Taking Mary Out Of The Closet

When you hear the words, Mary, Mother of my Lord or Mary, Mother of God, what image comes to mind? For the first half of my life my image of Mary, Mother of God was the tall, slender, blond girl in my Sunday School class wrapped in a pale blue sheet, co-star of the Christmas Eve pageant. She was the chosen one. I was a goat. Fortunately I didn’t have to spend too many therapy hours on Mary, after all in my Presbyterian church Mary’s meteoric cameo came but once a year. The other three hundred sixty four days Hallmark Mary was wrapped in tissue paper and tucked in the church closet.

Hallmark Mary, Mother of God, confined to the closet for decades until one blue Monday, on the heels of a bad news weekend in the wake of a gloomy month I was driving to my office in downtown Santa Fe, NM when something inside me stirred and instead of pulling in to my office parking garage I drove to my Episcopal church.

Seven o’clock in the morning streams of Eastern light pour through three narrow stained glass chapel windows. Sitting at the feet of Julian of Norwich, tinted light paints my hands as I pray that “all would be well… all manner of things would be well.” I may have been there ten minutes before a group began to gather.

Before I could escape their space a queenly church lady crowned in a colossal hat checked my exit, “You must stay and pray with us dear.” (I later learned her name was Mary.) “On Monday morning we pray the rosary and some of us remain for twenty minutes of contemplative prayer.” While speaking she surreptitiously draped a string of shiny black and silver beads in my hand then added a piece of paper with all the words I needed to say the rosary.

“You pray the rosary? Isn’t that a Roman Catholic thing?” “Yes. Other traditions also pray using beads; Buddhists, Native Americans, Episcopalians. There is something about handling the beads and repeating prayers over and over that helps us stay present with God.” Intrigued, I sat back down, fumbled with the beads and words, “Hail Mary full of grace, the Lord is with you, blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb.” There was something comforting about the droning rhythm and repetition of words, so much so that I was startled when the prayers ended and the ten or twelve people present began to sing.

“My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my saviour.” Yes, yes, that is what I want. I want my soul to magnify the Lord and I want my spirit to rejoice in God… or anything else for that matter! If God “looked with favor on his lowly servant” Mary, might God also look with favor on me? Probably not. Remember, I was the pageant goat, not Mary.

Who is this Mary chanting a love song to God? Who is this Mary singing a subversive verse for social justice? I believe this is not the twelve year old Hallmark Mary, wrapped in tissue and stored in a church closet. This Mary is not fragile or ineffectual, neither is she submissive nor impotent. No, this Mary is competent, courageous and fruitful, without being arrogant, conceited or full of herself.

I like to imagine this Mary made mistakes, even got herself in trouble like me. Nonetheless, when Mary experiences Divine Presence described as the Angel Gabriel, she does become speechless or run away. When the angel addresses Mary “Favored one,” and affirms, “The Lord is with you.” (Luke 1.28) Mary puts her head in her heart and ponders these things.

Mary’s quiet acceptance of the angel’s blessing suggests she has a sense of worthiness. When the Angel proclaims the inconceivable, unmarried Mary will become pregnant and give birth to a son who will assume the throne of King David and his kingdom will reign forever,” Mary stands her ground asking, “How can this be?”(Luke 1.38) When the angel declares that she will give birth to the Son of God,” Mary responds, “Bring it on!” “Here I am… let it be with me according to your word.” Bold, courageous and vulnerable, Mary consents to her “with God life.”

It is time to take Hallmark Mary out of the closet, remove the tissue paper and reimagine Mary, Mother of God, as a sound and sane woman who is courageous enough to be vulnerable and vulnerable enough to put her head in her heart. It is time to reimagine Mary as a woman willing to stand in her own authority, disrupt the status quo and claim her “with God life.” It is time to reimagine Mary as a mother who gave her life to bring to life the promise God made to “our fathers, to Abraham and his children forever” the promise that God is with and for all people all the time.

If it was up to me I would keep hail and hearty Mary front and center as a paragon of how to live in relationship with God, how to live in the tension of paradox, how to be vulnerable and take risks, how to put our heads in our hearts and allow our souls to magnify the Lord, to show up even though we do not understand, to take risks even though we know there are no guarantees. So “Bring it on!” “Here I am… let it be with me according to your word.”