The Role Of Mary In The Gospel Of Margery Kempe

Secondly, Kempe describes the scene where she prophesies about the child Mary being the future Mother of God: “And than sche seyd to the blyssed child: ‘Lady, ye schal be the modyr of God.’(Windeatt 75-76).” In this passage, we have a Virgin Mary, whose future role as ‘Mother of God’ is prophesied by her servant Margery Kempe. Yet, the Gospel says that, the angel Gabriel announced to Mary that she is going to “conceive” and “bring forth ... the Son of the Highest” (Luke 1: 31-32). What is interesting in Kempe’ s account here is that the perspective is slightly shifted: instead of focusing on Jesus, the son of God that is to be born of Mary, Kempe (Mary’s servant) insists rather on the future role of Mary as the ‘Mother of the Son of God’ whom
Kempe writes:
The blyssed child answeryd and seyd: ‘I wold I wer worthy to be the handmaiden of hir that schuld conseive the sone of God.’ The creatur seyd: ‘I pray yow, Lady, yyf that grace falle yow, forsake not my servyse.’ The blysful child passyd awey fro a certeyn tyme, the creatur being style in contemplacyon, and sythen ca ageyn and seyd: Dowtyr, now I am become the modyr of God.” And than the creatur fel down on hir kneys wyth gret reverens and gret wepyng and seyd: ‘I am not worthy, Lady, to do yow servyse.’ ‘Yes, dowtyr,’ sche seyde, ‘folwe thow me, thi servyse lykyth me wel.’ (Windeatt 75-76)
In this passage Mary, deems herself far from worthy to be the future Mother of God. What is more she does not even esteem herself worthy to be the maidservant of the one who would become the mother of God. Thus, Mary is the epitome of humility, as she is beyond humble. Margery Kempe then learns from Mary’ s humility: like the child Mary, she considers herself undeserving to be the servant of the Virgin Mary, the newly “modyr of God”. As a result of all these, the Virgin Mary is not only an extremely humble child but the best example to follow in terms of
A woman who lost her beloved child would indeed lose herself and cannot be expected to contain her own sadness. This is what happens to Mary here. It is not explicit whether Mary has forgotten that her son died as Saint John affirms, or she is fully aware of this fact but asks after him for the sake of complaining in her grief. One thing is obvious: Mary in pain seeks Saint John’s comfort. All of this is evidence that the human weakness of the Virgin Mary is unveiled: she is portrayed as a grief-stricken mother, who shows her natural limits. She expresses her pain, distress, loss in a human manner, much in the way we expect a grieving mother to