Language, God, and the Blessed Virgin Mary

Not long ago I found myself listening to a Catholic radio station.  I'm always keen to listen and to learn about the various aspects of my Christian faith, even to learning from those who come from different traditions.  And though I have a great respect for my Roman Catholic brothers and sisters, I have a problem with some of the things they say about Mary - the mother of God. 

The commentators on the radio station spoke repeatedly about Mary as the Mother of Jesus, as the Mother of the Church, as the Mother of us all as The New Eve (The name Eve means “mother of all living”).  But this last description has, I think, gone past the point of veneration of a saint – to the point of giving Mary credit for something that really belongs to God.

Our traditions and culture have for nearly forever stressed God as our Father.  God is described as "He," and "Him."  But this doesn't fully describe God.

In the creation stories we read that God created humans, all humans - both male and female - in the image of God.  That is - both genders genuinely reflect the nature of God.  God is not male. God is not female.  God transcends gender.

But the English language has only has three pronouns - he, she, and it - to describe a singular entity.  The first two do not accurately describe a God who transcends gender, and the gender neutral, it fails to describe the personal nature of God.  A friend of mine once suggested creating a new pronoun by combining the three (He, She, It) as Sh*t.  But, that doesn't work so well, either...

The problem is that language shapes our thoughts.  People who live is desert regions and have never seen snow have no word to express the falling white crystals of water, and are unable to 'think' about snow. And because we have no really accurate pronouns for God we make do with "he" and "his" but these limited words have bent our thoughts in ways that we may not recognize.  Many Christians are hesitant or even reluctant to think about God in female terms (which are neither more nor less accurate than male terms). 

Many others refuse outright to accept God any in feminine description. Yet throughout the bible there are numerous places where God is described in female or feminine terms.  God is both our Father and our Mother.

The patriarchal image of God is so entrenched that we balk at think of God as our Mother, but we still need this "Divine Mother" image and so our Roman Catholic brothers and sisters have, I think, projected this Divine Motherhood onto the Blessed Mother Mary. Perhaps it would be best to bring Mary back to the realm of humanity, and to lift God up as our Blessed Mother, the Mother who loves us all.