{"id":27334,"date":"2011-04-16T07:40:52","date_gmt":"2011-04-16T07:40:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/community\/theanchoress\/?p=27334"},"modified":"2017-03-08T23:08:00","modified_gmt":"2017-03-08T23:08:00","slug":"stabet-mater-dolorosa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theanchoress\/2011\/04\/16\/stabet-mater-dolorosa\/","title":{"rendered":"Stabat Mater Dolorosa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

At the cross, her station keeping<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/iframe>\n+ + + + + +<\/p>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/community\/theanchoress\/2009\/09\/15\/our-lady-of-sorrows-2\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\">Mary\u2019s role in the life of the church, in the Christian experience<\/strong><\/a> did not end with the deliverance of her placenta and the taking of her ritual bath. Rather, Mary \u2013 The Mother \u2013 walked with and monitored every part of her son\u2019s life (as mothers do) and his ministry. Far from being a toss-off, a mere minor player in the story of Christ and the Christian experience, Mary\u2019s life is as entwined with Christ\u2019s at his death as it was when he was living and growing inside her body. Her life is entwined in the whole of the story of Salvation.<\/p>\nShe was there when Christ was found, talking with great wisdom with the elders; she raised an eyebrow at him and we can imagine the mixture of relief and fear when she found him: \u201cyour father and I have been worried sick, now you get over here and don\u2019t take off on your own like that again!\u201d<\/p>\nShe was there at Cana, tugging at his sleeve and saying, \u201chey, these people have a need, please help them\u2026\u201d and to the waiters, \u201cdo as he tells you\u2026\u201d<\/em><\/p>\nShe was there as he preached, and as he was arrested and tortured, and as he carried his cross. She was there \u2013- not running away \u2013- broken, yet completely faithful, as he died before her eyes, after telling her that her work was only just beginning, that she had no time for a luxury of grief, because now she was to be The Mother to others, even as he told John that he (and we) were to hold her to that role.<\/p>\nShe was there as the apostles hid in the upper room. Likely she was around the food, making everyone as comfortable as possible and raising the eyebrow again, wondering if these men would ever \u201cget it.\u201d<\/p>\nAnd she was there at Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit came down and the church was formed.<\/p>\nWe don\u2019t read about Mary in a \u201cleadership\u201d role in the Acts of the Apostles, but I suspect that this is because Mary\u2019s leadership was lived in the guise of The Mother.<\/p>\nThe guidance (and the role of overseer) which is part and parcel of a mother\u2019s job is \u2013- while indispensable \u2013- rarely understood as \u201cleadership.\u201d This is as true today, in our \u201cenlightened age\u201d as it was in the \u201cpatriarchal\u201d Judean culture. The attention to detail, the fussy \u201chuman\u201d stuff, the work, wisdom, planning and supervisory\/administrative role of a mother is as under-appreciated now as it was, then, but in either era it is the backbone of . . .well, if you really stop to consider, the role of The Mother is the backbone of everything that is and was and will be.<\/p>\nLuke does not write about Mary in the Acts, but it is not unthinkable that as the apostles were building up the church Mary was doing more than simply feeding people and washing clothes. I am sure she did do those things, but she was a mother \u2013- The Mother of the church \u2013- and so I am quite certain that aside from her domestic tasks Mary was pointing the apostles and those first followers in this direction and that saying, \u201cmake sure you talk to so-and-so,\u201d \u201cdon\u2019t forget about thus and such,\u201d \u201cdid you remember to do this or that?\u201d \u201cI overheard thus-and-such, you\u2019d better be aware of that, and make sure you . . .\u201d<\/p>\nThat\u2019s the affectionate watchfulness of The Mother, too often seen by her children as nagging, and it might have seemed like nagging to the apostles, too. But all of that meddling and observing and commenting has a tendency to beget planning and strategy and the foreseeing-and-overcoming of obstacles before they muck things up.<\/p>\nThis is what mothers do<\/em>. It is what I suspect Mary did, constantly at the service of the church, at the service of the apostles and the believers, serving them not only with her hands but with the wisdom of The Mother, gleaned over a lifetime of work and love.<\/p>\nHaving given her own flesh and blood to the Incarnate Word who knew Christ better than she? Who could explain to his sometimes thick-headed apostles what he was about, how the woman who bested him in reason, (\u201cbut even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters\u2019 table.\u201c) probably pleased Jesus with her cleverness, not only because it demonstrated her faith, but because it nudged his good humor.<\/p>\nPerhaps she cued Luke (who tradition holds interviewed Mary, personally) into the fact that when Jesus said, regarding Herod, \u201cGo tell that fox that I cast out demons and heal the sick\u2026\u201d he was not merely giving forth information, but he was having fun with language, as well, by calling Herod a \u201cfox,\u201d which was another way of calling him (scripturally) a weakling, that he was a small, scuttling opportunist whom Christ did not fear, and whom we should not fear, either.<\/p>\nMary said \u201cyes\u201d to the Angel of the Lord. She was the Ark of the New Covenant, there at the beginning of the great pageant of Salvation.<\/p>\nShe is here, now, the approachable Mother to whom countless parents and children turn when \u2013- exasperated or undone by human relations \u2013- they need a wise mother in whom to confide. But her answer is always the same, \u201cDo whatever HE tells you . . .\u201d<\/p>\nShe is in the time to come \u2013- Revelation 12 calls her \u201cthe woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet,\u201d the very image which, after 500 years, still shows itself on the rough, plant-fibered tilma of Juan Diego \u2014 the image of reassurance.<\/p>\nBut that is what a mother does. She reassures. She works for her family. She serves. She carries on and carries forward, doing the things that need to be done. Even if all the while, her heart is pierced with a sword of deep and lasting sorrow.<\/p>\nAnd we, who each carry within our own lives wounds both secret and open, have in this Sorrowful but Eternal Mother, a perfect confidante, a Mother to whom we can turn because we know she\u2019s \u201cbeen there, done that.\u201d When a daughter keeps dubious company and a son gets himself in trouble, you can turn to Mary and say, \u201cMary . . . what am I to do with this child? Help!\u201d<\/p>\n\u201cDo,\u201d she will counsel, over and over, \u201cwhat He tells you . . .\u201d<\/p>\nRelated:<\/strong> \n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/Resources\/Additional-Resources\/Via-Dolorosa-Not-to-Be-Missed.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\">A Via Dolorosa Not to be Missed<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At the cross, her station keeping + + + + + + Mary\u2019s role in the life of the church, in the Christian experience did not end with the deliverance of her placenta and the taking of her ritual bath. Rather, Mary \u2013 The Mother \u2013 walked with and monitored every part of her son\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":112,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[165],"tags":[4845,4861,4873],"class_list":["post-27334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mary","tag-faith","tag-jesus-christ","tag-mary"],"yoast_head":"\n<title>Stabat Mater Dolorosa<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"At the cross, her station keeping + + + + + + Mary\u2019s role in the life of the church, in the Christian experience did not end with the deliverance of her\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theanchoress\/2011\/04\/16\/stabet-mater-dolorosa\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" 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