Message #5137

[Mark]

Mary and Other Religions

The maternal and sympathizing figure of Mary, the Mother of Jesus, is so close to the human heart - of any human heart - whatever its culture, its time, its religion that the Blessed Virgin is loved and venerated beyond the Christian world!

The Virgin is universally honored as being pure; she is the Mother who is able to understand the human heart and man's need for love which is always the same on every horizon.

Thus for example, in Buddhism or Hinduism, religions so remote from the Christian Revelation, Mary is perceived as a Mother full of love whose tenderness is matched only by her courage to defend her beloved Son.

For this reason, many followers of these non-Christian religions are attracted to the Mother of Jesus and go to extent of even praying to her, as they would to their own mother.


Mary and Hinduism

Since ancient times, goddesses have been both well known and revered in India. Thousands of images of women that were found in the North-West of India in the ruins of the Indus Valley civilization (around 2500-1500 B.C.) show that goddesses played an important role in the religion of this culture, even though male divinities dominated the written traditions.

Goddess worship is very developed in Hinduism

The daily worship of goddesses in Hinduism is visible at a village level, where goddess worship occupies a key role. Although in the minds of the villagers goddesses are part of literature and tradition, many of them in fact only have a regional or local reputation. These village goddesses care for the existence, interests and well-being of the community. They are particularly associated with fertility – both of the crops as of the human – as well as illnesses.They are usually revered by all the members of one village and identified with that specific village.

The existence of a Great Goddess...

Some Hindu theologians believe in the existence of a Great Goddess who appears in different forms.  Numerous goddesses in the Hindu tradition represent a unifying cosmic principal, powerfully fecund, active and female in gender. Although this character has many names, she is generally known as Devi (Goddess) or Mahdevi (Great Goddess). She is often called Sakti, which means “power” and hints at her wide and unending powers of creation. This Great Goddess is fundamentally an active divinity, attentive to the stability of the world and to the needs of her worshippers.

…which reminds us of the Virgin Mary without being comparable to her

The dark, destructive, blood-thirsty side of the Great Goddess is seen as a natural part of a certain sense of order given that she covers all things and affirms a positive and necessary interaction in the cosmos between life and death, creation and destruction, strength and rest. The devotion of Hindus and other Indian religions towards the Blessed Virgin Mary should be put into this context of worship of the Hindu goddesses.

If we were able to speak to them convincingly of the real greatness of Our Lady as Immaculate Mother of our Redeemer...

The popular concept of the Hindu goddess cannot be applied to Our Lady, even though she has many of the attributes of Hindu goddesses.  She is respected and venerated by Indians in popular tradition like a holy woman who answers their prayers for material and spiritual needs. However if we were able to speak to them convincingly of the real greatness of Our Lady as Immaculate Mother of our Redeemer, they might grow to respect and venerate her as she deserves.

Mary and Buddhism

Buddhism, strictly speaking, does not evoke God, and therefore understandably has no reason to include a figure such as the Blessed Virgin Mary in the picture of salvation.

As goes an ancient Sutra (sacred Buddhist text): “Like a mother loves and protects her beloved son with her very life, you too, Buddhist monks, must cultivate without limit the virtue of kindness and pity toward all living things.”

With time, the concept of Kannon-Bosatsu (in Sanskrit: Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara) as the Mother Buddha - with boundless pity - appeared and expanded in Mahayana Buddhism (most common type of Buddhism in Japan, Korea and China). The devotion to Kannon-Bosatsu quickly spread throughout China, Korea and Japan. The numerous of temples dedicated to this Kannon has become popular destinations for Buddhist pilgrimages.

An interesting detail in Japan’s history:

From the time when Tokuwaga was shogun (governor), Christians were persecuted for three centuries. The persecuted Catholics remained faithful with the help of small statues of Mary-Kannon (Kannon was a goddess of pity worshipped by the Buddhists).

Some of these statues, apparently depicting Kannon, were in actual fact venerated as the Blessed Virgin Mary (often with the Infant Jesus in her arms). This allowed Catholics to escape the scrutiny of the authorities.

Nowadays, many Buddhists – particularly Buddhists from Japan – choose Lourdes as their favorite place of pilgrimage when they come to Europe. The image of Mary, mother and refuge of a wounded and ailing humanity, draws the hearts of many Buddhists to her, as they have not forgotten Kannon. In October 2000, Phra Sommai, the head Buddhist priest of the Kaew Praew temple in northern Thailand, friend of the Catholic Focolari movement, took part in the Pope’s Wednesday Public hearing, after which he visited the Focolari centers of Rocca di Papa and Loppiano.

Mother of Love, serene face, you hold the universe in your arms…

Bearing in mind the Buddhist saying that “being a mother means being a loving presence that welcomes and creates a home”, he wrote the following poem while contemplating the holy image of the Madonna of the Light of Tonadico (this is my translation):

“O Mother of love, you hold the universe in your arms. As you look down, your serene face seems sad, but you are full of tenderness, of kindness, of endless pity. Your hands together in prayer bless us from the heart.

In times of loneliness, turning towards you, I have felt the warmth of your close presence.

For he who errs, you bring real comfort; in anxiety you bring us guidance and light. You give us happiness and rest.

From you we obtain everything, and then with complete detachment you ask for nothing in return.”