Vigils Reading

A SONG OF INNOCENCE AND

EXPERIENCE

By Gerald Vann1

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In the Church’s devotion to Mary great emphasis is laid on the fact that in

her motherhood she yet remained a maiden as well; and we shall miss all the

richness of the mystery if we think of this insistence as being purely or even

primarily concerned with physical conditions. Motherhood produces

fundamental psychological changes in a woman: it means the loss of some

qualities and the acquisition of others, a different mentality, a different outlook.

The mother has known the deep experience of love and joy, of pain and danger

and sorrow: we think of her as the symbol of wisdom because she has known in

her own body the mysteries of good and evil.

The girl on the other hand is the symbol of opposite qualities: of a

freshness and spontaneity and purity of heart which comes precisely from

inexperience, knowing that reality can be ugly, not yet made wise through

lessons of sorrow: her courage, her strength, her wisdom, her joy, are from other

sources. In Mary alone, the Maiden-Mother, these opposite sets of qualities co-

exist; it is this that gives her personality a richness which is unique; and it is

because of this richness that she can teach us so much.

Mary’s life then is a song at once of innocence and of experience; and as

this double richness means a double fear so it means also a double love; and the

love in its turn produces a double wisdom, a double trust, and therefore a double

courage. Mary pondered all these things in her heart: it is her song of

experience, and the source of her…wisdom. She knew how He-that-is-mighty

had done great things in her; she knew the overshadowing power of the Most

High; she knew the gradually unfolding self-revelation of her Son; and knowing15

these things she could sense of the resurrection through the cross, the joy

through the pain, the triumph through failure; and so she could find the courage

to meet the sword.

Behold the handmaid of the Lord: there, on the other hand, is her song of

innocence: whatever may come it will be well because it is his will, because he

is Love: hers are eyes too that can look out untroubled on a future which is

veiled, simply because she has implicit trust in the God she loves, even before

the trust has been justified by experience; and as the mother can say, I can do

all things in him who has strengthened me, so the girl can say, I can do all things

in him who will strengthen me.