Review article
Mary – The Perfect Model of Consecrated Life
Marija Pehar
orcid.org/0000-0002-8083-1896
; Catholic Faculty of Theology, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
Although the Second Vatican Council insists on the life of Christ as the direct model to be imitated by consecrated persons (LG, 42), this paper will search for the perfect model of consecrated life in Mary, Mother of Jesus, insofar it recognizes in her the most perfect realization of imitating Christ.
On the basis of the New Testament and Mary's unconditional adherence to the Son, in Mary we can recognize not only the mother of Jesus, but also the perfect disciple. Her discipleship and true imitation is identified in the inner trust in the person of Jesus and His Word, and in the consistency of life that proceeds from that trust and is reflected in the readiness to offer and use one's own life for the truth of God's Word in which one believed. This New Testament image of Mary as the ideal disciple was present in mariological depictions of the first centuries, and used within the themes on the theologically understood virginity and motherhood as expressions of radical discipleship, which is explicated in the first part of this paper.
The second part examines Mary's life as a model for consecrated life. The article first highlights virginity as the disposition of a complete person, who in total fidelity and dependence on God, with an undivided heart and without reservation gives oneself to Christ, the bridegroom. This kind of virginity is not sterility and emptiness, but a faithful dying to the natural fertility and directedness towards that supernatural fertility of which it is the most perfect realization. This commitment to life also shows the consecrated life in its vulnerability that requires special attention and protection, which indicates the need for seclusion, silence and solitude as its natural environment.
Contemplated as the model for consecrated life, the theological interpretation of Mary's virginity and motherhood is finally shown as the power of universal call to the whole Church to the experience of Christian faith and love.
Keywords
consecrated life; Mary the mother of Jesus; virginity; motherhood
Hrčak ID:
153292
URI
Publication date:
24.2.2016.
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