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Vigils Reading
August 17
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.