Mary, the faithful pilgrim of faith

# Mary, the Pilgrim of Faith

Faith is the most distinctive feature of Mary’s spiritual life. Elizabeth proclaims her “blessed because she believed” (Lk 1:45) before any other praise. For theological tradition and the Second Vatican Council, Mary is *the faithful par excellence*, a model for the whole Church, precisely because her faith was a difficult, dramatic, and pilgrim faith, not an easy certainty.

## Faith at the Announcement

The Annunciation launches Mary immediately into faith. The angel’s greeting, “Full of grace, the Lord is with you” (Lk 1:28), invites her to understand herself in a new ontological dimension that surprises and “disturbs” her. When the angel announces the divinity and virginity of motherhood, Mary is confronted with what is absolutely impossible according to human measure. Her faith is paradoxical: to accept generating the Son of God while remaining virgin, and to do so through the shadow of the Holy Spirit upon her. The “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be done to me according to your word” (Lk 1:38) is the confession of total humility, but above all an act of free and conscious abandonment to God’s word as creative. Several scholars see in Mary’s *fiat* an analogy with creation *fiat*: the new creation begins with a paradoxical act of faith.

## Faith Throughout Jesus’ Life

All subsequent events in Mary’s life are only understandable in the light of faith. Extreme poverty in Bethlehem, birth in a manger, exile in Egypt: where is the “kingdom” that the angel promised (Lk 1:32-33)? Luke records how Mary lived this tension: “Mary kept all these things in her heart” (Lk 2:19). It is not a peaceful meditation but an anguished search for the meaning of events. When Jesus, at twelve years old, remains in the Temple without informing his parents and answers, “Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?” (Lk 2:49), the evangelist explicitly affirms Mary’s misunderstanding (v. 50). She learns that this Son does not fit into her schemes. During His public life, Jesus repeatedly relativizes family ties (Mt 12:46-50; Lk 11:27-28), calling Mary to continually deepen her faith, which is never secure possession but always renewed openness.

## Faith at the Cross

The evangelist John is the only one who mentions Mary’s presence “at the cross” (Jn 19:25). This notation is theologically rich: where faith of the disciples had reached its limit, Mary stands firm. Her faith passes through the most radical test: to see her Son die as a condemned man. The scene of John entrusting Mary to the disciple and the disciple to Mary (Jn 19:26-27) gives this “staying” of Mary at the Cross a universal salvific meaning: she receives spiritual motherhood over the Church that is emerging, and accepts, in faith, the Son’s testament.

# Mary, the Pilgrim of Faith According to Vatican II

The *Lumen Gentium* magistrally formulates the synthesis of Mary’s faith: “The Blessed Virgin advanced in the pilgrimage of faith and faithfully maintained her union with the Son until the cross” (LG 58). The conciliar text emphasizes that Mary was not “a merely passive instrument in God’s hands” (LG 56), but cooperated with freedom and obedience. This affirmation is decisive: Mary is faithful, not just privileged. Her “yes” was an act of a person who could have said “no.” The qualifier “pilgrim” is equally decisive: Mary’s faith was a journey, with stages of misunderstanding and advancing in the dark, and not a direct vision. “Advanced” indicates progress, dynamism, and unceasing growth.

## Mary, Model of the Church’s Faith

The *Lumen Gentium* presents Mary as type and model of the Church precisely through her faith: “The Church contemplates her mysterious holiness and imitates her charity” (LG 64). Just as Mary’s virgin motherhood became possible through faith, the Church begets children of God through faith received in the Word and celebrated in baptism. In Mary, there is no division between “woman” and “believer”: her full human realization springs entirely from her faith. This unity offers the most relevant model for contemporary Christians, tempted to confine faith to the private sphere. Mary teaches to incarnate faith in life, making every normal event of existence supernatural. She who was called “blessed among women” (Lk 1:42) is so not only because she biologically gave birth to the Son of God but primarily because she had “the courage to believe the unbelievable” (Lk 1:45).

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## Church Magisterium

> *”Beata quae credidisti: perficientur ea quae dicta sunt tibi a Domino.”*
>
> — *Luke* 1:45 (Vulgata Clementina)

📚. **Literal Translation:** Blessed are you who believed, for the things that were spoken to you by the Lord will be fulfilled.

**Quote:**

> Maria pursued the pilgrimage of faith, and in that faith she maintained her union with the Son until the Cross.

— Pope Saint John Paul II, *Encyclical Redemptoris Mater* (25 March 1987), n. 14

**Translation Literal:**

Maria percorreu a peregrinação da fé, e nessa fé manteve a sua união com o Filho até à Cruz.

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