“In Mary…we meet the essence of the Church.” Mary is the mother of the Church and the first daughter of the Church — the mother and the virgin daughter.
The Immaculate Conception is a type of the Church, for to be truly “Church” it must be immaculate and conceived “not by the will of man but by the will of God.”
The Immaculate Conception gives birth to Christ. Immediately we are reminded that the motherhood of Mary is the motherhood of the Church: that Christ may be born in souls that make up the mystical Body of Christ.
Indeed, Mary and the mystery of the Church are inseparable just as she and Christ are.
We see it clearly that when the Apostles were alive the Church was apostolic, besides being One, Holy and Catholic. But after Pentecost, the Church, remaining One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic, became Marian.
This is not a new mark or new characteristic of the Church. It is just a summary of the four traditional marks of the Church. It is just a new type prophesied at the beginning of Genesis, with reference to the eternal battle that will exist between the devil and his cohorts and the woman and her offsprings. This also will be prophesied later on in the Apocalypse by St. John, when he presented this type of the Church as “the woman clothed with the sun.”
Mary, as the type of the Church, represents this. She is mother of Christ. But Christ, today, exists in His mystical Body the Church and, therefore, she is mother of the Church. But the Church, the future bride of Christ, the Bridegroom, must be a virgin. And Who is the worthiest of virgins in Christ’s Mystical Body, but Mary? Here is where Mary becomes Mother and Virgin daughter at the same time. As mother of the Mystical Body, Mary’s role in heaven is to help form the mystical Body of Christ, the Church, seeing to it that the members of the Mystical Body are, primarily, spiritual virgins and if possible also, though not necessarily, physical virgins.
With Mary representing both the Mother of the Church and the worthiest virgin member of the Church, it would be just right for us to describe the Church of the Apocalyptic times as Marian. And St. John did not hesitate to describe the Church as “The Woman.”
For each individual, the message is clear. To belong to this Church, your life must be like Mary. Your life must be withdrawn from the world, silent, working on what is essential for existence, mindful of God and being His handmaid. Of course, the Gospels had already described this life and further explained by the Fathers of the Church. But how many Catholics can envision this way of life in an entire and unified way? Much more put it into practice?
Doesn’t that life bear the description of monastic life, a life primarily meant for lay people?
(Painting above is “Santa Maria Gloriosa Dei Frari,” by Titian, 1490-1576.)