Mother and Child

An interesting passage from your friend and mine, G.K. Chesterton. First, a little context– by the time he wrote “The Everlasting Man,” from which the following is taken, he had fully converted to Catholicism.

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“If the world wanted what is called a non-controversial aspect of Christianity, it would probably select Christmas. Yet it is obviously bound up with what is supposed to be a controversial aspect; the respect paid to the Blessed Virgin.

When I was a boy a more Puritan generation objected to a statue upon my parish church representing the Virgin and Child. After much controversy, they compromised by taking away the Child. One would think this was even more corrupted with Mariolatry, unless the mother was counted less dangerous when deprived of a sort of weapon.

But the practical difficulty is also a parable. You cannot chip away the statue of a mother from all around that of a new-born child. You can not suspend the new-born child in mid-air; indeed you cannot really have a statue of a new-born child at all. Similarly, you cannot suspend the idea of a new-born child in the void or think of him without thinking of his mother; you cannot in common human life approach the child except through the mother. If we are to think of Christ in this aspect at all, we must admit, if only as we admit it in an old picture, that those holy heads are too near together for the halos not to mingle and cross.”

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As a Baptist from birth (BFB) I didn’t hear much about The Blessed Virgin growing up, and was rather mystified by the Catholic approach to her. I am not ready to address prayers to Mary, but I think Chesterton has a point in that if we are going to think of Jesus as a baby, and stand in awe at everything such an idea means for us, we have to recognize the completely unique place his mother holds in salvation history.