Roman Catholic Womenpriests: Homily in honor of Mary, Mother of Jesus

"i want my mommy!"

Jesus cried, "Abba, Daddy!" can i not also cry "daddy" or "mommy?"
i look at the un-humanizing of mary and i want to scream! i look at mary
stuck up there on a pedestal and i don't understand how she can change a
dirty diaper or wash off a scraped knee or even take a thorn out of a
puppy's paw.

i don't want my mommy up on a pedestal where i can't touch her. how can
we put our arms around each other if she is up there and i am down
here? besides, it's not very nice to put her up there where she can't
move around, or go to the bathroom, or get some sleep, or even comb her
hair. i want her down here!

i want her to come and sit at my kitchen table and have a cup of coffee
with me. i want to talk to her and i want to listen to her. back in
grade school, the sisters who taught us were very specific -- dogmatic!
-- that mary never spoke a word her entire life except the words that
are recorded in the gospels, that she never needed to speak. i don't
want that!!!!!! i want my mommy to have a real voice.

my brother, Jesus, was really funny at that wedding over there in Cana.
my mommy was a hostess at the wedding [nb -- how else would she have
known the wine was gone before the stewards knew???]. anyway, Jesus was
sitting there with that bunch of vagabonds he runs around with, and my
mommy went over and told him about the wine situation. [you think that
would be embarrassing today? just think of how embarrassing it would
have been in 1st century Palestine!] so Jesus said, "honestly, mom!
can't you see i'm busy partying with my friends??" my mommy just threw
up her hands and started laughing and said, "honestly, Jesus! do you
want to embarrass the whole family -- which is exactly what will happen
if we run out of wine!" she was exasperated, but she was still laughing
and shaking her head when she told the waiters Jesus would take care of
everything. and he did.

that's the kind of mommy i want. i want to say those kinds of things to
her too -- just like Jesus did -- and i want her to laugh when i do!

i was in church the other day and i looked up at my mommy's statue and i
cried. i don't want a statue-mommy with a silly wreath of flowers on
her head! how can my mommy like that stuff? it hasn't changed much
over the years. the kids who get to participate putting flowers on statues
are the pretty ones and the teachers' pets, and the boy and girl
voted most popular -- the same as always. how can my mommy be
happy with may crownings when around the world year after year so
many of the kids are excluded because they don't fit the norm?
how can my mommy go along with such cruel practices?

i want my mommy to love me even if i am different. i don't want her to
like those devotions that put some of my siblings above others of my
siblings.

i don't want my mommy deified either. she is not God -- never was,
never will be. it must be painful for her to be thought of as a
mini-god when she really is just human.

i hurt for my mommy when i read high-Christology things about her --
things that don't make sense -- things that make her un-human. pious
meditations are fine. but where is my mommy's humanity???????

but, i am not a child; she is not really my mommy! she is my brother
Jesus's mommy, not mine. but as my brother Jesus's mommy, i feel the
pain that He must feel that His mommy is denied her humanity. she
should be/is my friend, my companion -- as some have said, "fully human
companion." my brother's mommy....and my friend.....

how can she be my companion when popular mariology won't let her come
down off of her pedestal and visit with me? how can she walk into my
office and ask me how my computer is behaving if popular piety has taken
away her humanity? how can she drink coffee or eat ice cream with me or
laugh or cry with me when she is not allowed to be human?

"dear fully human companion -- they make you god, but you are not God.
they pay lip service to your humanity, but they extoll your
UN-humanity. they wail at your sorrows, but fail to recognize your
sorrow at not being allowed to be recognized as fully human."

i don't want my brother Jesus's mommy, my companion, sealed in a box,
high on an untouchable pedestal -- i don't want my fully human companion
to be locked up in the realm of the non-human, the UN-human! "mary,
i've got the hammer and the saw and the pliers. i want to let you out
of the box! i have the ladder too. please let me help you come down so
we can walk together and i can tell you, my fully human companion, the
mother of my brother Jesus, about how and where things are with me
today. then maybe you can put your arm around me and tell me you
understand."

Roberta M. Meehan, Roman Catholic Womanpriest