The Mother
Mary, as she appears in the Gospels, was never a passive or detached woman. She questioned the angel’s proposition (Lk 1:34). On her own initiative, she departed quickly, crossing mountains, to help Elizabeth in the final months of her pregnancy and during the birth (Lk 1:39 ff). In the grotto of Bethlehem, she, all alone, managed the complicated and difficult moment of giving birth (Lk 2:7). Of what value, in that moment, is the company of a man?
When the child was lost, the Mother did not stand idly by with her arms crossed. She quickly took the first caravan, went up to Jerusalem again, and moved heaven and earth for three days, searching for him (Lk 2:46). At the wedding in Cana, while everyone else was enjoying themselves, only she was paying attention. She noticed that the wine was running out. She took the initiative and, without disturbing anyone, she herself sought to resolve everything delicately. And she found the solution.
At a certain moment, when they said that Jesus’s health was not good, she appeared at the house in Capernaum to take him away, or at least to care for him (Mk 3:21). On Calvary, when everything was already finished and there was nothing left to do, it was then that she remained still, in silence (Jn 19:25).
It is easy to imagine what a woman of such a personality would do in the delicate circumstances of the nascent Church. Without distorting the nature of things, based on the normal way of acting for a person like Mary, I could imagine, without fear of being mistaken, what the Mother did within the heart of that nascent Church.
I could imagine the words she would say to the group of disciples as they departed for distant lands to proclaim the Name of Jesus. I can imagine what words of strength and comfort she would say to Peter and John after they were arrested and flogged.
She, such an excellent receiver and keeper of news (Lk 2:19; 2:51), I can imagine how she would transmit the news about the advance of the word of God in Judea and among the Gentiles (Acts 8:7), and how, with that news, she would solidify the hope of the Church.
Taken from the book “The Silence of Mary,” Chapter I, Section “The Mother,” by Father Ignacio Larrañaga.