity, insofar as it is granted to us; but we must believe before we

understand, and be on our guard that our faith may not be feigned, for we must find

our enjoyment in this same Trinity in order to live blessedly.”3 As one of the many

mysteries of the Catholic faith, it might even be said that the Trinity is not meant to be

fully understood by the people of God. Nevertheless, St. Augustine is a good source to

turn to in an attempt to begin to understand the Trinity.

The purpose of beginning this thesis, which explores the deep faith of Mary,

with a section on the Trinity is to further dive into who and what the Trinity is; in

order to understand Mary as an example of great discipleship, it is wise to first

understand her relationship with the Trinity. St. Augustine’s works and writings on

understanding the Trinity as the lover, beloved, and the love between do well to ignore

most types of cultural bias that include imagery of God as Father. This type of

2 Augustine, and Stephen McKenna, The Trinity (Washington, D. C.: Catholic University of America Press,
2002), 246.
3 Ibid., 253.
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neutrality is helpful when attempting to reach outside of personal biases in order to

understand the theology of the Christian Trinity.

In his writings titled, The Trinity, Augustine prefaces his theological explanation

of the Trinity with a note on the importance of the equality of the Trinity. He says, “So

great is the equality in this Trinity, that not only is the Father not greater than the Son

in that which pertains to the divinity, but neither are the Father and the Son anything

greater than the Holy Spirit, nor is each person singly, whichever of the three it may

be, anything less than the Trinity itself.”4

After establishing this equality, Augustine continues in writing about how a

person is to respond to the equality and goodness of the Trinity. He does so by

discussing what it is to be a soul. Catherine Mowry Lacugna writes in God For Us that

“A theme at the center of Augustine’s writings on the Trinity is his “theo-psychology of

the soul created in the image of the Trinity and longing to return to God; here

Augustine displays deep affinity with the neo-Platonic philosopher Plotinus (205-270),

whose writings he studied through translations by Marius Victorinus.”5

Augustine begins by making a distinction between a “real soul” and a “great

soul,” saying that a real soul is not necessarily a great soul, or “since the essence of

the body and the soul is not the essence of the truth itself, as the Trinity is the one,

the only, the great, the true, the truthful God, Truth itself.”6 In this way, the Trinity

and truth cannot be separated, but the soul and goodness can be. For a real soul that

is not yet great to strive towards this goodness, Augustine states that “it can only

4 Ibid., 244.
5 Catherine Mowry Lacugna, God For Us: The Trinity & Christian Life (San Francisco, Harper Collins,
1991), 82.
6 Augustine, and Stephen McKenna, The Trinity (Washington, D. C.: Catholic University of America Press,

2002), 246.
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reach this goal by turning towards something which itself is not. But to what else can

it turn in order to become a good soul, than to the good which it loves, desires, and

obtains?”7 In order to define this goodness, Augustine discusses the being to whom

the soul must turn so that it can become good: God. In trying to see goodness on its

own, “you will see God who is good not by another good, but is the good of every good;”

God should be loved “as good itself.”8 Augustine later describes loving God as

requiring that one who loves God “must logically do what God has commanded, and

loves Him just as much as he does so.”9 Following the commands of God requires

turning towards and loving the goodness that is God, and, in doing so, the “real” soul

reflects that goodness and becomes a “great” soul: “For the good of the soul that is to

be sought is not that over which one flies by judging, but that to which one adheres by

loving, and what is this but God? Not the good soul, nor the good angel, nor the good

heaven, but the good good.”10

Lacugna later noted that Augustine’s interest in writing about the soul stems

from his intense concern with the salvation of humanity; “He believed that

contemplating the image of the Trinity in the soul was a means of return to the God

whom the soul images. By knowing itself, the soul knows God.”11 For this reason, the

goodness and value of the soul are important to keep in mind when seeking to

understand the Trinitarian analogies Augustine writes about. One of the many

analogies Augustine uses to describe the Trinity is that of the mind, its love and its

knowledge and the trinity they make when they are perfect in equality. This perfection

7 Ibid., 249.
8 Ibid., 248.
9 Ibid., 261.
10 Ibid., 248.
11 Catherine Mowry Lacugna, God For Us: The Trinity & Christian Life (San Francisco, Harper Collins,

1991), 83.
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coincides with the greatness of the soul as mentioned previously. “When the mind,

therefore, knows itself fully and nothing else with itself, then its knowledge is equal to

it, because its knowledge is not from another nature when it knows itself. And when it

perceives itself fully and nothing more, then its knowledge is neither less nor greater

than itself.”12 Augustine later writes specifically on the notion of knowledge:

“Everything which we know begets the knowledge of itself within us at the same time.

For knowledge is born from both, from the one who knows and the object that is

known. When the mind, therefore, knows itself, it alone is the parent of its own

knowledge, for it is itself both the object known and the one that knows. It was,

however, knowable to itself, even before it knew itself; but the knowledge of itself was

not in it, since it had not yet known itself. Hence, when it knows itself, it begets a

knowledge of itself that is equal to itself.”13

Augustine describes the mind, love, and knowledge, not as three parts of a

whole, but rather each whole in and of themselves. “No part embraces the whole of

which it is a part; but when the mind knows itself as a whole, that is, knows itself

perfectly, its knowledge extends through the whole of it; and when it loves itself

perfectly, it loves itself as a whole, and its love diffuses itself through the whole of it.”14

