Mary, Mother of the Church
June 9
THAT WISE AND VALIANT WOMAN
By Fr Hugo Rahner 2
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The valiant woman [in the Book of Proverbs] symbolizes both Mary and the Church on the road from Nazareth to Golgotha. The beginning is at the moment of the incarnation in the heart of Mary, at the supreme instant of her acceptance of the task, when she became the mother of the Word. The precious blood that was to redeem the world was her blood, and in this way her road was already marked out, the road through those everyday years, leading direct to Golgotha.
It is to this mystery of her life, and her life already at Nazareth, where love is strong as death, that the Cistercian mystic, Adam of Perseigne, refers when he sees in the moment of the incarnation the fulfillment of the valiant woman: “A Lady full of bravery: she traveled through her mortal life amidst the evil of the world, yet through the majesty of her spirit she surpassed all creation. For it was to her, the valiant woman, that Gabriel was sent — his very name means ‘God’s valiant one.’ Was she not indeed valiant, this woman – Mary, whose love was stronger than death?”.
For her acceptance of the incarnation was the acceptance of death. Her blood she gave him, only for him to shed it. And this also is fulfilled in the Church: The Church, like Mary, is the woman who brings Christ into the world, only to be sacrificed upon the altar. Incarnation and death are made one in the Church’s sacraments, for in the sacrificial death, Christ’s body is every day reborn. Thus the symbol of the valiant woman is fulfilled also in the Church and her vocation on earth: valiant indeed is this great woman of the world, since as the mystical mother of Christ crucified, daily she meets death again.
This acceptance of death, in which she follows Mary, is verified in her day-to-day history, her persecutions, and her daily cares. In this she is truly valiant. This is what Epiphanius of Salamis once told his people: “You are the children of that wise and valiant woman, of whom Solomon said; ‘…This valiant woman, is she not the Church, your mother? for none is braver than she, who every time a persecution is raised against her is ready to go to death for the name of her beloved.”
2
Pantheon Books, 1961, pp. 82-83.