Mary, a free woman because a Christian

IntroductionConcluding the Encyclical Letter Fides et Ratio

My last thoughts turn to Her whom the Church’s prayer invokes as ‘Seat of Wisdom’. Her own life is a true parable that can illuminate the reflection I have undertaken. Indeed, a profound harmony can be seen between the vocation of the Blessed Virgin and that of legitimate philosophy. Just as the Virgin was called to offer her whole humanity and femininity so that the Word of God could become flesh and dwell among us, so too is philosophy called to contribute its rational and critical work so that theology, as the understanding of faith, may be fruitful and effective. And just as Mary, in giving her consent to Gabriel’s announcement, did not lose any part of her true humanity or freedom, philosophical inquiry, in embracing the question posed by the Gospel’s truth, does not lose its autonomy but finds each of its inquiries propelled towards its highest fulfillment. This was well understood by the Christian monks of antiquity when they called Mary ‘the intellectual table of faith’. They saw in her a coherent image of true philosophy and were convinced that they should philosophize in Mary. In Mary, the Pope sees a wonderful synthesis of the relationship between faith and reason, harmoniously interconnected and inseparable in her life as a truly free and authentic Christian woman. Thus, the Virgin is the model of the new and complete human being, in whom the consistency of faith never conflicts with the fullness of human and intellectual life, nor is it separated from it, and who, in consciously embracing the transformative novelty of faith, opens up with their intelligence and heart to reciprocity and encounter with Truth, God in Christ in the Spirit.

Indissoluble Relationship between Faith, Reason, and Freedom

Faith and reason are two vital dimensions for a human being who honestly seeks the Truth and seeks valid answers to fundamental questions of existence. For this reason, they cannot be separated or contrasted, but must interact together, as “the two forces that lead us to knowledge“.

Saint Augustine offers two formulas that also summarize the conclusion of his intellectual and spiritual journey: “I believe to understand“, because faith opens the way to enter the gates of truth. “I understand to believe“, because understanding leads to finding God and believing. This harmony between faith and reason means, above all, that God is not distant but, on the contrary, close to every human being, both in their heart and in their reason.

Therefore, since “faith and reason are like the two wings by which the human spirit soars to the contemplation of Truth“, every human person has the need and duty to follow the path that leads to this contemplation, both with faith and reason. Indeed, faith demands to be thought about, both because Revelation, due to its content, requires it, and because the ontological nature of human assent demands that the Christian make his faith into a thought.

The object of Revelation, in fact, is God himself, who, through Jesus Christ, communicates salvation to humanity, which is the very life of God. Therefore, if God is the ultimate end of our existence, he cannot be reached unless he is fully known, because, as Thomas Aquinas stated, man can only reach his end through free choice resulting from the full exercise of reason. And this occurs because faith is not simply trusting in something vague, indistinct, or abstract, but rather adhering to Someone, that is, Christ, the revealer of the Trinity: it is to penetrate ever more deeply into the knowledge of His Person, to listen ever more intelligibly and completely to His teaching, to relate to Him in an intimate and personal relationship.

Faith would not be truly faith if it were merely an adherence to generic principles or an empty emotion devoid of rational content and conscious openness to interpersonal relationship. Christian revelation ultimately demands that we fully accept the mystery of the Word in our lives and, respecting the autonomy and freedom of the creature, commit to engaging in dialogue with Transcendence. If faith calls for reason to be complete, reason in turn cannot ignore this call without renouncing its own nature and arbitrarily limiting its capacity and vocation to answer radical questions concerning human destiny.The pursuit of truth to which man is naturally inclined is not the acquisition of partial knowledge, but the Total and Comprehensive Truth capable of explaining the meaning of life itself, and thus a search that can only find success and satisfaction in openness to the Absolute. For this reason, according to Pope Benedict XVI: “The truly philosophical attitude is to look beyond the penultimate and seek the ultimate and true.”Ultimately, the invocation of faith arises from reason itself, which asks whether there is a right to expect a fullness of life for every man and whether there is a final meaning to all human history. The answer of faith instills in man a confidence in reason and a taste for inquiry, for he is already capable of opening himself to the light of the Definitive. Therefore, Faith and Reason, though employing different means and contents, are compelled to walk together to guide man to contemplation of Truth and to a genuine encounter with it in Christ, thereby liberating him from the traps of integralism and false liberties.—In the Apostolic Letter *Mulieris Dignitatem*, the Holy Father John Paul II affirms the unique dignity of women, highlighting their essential role in revealing the truth of God’s plan for humanity.John Paul II defines Mary as the archetype of woman, being a complete and extraordinarily modern woman, deeply connected to the human family, present at the crucial point in history where faith and reason meet through her conscious, free, and full acceptance in her mind, heart, faith, and body of the God who paradoxically desires to enter history. The event in Nazareth, the “fullness of time“, in which the Word became flesh, after the Father dialogued with a woman, seems to be the most significant and highest point of human and feminine consciousness.Far from oppressing her freedom, threatening her womanhood, paralyzing her femininity, or representing a risk to her autonomy and maturity, this event helped her to be fully herself. Thus, by opening herself to the fullness of faith, Mary surrenders to God with full joy and serenity, realizing herself as a truly free and Christian woman. Not surprisingly, Edith Stein, a great philosopher and Christian, analyzing the whole experience of Mary, especially her way of believing and freely accepting God’s plan for her life, called her our “companion on the journey” and “prototype of true femininity“.John Paul II, in turn, writes: «the figure of Mary of Nazareth sheds light on women as such, in that God, in the sublime event of the incarnation of the Son, entrusted to the free and active ministry of a woman. Therefore, it can be said that women, looking at Mary, find in her the secret to live dignely their femininity and to fulfill their true promotion».Responding with her conscious faith to God’s call, Mary fully and authentically realized the relationship between man and woman and God. She understood the true secret of her “identity” and “self-realization“, taking on, as a genuine woman, free and Christian, the full responsibility for an answer that would affect the future of all men, because it related to the history of their salvation.As the Mother of Jesus, Mary is the Mother of the only human-divine Person of the Word, to whom she gives human nature, which is united in a deep and perfect way, ‘without division’ and ‘without confusion’, as the Council of Chalcedon affirms (cf. DH 302), with divine nature. Mary is truly the Mother of God (cf. DH 251-252). God accomplished this in her through her free consent to the divine plan prepared from eternity: ‘let it be to me according to your word‘ (Lk 1:38). At the same time, Mary, because she was designed by God as the one who sums up all creation, opened to creation the possibility of generating God. Thus, with her and in her, human freedom attains its true fullness.Deepen your studies: explore Mariology, Marian theology, Marian apparitions, and the Graduate Program in Mariology.To deepen reflection on Mary as a free woman in Christian faith, consult the Encyclical Redemptoris Mater by Pope John Paul II.