These three, when they are whole and perfect, are inseparable and within each other

mutually “in such a way that the mind that loves is in the love, and love is in the

knowledge of him that loves, and knowledge is in the mind that knows.”15

12 Augustine, and Stephen McKenna, The Trinity (Washington, D. C.: Catholic University of America Press,
2002), 274.
13 Ibid., 287.
14 Ibid., 276.
15 Ibid., 277.
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Augustine completes this analogy and the similarities to the Trinity are evident;

“There is a certain image of the Trinity: the mind itself, its knowledge, which is its

offspring, and love as a third; these three are one and one substance. The offspring is

not less, while the mind knows itself as much as it is; nor is the love less, while the

mind loves itself as much as it knows and as much as it is.”16

Augustine’s analogy of the mind, knowledge, and love fits well with the concept

of the Trinity. Augustine noted the following about knowledge: “Knowledge is both its

image and its word, because it is an expression of that mind and is equaled to it by

knowing, and because what is begotten is equal to its begetter.”17 This imagery about

knowledge does well to echo John 1: 1-3: “In the beginning was the Word, and the

Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All

things came to be through him, and without him nothing came to be.”18 This “word of

God,” begotten by the mind, displays the relationship between the God the Father and

God the Son. Because of this, Augustine’s analogy of the mind, knowledge, and love so

clearly agrees with his previous statement about the Trinity: “Let us believe that the

Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are one God, the Creator, and the ruler of the

whole creature; that the Father is not the Son, nor is the Holy Spirit the Father or the

Son, but that there is a trinity of inter-related persons, and the unity of an equal

substance.”19

Augustine later writes within another Trinitarian analogy: “Love is of someone

who loves, and something is loved with love. So then there are three: the lover, the

16 Ibid., 289.
17 Ibid., 286.
18 Anselm Study Bible, ed. Carolyn Osiek (Winona: Anselm Acd. Press), John 1:1-3.
19 Augustine, and Stephen McKenna, The Trinity (Washington, D. C.: Catholic University of America Press,

2002), 270.
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beloved, and the love.”20 For Augustine, love takes on many roles. Love is an action,

love is a state of being, love is a gift. Above all, though, God is love; “the more we are

full of love, and of what, if not of God, is he full who is full of love?”21 If God is love, the

Trinity exemplifies love perfectly in all ways. The Trinity can be made into distinct

people, though not separated, as God as the Lover, Christ as the Beloved, and the

Holy Spirit as the Love. The Beloved is “an example of humility to manifest God’s love

for us…The humility, whereby God was born of a woman and was led through such

great insults to His death by mortal men, is the most excellent medicine by which the

swelling of our pride may be cured, and the exalted mystery by which the chain of sin

may be broken.”22 Augustine describes the Holy Spirit as the love between the Lover

and the Beloved, and this love is “the Gift that proceeds from the joint Giver, Father-

Son.”23 This analogy of love is similar to Augustine’s previous analogy of the mind,

love, and knowledge in the way that the three work in a Trinitarian way. All three are

whole on their own but cannot be separated, and each works within and through

another.

Augustine’s analogous writings and understanding of the Trinity begs the

question: How should the human person react to the vastness of the Trinity? The

answer is similar to how the soul ought to react to the goodness of God; one must turn

towards and live in love in order to know God. Augustine says that a person who does

not love their neighbor or lacks in acting out of love will fail to see the Trinity, for “he

who is not in love is not in God, because God is love…If, however, he loved him whom

he sees by human sight with a spiritual love, he would see God, who is love itself, with

20 Ibid., 266.
21 Ibid., 263.
22 Ibid., 252.
23 Catherine Mowry Lacugna, God For Us: The Trinity & Christian Life (San Francisco, Harper Collins,

1991), 87.
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that inner sight by which He can be seen.”24 A person must turn to love in order to

know Love itself. However, faith must accompany this turning towards love. Augustine

notes that God “must be loved by faith; otherwise, the heart cannot be cleansed so as

to be fit and ready to see Him…Even He who is not known, but in whom one believes,

is already loved.”25

As was noted previously, the concept of the Trinity asks questions that are

unanswerable as it is one of the most difficult mysteries of the Catholic Church.

Augustine’s analogies are helpful in understanding who the Trinity is, but, again, faith

is ultimately necessary in knowing Love; faith allows that “He may be known more

clearly, and that He may be loved more fervently.”26

24 Augustine, and Stephen McKenna, The Trinity (Washington, D. C.: Catholic University of America Press,
2002), 264.
25 Ibid., 251.
26 Ibid., 266.
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Mary’s Fiat

John Paul II wrote several documents that grappled with the beauty and the

mystery of Mary as the Mother of God, human dignity, and following the will of God.

One document in particular that discusses specifically the dignity and vocation of

women in great lengths is titled Mulieris Dignitatem. In it, John Paul II notes that

union with God is ultimately the vocation that truly and fully upholds the dignity of

each human person; “No human being, male or female, created in the image and

likeness of God, can in any way attain fulfillment apart from this image and

likeness.”27 He describes Mary as the “most complete expression” of this union.28

Mary clearly models this expression of discipleship in the first chapter of the

Gospel of Luke, where she embraces the vocational question all men and women face

in her fiat, or her surrender to the will of God. In response to the angel announcing

the coming of Christ, Mary said, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be

done to me according to your word.”29 In another of John Paul II’s documents,

Redemptoris Mater, which means ‘Mother of the Redeemer,’ John Paul II writes that

Mary’s acceptance of this angelic announcement allowed that “the divine mystery of

the Incarnation was to be accomplished in her.”30 Her consent “was decisive, on the

human level, for the accomplishment of the divine mystery.”31

Mary’s obedience was first rooted in faith. Her faith gave her the strength to

take on the title of “handmaid of the Lord” and live up to all that would ask of her.

