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Mary and the birth of the Church
Fr Chris Thomas, from the Emmaus Family of Prayer, considers how for St John, it was as the foot of the cross that the Church was born and the role of Mary in this.
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The scene with Nicodemus, for example, in chapter three shows very clearly the different levels that the Gospel speaks at. Nicodemus asks at the human, physical level "How can a man be born again?" Jesus answers at a spiritual level: "You must be born from above." John invites us all the time to move to a deeper understanding and find the meaning behind what he writes. In chapter two of the Gospel he takes us to a place called Cana in Galilee where there is a very ordinary wedding. The party runs out of wine and Mary says, "They have no wine" She's stating the obvious. John wants us to know the deeper meaning. Wine is a symbol of a rich fulfilled life and Mary is saying 'They have no joy, no life, no liberation.' She's crying out for freedom. Suddenly the Gospel has changed level. Mary becomes a symbol of humanity crying out for new life. She is no longer "Mother" but "Woman". At the foot of the cross Mary is no longer mother but
woman. She stands as a symbol of more than just herself. Many of the
scholars tell us that this scene can be interpreted as John's birth
of the Church. Timothy Radcliffe says in his book Seven Last Words:
"here at the darkest moment we see this community being brought
to birth at the foot of the cross." It's interesting that this
new community is born at the foot of the cross, the place where hostility
and enmity are brought to an end. It seems as though to be part of the
Church is to recognise that there is no room for hostility, no room
for scapegoating, or blaming another person. There is no room for accusing
people or expelling people. All are welcome in the community that has
at its origin the scandal of the cross, the instrument of torture that
brings to an end the divisions that we as humans bring into the world.
It's hard for us to understand the truth of community because we are born in probably the most individualistic culture the world has ever produced. We live in the age of the individual and we've forgotten our need of each other. We have a hard time in accepting that we truly are family. A great conversion is asked of us - that we move from "I" to "we". This conversion involves recognising that we are brothers and sisters who have a responsibility towards each other. Unfortunately most of us aren't willing to allow that conversion to take place and so Church becomes something that we do rather than something that we are. This means we can allow the scandal of starvation to take place because it happens in far off Africa. We can allow the scandal of war to take place because it's justified. We can gossip about people's misfortunes. We can allow the pain of division to exist within our Christian communities and hold on to unforgiveness and bitterness and anger. Yet these are our brothers and sisters. This is our family. In John 19:30 we read that Jesus gave us his Spirit. The cross is John's Pentecost scene. Jesus gives up his Spirit and pours it forth on the new community being born through his death. His spirit is yielded up to those whom he loves and who are represented by the faithful ones at the foot of the cross. It's a reminder to us that we can't be Church without the power of the Spirit transforming us and filling us, calling us daily to conversion. |
In
the millennium year a group from our community went to see the Oberammergau
Passion play. It was an incredibly moving experience in which it seemed
as though we entered into the last days of Jesus life. One of the most
moving parts of the play was when Mary and John, the beloved disciple,
stood at the foot of the cross and were given into each other's care.
"Woman this is your son.' 'This is your mother' ". It's not
difficult to imagine the scene. Jesus hanging on the cross with his
mother and the disciple that he loved there watching. Both of them in
agony over what's happening and Jesus looking at them and giving them
into each other's hands. You might be forgiven for thinking that this
scene is all about Mary and the love of a Son for his mother and at
a very surface reading of John's Gospel that's true but is it really
what John is talking about when he presents this scene to us? We all
know that John uses completely different material than the synoptic
Gospels, the origin of which we don't know and his material is written
at many different levels. Throughout the Gospel he writes on a physical
level, that is he tells the story, and on a spiritual level in which
he reflects on meaning. It's this latter level that John is more interested
in.