NO GREATER LOVE: THE ROLE OF MARY IN THE INFANCY NARRATIVES 

In the third volume of Jesus of Nazareth, Pope Benedict discusses how the infancy narratives of St. Matthew and St. Luke came to be written. We need to understand that Matthew’s Gospel was written for a Semitic audience in Aramaic or Hebrew as early as the 40’s A.D. This Gospel has been lost and we now have a Greek translation of the original Semitic language. Matthew’s Gospel is the longest and does have a strong Jewish character to it. Mark’s Gospel is the first gospel written in Greek, probably as a simplification of Matthew’s Gospel, for Gentile readers. Luke’s Gospel was written in Greek and is later than both Matthew’s and Mark’s Gospels in the late 50’s or early 60’s A.D. John’s Gospel is believed to have been written last, in the 60’s A.D. or even later. 

Aside from the language in which they were originally written, Matthew’s Gospel and Luke’s Gospel are very different. Matthew’s Gospel is centered on St. Joseph and tells of the birth of Jesus Christ from the viewpoint of St. Joseph and how he was puzzled by Mary’s pregnancy in which he had no part. The flight to Egypt, and the return from Egypt to Nazareth in Galilee, are also centered on St. Joseph. Why did Mary have such a passive role in Matthew’s Gospel while in Luke’s Gospel she is much more in center stage? 

The sources of Matthew’s and Luke’s infancy narrative had to differ from sources used for the remainder of their Gospels. The public life of Jesus Christ lasted about three years and then, quite rapidly, came the Crucifixion, Resurrection, Ascension, and the descent of the Holy Spirit on the apostles. There were many witnesses to the public life of Jesus Christ. Certainly, while Jesus was preaching to large crowds, people wondered about who he was and what He was doing. After Pentecost, the apostles and early disciples were willing to die for Him since they now could begin to see the importance of the events of the last three years. What witnesses were there for the early life of Jesus Christ? Matthew’s Gospel tells how St. Joseph took Mary into his home when it was revealed to him that God wanted him to be her husband. Joseph was hiding from the public that he was not the father of their Son. The Gospels report that people regarded Jesus as the carpenter’s son or Joseph’s son. (Mt 13:55, Jn 6:42, Lk 4:22). Unlike the public life of Jesus, the significance of the events in Matthew’s infancy narrative were not known until the birth of the Church on Pentecost Sunday over thirty years later. Joseph and Herod were both dead and the Wise Men went back to the East to escape Herod. Mary and Joseph surely kept the circumstances of the birth of Jesus secret even from relatives and friends, for what actually happened could easily be misunderstood at least until the public life of Jesus was completed around thirty years later. Even during the early days of the Church, the role of Mary had to be minimized. The importance of Mary is immense, but it is derived from who Jesus is and what he came to accomplish. Mary, and anyone else in whom she confided, realized that Christians had to understand the Divinity of Christ to see the importance of Mary. Mary herself must have wished to be minimized in Matthew’s Gospel. Moreover, women’s testimony was not taken seriously in that culture. Although the first recorded witnesses of the Resurrection were Mary Magdalene and other women, their testimony was not believed. (Lk 24:10-12) 

Luke’s infancy narrative is largely centered on Mary. Why would that be the case? Luke’s Gospel was certainly written later than Matthew’s, probably in the late 50’s or early 60’s A.D. The Good News had been preached for over twenty years. The significance of the public life of Jesus was more clearly apparent. In John’s Gospel, Mary went into the home of John. (Jn 19:25-27) According to tradition, John eventually left Palestine and went to Ephesus in what is now western Turkey. Mary must have gone with him, and her Assumption into Heaven probably occurred in the 50’s A.D. In the book of Acts, Luke was with St. Paul during at least part of his second and third missionary journeys which spanned from about 50 A.D. to 58 A. D. and included Ephesus and other places in western Turkey. Luke could have had ample opportunity to meet with Mary. In Jesus of Nazareth, Pope Benedict asserts that Luke did meet with Mary. …..how did Matthew and Luke come to know the story that they recount? What are their sources? As Joachim Gnilka rightly says, it is evidently a matter of family traditions. Luke indicates from time to time that Mary, the Mother of Jesus, is herself one of his sources, especially when he says in 2:51 that "his mother kept all these things in her heart" (cf. also 2:19). Only she could report the event of the annunciation, for which there were no human witnesses.

