The Raised Right Hand of Maria Advocata

Here again is the icon  of the Mother of God titled, Maria Advocata - Mary, Our Advocate, found in the Roman Church of Saint Alessio. Her empty left hand intercedes for humankind in our struggle and sorrow. She is blessed from above.

But her right hand is empty, open and raised. Is she waving a hello to us? Does she have her hand in the air because she wants to ask a question? I'd suggest perhaps she shares the vision and voice of God's ancient prophets. A hand in the air can be saying, STOP.  

Now some Christians are familiar with everything Mary has said in her many appearances, but they can't recall what she said in the prayer she prayed while pregnant and visiting her elder relative, Elizabeth. The prayer is called, The Magnificat. There's some pretty tough stuff in that prayer. Why are so many people disinterested in her message? No flowers of the fairest and the rarest; it's not Mary meek and mild. Mary said of God:

He has used the power of his arm,
  he has routed the arrogant of heart.
He has pulled down princes from their thrones
  and raised high the lowly.
He has filled the starving with good things,
  sent the rich away empty.  Luke 1:51-53

This sounds like Mary, pregnant with the one who will announce God's Kingdom-Rule among us, is already upending the world's business as usual. In this icon, perhaps her raised hand might be saying:

STOP aborting to extinction the Down Syndrome children, whose presence is all love.

STOP the annual destruction of the three trillion trees God has planted.

STOP the militarization of the planet that ends in the blowing up of school buses.

STOP turning God's oceans into a plastic soup.

STOP this fascination with outer space while your neighbor-countries dissolve into poverty and internal chaos.

STOP sexualizing and sensualising your children.

STOP your gun lust which leaves scores of young people massacred.

STOP placing your anxieties in other groups of people.

STOP your consumptive affair with money, owning and having.

STOP this fascination with your own face and figure and learn again to look outward towards others.

STOP your addictions to food and narcotics and feed your inner life.

At the Start of May ~ Maria Advocata!

While staying at a Camaldolese guest house in Rome, I discovered the nearby Church of Saint Alessio, where this splendid 12th-13th century icon of the Mother of God is enshrined. She is Maria Advocata ~ Mary, Our Advocate.

The visitor gets the feeling that the Holy Mother is in motion - on her way - and catching sight of us, she stops and rotates slightly, as if to leave the frame, to interface with each of us, whose hearts are heaped up with concerns.

To emphasize this connection, the artist has edged Mary's maphorion with gold. Her lock-on gaze is the first thing we notice. She looks to the margins, where we can hide in anger and fear. She misses no one. 

I have nicknamed her: Mary Without A Phone. She is other-referred, which means her energy, her direction is other people, without the techno or emotional walls we place between ourselves and others. In the bowling alley the other day, the young dad, busy text-ing, missed his ten year old son's first strike. 

Notice that while she is not carrying the Divine Infant, her hands are active. Her left hand (under the fancy broach someone gave her along the centuries) while interceding or advocating on our behalf, is an empty hand. That's all we have - our emptiness. There are great paintings which depict the saints and benefactors laden down with crosses, palm branches, candles, books, instruments of their suffering, miniature churches and monasteries they founded. But  really, for all our achievements, we come before God with surrendered, empty hands, anticipating the searching kindness of God's love, which fills and fulfills.

Next up: Some thoughts about Mary's raised right hand. Stay tuned.