095 - Mother of the Mystical Body Godfried Geenen

University of Dayton eCommons Marian Reprints Marian Library Publications 12-1962 095 - Mother of the Mystical Body Godfried Geenen Follow this and additional works at: http://ecommons.udayton.edu/marian_reprints Part of the Religion Commons Recommended Citation Geenen, Godfried, "095 - Mother of the Mystical Body" (1962). Marian Reprints. Paper 81. http://ecommons.udayton.edu/marian_reprints/81 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Marian Library Publications at eCommons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Marian Reprints by an authorized administrator of eCommons. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. About the study . .. The present Marian Library Study is an adaptation of an article that appeared in the December 1950 issue of Cross and Crown. We w ish to express our thanks to the editor for permitting us to use the material as part of our series. Mary's motherhood of mankind is based first of all on the reality that she is truly the Mother of the Son of God, Jesus Christ, and secondly on the important role she played in the actual work of the Redemption itself. The Church's ordinary teaching on Mary's spiritual maternity of men, based on these two primary notions, has been held from the earliest ages. Both ancient and modern authors are quoted to demonstrate this constancy of doctrine. The works of Pius, XII, however, are referred to more often than those of any other writer. In thus tracing the idea through the witness of a unanimous tradition we can see that there is a firm basis for the Catholic's almost instinctive belief that Mary is in very truth his own mother. Father Godfried Geenen, O.P., a native of Belgium, made his studies at the University of Louvain, where he specialized in Mariology. His numerous articles on the Blessed Virgin, many of them dealing with the historical developments of certain questions, have been published in several languages. He has also spoken at a number of the important Mariological congresses that have taken place in recent years. At the international congress of 1950 he presented a study of Mary's continuing triumph over heresy. During the Marian Year congress he spoke on Eadmer, the first theologian of the Immaculate Conception. The follow ing year, 1955, he prepared for the Belgian Mariological Society a survey on Mary's Queenship in the teaching of the Church from the time of Benedict XIV up to the reign of Pius XII. Father Geenen is stationed at the Angelicum, the Dominican house of studies in Rome, where he has conducted classes in the history of dogma and theological methodology. The MARIAN LIBRARY STUDIES is publish ed m onthly eight times a y ear, October through May, with e cclesiastical approval, by the Maria n Librar y of the University of Dayton. All changes of address, renewals, and new subscriptions should be sent to the circulation office located at the Marian Library, University of Dayton, Dayton 9, Ohio. Second-class postage p aid at Dayton, Ohio. Subscription price is $2.00 a year. Printed by Marianist Press, Dayton 30, Ohio. MOTHER OF THE MYSTICAL BODY Godfried Geenen, O.P. In September, 1944, when the German and Allied armies were engaged in a bitter struggle on the banks of the Albert Canal in the Kempen region of Belgium, the distressed people of this enemy-occupied zone made frequent visits to a statue of Our Lady which stood at a distance of two miles from the canal. Since my childhood I had known this rural Bosch chapel and its statue of Our Lady which dates back to the four teenth or fifteenth century. But it was not until maturity that my eyes and my heart were forcibly impressed by the very old inscription at the base of the statue. It was a Flemist text: Christnen naar Uwe Maeder (Christians, behold your Mother). During the past four centuries as dur ing the war the people of the countryside had been honoring the Mother of God as their mother, as the mother of all Christians, as the mother of all men. But the realization of why our Belgian mothers brought up their children with such a deep and lively love for the Mother "of whom was born Jesus"l burst upon me suddenly. The Mother of the God-man is also the mother of men. It is natural for us to say that Mary, the Mother of Jesus, is our Mother also. It is certain that such terminology was used during the lifetime of St. Anselm of Canterbury, but it seems that the actual phrases were uncommon in the earlier centuries of Christianity. Yet the doctrine taught and indicated by the phrase, Mary our Mother, was known from the earliest days. The first Christians honored the Mother of God as we honor her today. We use the form that they used when, for example, we say the Sub tuum 1 praesidium, which dates from the end of the third century. ~ In spite of the fact that Mary has always been honored as our mother N since the early days of Christianity, we find some Christians even in our I own day who are afraid to say that Mary, the Mother of God, is also our N mother, poor and wretched sinners that we are. Although they do not realize it, this is a Catholic doctrine which cannot be cast aside without - taking from Catholicism one of its sublime attributes. The elimination of this doctrine would negate a devotion on which depends not only the salvation of men but the peace of the present-day world as well. Such people think that the Church uses the expression "Mother of men" hy perbolically and metaphorically. It is because of the existence of this error among men and the honor due our Blessed Mother, that we set forth in this article the depth and the meaning of this doctrine and its expression which is so dear to the Church. If this expression, "Mary our Mother," did not embody a truly Catholic sense, the teaching office of the Church would long since have forbidden its usage, for the Church not only abhors but formally forbids any new devotions which might endanger the faith of her children. It is natural 2 MOTHER OF THE MYSTICAL BODY for her to do this. The Church received from her Founder the mission of pr eserving intact the doctrine revealed by God. Our Lord said that His Church would never be guilty of failure in her mission of preaching the truth. To assist her in her office of guardian and interpreter of revealed doctrine thr oughout the centuries until the end of the world, He prom ised to her and He gave to her the Holy Ghost. To standardize our devotions, Pope P ius XII recalled in his encyclical Mediator Dei (December 18, 1947) the Catholic and historical principle lex credendi legem st atuat supplicandi (the faith that we profess must be the norm of our supplications. Exaggerations appear, and it i:3 possible that certain religious manifestations are dangerous for Catholic life and faith. Because of these errors and exaggerations in devotions, some of our separated br ethren condemn Catholicism. We know that in this con demnation they are wrong, for "the Church is not responsible for the weaknesses, sins, and abuses of Catholics," as Pope Pius XI said. Criti cism of this kind cannot logically touch the Church herself, but rather it belongs to certain Catholics who either do not understand or do not state correctly the doctrine taught by the Church. Of course, people outside the faith pray, and often with great fervor and devotion. How sad it is that these devout souls do not honor the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, as we honor her! Since this lack of devotion to the Blessed Virgin is due to ignorance, we must ex cuse them. They are afraid of offending God or of taking something away from the glory of Christ if they should honor Mary. Hence they some times accuse the Catholic Church of being extravagant in its devotion to Mary. The very opposite is true. The Catholic Church always rejects and condemns devotions not based upon revealed dogmas, but at the same time she approves with all her authority and with the assistance of the Holy Ghost, the ever-growing devotion to the Mother of God, precisely because Mary is a~so the mother of men. The Church teaches that we do not render to Christ the worship due Him if we stubbornly refuse to venerate Mary as our Mother, since it is through her that He willed to come to us, and it is thanks to her consent that the Son of God became man; it is thanks to her that He became "our Redeemer." That is why, in a certain sense, we must say that she is, with Him and by the will of God, "the cause of our salvation." In our litanies of the Virgin we address her as " Holy Mother of God," "Mother of Christ," "Mother of our Savior." Now, it is because she is the Mother of God, our Savior, that she is our Mother, too. This teaching is first evi denced by St. Irenaeus, and for centuries the Sovereign Pontiffs, the successors of St. Peter and the vicars of Christ, have never ceased to emphasize this doctrine. That is why in the pages which follow we shall try to present the Catholic doctrine of Mary, the Mother of mankind.

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