CHAPTER XIV

CANA II

     And when the wine failed, the mother of Jesus saith unto him,
     They have no wine.  Jesus saith unto her, Woman, what have I
     to do with thee? mine hour is not yet come.

     S. John II, 3, 4.

     We, the faithful, bless thee, O Virgin Mother of God, and
     glorify thee as is thy due, the city unshaken, the wall
     unbroken, the unbreakable defence and refuge of our souls.

     BYZANTINE.

“Whatsoever He saith unto you, do it.”  These words have often been called the Gospel according to S. Mary.  They certainly sum up her whole attitude in life.  “Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word,” she had said in reply to the message S. Gabriel brought her:  and that is the meaning of her whole life-story, that she is at all times ready to accept the will of God, to give herself to the fulfilment of the divine purpose.  There is no more perfect attitude, for it is the attitude of her divine Son whose meat it was to do the will of the Father and to finish His work, whose whole life’s attitude was compressed into the words of His self-oblation in Gethsemane, “Not my will, but thine be done.”

And this is the virtue that Jesus Christ inculcates upon us.  “When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven ... thy will be done.”  There is no true religion possible without that attitude.  And therefore one is deeply concerned about the immediate future inasmuch as the spirit of obedience, the spirit of Jesus, the spirit of Mary, is so rare.  As one looks into the social development of the Christian era, one feels that the life and example of S. Mary has been of immense influence in the development of the ideal of womanhood.  The rise of woman from a wholly subordinate and inferior condition to a condition of complete equality with man has owed more to S. Mary than to any other factor.  I am not concerned with political equality; that under our present conditions of social development women should have that equality if they want it seems to me just, but I am by no means satisfied that in the long run it will prove a boon either to them or to society at large.  But I am at present thinking of their spiritual equality, which after all is the basis of their other claims; and this comes to them through the Gospel, and was shown to the mind of the Church largely through S. Mary.  In the earliest records of the Church woman stands on the same level of privilege as man, and the same sort of spiritual accomplishment is expected of her.