Naturally, modem "critical" exegesis will tend to dismiss such connections as naive. But why should there not have been a tradition of this kind, preserved in the most intimate circle and theologically elaborated at the same time? Why should Luke have invented the statement about Mary keeping the words and events in her heart, if there were no concrete grounds for saying so? Why should he have spoken of her "pondering" over the words (Lk 2:19; cf. 1:29) if nothing was known of this? If Luke received this information about Mary in the 50’s A.D. just before her Assumption into Heaven, there was no danger that she would become an “instant celebrity” while she was alive as would have been the case in Matthew’s Gospel which was written significantly earlier (probably in the 40’s A.D). Mary saw the necessity of revealing her role in the in the infancy of Jesus so that people could better understand Christ’s Divinity. Just as Jesus had to keep his role as the Messiah secret until the proper time (Mt 8:4 and many other), there was also a “Marian secret” where the role of Mary could be made public at the proper time. Pope Benedict also believes that the role of Mary had to be secret while she was alive. I would add that the late emergence, particularly of the Marian traditions, can be similarly explained by the discretion of the Lord's mother and of those around her: the sacred events of her early life could not be made public while she was still alive.

Pope Benedict mentions something quite interesting about the original Greek text of Luke’s Gospel. In Luke, there seems to be an underlying Hebrew text; at any rate, the whole account is marked by Semitisms, which are not otherwise typical of Luke. Attempts have been made to explain the particular character of these two chapters (Luke 1-2) in terms of a literary genre found in early Judaism: a Haggadic Midrash, that is to say, an exegesis of Scripture by means of narratives. The literary resemblance is beyond dispute. And yet it is clear that Luke's infancy narrative is not a product of early Judaism, but belongs firmly to early Christianity. If Mary was living with John in Ephesus as tradition asserts, it is reasonable to think that she must have learned Greek since Ephesus was a Greek speaking area and worshipped the Greek goddess Artemis according to Acts 19. She could have related her story to Luke in Greek with the “Semitisms” of which Pope Benedict speaks. Those who can read Luke’s Gospel in the original Greek may be reading many of Mary’s exact words as conveyed to Luke.

In Matthew’s Gospel, St. Joseph is portrayed as a just man and as one who was quick to obey the commands of God. How would Matthew know this except that this was Mary’s assessment of St. Joseph? John’s Gospel contains no infancy narrative and says little about Mary. If Mary went to live with John, she probably gave him strict orders not to say too much about her in his writings. John’s Gospel was the one which focused the most on the Divinity of Christ. This was surely in accord with Mary’s wishes.

Chapter 1 of Luke’s Gospel contains an account of the birth of John the Baptist. John’s parents, the priest Zechariah and his wife Elizabeth are both described as “righteous”. Luke was writing this over 60 years after the birth of John the Baptist. Both the parents were quite old (Lk 1:7) and had certainly been dead for a long time. Mary was a very young woman at the time of John’s birth. That Zechariah and Elizabeth were both “righteous” was Mary’s assessment of them. After the Annunciation, (Lk 1:26-38), Mary went from her home in Nazareth south to the hill country of Judea to visit Elizabeth and Zechariah (Lk 1:39-56) and stayed about 3 months before returning home (Lk 1:56). She must have been present at the birth of John the Baptist (Lk 1:57-66) and learned of the angel Gabriel’s visit to Zechariah from Elizabeth and Zechariah. (Lk 1:5-25) The other events related in Lk 1-2, such as the birth of Jesus in the manger (Lk 2:1-7), the visit from the shepherds, (Lk 2:8-20), the presentation of Jesus in the temple, (Lk 2:22-38) and the finding of Jesus in the temple (Lk 2:41-52), could only have been related to Luke through Mary as Pope Benedict has noted. Very important parts of the Christian faith, such as the Annunciation and the Christmas narrative, come to us through Mary. Recently Pope Francis established a new Memorial in the liturgy “The Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church”. This is quite appropriate since the role of Mary in the early Church is much greater than many people imagine. – Jim Nugent, CFP