tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7155226280212467063.post697751994881972198..comments2024-03-05T06:16:30.628-06:00Comments on Mary and Mariology: Mary as a Container and Mary as a BridgeServant of Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13686441055922333147noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7155226280212467063.post-43469200577938297672012-04-11T22:07:46.330-05:002012-04-11T22:07:46.330-05:00MAM, in your paragraph outlining Mary’s role as a ...MAM, in your paragraph outlining Mary’s role as a container ("womb", "garden") for the Word, you suggest that this connotation is a static, passive role that is devoid of any choice. Further, you say that when the angel Gabriel brought the glad tidings to Mary that she was to bear the Son of God, he did not do so as a ‘question or an offer’. This, I believe, is ungrounded for a couple of reasons. The first is related to our previous discussions on Mary as the new Eve. Distinguishing the two, there is the element of obedience and disobedience. Eve disobeyed by adhering to the words of the serpent. This disobedience was a choice, given the fact that Eve was commanded to act otherwise. The breaking of this command involves agency. On the other hand, Mary’s response to the angel Gabriel’s glad tidings should be taken in context with Zechariah’s unbelief at the angel’s message that Elizabeth was to bear a son despite her old age (Lk: 1). Zechariah made a choice in not believing, whilst Mary made a choice by believing the news that she would bear a most holy son despite her being a virgin; Mary’s famous response “may it be it done unto me according to your word” testifies to this (Lk: 1, 38). In this scriptural context, and given the fact that Mary is believed to have been aware of the potential slanders and danger of conceiving while yet a virgin, one can argue that Mary in fact made a monumental choice, and that the role as a dwelling place of the Word was not, in fact, shoved on her. <br /><br />LWServant of Maryhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13686441055922333147noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7155226280212467063.post-65571708302021728212012-04-07T23:56:15.775-05:002012-04-07T23:56:15.775-05:00This is an interesting device by which to examine ...This is an interesting device by which to examine different “tenors” of Mary as the mother of Christ. I do think that Mary is depicted with a range of attitudes in the different representations we have read (though not a broad as the different depictions of Jesus–from meek and mild to killing a playmate). While I do see your distinction between Mary as passive and Mary as agentive in the different representations, I’m not sure that I see this distinction neatly reflected in the container and bridge/gateway metaphors. Is a bridge or a gateway less passive than a container? In both cases, I see the spatial metaphors as intended to communicate the idea of a portal between two qualitatively different worlds. <br /><br />However, I do think that you have picked up on the preoccupation of Proclus to represent an agentive Mary. In two different places in Homily 5, Mary is an active figure in the Incarnation in that “she alone admitted [Christ] into the bridal chamber of her womb.” In response to your question “Can Mary be both a container and a doorway?,” this may be an image that combines the two metaphors of container and bridge.<br /><br />Do these two types of spaces (container vs. bridge/gate) correspond to the physiology of gestation and birth?<br />~TAServant of Maryhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13686441055922333147noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7155226280212467063.post-28643760001334297242012-04-07T17:09:24.588-05:002012-04-07T17:09:24.588-05:00P.S. Although I should say, too, that I very much...P.S. Although I should say, too, that I very much enjoyed how carefully you were thinking about both species of metaphor! RLFBServant of Maryhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13686441055922333147noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7155226280212467063.post-88140849323998744762012-04-07T17:07:23.557-05:002012-04-07T17:07:23.557-05:00You have hit here on a difficulty that many recent...You have hit here on a difficulty that many recent critics have had with the imagery of Mary as a container: containers seem to us so passive (and, in our throw-away culture, often disposable). But is it truly passive to contain something? Think about the effort that it takes to carry a child inside of you: the child may be growing all by itself, but the carrying is hardly neutral for the mother. And then think about what it might have meant to carry the Creator of <i>everything</i>! Containers, in fact, do a great deal of work: they protect what they contain, they keep it from spilling out, they create the space in which something can be contained. I think that you are right to wonder about the juxtaposition of types of metaphor (ways vs. containers), but I am not sure that passivity is necessarily what is at stake here.<br /><br />RLFBServant of Maryhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13686441055922333147noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7155226280212467063.post-16449946244965761412012-04-06T16:32:31.262-05:002012-04-06T16:32:31.262-05:00I thought your point was interesting that the imag...I thought your point was interesting that the imagery of Mary as a container coupled with the Annunciation gave the impression that “she had very little choice when it came to her place in the incarnation nor did she contribute much effort.” While this may sound like a negative thing, in Ephrem’s hymns, he seems to think that her lack of action contributes to her holiness and uniqueness. “Blessed is Mary for, without her asking, You dwelt in her womb chastely” (Hymn 8, 14). While “Sarah sang lullabyes” (Hymn 8, 13), “Rachel cried out to her husband” (Hymn 8, 14), and “Anna with bitter sobs asked for a child” (Hymn 8, 15), as well as Rebekah and Elizabeth, “Blessed is Mary, who without vows and without prayer, in her virginity conceived and brought forth the Lord” (Hymn 8, 16). What makes Mary stand out as blessed is exactly that she did not ask for a child. Perhaps this implies that it is exactly her willingness to accept the task of containing the uncontainable, especially without asking for it, that makes her so special. <br /><br />FHGServant of Maryhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13686441055922333147noreply@blogger.com