The Sovereign Mother

Look at the picture and ask yourself : “If you came from another planet where nothing was known about the Christian tradition, what would you conclude about the procession seen here? - That it was about a humble mother cradling the body of her son, who was in fact the Son of the Living God and had just vanquished evil and death by giving up his life? - Or that it is some sort of conquering queen triumphing over the man she has just managed to vanquish?

I mean, look. The expression on her face for a start. Here’s this lady with a crown on her head and flowers all around her, and there’s this poor guy, all scrawny and bloodied. Okay, its only religious art, but somebody must have created it in order to convey a certain meaning. And what is it supposed to mean, exactly? Because I’m afraid I don’t quite get it.

And what of the event itself, that happens this and every Easter weekend in Loulé, Algarve, when, practically the entire population of the town turn out to celebrate "A Mãe Soberana" . Yes, that's what they call her - The Sovereign Mother! It's a procession that appears to all intents and purposes to be a coronation of Jesus mother, rather than a celebration of His own resurrection!

And she is the one that is crowned at Easter time? Crowned by whom? And when? And what is she now Queen of? Can it be that the interpretation of a curious verse in Revelation (12 v.1) is enough to justify proclaiming Mary Queen of Heaven or Star of the Sea or whatever? That sounds to me too much like Iemanja, Goddess of the Sea in Brazil, or any of a number of female demi-gods from cultures around the world. Far removed from the Mary of the Bible.

I prefer to see the Mary at the side of the cross, vulnerable yet strong, and very definitely without a crown on her head - a devoted follower and yet still the mother of her son (as so thoughtfully portrayed by Olivia Hussey in the 1977 film version Jesus of Nazareth). * In our Sunday fellowship, we’ve been looking at the seven words of Jesus from the cross, and the one that impacted me most powerfully, surprisingly enough was Jesus words to Mary and to John “Woman, here is your son” and “Behold your mother” (John 19 v.26). You never stop being a parent, even when your child is full grown and exercising his independent ministry. Something we have found with our own adult children. The relationship does not stop being that of parent and child - it just develops.

Jesus was helping his mother manage her impending grief . That sword of which Simeon had spoken so many years previously, was about to pierce her own heart also. (Luke 2:35) Jesus gives her his best friend John to mother. A new focus to fill up the void his passing will create. Over Easter weekend we watched “Rabbit Hole”, ** an excellent film about grief in which Nicole Kidman sensitively portrays a bereaved mother. At one of the central points in the movie for me was when Kidman asks

her mother (of grief) “Does it ever go away?”

“No. Well, it changes, the weight of it, I guess. At some point, it becomes bearable. It turns into something that you can crawl out from under and... carry around like a brick in your pocket. And you... you even forget it, for a while. But then you reach in for whatever reason and - there it is... Which... is kind of ...good, actually.”

For Mary, even though he rose again, and, even though she would end up spending more time with him before he ascended, the grief would still be there, the grief of losing the son she had mothered and it would continue. But it would be a good kind of grief.

* http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4B5OWBW7SQ

** http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0935075/