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Star of the New Evangelization: Mary's Role in the Formation and Life of a Missionary

| Fr. Mugisho Pasteur
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Introduction

Before satellite navigation, sailors crossed open seas by fixing their eyes on the stars. The Christian tradition applied this image to Mary, invoked as Stella Maris, the star that guides those tossed by the storms of life. St. Bernard of Clairvaux gave it classic expression, urging the believer in temptation and tribulation to "look to the star, call upon Mary."¹ Pope Francis returned to the image when he named her "star of the new evangelization."²

The missionary, who sails toward unfamiliar shores, has that particular need such as a star. Yet Mary is also a point of tension in Christian life because she is neglected by some and sometimes exaggerated by others. The central problem of this reflection is therefore the following: how can a missionary, who is also a theologian, allow Mary to shape his or her formation and apostolic life, while speaking of Mary with doctrinal precision and living a devotion that is genuine rather than sentimental? Three questions guide the inquiry. What is Mary's importance for the missionary? How should one speak of Her without exaggeration or reductionism? How can true devotion to Mary be developed? The thesis is that Mary is neither a rival to Christ nor an ornament of faith. She is the first missionary disciple, who shows that mission begins with receiving Christ, continues by carrying Him to others, and invites the world to encounter Him.

I. What Is the Importance of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Life of a Missionary?

Mary can rightly be called the first missionary disciple. Pope Francis presents her as the Mother of evangelization, who accompanies the Church's mission with maternal tenderness. ³ Scripture traces the following the pattern: At the Annunciation she receives the Word in faith. At the Visitation She "went with haste" to Elizabeth (Lk 1:39), bearing Christ within Her. In the Magnificat (Lk 1:46–55) She proclaims God's saving action toward the lowly. At Cana She directs the servants to her Son: "Do whatever he tells you" (Jn 2:5). She then perseveres in prayer with the apostles awaiting Pentecost (Acts 1:14). John Paul II described this itinerary as a pilgrimage of faith in which Mary precedes the Church as its first and perfect believer.⁴ The early Church read Her obedience as the reversal of Eve's disobedience, so that what Eve bound through unbelief Mary loosed through faith.⁵ The Second Vatican Council received this teaching in Lumen Gentium.⁶

Three consequences follow for the missionary. For spirituality, Mary teaches that fruitfulness begins in receptivity: one cannot give a Christ one has not first welcomed. For discipleship, John Paul II speaks of a Marian dimension of every Christian life, symbolized by the beloved disciple who took Mary into his own home (Jn 19:27).⁷ For proclamation, the Magnificat models an evangelization that is joyful, rooted in praise, and attentive to the poor, while Cana models a witness whose whole purpose is to point beyond herself to Christ.⁸

A Preliminary Clarification: Mariology, Marian Spirituality, and Marian Devotion

Because the first question names Mariology, Marian spirituality, and Marian devotion, the three must be distinguished before we proceed. They are related but not identical.

First, Mariology is the theological discipline that studies Mary's person, privileges, and role in the history of salvation in light of Scripture, Tradition, and the Magisterium. Denis Farkasfalvy presents it as an exploration of the Marian mystery that cannot be separated from Christology and ecclesiology: Mary is studied always in relation to Christ and to the Church.⁹ Second, Marian spirituality is the lived appropriation of that doctrine, the way prayer, discipleship, and apostolic commitment are shaped by Mary's example and maternal presence.¹⁰ Last, Marian devotion names the concrete expressions of veneration and prayer, such as the Rosary, the Angelus, liturgical feasts, and consecration, through which the faithful honor Mary and entrust themselves to her.¹¹ The Catechism insists that this devotion differs essentially from the adoration owed to the Trinity.¹²

The three depend on one another. Doctrine without devotion risks abstraction; devotion without doctrine risks sentimentality. The Congregation for Catholic Education accordingly asks that Marian doctrine and piety be held together in formation.¹³ For the missionary, Mariology supplies the truth, spirituality the form of life, and devotion the daily practice.

II. As a Missionary and a Theologian, How Do I Speak About Mary in a Way That Avoids Both Exaggeration and Reductionism?

Vatican II exhorts theologians and preachers to avoid, with equal zeal, gross exaggeration and narrow-mindedness when considering the singular dignity of the Mother of God.¹⁴ Three principles help.

First, begin with Christ. Mary is never an independent theological center. The Catechism teaches that what the Church believes about Mary rests on what she believes about Christ, and in turn illumines faith in him.¹⁵ Calling Mary Mother of God does not make her divine; it protects the truth that the one she bore is God incarnate.¹⁶ Her perpetual virginity, Immaculate Conception, Assumption, and spiritual motherhood should likewise illuminate who Christ is and what he has accomplished. A practical test follows: does this statement lead me more deeply to Christ, or does it detach Mary from him?

Second, hold together three Marys without making three different Marys. The historical Mary was a Jewish woman of Nazareth, betrothed to Joseph, living within first-century Judaism. The Mary of the Gospels is not a mere historical reconstruction, for Scripture presents her already through the faith of the apostolic community.¹⁷ The Mary of the Church's faith is the fruit of the Church's progressive contemplation of what Scripture implies, from Mother of God to the dogmas of the Immaculate Conception and the Assumption and the title Mother of the Church.¹⁸ These are one woman seen with increasing depth, not three figures. Historical, biblical, and doctrinal discourse must be kept in continuity.

