Mater queer
Reflection by Fabio Trimigno of the ZACCHEO Network, Queer Christians of Puglia
MATER DEUM. It is said that Zeus, to woo Alcmene, tripled the duration of the night and, uniting with her through deception, fathered a son. With the length of time consumed to procreate him, Zeus foretold the exceptional strength of the son who would be born.
Alcmene gave birth and, fearing the jealousy of Hera (Zeus' wife), abandoned the newborn in the place called “field of Heracles”.
It was Hera who found him in the field and named him Heracles and, filled with tenderness for that child, offered him her breast to make him immortal.
Heracles clung to his breast with the strength of a demigod and a splash of milk spread across the sky, generating the Milky Way: streams of thick milk flowed from the breast of the Mother of the Gods and dyed the firmament with their colour.
MATER LACTANS
“Mater Lactans” (the nursing mother) it is a recurring iconography in Christian art, sometimes accompanied by the expression “show you your wedding” – proves that you are a mother – or with the Greek definition “Παναγία Γαλακτοτροφοῦσα (Panaghia Galaktotrophousa) " – Our Lady of the Infant.
The similarity between Hera breastfeeding Heracles, a demigod (half human and half divine) and Mary breastfeeding Jesus, the Son of the Eternal, true God and true Man, is inevitable.
The human element and the divine element as sides of the same coin: on the one hand the brilliance of "bright celestial milky way”, on the other the secretion of “liquid terrestrial milky way”.
Even Saint Catherine of Siena, in a letter written to Madonna Bartolomea, sublimated the milk of maternal love in the ardor of “milk of divine charity”.
But if the nourishment for life has always flowed through the humidity and fluidity of milk and the immobility of a corpse manifests itself in the dryness of that same humidity and fluidity of blood, a profound connection between milk and blood will inevitably emerge.
Milk therefore, in this dark correspondence with blood, "spoils" as our grandmothers said, revealing an image of death: the smiling face of Mater lactans exudes in a desperate face of the Sorrowful Mother by Iacopone da Todi, the sweet milk in contrast with the bitter tears.
PAINFUL MATER
Mater Dolorosa (Madre Addolorata), è un titolo con cui molte volte i cristiani invocano Maria, la madre di Gesù. Il titolo si basa su alcuni momenti della vita di Maria descritti nei vangeli o tramandati per tradizione: la profezia di Simeone (Luca 2,34-35), la fuga in Egitto (Matteo 2,13-21), la perdita del Bambino Gesù nel tempio (Luca 2,41-51), Maria lungo la via crucis (tradizionale, non biblico), Maria ai piedi della croce (Giovanni 19,25-27), Maria accoglie Gesù morto (tradizionale, non biblico), Maria vede seppellire Gesù (tradizionale, non biblico).
Nello “Stabat Mater” di Iacopone da Todi leggiamo: “Stabat Mater dolorosa iuxa crucem lacrimosa”, ossia “la madre addolorata stava in lacrime presso la croce”. L’immagine del latte versato dal suo seno si trasfigura nel sangue versato sulla croce.
Maria, madre dolorosa, soffre la “spada” profetizzata, perché Gesù rompe con la tradizione: Maria deve imparare ad essere madre di un uomo in rotta di collisione con il sistema religioso, politico e patriarcale, un uomo maledetto da non pochi.
MATER MALEDICTI
Maria è nata nei bassifondi di Nazareth, in Galilea. Maledetto il paese in cui nacque: paese di impuri e di terroristi.
Maledetto il suo nome: “Maria” era anche il nome della sorella di Mosè, una donna che fu lebbrosa, pertanto sinonimo di sfortuna e sciagura.
Cursed is the day she was born: the birth of a girl was always a cause of sadness, to the point that, to avoid it, at the moment of conception the man had to pray fervently (from the third to the fortieth day) for a boy to be born; and when it was time for birth, we tried to alleviate the pain of the woman giving birth by telling her: “Do not be afraid, you will give birth to a boy!”.
Giving birth to a woman was “wasted seed”, a disgrace to the whole neighborhood: a virile male always generates another virile male! Woman was considered a liar by birth: she was simply an object, something constantly impure due to menstruation: she was only a recipient, because it was man who gave life.
Cursed be her husband: Joseph did not stone Mary according to the established law, and some extra-biblical sources say that Joseph was called "panther", that is, the rebel, therefore not morally welcome.
Cursed is that different son: not marrying for a man was a dishonor to tradition, and Jesus not only did not take a wife, but he surrounded himself with sinful apostles, stubborn and warmongering men, prostitutes, rich women bored by their husbands (Joan, wife of Chuza).
Mary was the mother of a son who allowed himself to be touched, kissed and perfumed by impure women of dubious morality.
STABAT MATER QUEER
Yet Mary was near the cross. Historically, Mary may not have been near the cross of Jesus: if she had been present in tears she would have been killed according to the law in force at the time which prohibited relatives and acquaintances from approaching the crucified condemned man. The evangelist John is the only one who places her at the foot of the cross, underlining the theological aspect: Mary, mother of the Church which is delivered to all humanity.
But the fact remains that Mary remains, always remains, remains against all expectations and in all circumstances. Mary remains when the son feels the Father's abandonment, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
Mary is left with a failed son, a madman, a heretic, a criminal, a cursed man hanging on the cross, without a shred of disciples or friends who are witnesses in his defense when he is condemned to death.
When all hope falls, what do we do?
When it seems like everything is going against us, what do we do?
Mary remains: she, Mother of the Prophets, sits next to the cursed, the outcasts of all time, the last, the marginalized, the misunderstood, the persecuted, the different, the queer, the non-conforming, the deformed. Mary stays because she believes, and precisely because she believes there are no apparitions for Mary, she didn't need them. The apparitions, the sanctuaries, the relics are for the incredulous and the doubtful: they see to believe. Mary, on the other hand, believes in order to see.
Mary remains, remains there, blessed because “Blessed are those who have not seen and believe”.
Mary undermines reality with all the "grace" she is full of, overturns its meaning, becoming a tabernacle of God's power because “The Lord is with her”.
Mary, Mother of the Prophets, is transformed from cursed among the cursed into “blessed among all women”, he believes and then sees and trusts: by entrusting himself he welcomes, and in welcoming he does not foresee the future, but reads the present time, he embodies the "nunc", he embodies today to see with his own eyes the “blessed fruit” of her own breast. What was that breast if not the one that nourished the Son of the Eternal, the God of the Universe who fed on the milk of our humanity?