Mary conceived by the Word she heard

Maria fecundated by the Word she heard> Maria conceived believing and for this reason, listening (cf. Rom 10:17): from the Word she heard, faith arose in which she generated Christ. In patristic symbolism, the conception of Christ is presented as an event that occurred in Mary through the word of the Angel penetrated into her ear: “‘Death entered through Eve’s ear’ (cf. Gen 3:1-6), ‘so life entered through Mary’s ear’” (Ephrem, Diatessaron 4,15.22).The curious formula, conceptio per aurem, aptly expresses the fertility of grace resulting from Mary’s listening practice that gave rise to the devotion of Our Lady of the Ear. The Word of God penetrated into Mary (through her ear), and her inner nature was sanctified. And at the same time, the Virgin’s pregnancy began:> “[No one] was born except the one who, having entered through the maternal ears, filled Mary’s womb” (Gaudentius of Brescia, Homily 9).Listening has a maternal quality, thus: the passivity of conception and the phase of pregnancy that opens up to the generative act, which also affects the pedagogical act, which, not surprisingly, was primarily thought of as an act of generation and birth. Motherhood does not stop at the biological limit but extends to the formation of the generated.Mary generates and educates through listening so that the internal thread that connects the various dimensions and the different phases of motherhood is a fruitful listening. Or, to put it differently, Mary’s maternal fertility expresses itself at both a generative and educational level through listening.As Mother, Mary has a carnal-biological bond with her Son, since she carried the Son of God in her womb. As Virgin, she has an ethical-spiritual-pedagogical bond, because, with her faith, she always welcomed the Word of God, keeping it in her heart and committing herself to penetrate its senses, especially its darker aspects.The effect of this second bond that Mary has with Christ is that not only does the Son grow, but also the Mother: Mary’s listening to the Word is therefore the cause of the multidirectional expansion of her maternal experience towards her Son.She lived her existence in listening to the WordThe contemplative of Nazareth cannot be thought of other than as a beautiful and holy time that Mary lived in contemplation, listening to the Word. Mary is a successful example of this spiritual experience, which, more than a Christian spiritual experience, is the very form of Christian life, when it reaches the peak of interiority.The contemplative, that is, a creature who listens to her God, seems to be a being immobilized by a passive experience, but it is the most active person, because it engages in a demanding task (which is the effort to follow all the developments of the spirit) and a very risky endeavor (which is the undertaking of walking in the darkness of night, of descending into the depths of the interior, of climbing to the highest peaks of the soul’s cathedral, and there throwing herself into a loving embrace with the Spouse, or enduring the arduous struggle with God).Mary’s life in Nazareth reminds us that contemplation is one of the permanent Christian urgencies. For Mary, the contemplative experience does not mean, in any way, a private retreat, but a constant discernment of the essential. Therefore, she also teaches us to engage in a permanent search for what is most serious and decisive for our ultimate destiny.Daughter of a people characterized by listening to the WordMary feels herself to be part of a people of listening, indeed, a people of listening: “Listen, Israel!” (Deut 6:4). For Mary, believing coincided with listening, that is, with being of God: “Whoever is of God listens to the words of God” (John 8:47). Her high faith passes through a high, full, and radical listening to God’s Word. Unknowing sin in any level, Mary surpassed immeasurably the threshold of the guilt of not listening, which constituted the greatest guilt for Israel (cf. Jer 7:13; Hos 9:17): it was a very pure listening, performed with heart and uncircumcised ears (cf. Jer 6:10; Acts 7:51).Those who believe are essentially listeners of the Word, in fact “those who do the word and not merely listeners” (Jas 1:22). Mary’s listening to the Word is a meditated and therefore theological listening: “and her mother kept all these things” (Lk 2:19, 51b). She, as a woman of attentive and wise heart, remembers the salvific history entirely and with the greatest care: her memory is dynamic, updating, that calls us to remember, especially at the time of trial. The Virgin of Listening as mother-disciple is particularly concerned to rethink the scandal of the Passion. This precious guardian of the Word was a valuable reality for the early Church and is for the Church of all times.An existence marked by stages of listening that led to an ever-increasing elevation of her personality, in parallel with the growth of her intimacy with the Trinitarian God and the deepening of her participation in the Trinitarian salvific event. Moreover, the nature of these same historical-existential stages lived by her also qualified the experience of her listening. Mary is the example of a Word liturgy that is continuous and animated throughout her existence.Let us see:Mary, when she believed, is a model for the Church of how the Word is:, received (Annunciation). , generated (Nativity). , presented to the world (Epiphany). , preserved within herself (life in Nazareth). , believed (Cana). , proclaimed (Visitation). , worthy of our trust to the extreme (Cross). , testified to (Pentecost).Mary is the sublime daughter of Zion, a privileged and fulfilled part of a people of listeners.As a result of this century-long educational action, Israel developed within itself a solid “psychology of listening” and a refined “spirituality of listening,” which Mary possessed to the highest degree. In a prophetic way, in a sense, she also “proclaims,” because she listened with her ears to the Lord of Hosts (cf. Is 5:9).Mary is a “teacher” because she narrates in her life the mysteries of Christ and his beatitudes, and because she refers us to them, as to the most authoritative code of sanctity, which Jesus placed at the top of the Gospel as the synthesis of values that are not only perennial but also prefigurative of eternal life.The discourse about Mary, “disciple of listening” and “teacher of life,” therefore leads us to conclude with the person of Jesus and his Gospel: a Marian discourse is correct when it ends in a Christological-Trinitarian-Pneumatological and ecclesiological way.To deepen reflection on Mary fertilized by the Word, consult Pope John Paul II’s encyclical *Redemptoris Mater*, which considers how Mary, by listening to and embracing the Word, became the mother of the incarnate Word.Deepen your studies: explore Mariology, Marian theology, Marian apparitions, and the Postgraduate Program in Mariology.