The Woman Clothed with the Sun
When we speak of Mary, we enter a mystery that surpasses understanding. "Our knowledge of her is, so to speak, a reflection of our own inner state." [1] She is not a figure to be dissected by the intellect, for her sanctity is hidden from the world’s scrutiny. Mary exists in a divine silence that cannot be grasped but only encountered in the heart. Her life was a perfect ‘yes’ to God, a fiat that resounds throughout eternity (Luke 1:38). In approaching Mary, we learn not through reason but through love, not by analyzing her, but by allowing her hiddenness to transform us.
For when we attempt to describe her, we often reveal more about ourselves than about her. "She remains hidden. She will always remain hidden. Even when we speak of her glory, we fail to understand it." [1] The proud search for her in places of power and spectacle, but Mary is found in simplicity and stillness, where God’s presence dwells (1 Kings 19:12). To know her, we must become like her—poor in spirit, meek, and surrendered to God’s will (Matt 5:3-5).
Her sanctity is known only to those who walk her path. "To know her, we must live in some measure her hidden life, her humility, her poverty, her obedience, her self-effacement, her simplicity." [1] Mary leads not with power but through self-emptying love, showing us that greatness is found in servanthood (Luke 1:48; Mark 10:43-45). She teaches that the path to God is not upward through human achievement but downward through humility and surrender (James 4:10).
Yet, though hidden, her role is central to salvation, for "every grace that is given to the world is given through Mary." [1] As the new Eve, she became the channel through which the New Adam entered the world (Gen 3:15; Rom 5:19). Every divine blessing that reaches us flows through the same vessel through which Christ was given to humanity (Gal 4:4). Her fiat was not a one-time act but an eternal opening through which grace continually pours forth.
To love Christ fully is to embrace His mother, for "one cannot fully love the Son without loving the Mother." [1] It was God’s design that the Savior would come through her, and so it remains His design that we find Him through her (Luke 2:34-35). Ignoring Mary is to misunderstand the mystery of the Incarnation, for Christ is forever the Son of Mary (Rev 12:5).
Why is Mary the channel of such grace? Because "she is empty of all things. She is pure receptivity, pure openness, pure nothingness." [1] It is her emptiness that made room for the fullness of God (Col 1:19). She did not cling to status or seek recognition but allowed her entire being to become a vessel of divine love (Phil 2:6-7). Her womb was sacred not only for bearing Christ but because it was the outward expression of an interior receptivity (Luke 11:27-28).
Yet, her highest privilege is not in power or dominion but in her nothingness. "Her exaltation is in her nothingness; her glory is in her emptiness." [1] In Mary, we see that the first are last and the last first (Matt 20:16). Her greatness is found not in self-assertion but in self-forgetfulness. She echoes the psalmist’s cry: "Not to us, Lord, not to us, but to your name be the glory" (Psalm 115:1).
All that she is points beyond herself. "Her glory is all in Him; it is the glory of being nothing in herself and everything in Him." [1] Just as the moon has no light of its own but reflects the sun, so Mary’s radiance is the pure reflection of the divine light within her (2 Cor 4:6). She is the one who magnifies the Lord, making Him visible to the world (Luke 1:46).
Her role is one of transparency. "She is simply the space where He can work, the clear window through which He can shine." [1] There was no obstacle, no self-will, no darkness in her that could hinder the divine light from passing through her to the world (Luke 8:21). She is the immaculate mirror of God’s beauty, free from every stain (Song of Songs 4:7).
In the Incarnation, the bond between Christ and His Mother became inseparable. "He is in her, she is in Him, and with Him she is in the bosom of the Father." [1] The Word made flesh did not merely pass through her; He united Himself to her in a bond that cannot be undone (Luke 2:51). She who was overshadowed by the Holy Spirit became a living tabernacle of the Trinity (Luke 1:35).
Her complete surrender made her a pure instrument of the Incarnation. "There is in her no obstacle, no resistance, no selfishness, no shadow of self in the work that He does in her." [1] She received the divine seed with perfect faith, allowing God’s work to be accomplished without interference (Heb 11:11). She models what it means to be fully available to God’s will (Matt 26:39).
And God, in His divine humility, chose to need her. "God has willed that she should be necessary to Him." [1] This is the wonder of the Incarnation—that the Creator of all entrusted Himself to the care of a human mother. It reveals God’s deep desire for relationship and cooperation with humanity (Phil 2:8).
But the story does not end with her earthly life. In her Assumption, "she is the promise of what we shall be." [1] Mary’s bodily glorification is the first fruits of the resurrection, the sign that our destiny is not merely spiritual but fully embodied (Rom 8:23). She stands as a beacon of hope, reminding us that heaven is our true home (John 14:2-3).
Her inexhaustible poverty becomes a fountain of grace for all. "Her poverty is inexhaustible, and therefore she is the Mother of all." [1] Because she claimed nothing for herself, she can give everything to others. She is the universal mother, offering her maternal care to all who seek refuge under her mantle (Rev 12:17).
To be sanctified is to follow her way. "She exists purely for Him and in Him, and He gives Himself to us through her." [1] Mary leads us not to herself but to Christ. Her presence in our lives is always a conduit of grace, never an end in itself. She is the road that leads to the One who is the Way.
True devotion to her is not in displays of piety alone but in imitation of her hidden life. "If we seek her in herself, we shall not find her, for she is hidden and unknown." [1] She is the quiet handmaid who teaches that the truest encounters with God happen in the secret places of the soul (Psalm 131:2).
And it is in this hiddenness that we find joy. "She is the secret joy of those who love her." [1] Her joy is not fleeting or external but the deep joy of a heart fully surrendered to God. It is the joy that no one can take away, the joy that springs from a life lived in union with the divine will (John 15:11).
Finally, honoring Mary is not optional but essential. "For she is necessary to Him in His outward work in the world." [1] Just as she was indispensable in Christ’s coming, so too is she indispensable in the Church’s mission. She stands at the heart of the Church’s life, a perpetual reminder that the Word became flesh through a human heart open to God (Gal 4:4).
In Mary, we see what it means to be fully human—fully open to God, fully given to love, and fully united with Christ. She is the one who shows us the path, not by pointing to herself, but by pointing beyond herself to the One who is All in All (1 Cor 15:28).
[1] Thomas Merton, New Seeds of Contemplation