“How does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?”
–Luke 1:43
The Madonna and Child is perhaps the most frequently depicted subject in the tradition of Christian painting and iconography. Images of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Christ Child are particularly resonant as we come to the end of the month of May, a month dedicated to Our Lady.
Anyone who has been blessed to make a pilgrimage to Italy has surely seen hundreds of such paintings, but they are found in every corner of Christendom. They are often rich in color and detail, yet in their essence are characterized by the noble simplicity of their central figures, Mary and her divine Son, Jesus. Few Christian images so immediately impress upon the eye, mind, and heart the full divinity of Christ and the warmth and humanity of the Divine Child with his all-holy mother.
Truly, the image of Our Lady with her divine Son communicates deep Incarnational theology. Mary is the Theotokos, the “God-bearer.” Knowing this truth about Mary speaks to the truth of the Incarnation, that the Word of God has truly become flesh, that the one Person of the Son of God subsists in two natures, divine and human. Jesus Christ is truly God and truly man, and Mary is his mother, and not merely the mother of his humanity.
The Madonna and Child is a source not only of theological profundity but also of powerful consolation. One of the first holy images I owned as a young man was a Madonna and Child triptych my father brought me from Germany, where he had been traveling on business. It is small enough to carry with me when I travel, and has been a source of consolation many times when I have been away from home. For who is ever truly away from home when he is close to his Mother and her Son, who is his Brother and Lord?
In the Madonna and Child images I have been blessed to see, Mary is shown in one of three ways: as adoring the Christ Child, as showing the Child, almost in the manner of a monstrance showing the Eucharistic Host, and as caring for the Child Jesus. Thus Mary demonstrates three vital attitudes of Christian discipleship, of her own discipleship, since she is what Pope St. John Paul II called the “first disciple” of the Lord, and of the discipleship of all her children, who rely on her example and help in following her Son.
Adoring Christ
One form of the Madonna and Child image shows Mary in a posture of prayer or adoration. This most closely resembles her posture in most Nativity scenes. For example, the 15th century painting of Filippo Lippi shows Mary with hands folded and head bowed in quiet contemplation, as angels support the Christ Child and he reaches out to his mother. Mary’s countenance perfectly captures the spirit of Luke 2:19, “And Mary kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart.”
Mary was renowned for her great faith. Her cousin Elizabeth praised her, saying, “Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled” (Luke 1:45). She knew her Son to be the Son of God. In this painting, she sees the fulfillment of all that was spoken to her by the Lord. As a true disciple and daughter of the Most High, Mary’s first response is one of praise and adoration.
Every disciple of Christ is called first and foremost to worship the Lord. Giving “glory to God in the highest” is the essential act of the Christian life. Every thought, word, and action of our lives is to be directed to the glorification of God and the salvation of souls. No act is more vital than adoring the Lord and thereby growing into deeper communion with him.
Sharing Christ
A second posture the Blessed Mother assumes in many icons is that of showing the Divine Child. Often both Mary and her Son look directly at the person viewing the image. Mary presents her Son as the Incarnate Lord, fully the Son of God and fully her Son. And she invites all those who behold them to receive him as Lord and her as mother.
“When the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman” (Galatians 4:4). Mary’s motherhood is the perfect instrument for the revelation of God in Jesus Christ, who is “the image of the invisible God” (Colossians 1:15). The Blessed Virgin Mary is the paradigmatic monstrance, the one who shows Christ to a world that would not truly know God without seeing her divine Son, the Word made flesh.
To take one of countless examples of this kind of image, the Neoclassical “Madonna with Child” (1899) of William-Adolphe Bouguereau depicts Mary holding a rather large Christ Child, radiantly white and fully facing forward, his arms outstretched in benediction. Mary’s eyes are lowered in meek contemplation of the mystery of her divine Son. Mother and Child are crowned with golden halos and surrounded by Easter lilies and other flowers, blending the feasts of Christmas and Easter, as well as communicating vitality, beauty, and glory.
Mary, the fairest flower of the human race, never puts herself forward and does not hesitate for a moment to share her Son with a world that so desperately needs him. The Blessed Virgin testifies, “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord; my spirit rejoices in God my savior” (Luke 1:46-47).
So it must be for all the disciples of Jesus Christ. Just as the Church “exists in order to evangelize,” according to the teaching of Pope St. Paul VI, so each disciple is called to act as a living monstrance, as well as an apostle, showing Christ to all people and sharing him with all people. “Go into the whole world and proclaim the Gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15).
Caring for Christ
A third typical Madonna and Child icon shows the Blessed Mother tenderly caring for her divine Son. These images are in part a foreshadowing of the Pietà, in which Our Lady of Sorrows holds the Body of her Son after his crucifixion. In fact, Bouguereau painted such a Pietà about 23 years before his “Madonna with Child.”
Perhaps the most famous example of a Madonna and Child painting that shows Mary comforting the Christ Child is also one of the most revered devotional images of any kind throughout the world, the icon of Our Mother of Perpetual Help. This image, kept in the Church of St. Alphonsus of Liguori in Rome, shows Mary taking the hand of Jesus and holding him close as he beholds angels holding the instruments of his Passion.
Countless Catholics worldwide have a devotion to Our Mother of Perpetual Help, and undoubtedly rejoice in the help and comfort Mary brings to all of her children. Yet there is also a call and a challenge in this holy image. Mary’s example of care for the Christ Child reminds all Christians of their vocation to care for Christ present in the Holy Eucharist, in his word, and in one’s neighbor, particularly in the poor, sick, lonely, and those afflicted in any way.
As this month of May draws to a close, we would do well to spend some time in contemplation of the image of the Blessed Mother Mary with her divine Son. In doing so, may all disciples of Jesus renew their commitment to adore the Lord, to share Christ with the world, and to care for Christ present among us with the faith, hope, and charity of the one described by Dante in his Paradiso as, “Maiden and Mother, daughter of thine own Son, beyond all creatures lowly and lifted high.”
Fr. Charles Fox is vice rector of Sacred Heart Major Seminary.