27 John Paul II, “Mulieris Dignitatem,” (The Vatican, 1988), 5.

28 Ibid.
29 Anselm Study Bible, ed. Carolyn Osiek (Winona: Anselm Acd. Press), Luke 1: 38.
30 John Paul II, “Redemptoris Mater,” (The Vatican, 1987), 13.
31 Ibid.
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John Paul II said that by trusting and having faith that God’s will was good, Mary

“devoted herself totally as the handmaid of the Lord to the person and work of her

Son."32 Any fiat is ultimately the recognition of and the response to grace. Mary

recognized God’s gift of grace in the conception of His Son, and her acceptance of this

gift allows her to be described as “full of grace.” John Paul II notes that this grace is

important because “it is precisely in her that the Incarnation of the Word, the

hypostatic union of the Son of God with human nature, is accomplished and

fulfilled.”33

Mary’s fiat is an ageless example of surrender to a vocation. Though her

situation of an angel declaring a virginal pregnancy is not exactly relatable to most

people, the trust and faith she displayed make her a great example of discipleship. Her

agreement to God’s plan was fully her decision, yet, as John Paul II explains, it still

“included both perfect cooperation with ‘the grace of God that precedes and assists’

and perfect openness to the action of the Holy Spirit, who ‘constantly brings faith to

completion by his gifts.’”34 God gave free will only to humans; however, to quote Paul

VI’s Gaudium et Spes, men and women "cannot fully find himself except through a

sincere gift of self."35 God desires that all people live to the fullest extent of humanity,

and so He offers this life as a vocation that each person can either deny or embrace as

Mary did. “Each one reaches this final goal by fidelity to his or her own vocation; this

goal provides meaning and direction for the earthly labours of men and women

alike.”36

32 Ibid.
33 Ibid., 9.
34 Ibid., 13.
35 Paul VI, “Gaudium et Spes,” (The Vatican, 1965), 24.
36 John Paul II, “Letter of Pope John Paul II to Women,” (The Vatican, 1995), 10.
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Augustine’s Trinitarian image of mind, knowledge, and love appears to be

mirrored in Mary’s fiat. In Redemptoris Mater, John Paul II quoted Dei Verbum, a

document from the Second Vatican Council, and said, “At the Annunciation Mary

entrusted herself to God completely, with the ‘full submission of intellect and will,’

manifesting ‘the obedience of faith" to him who spoke to her through his

messenger.’”37 In fully submitting her intellect and will out of love for her Lord, Mary

makes a Trinitarian sacrifice of her own in order to obediently live as a disciple to the

Holy Trinity.

Mary responded to God’s gift with her fiat, and her “yes” not only quite literally

birthed the savior of the world, but it also became the foundation on which the church

began. In turn, the response to fiat is God’s action. When a person allows that God’s

will be done, He allows His people to receive the gifts of His grace over and over again.

Human history is a record of the ways God has respected the free will of the faithful,

and therefore, all of His actions have been in response to the many fiats, small and

surrendering, of His people.38

37 John Paul II, “Redemptoris Mater,” (The Vatican, 1987), 13.

38 John Paul II, “Mulieris Dignitatem,” (The Vatican, 1988), 5.
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Daughter of God the Father

Among her many titles, one that is a bit less common but still of great

importance is that of Mary as a daughter of God the Father. John Paul II described

daughters and sisters well when he thanked them in his Letter to Women, saying,

“Thank you, women who are daughters and women who are sisters! Into the heart of

the family, and then of all society, you bring the richness of your sensitivity, your

intuitiveness, your generosity and fidelity.”39 Mary was not unlike her fellow sisters as

a daughter of God; she, too, was generous, sensitive, and faithful towards those

around her, especially her family. As with all of His children, God delighted in Mary as

His child. This was confirmed by Gabriel in Luke: “And coming to her, he said, “Hail,

favored one! The Lord is with you.” But she was greatly troubled at what was said and

pondered what sort of greeting this might be. Then the angel said to her, “Do not be

afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.”40

As a young Jewish woman, Mary would have first understood her identity as a

daughter of God through the Jewish customs that were surely present in her family.

Elizabeth Johnson writes extensively on the historical person of Mary, and, in Truly

Our Sister, she states that “[Mary’s] faith in God was shaped by the covenant forged at

Mount Sinai, nourished by dramatic Jewish narratives of God’s saving deeds in

history, and expressed in the prayers, festivals, rituals, and ethical observance of

Torah characteristic of this religious tradition.”41 Especially during the time of Jesus’s

childhood, Mary would have been leading her family in following Jewish Law and

customs. Johnson presumes that the household of the Holy Family “was an observant

39 John Paul II, “Letter of Pope John Paul II to Women,” (The Vatican, 1995), 2.
40 Anselm Study Bible, ed. Carolyn Osiek (Winona: Anselm Acd. Press), Luke 1:28-30.
41 Elizabeth Johnson, Truly Our Sister (New York: The Continuum International Publishing Group Inc.,

2003), 162.
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Jewish household that lived their faith in the one God of Israel in the daily rounds of

ordinary life in Galilee, in Sabbath rest and prayer, and, occasionally, in festival

pilgrimages to the temple in Jerusalem.”42 This was the religion Mary grew up knowing

and loving, and she and Joseph took on the job of teaching the Son of God to do the

same.

