Picturing Mary. Advent reflections on images of Mary: Introduction

The Gospels tell us very little about the mother of Jesus. There are just a handful of stories which feature her. Despite this, she soon became an important figure in Christian faith, not least because the assertion that Jesus was “born of a woman” (Galatians 4.4) supported the Christian claim that he was fully human. Gradually people began to develop devotional practices centred around her and by the Middle Ages, she was essential to the spiritual lives of many Christians. At the Reformation in the 16^th century, though, many Protestants saw devotion to her as a mark of Catholicism. They abandoned and tried to suppress feasts and other religious practices associated with Mary, along with all the other saints, because of what they saw as the superstition associated with them, but it proved harder to “dethrone” Mary in the popular imagination than the Reformers hoped. She remained, and remains, a fascinating figure, often depicted in art. In every generation, people find inspiration in this story of an ordinary woman who answered God’s call to play her part in the extraordinary story of the birth of his Messiah.

This Advent I will be sharing a series of images of Mary, with prompts for your own reflection on them. To help you reflect on the images in this series, you might like to ask yourself the questions in the sidebar to the right as you look at them. For each day's image there will also be a video of the picture, with the same questions on the soundtrack, and space for reflection. While I won't be giving a commentary on each picture in these videos, I have made an introductory video - click on the link below -, focussing on an image that doesn't feature in the series - a bonus track! - to give you an idea of how to look contemplatively at art. 

Mary in the Bible

Despite Mary’s status in Christian history, the Bible gives us very little information about her.

Mark’s Gospel doesn’t mention her by name at all, and only tells one story in which she features (Mark 3.31) where she is among a group of family members trying to stop Jesus from preaching, fearful of repercussions if he does.

Matthew’s Gospel tells the story of Jesus’ conception and birth largely through Joseph’s eyes. It is he who is told that she is pregnant, and why, and although Mary is named, she doesn’t say anything and is portrayed as very much at the mercy of those around her, not only the murderous King Herod, but also her neighbours, and Joseph himself, who could have cast her aside (although he doesn’t) since she is clearly expecting another man’s child.

John’s Gospel tells a couple of stories in which Mary features – the wedding at Cana (John 2) and Mary’s presence at the foot of the cross when Jesus dies (John 19.25)

 

It is only Luke who gives anything like a rounded picture of Mary (Luke 1& 2)  He puts her centre stage in his account of the birth of Jesus, telling us of the angel Gabriel’s annunciation to her, her visit to her cousin Elizabeth, Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem, and two subsequent visits to the Temple – one to present Jesus there when he is 40 days old and another when he is twelve, when he goes missing and is found debating with the religious experts. Luke tells us she “ponders” the things that have happened in her heart, but she doesn’t fully seem to understand Jesus’ significance, as he also tells us, like Mark and Matthew, of the occasion when she and Jesus brothers try to stop his ministry (Luke 8.19). She does seem to get it in the end though, as Luke mentions her at the beginning of the Acts of the Apostles, as being present with the disciples as they wait for the arrival of the Holy Spirit (Acts 1.14) This mention of her is highly significant, because it clearly preserves a memory of her as part of the Christian community. It is doubtful that Luke would have known her personally, despite legends that said he did, since his Gospel wasn’t written until around the 80’s AD, by which time she would have been very old indeed, but he may have known people who had known her. Whatever the historical accuracy of his account of Jesus’ birth, (which don’t match with what Matthew tells us), he plainly knew that she had mattered and had been held in affection, as she has been to many generations that followed. In a way, the fact that there is so much we don’t know about her may have helped people to imagine her in any way they wanted. She could be many different things, enabling them to identify with her in many different ways; as a vulnerable young girl at the mercy of the suspicions of her society; as a brave revolutionary, who rejoices that her son will bring in a new world in which God “puts down the mighty from their seats and lifts up the lowly” (Luke 1); as a woman who bravely says “yes” to God’s call God’s plan; as a loving mother, who protects her son and brings him up to love others; as a struggling disciple, who sometimes gets it wrong, but learns and grows.

·         What does Mary mean to you and what shaped your image of her?

Through this Advent series we will be looking at a small selection of the many images of Mary which have been painted and sculpted through the ages.

The first eight days of the series take us backwards in time from the Day of Pentecost, through Mary’s involvement in the adult life of Jesus – events for which there would have been many eyewitnesses to pass on the stories among the early Christian community.  We then start at the beginning of Mary’s story, with the annunciation and birth of Jesus, stories which act as a “prelude” to the Gospels of Matthew and Luke in which they appear, introducing their themes. We don’t know how historically accurate either account is – they don’t fit neatly together, so they can’t both be right, (and how many of us really know the details of our own births, let alone those of others we have only known in adulthood?) Both accounts, though, seem to preserve a story of a birth in Bethlehem in a time of political turmoil, of a young mother with a suggestion of scandal hanging over her, of poverty and displacement, and yet a sense that this birth would turn out to be of immense significance.