… blessed is the fruit of your womb”
Why is Mary’s womb blessed? Mary’s womb is blessed because the fruit of her womb is Jesus, the Son of God. The Word becomes Flesh through the womb of Mary. The Word is knit and takes on humanity from in a womb. “You formed my inmost being; you knit me in my mother’s womb.”[i] Gold can be in a solid form, and then it can be melted down. When it is melted it is still the same substance, but in liquid form, this liquid can then be poured or emptied into a mold. When it cools, the form will have changed to the form of the mold, but the essence or substance will remain the same. Mary’s womb is the mold, and the mold is pure, without flaw so that what comes from the mold is also pure without flaw. This analogy makes even more since in light of Philippians 2:6-11. “He [Jesus] emptied himself, taking the form of a slave.” Jesus emptied or poured Himself into the mold of Mary. A mold is also called a form. Mary is the perfect form or mold of a slave, a handmade.
Saint Louis de Montfort’s motto is: Jesus through Mary. We call a school an “alma mater” which means “our mother”. There is a great honor to go to the same school as famous athletes, movie stars, etc. attended. We want to go through the same formation, maybe play under the same coach, etc. Mary is the school; she teaches us how to be like Christ, to be formed in the likeness of Christ. We are called to “…not conform yourselves to this age but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect.”[ii] We must break out of the mold or form of the world and empty our self into the mold or form of Christ.
We must follow these steps: emptiness, openness to be filled, humility and obedience. The first is emptiness, what is called Kenosis, and until we learn Kenosis, we can’t move any farther. What is Kenosis? Kenosis is Greek and means an emptying. It is the voluntary renunciation by Christ of his right to divine privilege in his humble acceptance of human status. Why does Mary sing in the Magnificat, “the rich he has sent away empty?” This does not seem like something to be joyful about, that people would be sent away. This is a joyful statement because the rich cannot be filled up with the riches of God until they are emptied, until the experience kenosis. Those that are rich are those who refuse to empty themselves and be filled with the Grace of God.
MUSIC VIDEO “Lose My Soul – Toby Mac / Kirk Franklin”
This video is based on the words of Christ. In Matthew’s Gospel it is called the Conditions of Discipleship. Mary is the example of a perfect disciple and she is the first disciple, the first to follow these and model these conditions. “The Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life? Or what can one give in exchange for his life?”[iii]
Paul describes kenosis aptly to the Philippians: “His state was divine, yet He did not cling to his equality with God, but emptied Himself to assume the condition of a slave.”[iv] Something cannot be in the image of a mold until it is willing to be emptied, poured out. The mold and form of Christ is the Blessed Virgin Mary and for this reason, Saint Louis de Montfort says, “If we would go up to God, and be united with Him, we must use the same means he used to come down to us to be made Man and to impart His graces to us.”[v] God gave Himself to humanity through Mary, and now we can give ourselves back to God through Mary.
In the Litany of Mary, Mary is called queen twelve times. How is Mary like a queen? Saint Louis de Montfort gives the analogy of a queen and king. Jesus Christ is the King of Kings, and Mary is the Queen crowned at the Coronation by the Blessed Trinity. In a kingdom, the subjects might find favor with the queen and ask the queen to give a gift to the king on their behalf. If a citizen of the kingdom has an apple orchard and would like to give some apples to the king, he can give those apples to the queen, asking the queen to present it to the king. The queen will know the perfect time to present the gift to the king. The queen will also add her own touch to it, perhaps cutting and arranging the apple on the finish dish in the palace. In the same manner, Mary takes the “gift of self” that we give to Christ and she perfects the gift through her intercession and presents the gift to Christ the King. Mary knows her children, and she knows her son, and so she, as a good mother, helps to perfect all her children and then present them to the King. Mothers have a gift in perfecting and presenting things. A child might not have the greatest of clothes, but a mother will make their child look perfect for a special occasion. A family might not have much food in the pantry or fridge, but a mother can prepare a feast with what seemed to be nothing. We call this “a mother’s touch”, the touch of a queen. When Mary was assumed body and soul into Heaven she sits at the right hand of Jesus Christ. This has two meanings; One, looking at King and Queen analogies the queen typically sat at the right side of the king; Two, we see that Jesus has a place of power, honor, and esteem with the Father as He sits at the right hand of the Father. Likewise, Mary has power, honor, and esteem bestowed upon her not by herself, but given to her by the one who she is sitting next to, her son Jesus Christ.
