The rock star rocked!

When they put up yet another row of extra chairs, I knew we were into something special. GU's Cataldo was packed last night for feminist theologian Elizabeth Johnson's talked. I mean packed. The place seats 600. I'm not sure that many chairs were out, but people were standing. It was like old home week for Catholics young and old.

The Fordham professor and woman religious spoke about Mary and how we must allow her to climb down from the pedestal she's been placed upon over the centuries. She has much to teach if we allow her to be who she truly is.

Johnson says this means we cannot see Mary as the maternal image of God. This allows Catholics to continue to make masculine the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

"The mystery of the living God is beyond gender. It makes no lasting sense to use Mary as a cover-up for our defective notions of God. Let us understand God as a merciful mother who will not let her child get lost. If we do this, Mary will be relieved of her burdens.''

Johnson says Mary should also be freed of being touted as the ideal woman, ideal in this case meaning obedient and called to their highest calling -- motherhood. This ideal excludes women who are outspoken or not called to motherhood.

And Mary must be understood in her historical context. She was a poor woman living in a small village in a time when women had no civic voice whatsoever. And when she found herself pregnant without marriage to Joseph, she was in a potential scandal that would rival anything of today. Johnson's point was to meditate on what messages might be inherent in Mary's life. The preferential treatment for the poor and the voiceless, for instance. "And God is present in the midst of a scandal. That's the last place you'd expect to look."

Johnson said much much more. These are just my inadequate sound bites. She came across as brilliant with great humility. She received a standing ovation, very deserved.