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The Blessed Virgin Mary

Along with many other churches founded in the same period of English Church history, East Barnet Parish Church

is dedicated to St Mary the Virgin.

The following is an extract from a sermon by Martin Horton at our Patronal Festival Eucharist in May 2004.

 “….Now a lot of Anglicans are frightened of making a fuss about Mary, because they think that it detracts from

the worship of God; and I would agree that certainly it’s wrong to confuse devotion to Mary, with the worship that

is due to God alone.

But the point about Mary is that she was an ordinary girl, from one of the poorest parts of Palestine.  But she was

chosen to do the most extra-ordinary thing, to become the Mother of God the Son.  The God who created us,

wanted to come right into the heart of his creation, and he wanted to be human too.  And there is only one way

to become a member of the human race, and that is to be born of a woman. 

God became like us in the person of Jesus Christ, and Mary was his mother.  Jesus is truly God and truly human,

and his humanness comes from his Mother, Mary.  That is, and has always been, at the heart of the Christian Creed.

Well, Mary is bound to be the 'favourite' among the saints.  Who else could be closer to Christ than the one who

gave him flesh, who carried him, suckled him, washed, fed, clothed, taught him, and finally held him dead in her arms? 

When Jesus, on the cross, gave Mary to be the mother of the beloved disciple, the Church has always taken that to

mean that he was giving her to be the mother of all the disciples, mother of all Christians and mother of the Church. 

The Church is a family after all, and what’s a family without a mother?

But if we get too sugary about Mary, we’ll forget another reason why she really is important to us.  Most of what we

know about Mary comes from Luke’s gospel, and Luke makes it very clear, that Mary represents the humble people

of Israel, the underclass, the losers and the victims. The words that Mary says in Luke’s gospel are nearly all

quotations from Old Testament passages about the poor.  Mary is their voice, the voice of the often voiceless. 

Think about the song that Mary sings when the angel tells her, that she is to give birth to the Saviour.  That same

song, the Magnificat, is said or sung, evening after evening, in cathedrals and churches throughout the world,

including here at St Mary’s.  But many people hardly ever stop to think just how revolutionary the words of

the Magnificat are:

            God will scatter the proud and arrogant in their conceit.

            He will put away the mighty from their thrones, and exalt the humble and meek.

            He will fill the starving with good things, and send the rich away empty.

Mary stands at what the Celts call the Border, or the Edge.  She stands where heaven and earth are closest. 

She stands between the old Judaism and the new Christianity, between the Old and New Testaments.  Mary is the

person between God’s promise and the fulfilment of that promise, and she speaks to us about the hope for the

world’s transfiguration through her Son.

In the porch at St Mary’s, you will find pinned up by the bell ropes, the words of The Angelus, based on the ancient

prayer known as the ‘Hail Mary’.   After the Lord’s Prayer, this is possibly the best known prayer in Christendom. 

It’s composed of the words of the angel Gabriel and of Elizabeth, spoken to Mary in Luke’s Gospel, followed by the

request that she will pray for us.

            Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you.

            Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus.

            Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners,

            now, and at the hour of our death.

We say the Hail Mary, and honour her and ask her to pray for us, but not because Mary is some sort of ‘goddess’.  

 On the contrary, Mary is someone who was regarded as the lowest of the low, but someone who obeyed God’s will. 

The one who carried his Son into the world; who shared in his suffering more closely than anyone else, and who

therefore now shares in his glory.  And that’s why, as Gabriel foretold, all generations have called Mary blessed,

and always will…..

Information drawn from This is Our Faith

edited by Jeffrey John, Redemptorist Publications

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