Humanity from ancient times has connected the earth with mother. It was the earth that gave birth to life and nurtured it, as does a mother. The earth is the fruitful womb of life.
Archaeologists have uncovered in Mesopotamia (modern Syria, Turkey, and other Middle East countries) ancient figurines, older than 5000 BCE, representing the earth mother or the feminine goddess. It is surmised that these figurines in some way were tied to religious awareness of the feminine as divine, source of life. Ancient peoples were sensitive to the feminine dimension of nature. They celebrated this in their ancient religious practices such as Dionysian rituals.
As patriarchal peoples from the East migrated or invaded Mediterranean civilizations from about 4000 BCE to 1500 BCE, patriarchal culture gradually replaced matriarchal culture. Perhaps the psyche of society needed greater structure for progress to be made in building society. In Rome, we see law develop. Dionysian or bacchanalian religious practice was discouraged, and practitioners persecuted.
In Christianity, the feminine aspect of the divine has been embraced in devotion to the Blessed Mary, although imperfectly. At a deep level in the human psyche there has always been the awareness that God was more than male or masculine. God has also been manifested in the feminine. The Church has recognized Mary, the mother of Jesus as also Mother of God, thus helping to balance the expression of the divine as masculine and feminine.
In a world today of male domination, power, and patriarchy, I find it noteworthy to consider that the Word of God entered humanity through a woman, not through a man, and a teenage girl at that.
When we stop to think about humanity, we realize that a more complete sense of the divine is reflected in men and women together. Although Christians have called God “Father,” they have always been aware of the feminine aspect of God, as is reflected in devotion to Mary.
Traditionally, Mary has been compassionate love. She is Mother of God, Queen of heaven, Mother of Sorrows, and Our Lady of Perpetual Help. Catholics pray “Salve Regina, mother of mercy.” Throughout her pregnancy she embodied the divine in the child of her womb. She gave birth to the divine in her son Jesus. As mother, she was always willing to embrace us with her comfort and to heal our wounds. In the rosary, we ask Mary, Mother of God, “pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death.”
Throughout my life I have respected Mary as the Mother of Jesus and Mother of God who is ready to help us in our need. But somehow, I found it difficult to closely relate to Mary. My relationship with Mary grew when I reflected on the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe which was imprinted on the cloak of Juan Diego.
Somewhere I read that in that image, the Virgin of Guadalupe is shown in a dancing position because of the slight bend of her left knee. As I reflected on “Mary of the bent knee,” Mary was no longer only “mother of mercy.” Mary was one who embodied the feminine. She was one who enjoyed celebrating and dancing. She was an authentic woman in her humanity, in her sexuality, in her passion, in her intimacy, in her nurturing and healing, and in all those qualities which we call feminine. Mary was not only one who was compassionate mercy, but one who invited us to enter without fear into the fullness life. It was this authentic woman whom I could relate to as friend and not only as mother.
I suspect the Church today still has a true, but inadequate and limited sense of Mary as compassionate mother. I understand most Catholics would relate to Mary as compassionate mother. But I wonder if the Church should reflect more deeply on the image of Mary as true woman, a passionate and sexual woman, through whom the divine comes to birth. I wonder if we should reflect more on Mary as mother who pushes us out of our comfortable nest into an ever-evolving world, and into a creative and free response to the gift of life. Perhaps in some way this would help the Church grow beyond its patriarchal culture. Perhaps it might help the Church to better integrate women and men at all levels of Church structure.