contains a full account of Jesus’s mother, Mary, a narrative utterly different from any other Brigid had read with Broicsech in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
Brigid learns that Mary, at the young age of three, enters the famed Temple in Jerusalem to study with the priests. It is an honor normally reserved for boys alone and, even then, for a very select few. From the start, Mary’s maturity, learning, and piety distinguish her and engender adulation among the people of Jerusalem. She bears the gift of sight and the ability to converse with the Lord’s messengers. While at the Temple, the text says, “no one was more learned in the wisdom of the law of God, more lowly in humility, more elegant in singing, more perfect in virtue. She was indeed steadfast, immovable, unchangeable, and daily advancing to perfection.”
Suitors seek her hand when she comes of age. In contravention ofthe wishes of the priests and her family, Mary forbids them, saying, “It cannot be that I should know a man, or that a man should know me…. I, from my infancy in the Temple of God, have learned that virginity can be sufficiently dear to God. And so, because I can offer what is dear to God, I have resolved in my heart that I should not know a man at all.”
But then an angel appears before Mary, saying, “You have found grace before the Lord of all. You will conceive from His Word.” Mary resists at first, adhering to her vow of chastity. She acquiesces when the angel explains the virginal nature of the conception and the fact that Mary will bear “the Son of the Most High … who will save His people from their sins.” The angel guides Mary to accept Joseph, assuring her that he will not be a true husband and saying that since “she had found favor with God, she would conceive in her womb and bring forth a King who fills not only earth but Heaven.”
When the Temple priests hear of Mary’s pregnancy, they assume defilement by Joseph. But Mary says—“steadfastly and without trembling”—“if there be any pollution in me, or any sin, or any evil desires, or unchastity, expose me in the sight of all the people, and make me an example of punishment to all.” Before the priests, she approaches the Lord’s altar boldly, circles the altar seven times, and no sign of impurity appears upon her. Thus she convinces the people of Jerusalem of her innocence.
Brigid is moved by Mary’s endurance and strength on the long journey to Bethlehem and in the bearing of her precious child without complaint or bloodshed. Yet the account of the bond between mother and Christ child sways her most. For she learns how Jesus drives fear from Mary’s heart in moments of terror, and listens to His Mother’s guidance in times of crisis and youthful misbehavior when He will heed no one else. In one tale, His Mother comes to the youthful Jesus after He has killed a childhood rival in anger and says, “My Lord, what was it that he did to bring about his death?” When Jesus explains what happened, Mary says, “Do not so, my Lord, because all men rise up against us.” And He, “not wishing to grieve His Mother,” causes the child to rise. Again and again, he returns to her side, and she encouragesHim to strive to His Father’s calling when all others cower in fear before Him: “Jesus returns to His Mother.”
The Gospel of Mary the Mother lures her. For here is a strong woman of Jesus’s band worthy of emulation—resilient, bold at times, and learned. She is not afraid to instruct her Son—even chastise Him—when His behavior demands it, and He heeds her, recognizing her as a woman worthy of respect. Brigid returns to the text’s Words again and again, whenever her circumstances permit. And this text, this Gospel of Mary the Mother, plants a seed.
One particularly fine summer afternoon, a cry interrupts Brigid’s solitary reading by the riverbank. As the sound grows closer, she recognizes the voice as that of her mother’s
Brigid learns that Mary, at the young age of three, enters the famed Temple in Jerusalem to study with the priests. It is an honor normally reserved for boys alone and, even then, for a very select few. From the start, Mary’s maturity, learning, and piety distinguish her and engender adulation among the people of Jerusalem. She bears the gift of sight and the ability to converse with the Lord’s messengers. While at the Temple, the text says, “no one was more learned in the wisdom of the law of God, more lowly in humility, more elegant in singing, more perfect in virtue. She was indeed steadfast, immovable, unchangeable, and daily advancing to perfection.”
Suitors seek her hand when she comes of age. In contravention ofthe wishes of the priests and her family, Mary forbids them, saying, “It cannot be that I should know a man, or that a man should know me…. I, from my infancy in the Temple of God, have learned that virginity can be sufficiently dear to God. And so, because I can offer what is dear to God, I have resolved in my heart that I should not know a man at all.”
But then an angel appears before Mary, saying, “You have found grace before the Lord of all. You will conceive from His Word.” Mary resists at first, adhering to her vow of chastity. She acquiesces when the angel explains the virginal nature of the conception and the fact that Mary will bear “the Son of the Most High … who will save His people from their sins.” The angel guides Mary to accept Joseph, assuring her that he will not be a true husband and saying that since “she had found favor with God, she would conceive in her womb and bring forth a King who fills not only earth but Heaven.”
When the Temple priests hear of Mary’s pregnancy, they assume defilement by Joseph. But Mary says—“steadfastly and without trembling”—“if there be any pollution in me, or any sin, or any evil desires, or unchastity, expose me in the sight of all the people, and make me an example of punishment to all.” Before the priests, she approaches the Lord’s altar boldly, circles the altar seven times, and no sign of impurity appears upon her. Thus she convinces the people of Jerusalem of her innocence.
Brigid is moved by Mary’s endurance and strength on the long journey to Bethlehem and in the bearing of her precious child without complaint or bloodshed. Yet the account of the bond between mother and Christ child sways her most. For she learns how Jesus drives fear from Mary’s heart in moments of terror, and listens to His Mother’s guidance in times of crisis and youthful misbehavior when He will heed no one else. In one tale, His Mother comes to the youthful Jesus after He has killed a childhood rival in anger and says, “My Lord, what was it that he did to bring about his death?” When Jesus explains what happened, Mary says, “Do not so, my Lord, because all men rise up against us.” And He, “not wishing to grieve His Mother,” causes the child to rise. Again and again, he returns to her side, and she encouragesHim to strive to His Father’s calling when all others cower in fear before Him: “Jesus returns to His Mother.”
The Gospel of Mary the Mother lures her. For here is a strong woman of Jesus’s band worthy of emulation—resilient, bold at times, and learned. She is not afraid to instruct her Son—even chastise Him—when His behavior demands it, and He heeds her, recognizing her as a woman worthy of respect. Brigid returns to the text’s Words again and again, whenever her circumstances permit. And this text, this Gospel of Mary the Mother, plants a seed.
One particularly fine summer afternoon, a cry interrupts Brigid’s solitary reading by the riverbank. As the sound grows closer, she recognizes the voice as that of her mother’s
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