Both virgins are the mothers of Christ

Advent reminds Christians that Mary, like all mothers, waited for the birth of Jesus. Moreover, we recall that she experienced the very common, yet so extraordinary human experience that women have, i.e. to carry a child their womb.  

Isaac of Stella makes this parallel between Mary and the Church: both are mothers, and both are virgins. Both of them, without any carnal contact, conceive of the same Spirit. Both of them, without sin, give a progeny to God the Father. One, free from all sin, bore the head of this body; the other, through the forgiveness of all sins, gave birth to the body of that head.

Mary’s gestation echoes that of the Church, one complementing the other, as Isaac of Stella says: "Both are the mothers of Christ, but neither completely gives birth to him without the other."

Isaac of Stella concludes with a principle that should guide all those who write about the Virgin Mary: "Thus, in the divinely inspired Scriptures, what is universally said of the Virgin-Mother Church is understood in a particular way of Mary the Virgin-Mother" (and we could add, ‘and vice versa’).

Patrick Prétot, OSB

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