Fall 1973

Page 78

MARIOLOGY

303

credulity ... but proceeds from true faith" (Church, n. 67), the liturgy, which is centered on Christ and ever conscious of the whole community of the Church, provides the riorms for all other cult of Mary. Marian piety can take many legitimate forms,¡ displaying veneration, love, invocation and imitation (Church, n. 66). Tested devotional forms from the past, especially the Rosary, long beloved of individuals and of'families, are still valuable and well reflect the liturgy. Good devotions to Mary will always "cause her Son to be rightly known, loved and glorified, and all his commands observed" (n. 66). 31. Is It possible to describe in single phrases the shift in emphasis about our Lady, both doctrinally and devotionally, that has taken place in the Church in recent years? The conciliar teaching and the clarifications of the Pope and Bishops since the Council show clearly there has been no denigration of Mary's true place in Catholic life. What has occurred is a significant shift from a "privilege-oriented" Marian piety to a "sharing-concept." She is "Mother of the Church" indeed, but at the same time Mary is seen much more now as also "daughter and member of the Church," showing forth in her life and vocation the Church's, and every Christian's, call to faithful service and to glorious union with Christ. 32. Is the Virgin Mary still a sign of division to Christians in the West? It is unfortunately true that bitter polemic has often swirled round the figure of Mary during the centuries of Reformation and Counterreformation, and Christians are still divided in their understanding of her proper place and fitting reverence for her. Yet, in the new post-conciliar Catholic climate and also on the part of many other Christian Churches and groups there is a willingness to study her true role openly, charitably, especially on a common biblical basis. Mary as model of faith, humility and obedience is a unitive factor, even if we are still divided about the "growth in understanding" of revelation illustrated by such doctrines as her Immaculate Conception and Assumption, and about Mary as the type of man responding to God's grace and thereby taking an active meritorious part in his own salvation. What the Church has said about the effects of redemption in Mary, it has affirmed in other ways and at other times of us all. Still ahead lie the fulfilment both of the Savior's prayer, "that all may be one," and the prophecy of his mother, "all ages to come shall call me blessed."


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Fall 1973 by Chicago Studies - Issuu