Third, avoid error in both directions. Aquinas distinguished latria, adoration due to God alone, from dulia, honor given to the saints, and hyperdulia, the singular veneration due to Mary.¹⁹ Exaggeration obscures Christ's unique mediation, which the Council insists Mary's role does not diminish.²⁰ Minimalism, the claim that Mary was simply a good woman who bore Jesus, is equally inadequate. Lumen Gentium declines to reduce her to an exemplary believer, yet it also places her within the community of the redeemed: uniquely graced, but redeemed in a more exalted manner by the merits of her Son.²¹ Speaking rightly of Mary therefore means speaking of her in relation to Christ, within the mystery of the Church, and according to Scripture, Tradition, and the Magisterium.

III. How Can We Develop a True Devotion to Mary?

Professing the Marian dogmas is not yet living them. The Council teaches that authentic devotion consists neither in sterile or fleeting sentiment nor in credulity, but proceeds from true faith, awakens filial love, and leads to the imitation of Mary's virtues.²² Paul VI's Marialis Cultus offers the guiding principles: devotion should be trinitarian, christological, and ecclesial, and should remain biblical, liturgical, ecumenically sensitive, and attentive to the whole human person.²³ Devotion is thus a loving faith, affectionate and reasonable at once. Benedict XVI presents Mary as a woman whose faith is inseparable from love.²⁴

Several steps make this concrete for a missionary today. First, cultivate interest, since we speak well of those we love: read Scripture, the Church's teaching, and the saints' witness about Mary. Second, pray the Rosary, which Paul VI and John Paul II commend as a contemplation of Christ with Mary's eyes.²⁵ Third, choose a specific devotional orientation or community, such as a shrine, movement, or confraternity, that sustains perseverance. Fourth, make a personal consecration, following St. Louis de Montfort's way of entrusting oneself wholly to Christ through Mary, a path summed up in John Paul II's motto Totus Tuus.²⁶ Fifth, allow yourself to be transformed by imitating her faith, humility, obedience, and charity.²⁷ Throughout, remember the ancient principle ad Iesum per Mariam: she always leads to Christ. Finally, share Mary with others, for the evangelizer who has known her tenderness can offer it to a world weary of anonymity.²⁸

Conclusion

The star of the sea does not replace the harbor; she points toward it. Mary matters to the missionary because she shows how to receive Christ and carry him to others. She must be spoken of with a theologian's discipline, centered on Christ, faithful to the Church, and balanced between exaggeration and reductionism. She must be loved with a disciple's heart, through a devotion that is reasoned, affectionate, and transformative. In this way, Mary remains for the missionary what the tradition has always called her: a sure star in the storms of life, and the guide to Jesus.

Notes

  1. Bernard of Clairvaux, Homilies in Praise of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Super Missus Est), Hom. 2.17, trans. Marie-Bernard Saïd (Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 1993).
  2. Francis, Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium (24 November 2013) [hereafter EG], 287.
  3. EG 284.
  4. John Paul II, Encyclical Redemptoris Mater (25 March 1987) [hereafter RM], 2, 25–27.
  5. Irenaeus of Lyons, Against Heresies22.4.
  6. Vatican II, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium (21 November 1964) [hereafter LG], 56.
  7. RM 45.
  8. EG 286–288.
  9. Denis Farkasfalvy, The Marian Mystery: Outline of a Mariology (New Bedford, MA: Academy of the Immaculate, 2013).
  10. RM 45; Congregation for Catholic Education, The Virgin Mary in Intellectual and Spiritual Formation (25 March 1988).
  11. Paul VI, Apostolic Exhortation Marialis Cultus (2 February 1974) [hereafter MC], 24–28, 42–55.
  12. Catechism of the Catholic Church [hereafter CCC], 971.
  13. Congregation for Catholic Education, The Virgin Mary in Intellectual and Spiritual Formation.
  14. LG 67.
  15. CCC 487.
  16. CCC 495; LG 66. The title Theotokos was defined at the Council of Ephesus (431).
  17. Raymond E. Brown et al., eds., Mary in the New Testament (Philadelphia: Fortress; New York: Paulist, 1978).
  18. Jaroslav Pelikan, Mary Through the Centuries: Her Place in the History of Culture (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1996); Pius IX, Ineffabilis Deus (1854); Pius XII, Munificentissimus Deus (1950); Paul VI, Address closing the Third Session of Vatican II (21 November 1964).
  19. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae III, q. 25, a. 5; CCC 971.
  20. LG 60–62.
  21. LG 53, 55. On Mary within the mystery of the Church, see also Joseph Ratzinger and Hans Urs von Balthasar, Mary: The Church at the Source, trans. Adrian Walker (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2005).
  22. LG 67.
  23. MC 25–39.
  24. Benedict XVI, Encyclical Deus Caritas Est (25 December 2005), 41–42.
  25. MC 42–55; John Paul II, Apostolic Letter Rosarium Virginis Mariae (16 October 2002), 1–2.
  26. Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort, True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin, nos. 120–130; John Paul II, Crossing the Threshold of Hope (New York: Knopf, 1994).
  27. LG 65.
  28. EG 285–288.