{"id":2078,"date":"2013-10-16T08:00:43","date_gmt":"2013-10-16T00:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/?p=2078"},"modified":"2022-04-20T10:08:09","modified_gmt":"2022-04-20T02:08:09","slug":"2078","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/?p=2078","title":{"rendered":"90. Mater Inviolata (Mother Inviolate)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cMary said to the angel, \u2018How can this be, since I am a virgin?\u2019 The angel said to her, \u2018The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God.<\/strong>“<\/span> [Luke 1:34-35<\/span>, NRSV<\/em>]<\/p>\n

\"\"\u00a0<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\u00a0<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

[L] An embroidery of the scene of the Annunciation.\u00a0[M] An embroidery of Mater Inviolata. [R]\u00a0Mater Inviolata.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Recently, a display of embroidery by the Royal School of Needlework caught our attention. In particular, the very detailed piece of embroidery depicting the scene of the Annunciation captured our interest. It is one of twelve rare embroideries illustrating the Litany of Loreto. They form part of an exhibition of ecclesiastical embroidery, entitled For Worship and Glory<\/em>, at Hampton Court Palace in southwest London, where the RSN, founded in 1872, is based.<\/p>\n

Loreto, in Italy, has been a shrine to Mary since the late 13th century. The Litany of Loreto dates from the Middle Ages. The version of the litany recognised by Pope Sixtus V in 1587 gives 48 titles for the Virgin Mary of which 12 are portrayed in the embroideries. These embroideries, according to the RSN, represent \u201ca strong sense of design\u201d and \u201cworked to a very high standard\u201d. Furthermore, \u201cthey show what can be achieved with stylised design and a limited colour palette\u201d.<\/p>\n

The embroidery featuring the scene of the Annunciation at once led our attention to a second piece that detained us at length, and that is the piece on Mary as Mother Inviolate [Mater Inviolata].<\/p>\n

Save for the title, this embroidery does not bring out any particular distinguishing features about Mary as the Mother Inviolate. But it caused us to pause and recall the diverse arguments on whether Mary remained a perpetual virgin and how one should correctly interpret Scripture that talks about Jesus\u2019 \u201cbrothers and sisters\u201d [see Mark 6:3; Matthew 13:55-56]. So-called \u201ccritical biblical scholarship\u201d really comes down to which Christian denomination one hails from. Followers of the\u00a0Catholic<\/a>,\u00a0Eastern Orthodox<\/a> and Oriental Orthodox<\/a> traditions, as well as some\u00a0Anglicans<\/a> and\u00a0Lutherans<\/a>, tend to accept the doctrine of the\u00a0perpetual virginity of Mary<\/a> and therefore reject the claim that Jesus had blood siblings. Others, Protestants in general, take the literal interpretation and see direct evidence from Scriptures that Jesus had blood siblings. Clearly, the acid that oozed from the sixteenth century Reformation and Counter-Reformation continue to burn and contaminate the very earth that we stand on, much like the millions of litres of defoliants such as Agent Orange the Americans dropped on Vietnam\u00a0 continue to grotesquely maim and harm three decades later today. Writing at a time when the West \u2013 largely US and UK, again! \u2013 is posturing to strike Syria on claim of Syria\u2019s alleged use of chemical weapons on its own civilians, one cannot but be stunned speechless by how ludicrous the world\u2019s leading politicians can be when US Secretary of State looked straight into the TV camera and called Syria\u2019s alleged use of chemical weapons a \u201cmoral obscenity\u201d!<\/p>\n

All this recalls for us a lasting impression from the legal practice. There, an inescapable experience of human aptitude points to the fact that judges, influenced as they must be by cultural-political, religious as well as socio-economic reasons, would first make a decision on a high-profile case and then go on to justify it and dress it up nicely by a written judgment. To be sure, a \u201cdissenting judgment\u201d could proceed in quite the same way. In other words, judgments often ran ahead of reasons.<\/p>\n

In passing, we would mention the\u00a0Protoevangelium of James<\/span>.<\/em> An important historical document which supports the teaching of Mary\u2019s perpetual virginity, it was written probably less than sixty years after the end of Mary\u2019s earthly life (around A.D. 120), when memories of her life were still vivid in the minds of many.\u00a0According to the world-renowned patristics scholar, Johannes Quasten: “The principal aim of the whole writing [Protoevangelium of James] <\/em>is to prove the perpetual and inviolate virginity of Mary before, in, and after the birth of Christ” (Patrology,<\/em> 1:120\u20131).<\/p>\n

Given all that, we found it immensely more interesting to turn to a different piece of artistic representation of the Mater Inviolata.<\/p>\n

Here, we have clear hints of Mary\u2019s title as Mother Inviolate being defined in relation to the sun.<\/p>\n