Last weekend I preached on the
Gospel of the Wedding Feast at Cana, and specifically on the two lines that
“the mother of Jesus,” or Mary, had in the Gospel passage, i.e. “They have no
wine,” and “Do whatever He tells you.” I don’t often preach on Mary. I contend
this paucity is not due to a lack of devotion to Mary on my part (others may be of a different opinion)
but rather because there has been so much bad and overly emotional Mariology in
the Church that I find it difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff in
proper appreciation for Mary, Mother of the Church.
In any case, focusing on Mary
last weekend reminded me of something that struck me about our church interior
when I first got here, namely, its very masculine character. At least in images
and visuals our church is top heavy with masculine images. In most Catholic
Churches, on the right side of the altar (the left as you look at it) there is
usually an image of Mary, with Joseph on the other side. In our church they
have been supplanted, if I may use that term, by images of Sts. Peter and Paul.
Since this parish is staffed by the Paulist Fathers the prominence of the Apostles
and missionaries Peter and Paul seems to me altogether fitting and proper.
As an American community of men
we Paulists fit right into the American ethos of the active and “masculine”
virtues. The Paulists are missionaries who stress going out, reaching out,
action and accomplishment. We are not known particularly for contemplation,
reflection, “pondering in our hearts” as Mary had done, and generally what were
known in a more benighted age as the “feminine virtues.” This active stance and
emphasis on accomplishment fits well into a Texas ethos as well.
But a consequence of this
prominence of Sts. Peter and Paul is a sort of displacement of Mary and Joseph.
Joseph is off to the side altar by the side entrance. I have always thought
that the lighting on his statue, which shines on his feet and casts his face
into shadow, is appropriate since we know so little about Joseph, either his
life before his marriage to Mary or what became of him after Jesus was
discovered in the Temple. In any case St. Joseph is at least partially visible
while the statue of St. Mary, effectively hidden back in the little Our Lady’s
Chapel, is completely invisible except for those making the effort to visit the
chapel. Mary does also appear in the various stations of the cross, but her
most prominent position in the church is as the Mother of Perpetual help in the
middle shrine on the South side of the church.
More striking to me than the
limited representations of Mary in our church is that she is the ONLY woman
presented. There is no representation of St Elizabeth Ann Seton, no image of
St. Claire, no icon of St Mary Magdalene, no picture of St. Paul’s co-worker
St. Phoebe, no St. Teresa of Avila, not even an image of The Little Flower, St.
Therese of Lisieux. In this our church is a little different.
I suppose we are all quite
comfortable with the preponderance of male Saints in our church (Sts Paul,
Peter, Joseph, Austin and Servant of God Isaac Hecker). But perhaps it would
profit us to at least recognize we have a gender imbalance in the
representation of holy person in our church, and be open to the promptings of
the Holy Spirit to seek a wider representation of the holy people of God. Just
a thought.
God bless!
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