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Mary's Fiat
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Mary's Fiat
Admin Wed Nov 17, 2010 3:37 pm
Mary's Fiat
"Fiat voluntas tua... Let ithappen to me..."
"The `fiat' of the Mother ofthe Lord is the most humble thing that the maiden can say or accomplish . . .Since she binds herself entirely to God, she becomes entirely free in God . . .She is infinitely at the disposal of the Infinite. She is absolutely ready foreverything, for a great deal more, therefore, than she can know, imagine orbegin to suspect. Coming from God, this yes is the highest grace; but, comingfrom us, it is also the highest achievement made possible by grace:unconditional, definitive self-surrender. It is at once faith, hope and love.It is also the original vow, out of which arises every form of definitiveChristian commitment to God and in God. It is the synthesis of love andobedience" -from A First Glance at Adrienne von Speyr by Hans urs vonBalthasar
Adrienne von Speyr's inspirationalinsights into Mary permeate all of her writings. The late German mystic anddear friend and guide to Hans Urs Von Balthasar, is probably equal in hereloquence on the Mother of God to St. Bernard of Clairvaux, yet somehowAdrienne's words about Mary never gild the lily. Mary's simplicity remains.Adrienne sees Mary's `fiat' as the model or goal of all prayer. In learning topray we are always reaching for that total freedom before God that radiatesfull of wonder, fear and light - from the annunciation account in the Gospel ofLuke. And even though there have been volumes and volumes written about Mary,the stark and simple Gospel accounts are our first introduction to the girl whobecame the Mother of God.
The Lukan portraits at the beginningof his Gospel and a handful of accounts in the other Gospels are the only sourceswe have of this woman during her time on earth. And yet these few sources arethe veritable tiny mustard seed which has given birth to a tree so immense, andstill growing. Try to imagine all the books you have seen on Mary, or try evento name the great cathedrals beginning with Notre Dame. Think of the endlesswritings of the saints, and the encyclicals, and the devotions. Now think ofthe apparitions and the purported apparitions. And now the images! No otherimage in western art has expressed more tenderness, compassion, warmth,invitation. Mary is always embracing, hugging, sheltering, kissing, lifting,reaching, praying - either for us or her son.
At times she has the delicatetenderness of the Khwan Yin, the Oriental goddess of mercy; and at other timesshe is a formidable tower of loving strength. She is a wide-eyed child,spellbound by the apparition of an angel, or a little slip of a girl with ababy almost too big for her arms. She is a frightened teenager being led awayfrom violence and mayhem in the middle of the night by her young husband; andshe is the girl on the brink of the salvation of humankind being promised amaturity of pain for herself and her child. She is the frantic mother of a lostchild; the perceptive woman who quietly nudges her son out of the nest and intohis ministry of signs and wonders at the festal table of a wedding. And thenshe is the Mater Dolorosa whose promised pain has reached its zenith as shewatches her son's murder, and witnessing the Light fade from the world; andthen cradles, once again, her naked child in poverty, in humility, in a faithwhich is beyond words.
She is the mother who knows andunderstands all mothers. It was from the Cross itself that Jesus gave her to usas mother. And who hasn't blundered into a darkened church and come upon somemother in front of an image of Mary silently begging, or gazing or weeping-onemother to another and felt that this dialogue was sacred and to be leftprivate. Or who hasn't turned to Mary (perhaps with the "Memorare")in the privacy of one's heart and pleaded for some intention, for someone'slife or health, some impossible dream, some lessening of pain?
Ages and ages of Christian pilgrimshave travelled to the shrines of Mary where she is variously depicted as ayoung Aztec Indian girl at Guadalupe, as a black madonna at Montserrat, or theageless mother of Michelangelo's Pieta.
Yet somehow, somewhere the devotionto or the love of Mary began to go awry. Possibly the Medieval church had madeGod so frightening to the people that they felt that Mary and the saints weretheir only comforts and supports. It was during this time that Mary began toattain the attributes or the role of the Holy Spirit- as consoler, as mercy, asthe source or mediatrix of grace. Yves Congar in the first volume of histrilogy I Believe in the Holy Spirit states, "Catholics attribute to Marywhat really belongs to the Holy Spirit and, in extreme cases, they give her aplace that should be occupied by the Paraclete...Mary has a pre-eminent placein the Christian mystery as the model of the church and of universalintercession. This is the work of the Spirit in her. That is why Christians tryto model their lives according to the image of Mary, who welcomed Christ andgave him to the world, and they pray to her so that this may be accomplished inthem . . . Protestants are right to reject an attribution to Mary of whatbelongs only to God, but they are wrong if they remain closed to the witnessborne by Catholic and Orthodox Christians to the benefit in their lives inChrist of a discreet Marian influence."
St. Ildefonso of Toledo who died inthe year 667 summed up all of these insights in a prayer which we can make ourown. "I pray to you, holy Virgin: that I may receive Jesus myself fromthat Spirit who enabled you to conceive Jesus. May my soul receive Jesusthrough that Spirit who enabled your flesh to conceive that same Jesus ...May Ilove Jesus in that Spirit in whom you adore him yourself as your Lord and inwhom you contemplate him as your Son."
Mary said: Here is the slave ofthe Lord. May it happen to me as you have said. -Luke 1:38
Mary --Mother of God
A Life of Immense, Personal Faith
At the Annunciation-Saying yes to God
At Bethlehem-Bringing forth the Son of God
At Jerusalem-Anxious at His disappearance
At Cana-Expecting His yes
At Jerusalem-Her Son's trial and suffering
At Calvary-Emptiness at His death
At the Garden-Glory in His Resurrection
At Pentecost-Faith confirmed by the Spirit
Jesuit Bulletin. Spring 1984. p.8-10. Electronically Reproduced withPermssion of the Publisher.