Johnson notes an incredibly important prayer in the Jewish faith, which is that

of the Shema: “Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone! Therefore, you

shall love the Lord, your God, with your whole heart, and with your whole being, and

with your whole strength.”43 This confession of faith places extraordinary emphasis on

the “relationship between the people and the one God, the incomparable Creator of the

Universe, who acts in history to redeem and to save.”44 The importance of this

relationship is later echoed by Jesus in his ministry as he preached that to love God

completely is the first and greatest commandment.45

Johnson seems to echo the words of John Paul II when explaining how the gift

of God’s grace played a role in Jewish practices. She explains that the faithful Jew

mentioned above ultimately lives in piety and gratitude “because one’s deepest spirit is

in tune with the graciousness of God.”46 Johnson paraphrases E. P. Sanders, and

seems to nod in agreement, saying that he “rightly argues that fundamental to Jewish

piety is the view that God’s gracious gift, which Christians call grace, precedes the

requirement of obedience.”47

42 Ibid., 165.
43 Anselm Study Bible, ed. Carolyn Osiek (Winona: Anselm Acd. Press), Deuteronomy 6: 4-5.
44 Elizabeth Johnson, Truly Our Sister (New York: The Continuum International Publishing Group Inc.,

2003), 163.
45 Anselm Study Bible, ed. Carolyn Osiek (Winona: Anselm Acd. Press), Mt 22:37-38, Mk 12:29-30, Lk

10:27.
46 Elizabeth Johnson, Truly Our Sister (New York: The Continuum International Publishing Group Inc.,

2003), 171.
47 Ibid.
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Many acts of faith come out of this life of piety and love for the Lord, and Mary’s

example of discipleship is undoubtedly inspired by her roots in Judaism. Johnson

summarized many of the expectations that Mary would have lived out: “The faithful

Jew is commanded not to oppress others, not to hate, not to bear a grudge, to care for

those in need, and to watch out especially for the most vulnerable in their midst, the

widow and the orphan.”48 However, these commandments are by far not the only

pieces of Judaism that would help to shape Mary into the devoted woman and mother

she would become. Over the course of several pages, Johnson describes in detail what

a Jewish pilgrimage and feast would look like. She tells the story of a family going to a

feast shortly before Passover. The couple would purchase a lamb for the sacrifice, and,

with their older children, would process into the temple. The men and women were

separated inside the temple, and the man would take the lamb to the high altar to be

sacrificed. Johnson describes the sacrifice in particular detail:

“[A] Levite helps the man lift his lamb up, suspending its forelegs, breast,

and head over the low railing that marks off the priestly sanctuary. A young

priest approaches. Placing his hang upon the lamb’s head and uttering a

prayer, the man bares its neck to the blade. Quickly slashing the arteries of its

neck, the priest collects the gush of red blood in a basin, then walks over and

splashes it around the base of the flaming altar. He comes back to retrieve the

animal’s carcass, removing it to a section of the court where he will flay and

butcher it. In the interim, the womenfolk above and the menfolk at ground level

are silent with their own thoughts, musings, prayers. A short time later the

priest returns with the result of his handiwork. The man takes the pieces of the

48 Ibid.
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lamb, offers thanks, gives a portion to the priest, then leaves with the

remainder…The couple and their children cross the massive outer court and

walk down from the temple together. They head back to their campsite with

thanksgiving in their hearts after this far-from-routine, close encounter with the

all-holy God.”49

This perhaps gory ritual of sacrifice was Jewish tradition, and a tradition Mary

and her family would have known well. One can’t help but see the foreshadowing

imagery of this particular sacrificial tradition; the sacrifice of Christ would be

incredibly similar to Jewish rituals before Passover. Luke 23: 26-27 tells the story of

Simon, the Cyrenian, helping Jesus carry his cross to Golgotha, Christ’s own

sacrificial altar, while women watched in mourning.50 This mirrors the tradition of the

Jewish man carrying the pure lamb to the high altar to be sacrificed while their wives

looked on their offering in prayer. The Gospel of John says after the death of Jesus,

“One soldier thrust his lance into his side, and immediately blood and water flowed

out.”51 In the same way that the blood of the lamb is splashed around the altar as

offering and the remaining body of the lamb is made sustenance for the family, the

body and blood of Christ was given as an offering for the salvation of the world. These

Paschal examples are only a few of many symbolic reminders of Jewish rituals. As

Mary was practicing her faith in these sacrificial ways with her family as a daughter of

God, she was also taking on the role of a Jewish mother and teaching her son of the

rituals and traditions of the religion. It is difficult not to wonder whether she knew or

49 Ibid, 176.
50 Anselm Study Bible, ed. Carolyn Osiek (Winona: Anselm Acd. Press), Lk 23: 26-27.
51 Ibid., Jn 19:34.
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not that these were the very rituals that the Son of God’s own sacrifice would be the

fulfillment of.
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Mother of God the Son

