We begin from the murkiest and
most controversial: The objection to Marian devotion as remnant of cultic practices
accorded to Pagan deities. Let us here, then, explore the anthropological root
of deities from the development of myths with cultural antecedents, and compare
this with the relevance of Mary in our modern times.
Archaeological researches suggest
that the earliest representation of Pagan deities started as that of females. This
is easy to comprehend from a Christological perspective because, Eve fell
before Adam and fallen humanity has its base rooted in womanhood (Gen: 3).
But as the necessity for freedom grows for
humanity, struggle prevailed and prowess overshadowed nurture in the idea of
survival between civilisations. The deity trajectory became bent towards the
masculine framework as a result.
Ancestral rituals and the worship
of female deities survived though, and the worship of goddesses like Brigid of
the Celts, Kuan-Yin of Buddhists, Shakti of the Hindus, Freya of the Norse, Athena of the Greeks, Olokun
of Yorubas and Edos, and Isis of Egypt,
persisted even to our day.
As a node of deliberation
on this subject, let us pick on Isis,
the most popular Egyptian goddess of her time. First, because, upon reflection,
we see that the Israelite and Christian antecedent has always borne a certain scar of Egypt. For instance, Israelites
were brought out of Egypt by the powerful hand of God (Ex: 12). Christ Himself,
through the hand of destiny, was brought up, raised and migrated to Israel from
Egypt. ‘From Egypt I call my Son’ (Mt 2: 15; Hos 11: 1).
Another reason is because,
careful studies show evidences of similarities between the Isis/Osiris
mythology and the Christian historical events relating to the Resurrection from
the dead and rites of baptism, and how the age long attempts by Egyptian
Civilisation at cracking the code of afterlife was indeed realised only through
the resurrection of Christ.
Lastly, because, more than any
pantheon and pagan deity, sceptics have largely accused Marian devotions as still
retaining certain elements of practices from this Isis cult.
Regarding this last point, let us
start by reflecting on the Christian encounter, which often happens amidst the
daily struggles of cultural life. In fact, the entire Israelite and Christian
(Christians being the new Israel) life is rooted in this daily struggle (Mt 10:
34).
A Christian’s struggle is not against
flesh and blood (Eph 6: 12-13) and her encounter with non-permissive cultures
is not a confrontational one, rather, she lives through this culture and
changes it while striving at retaining her identity as reflected in the person
of Christ.
An authentic Christian knows whom
he serves, and while he is not rigid, becoming all things to all men (1 Cor
19:23), nevertheless he does not get tossed around by the wind of every ideology
(Eph 4: 14). Living amidst these struggles with paganism, he learns to survive by
being gentle as a dove and being wise like a serpent (Mt 10: 16).
We would like to think of the ancient
past as being more demonic and chaotic because of her numerous deities. But we
only must look around to witness the existence of extremely rebellious,
diabolic and paganistic trends that proliferate our modern circumstance too. The
demons are here, ancient gate will fight before it rises! These evils, thwarting
the hearts and minds of men, are mostly lurked within the sex of media, the
money of business and the power of politics (1 Jn 2: 16). Christians do not run
away from such battles. They win by engaging with each determinants of cultural
realities.
Mary, this foremost archetype of
Christianity, did not run from the cultural scandal of her time, she stayed at
the foot of the cross and conquered, rooted in faith and helped by grace. It is
in Mary’s nature to conquer, not through morbid alienation, but by humble engagement.
This is the manner in which she is terrible to demons as an army set in battle array
(Sos 6: 10).
It is true that a presumptuous meddle
with these ‘powers-that-be’ can be a perilous invitation to doom; but, when we
alienate by fleeing, when we, in the guise of not causing offense, throw away
the baby of truth with the water of Paganism, we run the danger of ultimately becoming
that which we flee from, just like that servant who hid his talents and
believed himself to be smart (Mt 25:14-30).
It was Man who was created from dust,
but it was the woman who perpetuated this dust through childbirth, and because
of her primordial alliance with the serpent, she won a greater control of this
fall into dust as she became the origin of human deities (Gen 3: 16).
The genealogy of every human can
be traced, not through a man’s Y chromosome, but only through the mitochondria produced
by a woman. Every man and woman is born of a woman, and everyone, ever since
the Fall, needs a woman as a gate leading, either to the arc of freedom or to the
ring of perdition.
A woman
appeared in the book of Revelation (Rev:12), clothed with the sun, the moon was
under her feet and she was adorned with a crown of 12 stars. Sun, moon, stars:
a depiction of the entire cosmos. But this leaves one wondering, where is the
earth? That woman herself who is Mary, is the Earth, she is the creation which
groans in labour of childbirth (Rev 12: 2; Rm 8: 22), she is the new Eve who
governs the entire cosmos through a new way of seeing, a true reason for hoping
and a divine manner of loving.
But this earth, a woman, is dust, she is ‘nothing’ (Gen
3:19), and her deep recognition of this fact also becomes her ultimate triumph
over evil, paganism and every cultural ideology at odd with the freedom of man.
You know you are dust o Mary, but dust of a refined mitochondria you are; and
this pure humility of yours is the truth which liberates you, and us and every
humanity who follows your awareness (Jn 8: 32).
The intense
recognition of this fact is the dynamism of the eternal triumph of Mary,
forcing a transition of the Egyptian Isis, which is an orientation carved from
the archetype of the old Eve, and opening up, like the parted Red Sea (Ex 14:
21), unto the new Israel which is the reign of her Divine Son, Christ Jesus, a
man, born of a woman that is dust and ash, who redeems every son of woman
condemned to the bondage of this rebellion (Gal 4:4).
Mary is more relevant today, even
as we strive by the Passion and Resurrection of Christ our Lord, within the
Egyptian cultural paradox that dictates our age, towards the new Israel of God
(Gal 6: 14-16).
Mary is the daughter of Abraham
who has taken control of the gates of her enemies (Gen 22: 17; Lk 1: 55) and
thus becomes the ancient gateway that willingly rises that Christ, the King of
glory may enter therein for our peace and liberation (Ps 24:7).
