Our Lady as Seat of Wisdom and Ark of the Covenant

A reflection for the Immaculate Conception and the Season of Advent

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Preface

Way back in the fall of 2007, Wyoming Catholic College opened its doors to the first class of students, 35 of them. The freshmen that I, as the first admissions director, had recruited for the school (with God’s help, and plenty of it!) showed up for their 21-day backpacking trip and then their first classes. There was a feeling of excitement and freshness, of a bold new beginning that was both quixotic and divinely meant to be. The few of us who formed the faculty and staff at that time were wearing as many hats as we could balance on our heads, and often enough one or another hat fell to the ground. The humility to say sorry and to make necessary course corrections was highly prized in those startup days.

The Lord indeed blessed this pioneering class, as 32 of the original 35 graduated after putting in four valiant years — a retention rate most schools can hardly dream of. And so, the college was off to a good start, with the singing, dancing, juggling, poetry reciting, outdoor adventures, Latin skits, Byzantine liturgies, and more that set it apart from any other place on the face of the earth. I spent eleven more years teaching the fine students of WCC until the summer of 2018 when I resigned as Professor of Theology to pursue a full-time career in speaking, writing, and publishing.

As does my alma mater, Thomas Aquinas College, Wyoming Catholic College features an annual Lecture Series that brings in distinguished academics and colorful personalities from across the country to speak to the community about topics or issues that might not otherwise be addressed in the curriculum. One of the many hats I wore in the early years was that of proposing guest lecturers, helping coordinate their visits, and showing them around when they arrived.

Our very first guest lecturer ever, on November 1, 2007, was a notable Mariologist, Fr. Frederick L. Miller. At the time, he was chair of the systematic theology department at Mount St. Mary’s Seminary in Emmitsburg, Maryland; he would later serve as spiritual director of St. Andrew’s Hall College Seminary and adjunct professor of systematic theology at the Immaculate Conception Seminary at Seton Hall University. He passed away on September 28, 2022 (requiescat in pace).¹

I enjoyed hosting Fr. Miller in Lander and especially appreciated his lecture. We had asked him to talk to us about why Our Lady is called the “Seat of Wisdom” — the specific title under which WCC was consecrated to her and is regularly re-consecrated to her. Seventeen years ago, Fr. Miller graciously shared the text with me, and, having just rediscovered it among my papers, after all these years, I would like to share excerpts of it with you, for it serves as a beautiful meditation for both the feast of the Immaculate Conception and the season of Advent.

The Seat of Wisdom in God’s Country

The renowned Mariologist Rev. René Laurentin has noted that, while Christians always need a deep and intimate relationship with the Mother of God, that relationship is especially necessary at beginnings, in transitions, and whenever suffering touches human life.

You are certainly at a crucial beginning. With confidence in God’s Providence and depending on the intercession of the Blessed Virgin, you have dared, with the blessings of your Bishop, the Most Reverend David Ricken, to make a fresh beginning in the realm of Catholic higher education. In this daunting endeavor, you have chosen Mary, Seat of Wisdom, as your Patroness.

Mary loves beginnings because she has been involved in so many of them. She herself had a “beginning” like no other. As her parents, Anne and Joachim, conceived her, the Holy Spirit intervened and created her soul full of God’s grace. Preparing her for her mission, God preserved Mary in that instant from inheriting the sin of Adam. In the Immaculate Conception, God declared war on Satan and sin and announced victory. Through Jesus Christ, the New Adam, born of this New Eve, the human race would be restored to God’s friendship and eternal life.

The Incarnation

Mary was present center-stage at the beginning of our salvation. In fact, without her, there would have been no beginning. Mother Teresa of Calcutta was given to say, at times to Protestant leaders, no Mary, no Jesus. Once I was in her presence when she encouraged a Methodist minister to invite Mary into his life. She said to him more than once, no Mary, no Jesus. Then she said to me, Father, explain to this good Christian man what this means — no Mary, no Jesus! In other words, by God’s will it was necessary that Mary consent to the incarnation of His Son.

The Fathers of the Second Vatican Council taught this truth in a very beautiful way. In Chapter VIII of the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium (56) we read:

The Father of mercies willed that the incarnation should be preceded by the acceptance of her who was predestined to be the mother of His Son, so that just as a woman contributed to death, so also a woman should contribute to life.

Quoting St. Irenaeus of Lyon, the Council Fathers say:

Mary “being obedient, became the cause of salvation for herself and for the whole human race.” Comparing Mary with Eve, they call her “the Mother of the living,” and still more often they say: “death through Eve, life through Mary.”

You see, God willed Mary to be at the beginning of His most important and wonderful work. In so doing, He established a pattern. Let’s look at a few more beginnings that involved our Blessed Mother.

Wedding of Cana

Mary was present with Jesus at the wedding feast of Cana where he performed his first miracle and, in so doing, began his public ministry. It seems from the text of St. John’s Gospel that Jesus began his public ministry as a result of the Blessed Mother’s simple request: “They have no wine.” Lumen Gentium tells us:

In the public life of Jesus, Mary makes significant appearances. This is so even at the very beginning, when at the marriage feast of Cana, moved with pity, she brought about by her intercession the beginning of the miracles of Jesus the Messiah.

St. John tells us in his description of the wedding that “thus did He (Jesus) reveal his glory and his disciples began to believe in him.” Another beginning: through Mary’s initiative, the disciples began to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.