Theological Approach to Mary as Mother in Jon's Gospel

Abstract

The Virgin Mary was always important for Catholic Church not only as a perfectly devoted woman who carried out the will of God to the end but also as a person having unique role within the Church itself, the role which exalts and unites her womanhood and motherhood. The aim of this article is to show how this uniqueness unfolds in Mary’s picture which is seen in the Gospel by the John.The Virgin Mary was always important for Catholic Church not only as a perfectly devoted woman who carried out the will of God to the end but also as a person having unique role within the Church itself, the role which exalts and unites her womanhood and motherhood.

Both the Gospel according to John and the book of Revelation are the books that were much influ­enced by the searches of community identity and living circumstances. This authentic experience formed a distinctive theology of these works and since they are intended first of all for community for whose growth the good news are proclaimed, it is natural that is possible to qualify the characters depicted there by com­munity aspect. And so, the mother of Jesus is unique not by herself but by her role in the community which she receives as a special vocation. It is possible to see this by analysing her role in the Gospel according to Saint John where she appears twice at the beginning and at the end of her Son’s public work and both times she is called by him a woman. At Cana wedding (John 2,1–12) she intercedes people who experience priva­tion and urges to obey Jesus who is calling her for the first time a woman as if pointing her resemblance with faithful Israel people. Meanwhile, at the Cross (John 19, 25–27) that name reminds the first woman Eve and that Mary by her unconditional fidelity surpasses and transforms the infidelity of Eve. However, the dimension of the womanhood is not complete if it is perceived apart from motherhood because namely this new dimension of motherhood is the uniqueness which is noticeable in the role of Jesus’ mother. At Cana her intercessory way of acting has begun but under the Cross it got a new and complete meaning – the motherhood of Mary surpasses bodily limits and receives universal aspect, she becomes not only the mother of Jesus but the mother of all in his Church.

Therefore, though it is paradox, but the tradition of John allows to know Mary as a woman whose womanhood unfolds and gets complete at most in the vocation to be mother and not only by flesh but even more by spirit to the Church as a community.