Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary

Introduction: "Speak to your audience" is, supposedly, a sound guide-line for speakers to follow. That way, one rarely stirs up too many unwanted hornet nests! Of course, it presumes that you know your audience; it can also mean that one says what the audience wants to hear rather than what it needs to know! I don't really know you; and so I hope that I do not stir up too many hornet nests, and, more importantly, that what I say may be of help to you in developing your devotion to Our Lady.

We are all familiar with the move towards "inclusive language" in to-day's society; and, in most cases, there is merit in such a move. I am quite happy to use such general phrases as "people" instead of "mankind". I think the more radical elements who wish to introduce such changes as "Our Mother" in the prayer taught by Jesus where He used "Our Father", show themselves to be more misantrophically inclined rather than to be theologically competent. I was once in discussion with such a group and did not win many friends when I commented that if one takes the "man" out of "woman", all one has left is" wo(e)"! In mor balanced people interested in such thinking, we have no problem in understanding that God is neither man or woman; we understand clearly that in God all perfections are combined and that which is admirable in femininity may be found every bit as much as that which is admirable in masculinity. Maybe one can argue," a rose by any other name!" However,what was good enough for Jesus is good enough for me, and so I stick with "Our Father".

First Point: When we look at the emergence and development of marian devotion, I think it can be safely said that in addition to the theological and historical reasons, a third reason, namely psychological, can also be given. There has always been a great need to find feminine as well as masculine traits in the Godhead. There were times, undoubtedly, when this need was expressed in extreme ways leading to charges of idolatry on the one hand, or, on the other, overly saccharine mariology. Because of the first, one of the more serious mistakes of the Reformation was to exclude marian devotion. And, because of the second, many modern Catholics are making the same mistake. In either instance, a religious symbol has been abandoned that has been of immense importance to Christians for almost two thousand years.

Second Point: "To Jesus through Mary" was an aspiration I learned at school. For all of its brevity, it expresses a great theological truth needed in our understanding of the scriptures there are some 19 references to Mary, Mother of God. In to-day's gospel we read of the first in which she became the first of all Christian believers - "I am the hand maid of the Lord; let what you have said be done to me". Some months later when visiting Elizabeth, she employed the famous Jewish hymn - "My soul gives glory to my Lord", to-day's responsorial psalm - to point away from herself towards God who stands behind all that has been reported. She confesses that she is his "lowly handmaid"; that all the honour which will be given to her from that day forward through all generations is not really hers. She only shines forth the greatness of God, her Saviour. She rightly sees herself at the end of a long history of God's saving presence among his people - "The Almighty has done great things for me, holy is his name".

To-day's feast is a continued recognition that the Almighty has done great things for his lowly handmaiden. It is an expression of hope that God will continue to do such great things for people. Mary lived a life believing that the promise made to her by the Lord would be fulfilled. May we also be endowed with that same sense of never-failing trust and faith in God's word so that, we too, may finally come to Jesus through Mary. Amen