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Love and War

Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate Work to Revive Marian Chivalry

by Dawn Eden 

Of all the paradoxes of Catholicism, one of the most fascinating is how those saints who are best known for their tender, Marian receptivity to Christ tend to be those who are most warlike.

St. Therese of Lisieux, the “Little Flower,” harbored a deep devotion to Joan of Arc, writing and starring in a play about the Maid of Orleans and praising her in a canticle as a “warrior virgin.”

St. Maximilian Kolbe wrote feelingly about the importance of becoming an instrument of the Immaculata “so that she herself may be the one who acts.” Yet he called the Miraculous Medals that he distributed “Our Lady’s bullets” and the rosary he prayed “Our Lady’s machine gun.”

The Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate, a new religious institute that observes the Rule of St. Francis after the example of St. Maximilian Kolbe, embody this paradox, particularly in their efforts to educate men in Marian chivalry. They do this through Web sites such as the video blog AirMaria.com and outreach such as their semiannual father/son encampments.

In an age when many theologians and catechists are taken with “bridal spirituality,” the Franciscans of the Immaculate are unique in helping men join their hearts and minds to Mary’s “yes” – the greatest bridal “I do” – while retaining their essential masculinity. I asked Father Angelo Mary Geiger F.I., who writes extensively about Marian chivalry on his Mary Victrix blog, to explain some of the fine distinctions he makes with regard to what authentic masculinity looks like.

 “At the heart of anyone’s standing in the spiritual life is interior union with God,” Father Geiger told me. While the Church sees the bride’s union with the Heavenly Bridegroom as a key analogy for this union, Father Geiger stresses that “men must translate their interior life into a plan of action if they are to maintain their spiritual life.”

Such action is necessary because “men are hardwired to take risks. They must face their fears, confront evil and defend the weak. Otherwise, they either naturally lose interest in the spiritual life or unnaturally consent to be emasculated.”

Father Geiger identifies love and war as what distinguish authentic masculinity – though both of which, he says, are fundamentally human, “because the goal of everyone’s life is the union of love, but in the concrete it is lived out in the midst of conflict.”

The Holy Father’s encyclical Deus Caritas Est (“God Is Love”) sheds light on this distinction, Father Geiger notes.

“Authentic love is a balance between what Pope Benedict has described as eros and agape, or possessive love and oblative love,” he says. “Both Christ and Mary at Calvary exemplify that balance. Our Lord defends the honor of his Bride, and Our Lady suffers with her son in solidarity of love and compassion. They both expose themselves to suffering in the face of conflict, but their mutual self-forgetfulness is formed and consolidated by their union of love.

“It is the man’s fundamental role to protect and defend, to put himself between his bride and the serpent. Adam, the first man, failed in this regard. Christ, the New Man, succeeded. A man’s love for God and neighbor will always be defined in this way.

“Christ, the Real Man, chose to become the Child of Mary and showed us the way of humility and submission. Men learn from Mary’s ‘yes’ the ‘yes’ of Christ, by which ‘He emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men.’ But the fruit of His humility and obedience was a warrior’s sacrifice, a defense of His Bride unto death.”

Marian chivalry, then, is “this Christian balance between love and war, or, in the terms of historical chivalry, between courtesy and prowess.” It is, Father Geiger concludes, “the acknowledgement of Mary as Queen and Mother, and the willingness to fight for Her honor.”

To learn more about the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate, visit marymediatrix.com. 

 

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(The views expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of Headline Bistro or the Knights of Columbus.)