Saint Mary the Virgin: The First Woman Priest

Luke 1:46-55 (NRSV)

Mary said,

"My soul magnifies the Lord,

and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,

for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant.

Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed;

for the Mighty One has done great things for me,

and holy is his name.

His mercy is for those who fear him

from generation to generation.

He has shown strength with his arm;

he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.

He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,

and lifted up the lowly;

he has filled the hungry with good things,

and sent the rich away empty.

He has helped his servant Israel,

in remembrance of his mercy,

according to the promise he made to our ancestors,

to Abraham and to his descendants forever."

 
I was at the Convention for the National Association of Pastoral Musicians (NPM) in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1995 listening to an address by Benedictine Sr. Joan Chittister.   Sr. Joan during her address said: "If Mary had not given her "yes" to God at the Annunciation no man would be saying the Mass."  Yes, that was a remark to protest the notion that only men can be Priests.  It took me from then until the time came to consider becoming Episcopalian to change my thinking about women being Priests.  As my traditional conservative Catholic thinking turned over to a more progressive Episcopalian (which always has room for being Anglo-Catholic as much as it does Protestant) my thoughts have often drifted back to that address by Sr. Joan, and she is correct.

Ever since my conversion to Roman Catholicism in 1994 and 1995 I became very open to placing Mary in a more central place in my prayer and spiritual life.  Now as an Episcopalian it is time for me to put Mary in her rightful place, as one of God's greatest disciples and even the first woman Priest.  She did not go through Seminary or get the consent of her local Standing Committee, but the life of Mary offering herself to God, and the great gift that God gave her in being Bearer of God and then offering up Jesus her son, is very much what a Priest does.  A Priest offers prayers and sacrifices on behalf of the people, and consequently offers herself/himself in service of God's people.  Mary did this work most wonderfully and beautifully.  In offering her self to God, she also allowed God to begin the work of restoring women along with all who had been forgotten or set aside to their equal place.

As I read through Gray Temple's book: "Gay Union's in Light of Scripture, Tradition and Reasons" I began to think a lot more about Mary and what is written in the Magnificat that we read as part of our Holy Day in Commemoration of Saint Mary the Virgin.  "God has brought down the powerful from their thrones and lifted up the lowly.  God has filled the hungry with all good things and sent the rich away empty." (Luke 1: 52-53).  It is no secret that women in the times in which the Scriptures were written were understood as property. The role of sexuality in the Bible was about procreation, but it was also about power.  The strong against the weak.  Women were thought of as the weaker of the human species.  For a man to have been dominated by a woman in the times that the Scriptures were written would have implied that a man had become weak and a woman would have taken over his role.  Such had very serious consequences for the man in ancient Jewish society.   When Mary sings her Magnificat and sings of the mighty being brought down and the lovely being lifted up, she is in a mysterious way singing of how God has raised up someone who would have been thought of by her society as being low, weak and helpless, to someone who is strong, because God has honored that individual with a great and wondrous grace. 

When God became human in Jesus, God's work in Jesus was to restore a sense of equality among the people of God.  All throughout the life and ministry of Jesus he made very little room for dominating people, and he avoided those who attempted to dominate him.  This was among the reasons why Jesus raised up those who had been cast down, welcomed the stranger, healed the sick, raised the dead, became friends with women, lepers, sinners and those whom society and the church of his time had thrown away.  No longer was anyone worthless because of who they were or what they experienced.  Jesus came with a message that all persons were to be loved with unconditional and all inclusive love.  Every person that Jesus touched and/or associated with, and even the arrogance of those with whom he refused to associate, were individuals who were to be touched by the unconditional and all inclusive love of God in one way or another.  Mary was the first to experience God's profound love and she offered her son, when he was finally nailed to the cross to pay the price of humanities insistence on who was to dominate whom.  Even the crucifixion that defeated humankind's slavery to sin, was not the end and Jesus was not permanently submissive to death. God raised Jesus from the dead, to show that in Jesus even death cannot dominate humankind forever.  Our wounded humanity ascended to the right hand of God where Jesus Christ our Mediator and Advocate prays for us to be converted from our need to dominate.  Even the Church has yet to allow Jesus' and Mary's prayer to be answered.

The issue of a change in society over who is stronger and who is weaker has as much to do with our changing attitudes about women as it does sexual orientation and/or gender identity/expression.  One of the biggest problems for men about homosexuality is the idea of a man being treated like a woman.  For a man it means coming out of a place of social supremacy and accepting the fact that he is no better or more important than anyone else.  In God all human beings, male or female, lesbian, gay, straight, black, Native or Eastern Indian, completely healthy or challenged, wealthy or poor, clothed or naked, can speak or write in English or no English, Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu etc all humankind is loved and cherished by God and is to be given an opportunity to be part of and contribute to the well being of humankind.  For those who are privileged allowing others to share in that privilege means being willing to understand that all are privileged and have a God-given right to have the opportunity to share in all that being a daughter or son of God allows us.  This means realizing that we are not the center of the universe, and that others can occupy and share our space, wealth, opportunity and in one way or another there will be enough  for all.  For the wealthy and powerful, such an idea is so very threatening.  This is why conservative Christians are so insistent to keep LGBTQ people and in some other cases women subordinated to their understandings of Scripture.  This is why conservative Christians are working to keep Islamic Mosques from being built in America.  This is also why the wealthy protest losing their profits so that others can share in the riches of this land. 

St. Mary the Virgin and Jesus show that when we accept God's way to recognize God's love and power in all people, amazing and wonderful things do and will happen.  If humankind could only stop just for a bit and instead of people trying to dominate each other, learn to serve with and for each other what a different world we would live in.  The Church would really then be preaching the Gospel and healing as Christ healed.  What a celebration of the Eucharist that would be.   A thanksgiving that would be everything it is suppose to be.

O God, you have taken to yourself the blessed Virgin Mary, mother of your incarnate Son: Grant that we, who have been redeemed by his blood, may share with her the glory of your eternal kingdom; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. (Collect for Saint Mary the Virgin, Book of Common Prayer, Page 243).

Almighty and most merciful God, we remember before you all poor and neglected persons whom it would be easy for us to forget: the homeless and the destitute, the old and the sick, and all who have none to care for them. Help us to heal those who are broken in body or spirit, and to turn their sorrow into joy. Grant this, Father, for the love of your Son, who for our sake became poor, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (Prayer for the Poor and Neglected, Book of Common Prayer, Page 826)

Look with pity, O heavenly Father, upon the people in this land who live with injustice, terror, disease, and death as their constant companions. Have mercy upon us. Help us to eliminate our cruelty to these our neighbors. Strengthen those who spend their lives establishing equal protection of the law and equal opportunities for all. And grant that every one of us may enjoy a fair portion of the riches of this land; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (Prayer for the Oppressed, Book of Common Prayer, Page 826).