Video: Mary as the Icon of Catholic Feminism
From Our Free Video Program: Cultivating Catholic Feminism
About the Presenter: Abigail Favale is Dean of Humanities at George Fox University, and the author of Into the Deep: An Unlikely Catholic Conversion. Her latest book, The Genesis of Gender, will be published by Ignatius Press in early 2022. In addition to writing and presenting the educational material of this program, Abigail also wrote our program prayer Heroines of the Faith.
This lesson with Dr. Abigail Favale is a part of our free video program Cultivating Catholic Feminism. Sign up for the program at the link below.
Video Transcript
One of my favorite prayers is the Magnificat—the hymn of praise to God that Mary sings to her kinswoman Elizabeth. My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord. My spirit rejoices in God my savior. For he has looked with favor on his lowly servant. From this day, all generations will call me blessed. The Almighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name. In this prayer, Mary recognizes her unique and powerful role in salvation history. She recognizes her greatness, her favor, her blessedness—but also her humbleness in relation to her creator. She praises God for the way he patiently and faithfully works in human history. Unlike the ways of the world, which prize strength and dominance, God works most powerfully through human vulnerability—he reverses and upends those earthly dynamics of domination and oppression. He has cast down the mighty from their thrones, and has lifted up the lowly.
Most secular feminists would praise some of the values that are expressed in the Magnificat – lifting up the lowly, helping the poor and oppressed – but secular feminists too often mistakenly believe that this kind of liberation is possible without God, without the power of divine grace working in our hearts and guiding our actions. Mary’s Magnificat tells us otherwise, and in doing so, she expresses the ethos of Catholic feminism, which should have a decidedly Marian character. We work to uplift the lowly, but only through the grace and power of God.
Unfortunately, Mary is not a figure typically embraced by feminists. She is seen as embodying all those supposedly patriarchal virtues that feminists want to reject: humility, obedience, submission. Her unique status as virgin and mother is interpreted as imposing an impossible ideal upon women, one we can only fail to live up to. But these objections misunderstand Mary’s true significance; they critique a flimsy caricature, a cheap knock-off.
First, they misunderstand Mary’s vital role in human redemption. At the Annunciation, Mary exercises her free will and gives a whole-hearted “yes” to God, thus enabling the Incarnation to unfold. St. John Paul reminds us that “it is a woman who is at the center of this salvific event.” Salvation would not be possible without Mary’s participation. St. Anselm, a medieval theologian, puts it beautifully: “God is the Father of the created world. Mary is the mother of the re-created world. God is the Father by whom all things were given life, and Mary is the mother through whom all things are given new life. Without God’s son, nothing could exist; without Mary’s son, nothing could be redeemed.” No created being has a higher status than Mary.
Thus, when we look to Mary, we see a powerful reminder of the dignity of women. Rather than excluding all women, Mary is a model for all women, no matter their state of life—this is because virginity and maternity are not just physical states, but spiritual realities that remain open to all women. In fact, feminists who object to Mary fail to recognize that Mary is the prime exemplar for all human beings, men and women, because she alone perfectly embodies the human being in relation to God. Receptivity to divine love is humankind’s greatest strength. Far from being a “patriarchal” virtue imposed only upon women, the ability to open oneself fully to the love of God—to give him our “yes”—is the true mark of human dignity and the fulfillment of our ultimate purpose: union with our Creator.
Because of this, Mary is the icon of the New Feminism. She is the “most perfect image of freedom and of the liberation of humanity.” Human freedom can only be rightly understood within the order of love. Freedom is not simply the power to choose—it is the power to choose the good, the power to become who we were made to be. We are free when we are free to receive love, and give love in return. And what makes us free to love in this way is divine grace, the power of God working within us. But God never overpowers human free will; we must give our consent, our yes. This is why all of us, man or woman, should emulate Mary.
And yet—Mary is not just an image or exemplar. She is also a person, a person who has been empowered through divine grace—more empowered than any other created being—to intercede for and protect the weak, the vulnerable, the broken-hearted. Her role as the mother of God is an eternal reality. She is always and everywhere the mother of Christ, and because we belong to Christ as his Bride, she is also our mother. We must take Mary as our model and faithfully imitate her—and we must also appeal to her as our Protector, our Advocate. She is a loving mother who can actively help us in the pursuit of true freedom—the work of building a culture of life, and of reclaiming our dignity and belovedness as women.
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