When we think of your patron saint it is principally as the mother of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is only later that we begin to reflect upon her own characteristics and the way in which her personality helped to shape and form her child. The beginning of this process is not Jesus’ birth but his resurrection. It is in resurrection that Christian people identify Jesus as the Son of God. Resurrection explains his transfiguration and why he died. Resurrection clarifies who he is and his uniqueness. In theological terms, resurrection answers the Christological questions. Whether our faith has been honed over a lifetime, whether we stand in one church tradition or another or whether we are new to the faith, however we describe Jesus’ uniqueness, all will want to say that he was a special person. It is only when we reflect upon what that means that we are forced to the conclusion that because he was special, so too was his mother.

In the early chapters of St Matthew’s gospel the focus is on Joseph; whereas the early chapters of St Luke focus on Mary. It is the first two chapters of his gospel which provide us with a richness of information about the mother of Jesus. Let me then, if I may identify three aspects of Mary’s personality which lay down blueprints for the life of the church itself, as well as giving us insights into her motherhood. It was Archbishop Donald Coggan (you might think surprisingly) who wrote this…

“I am the Lord’s servant; may it be as you have said.” “The Lord’s servant.” Here is Mary as the Servant-Mother. Hold on to that meaning of her son’s life and death. The Servant-Mother was about to bear him who, above all others, was to be the servant of the Lord.

Who knows the influence of a mother on her unborn child? Here is a world of mystery which is still not wholly understood. But is it not possible that something of the concept of dedicated servanthood which was at the very heart of this young pregnant woman “got through” to the child as yet unborn, and became an integral part in the shaping of his manhood and his ministry? There may be more in this than has been generally recognised.”

The first characteristic is one of service. Mary describes herself as a handmaid and servant of the Lord. She is there to carry out his will in total obedience. She is to have a child, to nurture that child through its infancy and adolescence into manhood. Later she is undergo that most awful of experiences of witnessing her own son’s death.

Life before birth is as much a mystery as life after death. That there is a relationship between mother and the child in utero is not in any doubt. Ask any mother and she will tell you about the relationship. What is not known and what some describe as mystery is the experience of that relationship. The genetic blueprint has already been laid down, aspects of mother and father have already been inherited and the mother’s natural immune system has began transferring to the unborn child. There are still a host of unanswered questions. For example,

if the mother dreams, is the child aware of it?
if the mother is happy and joyous, is the child aware of it?
if the mother suffers physical pain, does the child feel pain?
if the mother prays, does the child share the prayer?

In Mary’s case, there is an added dimension. Is there divine activity at work in the formation of this child in utero destined to become the son of God? How does this aspect of Jesus’ existence relate to his presence in the beginning when the word was with God and the word was God? What is the link between the unborn Jesus and the logos?

What we do know is that, once the child has been born and moved from that watery uterine way of living to dependence upon a pair of lungs (from the amniotic to the pneumatic), then that intensely close bond between mother and newborn child quickly develops. We know that nurture is as important as nature and it is on his mother’s knee that Jesus would have absorbed her characteristics, her traits and all that she had to give to him. This is where he learnt obedience and servanthood. This is where he first learnt to pray and this is where Mary shared her vision of God with him. Bishop Reginald Heber has this verse in his poem “The Worship of the Incarnate Christ” …

Blessed was the breast that fed Thee;
Blessed was the hand that led Thee;
Blessed was the parent’s eye
That watch’d Thy slumbering infancy.

Let us now move to the second theme which is poverty. It is important to remember that the son of God was born into poverty in an animals’ shelter where his mother used a feeding trough as a makeshift cradle. Mary’s poverty and Jesus’ poverty tell us something about the God we worship. The theme of poverty indicates that we believe in a make-do God. He made do with a manger for a cradle. He made do with a group of twelve people not known for their material wealth. He made do with a cross on which the son of man was to be crowned King of Heaven. He made do with a borrowed grave and today he makes do with you and me.

Mary and Joseph were not rich. They lived in very simple circumstances dependent upon a very simple diet and, we would say today, struggled to make ends meet. This was the environment in which Jesus grew up and was nurtured. In his adult life and public ministry he continued living in this way and, by being poor, could identify with the poor. Out of poverty he spoke with authority about the things of God – about justice and peace, about prayer and fasting, about holiness and glory and about love and forgiveness. He did what he did best which was to turn everything upside down and manifestly demonstrate to everyone that by becoming poor, you become rich. Centuries later St Lawrence was to be ordered to bring out the treasures of the Cathedral and he offered the poor of the city. These, he said, are our treasures and for this he was condemned to death. The seeds for this dominical lifestyle were sown by Mary during Jesus’ formative years, these lessons about lifestyle were learnt at his mother’s knee. Edward Benson when Chancellor of Lincoln founded the Theological College before becoming Bishop of Truro and Archbishop of Canterbury at the end of the 19th century. By his “Lincoln Judgement” in the case of Bishop Edward King, he contributed to the ending of vexatious litigation over ritual and ceremonial. In his poem “Ave Maria” he writes this:-

Lowly in her lowly dwelling,
With a holy virgin fear,
To the glorious Angel telling,
God’s high grace, she bow’d her ear.

The last theme is the song of Mary – the Magnificat. These are the words that Luke puts into Mary’s mouth when she visited Elizabeth, the visitation which we are celebrating this weekend for your Patronal festival. Here we find a microcosm of the gospel and, as well as responding to Elizabeth with these words, one wonders whether she ever sang the same words to her son. Scholars tell us that the first two chapters of St Luke’s gospel translate easily into Hebrew which Mary may well have known but was more likely to have spoken Aramaic. If she did sing these words to Jesus, I wonder what setting she used. Here then is another blueprint which Jesus was to develop into the full blown gospel. Here, is a recognition that God acknowledges lowliness, that he fills the hungry and sends the rich away empty. Mary calls God holy and merciful. He is a God who is faithful to his promises. This is the God in whom we believe and today we acknowledge and celebrate the importance and vital role of the blessed virgin in God’s economy and in his work of redemption. Let us give thanks for her life, her example and her continued prayers.