In Redemptoris Mater, John Paul II says of Mary, “Only in the mystery of Christ

is her mystery fully made clear.”52 Both Mother and Son are so tightly knit in mystery,

to know one is to know the other. This relationship began with the obedience and faith

found in Mary’s fiat, which John Paul II described as the accepting of “her lofty yet not

easy vocation as wife and mother in the family of Nazareth.”53

Again, Redemptoris Mater is a useful source when considering Mary in her

motherhood. John Paul II claims that even before God created the world, he had

chosen Mary to be the Mother of God. He says that this choice was a full Trinitarian

effort: “Together with the Father, the Son has chosen her, entrusting her eternally to

the Spirit of holiness.”54 John Paul II continues to connect Mary’s role in salvation

with Augustine’s idea of the Trinity as lover, beloved, and love between. He explains

that by the grace of this choice and Jesus’s redemptive death, Mary was “preserved

from the inheritance of original sin,” and belonged to Christ from her conception,

meaning she shared “in the salvific and sanctifying grace and in that love which has

its beginning in the "Beloved," the Son of the Eternal Father.”55 In short, “through the

power of the Holy Spirit… Mary receives life from him to whom she herself, in the

order of earthly generation, gave life as a mother.”56 Because she was without sin, she

became a living tabernacle. Hilda Graef described Mary’s womb as the middle ground

between heaven and earth: “The time spent in her womb tempers his shock of meeting

52 John Paul II, “Redemptoris Mater,” (The Vatican, 1987), 4.

53 John Paul II, “Letter of Pope John Paul II to Women,” (The Vatican, 1995), 10.
54 John Paul II, “Redemptoris Mater,” (The Vatican, 1987), 8.
55 Ibid., 10.
56 Ibid.
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the sinful world; therefore Jesus stays there as long as he can and only leaves it at the

last moment decreed by his Father.”57

John Paull II later explains that Mary was aware that “the Son to whom she

gave birth in a virginal manner is precisely that "Holy One,” the Son of God, of whom

the angel spoke to her.”58 In turn, Jesus knew that "no one knows the Son except the

Father."59 Therefore, even though the mystery of Jesus’ divinity was most completely

revealed to Mary, she had to consciously decide to persevere “in her union with her

Son.”60 According to John Paul II, Mary was Jesus’s first disciple, “the first to whom he

seemed to say: "Follow me," even before he addressed this call to the Apostles or to

anyone else.”61 Though Mary was the first human allowed to know Jesus, and she

knew Jesus in ways only a mother can, she still had to ardently and repeatedly strive

in faith towards intimacy with the mystery of the Trinity.62

In Redemptoris Mater, John Paul II goes on to discuss the story of Mary and

Simeon in the second chapter of the Gospel of Luke. Simeon’s words to Mary in the

temple both confirmed the prophetic greetings of Gabriel at the Annunciation, and left

Mary with new prophetic words, this time more painful and frightening than the first:

“Behold, this child is destined for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and to be a sign

that will be contradicted (and you yourself a sword will pierce) so that the thoughts of

many hearts may be revealed.”63 John Paul II builds a connection between Gabriel and

Simeon’s prophecies, and he says that Mary is reminded of Gabriel’s message

57 Hilda Graef, Mary: A History of Doctrine and Devotion, Volumes 1 & 2 (New York: Sheed and Ward,
1963), 37.
58 John Paul II, “Redemptoris Mater,” (The Vatican, 1987), 17.
59 Anselm Study Bible, ed. Carolyn Osiek (Winona: Anselm Acd. Press), Matthew 11:27.
60 John Paul II, “Redemptoris Mater,” (The Vatican, 1987), 17.
61 Ibid., 20.
62 Ibid., 17.
63 Anselm Study Bible, ed. Carolyn Osiek (Winona: Anselm Acd. Press), Luke 2:34-35.
 21

describing Jesus as "a light for revelation" and a Savior to mankind.64 This

announcement of Simeon both “confirms her faith in the accomplishment of the divine

promises of salvation” and “reveals to her that she will have to live her obedience of

faith in suffering, at the side of the suffering Savior, and that her motherhood will be

mysterious and sorrowful.”65 Mary accepts this suffering, and, through confusion and

fear, Mary continues to live in faith and obedience to God.

Much of Jesus’s childhood and young adult life is left undetailed in the Gospel

accounts, meaning that much of Mary’s motherhood is unwritten as well. However,

one event, in particular, is widely discussed in John’s Gospel: the wedding feast at

Cana. In John 2:1-2, the author states that a wedding was held in Cana, “and the

mother of Jesus was there. Jesus and his disciples were also invited to the wedding.”66

Some scholars including John Paul II would claim that the text describes the scene as

though Mary’s invitation had been extended to Jesus and the disciples; “the Son

seems to have been invited because of his mother.”67 As the story goes, the wedding

ran out of wine sooner than was expected. Mary noticed the lack of wine and wanted

to protect the happy couple from this disastrous moment, so she stated quite simply

to her son, “They have no wine.”68 Jesus’ response is one that seems quite shocking at

first: “Woman, how does you concern affect me? My hour has not yet come.”69 Jesus

later addresses his mother as “woman” once again in John 19.

Christ’s question, “How does your concern affect me?” has also been interpreted

to ask why this absence of wine would affect Mary as well. John Paul II explains that

64 John Paul II, “Redemptoris Mater,” (The Vatican, 1987), 16.

65 Ibid.
66 Anselm Study Bible, ed. Carolyn Osiek (Winona: Anselm Acd. Press), John 2:1-2.
67 John Paul II, “Redemptoris Mater,” (The Vatican, 1987), 21.
68 Anselm Study Bible, ed. Carolyn Osiek (Winona: Anselm Acd. Press), John 2:3.
69 Ibid., John 2:4.
 22

Mary’s motherhood in spirit and flesh is extended to the rest of humanity in her desire

to come “to them in the wide variety of their wants and needs,” even the seemingly

small ones such as a lack of wine.70 The wine, however, has a greater symbolic

meaning: “this coming to the aid of human needs means, at the same time, bringing

those needs within the radius of Christ's messianic mission and salvific power.”71

Mary ultimately longs to guide humanity to her son, and any way she can take action

in that plan, she will move, efficiently and excitedly.

