Theme: Mary - A Truly Liberated Woman
The word liberty in the N.T. refers to the state of freedom of the believer, who is not in the grip or bondage of sin (Cf. John 8:32-36) or under the external compulsion of the law (New Westminster Dictionary of the Bible). This is what the word liberated means - freed from the grip or bondage of sin or from the external compulsion of the law.
This state of freedom from sin is attributed to Mary, firstly, because she was "conceived in the state of perfect justice, free form original sin and all its consequences and penalties, in virtue of the redemption won by Christ on the cross. In this sense, the privilege of the Immaculate Conception was the anticipated fruit of Christ's saving passion,death and resurrection" (Catholic Encyclopedia). Hence, the Church, through Pope Pius IX, based on this doctrine proclaimed Mary as the "Immaculate Conception" at the apparition to St. Bernadette. Secondly, because she is "immaculately" conceived. She is the woman prophesied in the book of Isaiah: "The virgin shall be with child, and bear a son and shall be called Emmanuel". She was then predestined to be the Mother of the God-Son Jesus which was further confirmed in Luke's Gospel that Mary, as greeted by the Archangel, "Hail full of grace! is highly favored. And the Angel continued: "The Lord is with you...behold you will conceive in your womb and bear a son and you shall name him Jesus". Therefore, what makes Mary a truly liberated woman is, namely: she was conceived without original sin, hence she is immaculate, highly favored by God and full of grace. Her freedom from sin gave her a significant role in the history of salvation, God's vessel in His saving plan.
One of the signs of our times is women's demand to be treated equal with men. And so way back in the 70's we encountered in the headlines of some journals "Women Liberation" with pictures where women were doing men's work and the men clapping their hands cheering them. Then, came the feminist movement where the pro-choice women claimed to be liberated by choosing to do away the product of their conception through abortion. And lately, women wanting to become ordained priest, which is already happening in non-Catholic Christian churches.
It was God who gave women equal right with men through the dignity He gave to Mary through God's redeeming grace. But Mary never considered herself equal with her son when she was going with Him in His public life. She was always at the background as her Son Jesus went about doing the Father's will.
We are all beneficiaries of God's redeeming grace but we cannot yet be equal with Mary in her being truly liberated until such time when God's power rests upon us as it had in Mary. Women need not assume men's work neither to get involved in feminist activities to be considered liberated. The feminine Sunday we used to observe does not even give any sense of liberation but tied us up to a meaningless practice.
We are truly liberated when we, like Mary, remain always constant and faithful in listening to God's word and putting it into practice in our daily life, in the faithful living of our consecrated life, striving always to be congruent in our behavior especially with regard to chastity since Mary our exemplar is all pure and chaste.
She is the pure virgin before giving birth, during birth and after birth. She is the woman who fixed her single-hearted love to God and to us her children and to no other love. Pure love liberates, it is always at work and is never idle; it endures till the end. This was what Mary did and does through her liberating love until now to the whole of humanity, saving it from the grip of sin, from the evil one, the devil and his evil doings.
Liturgist of the day: Sr. Isabel Gregorio, C.M.
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