"Fiat voluntas tua... Let ithappen to me..."
"The `fiat' of the Mother ofthe Lord is the most humble thing that the maiden can say or accomplish . . .Since she binds herself entirely to God, she becomes entirely free in God . . .She is infinitely at the disposal of the Infinite. She is absolutely ready foreverything, for a great deal more, therefore, than she can know, imagine orbegin to suspect. Coming from God, this yes is the highest grace; but, comingfrom us, it is also the highest achievement made possible by grace:unconditional, definitive self-surrender. It is at once faith, hope and love.It is also the original vow, out of which arises every form of definitiveChristian commitment to God and in God. It is the synthesis of love andobedience" -from A First Glance at Adrienne von Speyr by Hans urs vonBalthasar
Adrienne von Speyr's inspirationalinsights into Mary permeate all of her writings. The late German mystic anddear friend and guide to Hans Urs Von Balthasar, is probably equal in hereloquence on the Mother of God to St. Bernard of Clairvaux, yet somehowAdrienne's words about Mary never gild the lily. Mary's simplicity remains.Adrienne sees Mary's `fiat' as the model or goal of all prayer. In learning topray we are always reaching for that total freedom before God that radiatesfull of wonder, fear and light - from the annunciation account in the Gospel ofLuke. And even though there have been volumes and volumes written about Mary,the stark and simple Gospel accounts are our first introduction to the girl whobecame the Mother of God.
The Lukan portraits at the beginningof his Gospel and a handful of accounts in the other Gospels are the only sourceswe have of this woman during her time on earth. And yet these few sources arethe veritable tiny mustard seed which has given birth to a tree so immense, andstill growing. Try to imagine all the books you have seen on Mary, or try evento name the great cathedrals beginning with Notre Dame. Think of the endlesswritings of the saints, and the encyclicals, and the devotions. Now think ofthe apparitions and the purported apparitions. And now the images! No otherimage in western art has expressed more tenderness, compassion, warmth,invitation. Mary is always embracing, hugging, sheltering, kissing, lifting,reaching, praying - either for us or her son.
At times she has the delicatetenderness of the Khwan Yin, the Oriental goddess of mercy; and at other timesshe is a formidable tower of loving strength. She is a wide-eyed child,spellbound by the apparition of an angel, or a little slip of a girl with ababy almost too big for her arms. She is a frightened teenager being led awayfrom violence and mayhem in the middle of the night by her young husband; andshe is the girl on the brink of the salvation of humankind being promised amaturity of pain for herself and her child. She is the frantic mother of a lostchild; the perceptive woman who quietly nudges her son out of the nest and intohis ministry of signs and wonders at the festal table of a wedding. And thenshe is the Mater Dolorosa whose promised pain has reached its zenith as shewatches her son's murder, and witnessing the Light fade from the world; andthen cradles, once again, her naked child in poverty, in humility, in a faithwhich is beyond words.
She is the mother who knows andunderstands all mothers. It was from the Cross itself that Jesus gave her to usas mother. And who hasn't blundered into a darkened church and come upon somemother in front of an image of Mary silently begging, or gazing or weeping-onemother to another and felt that this dialogue was sacred and to be leftprivate. Or who hasn't turned to Mary (perhaps with the "Memorare")in the privacy of one's heart and pleaded for some intention, for someone'slife or health, some impossible dream, some lessening of pain?
Ages and ages of Christian pilgrimshave travelled to the shrines of Mary where she is variously depicted as ayoung Aztec Indian girl at Guadalupe, as a black madonna at Montserrat, or theageless mother of Michelangelo's Pieta.
Yet somehow, somewhere the devotionto or the love of Mary began to go awry. Possibly the Medieval church had madeGod so frightening to the people that they felt that Mary and the saints weretheir only comforts and supports. It was during this time that Mary began toattain the attributes or the role of the Holy Spirit- as consoler, as mercy, asthe source or mediatrix of grace. Yves Congar in the first volume of histrilogy I Believe in the Holy Spirit states, "Catholics attribute to Marywhat really belongs to the Holy Spirit and, in extreme cases, they give her aplace that should be occupied by the Paraclete...Mary has a pre-eminent placein the Christian mystery as the model of the church and of universalintercession. This is the work of the Spirit in her. That is why Christians tryto model their lives according to the image of Mary, who welcomed Christ andgave him to the world, and they pray to her so that this may be accomplished inthem . . . Protestants are right to reject an attribution to Mary of whatbelongs only to God, but they are wrong if they remain closed to the witnessborne by Catholic and Orthodox Christians to the benefit in their lives inChrist of a discreet Marian influence."
St. Ildefonso of Toledo who died inthe year 667 summed up all of these insights in a prayer which we can make ourown. "I pray to you, holy Virgin: that I may receive Jesus myself fromthat Spirit who enabled you to conceive Jesus. May my soul receive Jesusthrough that Spirit who enabled your flesh to conceive that same Jesus ...May Ilove Jesus in that Spirit in whom you adore him yourself as your Lord and inwhom you contemplate him as your Son."
Mary said: Here is the slave ofthe Lord. May it happen to me as you have said. -Luke 1:38
Mary --Mother of God
A Life of Immense, Personal Faith
At the Annunciation-Saying yes to God
At Bethlehem-Bringing forth the Son of God
At Jerusalem-Anxious at His disappearance
At Cana-Expecting His yes
At Jerusalem-Her Son's trial and suffering
At Calvary-Emptiness at His death
At the Garden-Glory in His Resurrection
At Pentecost-Faith confirmed by the Spirit
Jesuit Bulletin. Spring 1984. p.8-10. Electronically Reproduced withPermssion of the Publisher.
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