Jesus claims that his “hour has not yet come.”72 Mary disagrees, and puts into

motion “the hour.” She encourages and intercedes so that Jesus would begin his hour

to bring about the manifestation of what John Paul II describes as the “salvific power

of the Messiah” at Cana.73 Mary then gives an order that can easily be translated to

present day Christians: “Do whatever he tells you.”74 Rather than commanding her

son to do as she desires, she encourages the server to listen to the instructions of

Jesus, making a connection between the server and Jesus. There becomes an

expectation that Jesus will ask the server to do something, and the server is prepared

to do the will of Jesus because of Mary’s request. This small, seemingly simple

conversation between a mother and her son sheds light on a much bigger truth: that

Jesus listens to the requests of his mother.

John 2: 11 concluded that “Jesus did this as the beginning of his signs in Cana

in Galilee and so revealed his glory, and his disciples began to believe in him.” 75 Mary’s

faith in Jesus set into motion both Jesus’s signs and also set the faith of the disciples

70 John Paul II, “Redemptoris Mater,” (The Vatican, 1987), 21.

71 Ibid.
72 Anselm Study Bible, ed. Carolyn Osiek (Winona: Anselm Acd. Press), John 2.
73 John Paul II, “Redemptoris Mater,” (The Vatican, 1987), 21.
74 Anselm Study Bible, ed. Carolyn Osiek (Winona: Anselm Acd. Press), John 2: 5.
75 Ibid., John 2: 11.
 23

on fire.76 When she stepped in at the wedding at Cana, she was aware of the needs of

the bridal party, but what she truly desired was much greater than wine. She most

urgently wanted to secure “the Eucharist for the Church… Though she was absent

from the Last Supper, Jesus instituted the Sacrament ‘for love of her and out of his

personal regard for her.’”77 Mary was aware of her Son’s divine power, and above all,

desired for him to share it with humankind.

As she watched her son begin his ministry, Mary carried with her the suffering

that Simeon once foretold, knowing that there would be hardship in her life and never

knowing exactly what that meant until it happened. Through this uncertainty, Mary

remained a devoted disciple to the Lord. Simeon’s words were finally fulfilled at the

foot of the cross; the sword of Jesus’s crucifixion pierced her soul, and Mary mourned

in sorrow. In the same way people throughout history have mourned the loss of loved

ones for centuries, she wept, yet she never abandoned her deeply rooted Jewish faith

because she trusted that God would never abandon her. John Paul II wrote that

because of her faith, she united with her Son in her deep suffering and connected “her

maternal spirit to his sacrifice, lovingly consenting to the immolation of the victim to

whom she had given birth"; from birth to the cross, Mother was in union with her

Son.78 In agreement with John Paul II, Graef said that Mary “was destined to form

with her divine Son but one victim of expiation and one same sacrifice of praise.”79

76 John Paul II, “Redemptoris Mater,” (The Vatican, 1987), 21.

77 Hilda Graef, Mary: A History of Doctrine and Devotion, Volumes 1 & 2 (New York: Sheed and Ward,
1963), 37.
78 John Paul II, “Redemptoris Mater,” (The Vatican, 1987), 18.
79 Hilda Graef, Mary: A History of Doctrine and Devotion, Volumes 1 & 2 (New York: Sheed and Ward,

1963), 37.
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Partner with God the Holy Spirit

The relationship between Mary and the Holy Spirit can be interpreted as a sort

of spousal one. In a good and healthy marriage, a husband is expected to give himself

fully to his wife, and a wife is to do the same. If real love is willing the good of the

other, this gift of self is a tangible sign of the choice to love. However, because of

human imperfection, many couples fail to love each other in a selfless way, and

instead turn to selfish desires and actions, causing unhappiness and often divorce.

Mary’s relationship with the Holy Spirit models this spousal love in perfection. John

Paul II explained that “the words “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord” express the

fact that from the outset she accepted and understood her own motherhood as a total

gift of self, a fit of her person to the service of the saving plans of the Most High.”80

In the human experience, a true gift of self means doing so intellectually,

spiritually, and physically. The physical gift of self is the sexual consummation of a

marriage. The Blessed Virgin clearly did not partake in this consummation with either

the Holy Spirit or Joseph, her earthly husband; rather she lived in virginity because

she wished to be always and in all things “given to God,” living in virginity.81 In Mary,

God united motherhood and virginity. John Paul II said that in her virginity she "keeps

whole and pure the fidelity she has pledged to her Spouse,” and in her motherhood,

"she brings forth to a new and immortal life children who are conceived of the Holy

Spirit and born of God."82

80 John Paul II, Mary: God’s Yes to Man (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1988), 125.
81 Ibid.
82 John Paul II, “Redemptoris Mater,” (The Vatican, 1987), 5.
 25

If it is true that Mary was a virgin and Jesus really was the Son of God, then

truly a fantastic miracle took place in the womb of this woman. John Paul II said,

“Mary knows she has conceived and given birth to him ‘without having a husband,’ by

the power of the Holy Spirit, by the power of the Most High who overshadowed her (cf.

Lk. 1:35).”83 However, while John Paul II wrote beautifully about Mary and the Holy

Spirit, a spousal relationship between the two can be controversial and problematic;

viewing Mary as the spouse of the Holy Spirit inadvertently can place masculine

stereotypes on the Holy Spirit, who is non-gendered Love.