Blessed Pope John Paul II prayed a short form of the Consecration to Mary each day. This prayer, called the Totus Tuus prayer, was also his motto. “I belong to you entirely, and all that I possess is yours, I take you into everything that is mine, give me your heart Mary.” At first, this prayer may seem to take away from Jesus. “Why do we give our self entirely to Mary? Why should I give her all that I possess? Why should I take her into everything that is mine?” These questions are answered in the fourth part of the prayer, “…give me your heart Mary.” What is it like to have the heart of Mary? What did Mary do and is still doing? Mary gave herself and thus we will give ourselves to Jesus entirely. Mary gave all that she possessed, and if we allow her to possess us as a mother possesses a child, she will give us to Jesus. If we bring Mary into our life, Mary will give our life to her Son. We are the one giving our self, but we do so through Mary. We pray the same way in the Morning Offering when we pray, “O Jesus, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I offer you my prayers, works, joys and sufferings.” It is our prayers, works, joys and sufferings, but we are offering them through Mary.
In the Litany of the Mary, Mary is called the Ark of the Covenant[vi]. What did the Ark of the Covenant in the Old Testament contain? The Ark contained the most sacred items to the Israelites; so sacred was the Ark that no one could touch it except the high priest. It contained three things: The stones from the Ten Commandments, the word and law of God. The staff of Aaron, which led the people into the Promised Land and the Manna from heaven, which fed the Israelites during their exile in the desert. What does the new Ark of the Covenant, Mary contain within her womb? Mary, the Theotokos or God Bearer, contains Jesus. How is Jesus like the items contained in the old Ark of the Covenant? Jesus is the Word made Flesh; He fulfills the law and gives us the new commandments. Jesus is the Good Shepherd that lays down His life for His sheep. He guides us to the Promised Land, and just as Aaron was a priest, Jesus is the high priest. Jesus is the Bread that came down from heaven. He is the bread of life and says, “I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, but they died; this is the bread that comes down from heaven so that one may eat it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.”[vii]
Jesus, as only the high priest, could touch the Ark of the Covenant, only Jesus Christ, the Son of God and the high priest, can touch the womb of Mary. In touching the womb of Mary, He blesses the womb of Mary and is reserved physically for Jesus alone; this is one reason why Mary is ever-virgin. No other children physically came from her womb. Jesus did give us Mary as our mother, and so, although no other children physically pass through the womb of Mary, many spiritual children born in the waters of baptism, pass through the Mother of God, and the Mother of the Church, and are blessed as they pass through.
Revelation 12 speaks of this spiritual motherhood. “Then the dragon [Satan] became angry with the woman and went off to wage war against the rest of her offspring, those who keep God’s commandments and bear witness to Jesus.”[viii] Mary did not give physical birth to all those who keep God’s commandments and bear witness to Jesus, but rather, she, as the Mother of the Church, gave spiritual birth to these offspring. We discover that Mary is the Ark of the Covenant at the beginning of Revelation 12. “Then God’s temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant could be seen in the temple. There were flashes of lightning, rumblings, and peals of thunder, and earthquake, and a violent hailstorm. A great sign appeared in the sky, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.”[ix] Revelation 12 relates to Mary's words in the Magnificat, "My spirit rejoices in God my Savior." Mary was saved from the beginning of salvation history by the God the Father who pre-saved her from Adam's sin and was at the center of the beginning of Salvation history; the initial battle between good and evil. We typically think of the sun rising as the beginning and the moon as the end of the day. “The woman” appears with both the sun and the moon in Revelation 12. Mary is at the beginning (Genesis 3:15) and now at the end (Revelation 12), the totality of salvation history.
[i] Psalm 139:13
[ii] Romans 12:2
[iii] Matthew 16:24-26
[iv] Fr. John John A. Hardon, S.J. Modern Catholic Dictionary
[v] Saint Louis Marie de Montfort; Preparation for Total Consecration; Secret of Mary: Nos. 23-24
[vi] Also see Link to Liturgy, Feast Days – Annunciation, Lesson – Mary’s Virginity
[vii] John 6:49-51
[viii] Revelation 12:17
[ix] Revelation 11:19 – 12:2