“While
I am often skeptical of a lot of the Catholic lore [about Mary], I recognize
the need to allow the feminine archetype into our consciousness, into our
worship space, and into our society.”
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| Our Lady of Fatima, on the grounds of St. Francis Xavier Church, Birmingham, Ala. |
Over the
centuries, there have been hundreds of claims that Mary, the mother of Jesus,
has appeared to offer advice and comfort or to give warning and encouragement.
Although there are only eleven Vatican-approved Marian visitations, Lourdes and Fatima
being perhaps the best known, there are even today claims of appearances from
the Blessed Virgin. She has supposedly been seen by visionaries
in Medjugorje, and images have been seen in windows, on walls, and on food
items such as toast and macaroni & cheese. There is even a site down
Highway 280, just south of Birmingham, Alabama, where thousands gathered after one of the Medjugorje visionaries reported
Mary’s appearance to her when she was in town for medical treatment.
Growing
up in the rural South, I experienced my share of anti-Catholic bias. Although
the Catholic view of Mary is a stumbling block to many Protestants, it became
one of my greatest attractions as a convert. I should add that it took
years to get there, and it was not dogma or theology that opened up the path.
Instead, it was an understanding of myth and archetype. Years ago I was amazed
and intrigued when I read in Carl Jung’s book, Answer to Job, that
he considered the dogma of the Assumption of Mary to be the most important
religious event since the Reformation. The Assumption of Mary was not
proclaimed as official church dogma until 1950, but Jung saw it as something
that the populace had been aware of for over a thousand years. Carl Jung, the
influential Swiss thinker and pioneer in the field of psychiatry, had a lot to
say about how archetypes speak to us in old stories that endure from age to
age. He also developed the concept of the collective unconscious, in
which these universal archetypes speak to the human condition. He thought that
understanding these archetypes could help us to understand our own interior
lives. In reference to the doctrine of the Assumption of Mary, he said:
“But anyone who has followed with attention the
visions of Mary which have been increasing in number over the last few decades,
and has taken their psychological significance into account, might have known
what was brewing. The fact, especially, that it was largely children who had
the visions might have given pause for thought, for in such cases, the
collective unconscious is always at work ...One could have known for a long
time that there was a deep longing in the masses for an intercessor and
mediatrix who would at last take her place alongside the Holy Trinity and be
received as the 'Queen of heaven and Bride at the heavenly court.' For more
than a thousand years it has been taken for granted that the Mother of God
dwelt there.” (1)
It is
undeniable that Marian visions occur. Rather than ask if they are factual, I
think it is more important to ask why these visions are needed. I agree with
Jung that we need the influence of the feminine archetype to have a balanced
life. For Protestants who question this, think about 19th-century American
Protestantism. It was the most anti-Marian expression of Christianity known up
to that time. Jesus was primary, and what did 19th-century Protestants do
to Jesus? They made him highly feminized, made him meek and mild, even gave him
long hair and a dress! (2) Some of the artistic portrayals of Jesus show
him in flowing robes with arms outstretched – exactly the same posture that previous
artists had traditionally given to Mary. This is just one example of how the
feminine archetype will make itself known, even when a society tries to push it
aside.
When I read about some of the Marian visions that have occurred in the past, often the message from Mary was to build a church in her honor and to promote the praying of the rosary. My own thoughts are that if this were the actual historical Mary appearing, such requests would be completely out of character – to dedicate a church in her honor? However, if that vision is an expression of the feminine archetype, it makes perfect sense. It is correcting a heavily masculine society, bringing balance by restoring feminine qualities and bringing the feminine archetype to mind (often Marian visions occur during wartime, or just before war breaks out, when the masculine war machine is at work destroying).
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| In the Lady Chapel at St. Andrew's Episcopal Church Birmingham, Ala. |
All of this is to say that while I am often skeptical of a lot of the Catholic lore – I don’t believe the bit about Mary’s perpetual virginity (I see no need for it) and have no use for the concept of Immaculate Conception (I see no need for it) – I do recognize the need to allow the feminine archetype into our consciousness, into our worship space, and into our society.
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| Our Lady of Guadalupe St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church Birmingham, Ala. |
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| Black Madonna of Czestochowa |
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Theotokas
St. Simeon's Orthodox Church
Birmingham, Ala.
|
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| Stained glass window at St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church |
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1. C.G. Jung. Answer to Job, trans. R.F.C. Hull. Princeton: Princeton University Press, pp 99 -100.
2. Cf. Stephen Prothero. American Jesus, New York, Ferrar, Straus, and Giroux, pp.59 - 61.