In contrast to John Paul II, Elizabeth Johnson speaks of Mary’s relationship

with the Holy Spirit in a much different way. Johnson wrote, “It is my conviction that

remembering Mary as a distinct friend of God and prophet within the communion of

saints can generate rich religious meaning in the contemporary church.”84 Johnson’s

Truly Our Sister does well to expand egregiously on the person of Love in Augustine’s

Trinity, that is, the Holy Spirit. Before diving into the specifics of the relationship

between Mary and the Holy Spirit, Johnson explains that she seeks to write about the

Spirit outside of the structures of masculine or feminine stereotypes or patriarchal

systems. Instead, she talks about the Spirit as the Apostles’ Creed does: “We are

seeking to understand [Mary’s] meaning in light of the third article of the creed, which

professes belief in the Holy Spirit, Lord and Giver of life, who makes people holy and

83Ibid., 17.
84Elizabeth Johnson, Truly Our Sister (New York: The Continuum International Publishing Group Inc.,
2003), 206.
 26

who in the end raises the dead to life.”85 She also explains that through the power of

the Holy Spirit, “the continuing presence of God in Christ is accomplished.”86

The Holy Spirit is at work in each person who is open to Love. Johnson says,

“In the heart of every person, the Spirit in the church awakens discipleship, which

allows the history of Jesus the Living One to continue through time,” and Mary is no

exception.87 Johnson writes that she imagines the presence and power of the Holy

Spirit at the center of Mary’s being, and the Spirit engulfs “her particular, concrete life,

fraught with moments of intense joy and suffering along with the stretches of

unremarkable, graced dailiness, calling her ever forward. Walking by faith, not by

sight, she composes her life as a friend of God and a prophet, one who actively

partners the divine work of repairing the world.”88 Johnson also notes that the work of

the Holy Spirit is never finished; “while final salvation reaches far beyond words or

imagination, hope is awakened here and now in fragments of healing, liberation,

justice, peace, and love.”89 Mary is a partner in awaking hope and healing in those

who are suffering. Johnson later says that because Mary responds to and is embraced

by the Holy Spirit in this partnership, “she is a sister to all who partner with the Spirit

in the struggle for the coming of the reign of God.”90

Living out a Christian life means continuously discerning truth and love which

inevitably brings about a great deal of wisdom.91 In times of suffering and injustice, a

85 Ibid., 102.
86 Ibid., 103.
87 Ibid.
88 Ibid., 210.
89 Ibid., 104.
90 Ibid.
91 Ibid., 16.
 27

person quickly gains “knowledge of what should not be.”92 Gifted by the Holy Spirit in

partnership with Mary, people “speak as persons of faith with the authority of their

experience of questing for the living God.”93

92 Ibid.
93 Ibid.
 28

Mother of the Church

John 19 says, “When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple there whom he

loved, 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 home.”94

Questions often surround John’s Gospel due to the fact that the “Beloved Disciple” is

never outwardly named, nor is Jesus’s mother given a name other than “woman.”

However, perhaps the disciple remains nameless because Christ offers the protection

of his mother, the same “woman” from the wedding feast at Cana whose requests he

valued so highly, to every disciple, past, present, and future. From the cross, Jesus

gives the gift of his mother to protect and provide counsel to the disciple he loved, who

symbolizes “all the disciples whom Jesus loved in all periods of history, therefore the

entire church past and present.”95 John Paul II agreed that at the center of the

mystery of the cross is Mary, who “is given as mother to every single individual and all

mankind.”96

Later in Redemptoris Mater, John Paul II says that in her motherhood, Mary

“finds a ‘new’ continuation in the Church and through the Church.”97 Though she

mourns the death of her Son, she welcomes with open arms countless sons and

daughters, which is “the fruit of the ‘new’ love which came to definitive maturity in her

at the foot of the Cross, through her sharing in the redemptive love of her Son.”98

Because she allowed herself to be at God’s service as a mother, she also allowed and

continues to allow herself to be at the service of others as a mother, which John Paul

94 Anselm Study Bible, ed. Carolyn Osiek (Winona: Anselm Acd. Press), John 19: 26-27.
95 Jaroslav Pelikan, Mary through the Centuries: Her Place in the History of Culture (New Haven: Yale
University Press, 1997), 19.
96 John Paul II, “Redemptoris Mater,” (The Vatican, 1987), 23.
97 Ibid., 24.
98 Ibid., 23.
 29

II describes in his Letter to Women as “a service of love.”99 In Redemptoris Mater, John

Paul II says that “the reality of the Incarnation finds a sort of extension in the mystery

of the Church - the Body of Christ. And one cannot think of the reality of the

Incarnation without referring to Mary, the Mother of the Incarnate Word.”100 The

Church is entrusted to the motherhood of Mary.

Similar to Augustine’s work discussing the Trinity, an analogous understanding

may be helpful in understanding the relationship between Mary and the Church. For

example, it might be said that Mary is similar to a lighthouse in the eyes of her

children. Beautiful and bright on its own, a lighthouse leads ships to land. If Mary is a

lighthouse, Christ is the land. A ship might be relieved to find a lighthouse and find

solace and comfort in allowing that light to guide it, but it isn’t until the ship rolls into

the shore that the journey finally has meaning. The land provides means to food,

shelter, and survival. Similarly, those who follow Mary’s example and look to her for

guidance are lead to holiness because, as Paul VI said, Mary “shines forth…as a model

of the virtues."101 Virtue leads to her Son, who provided the means to survival in his

crucifixion and resurrection. A love for Mary will lead to a love for Christ. The Second

Vatican Council said that "the followers of Christ still strive to increase in holiness by

conquering sin, and so they raise their eyes to Mary, who shines forth to the whole

community of the elect as a model of the virtues."102 The Church ought to view Mary to

be a sort of lighthouse, leading her faithful children to her beloved Son of God.

99 John Paul II, “Letter of Pope John Paul II to Women,” (The Vatican, 1995), 10.
100 John Paul II, “Redemptoris Mater,” (The Vatican, 1987), 5.
101 Paul VI, “Signum Magnum,” (The Vatican, 1967), 1.
102 John Paul II, “Redemptoris Mater,” (The Vatican, 1987), 6.
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Conclusion

To conclude, I return once more to Redemptoris Mater. John Paul II said that

because she “nourished the divine Redeemer, Mary became "an associate of unique

nobility, and the Lord's humble handmaid," who "cooperated by her obedience, faith,

hope and burning charity in the Savior's work of restoring supernatural life to

souls."103 Mary is so often paired with the virtue of purity because of her title, “Virgin

Mother.” In Redemptoris Mater, John Paul II quoted Lumen Gentium, saying, “The

knot of Eve's disobedience was untied by Mary's obedience; what the virgin Eve bound

through her unbelief, the Virgin Mary loosened by her faith."104 While her purity is

beautiful, there are so many more virtues she exemplified, such as faith and

obedience.

“She ‘who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her

from the Lord" lives the reality of these words day by day.’”105 Mary lived in faith every

day of her life. “Faith is contact with the mystery of God,” and each day, Mary was in

close contact in “with the ineffable mystery of God made man, a mystery that

surpasses everything revealed in the Old Covenant.”106 It was because of this faith that

“Mary became the bearer of the Son given to her by the Father through the power of

the Holy Spirit, while preserving her virginity intact,” and it’s “in that same faith she

discovered and accepted the other dimension of motherhood revealed by Jesus during

his messianic mission.”107 She recognized her part in Jesus’s mission at the wedding

103 John Paul II, “Redemptoris Mater,” (The Vatican, 1987), 22.
104 Ibid., 19.
105 Ibid., 17.
106 Ibid.
107 Ibid., 20.
 31

feast at Cana, for example, or at the foot of the cross, when Jesus extended her

motherhood to all who believed.

John Paul II said that “to believe means "to abandon oneself" to the truth of the

word of the living God,” and to abandon oneself to anything means to be obedient to

it.108 Mary’s faith kept her strong in her desire and choice to be obedient to the God

she loved so dearly. Living in obedience, Mary abandons herself to the will of God so

completely “without reserve, offering the full assent of the intellect and the will" in

ways some would even call heroic.”109 Her life was countless “fiats,” over and over

again, even when her Son was lead to his death on a cross. She accepted “fully and

with a ready heart everything that [was] decreed in the divine plan.”110

Mary’s life was a “journey towards God,” a journey that all are called to pursue

and be a part of. Previous to the Annunciation, Mary was living in such a virtuous way

in accordance with Jewish custom that she was able to abandon herself to “the truth

of the word of the living God” in order to strengthen her belief in the goodness of the

Lord. The Annunciation was the culmination of her strong belief in her faith and the

virtues she lived by so that she was ready and willing to profess her strong “obedience

of faith” when asked to allow the will of God to be done in her life. Her resounding

“yes” to the Lord transformed her journey towards God into a pilgrimage of faith.111 In

this way, Mary is an example of how the present day Church is called to a pilgrimage

of belief, and this pilgrimage involves abandoning anything that does not point

towards God. In doing so, a person will ultimately be shaped into living a virtuous life

108 Ibid., 14.

109 Ibid., 18.
110 Ibid., 14.
111 Ibid.
 32

of obedience, faith, and willingness to do God’s will. This lifestyle is one of lived by a

person seeking a relationship with the Trinity through acts of discipleship.

As a Jewish woman, Mary maintained a relationship with God, the Lover. In her

motherhood, she knew and loved well Jesus, the Beloved. And as the Mother of the

Church and partner of the Holy Spirit, she experienced the power of the Love between

the Lover and the Beloved. Elizabeth Johnson said it best: “The circumstances of her

actual life can never be repeated. But the style and spirit of her responses reverberate

through the centuries to encourage the practice of discipleship in today’s different

cultural contexts.”112 In having a true relationship with each person of the Trinity,

Mary is a brilliant model of discipleship for anyone seeking to follow the will of God.

112Elizabeth Johnson, Truly Our Sister (New York: The Continuum International Publishing Group Inc.,
2003), 210.
 33

Bibliography:

Graef, Hilda. Mary: A History of Doctrine and Devotion, Volumes 1 & 2. New York:

Sheed and Ward, 1963.

John Paul II. “Ordinatio Sacerdotalis.” The Vatican. 1994.

John Paul II. Mary: God’s Yes to Man. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1988.

John Paul II. “Mulieris Dignitatem.” The Vatican. 1988.

John Paul II. “Redemptoris Mater.” The Vatican. 1987.

Johnson, Elizabeth. Truly Our Sister. New York: The Continuum International

Publishing Group Inc., 2003.

Mowry Lacugna, Catherine. God For Us: The Trinity & Christian Life. San Francisco:

Harper Collins, 1991.

Paul VI. “Gaudium et spes.” The Vatican. 1965.

Paul VI. “Signum Magnum.” The Vatican. 1967.

Pelikan, Jaroslav. Mary through the Centuries: Her Place in the History of Culture. New

Haven: Yale University Press, 1996.