Mary and the Model of the Church Feminine

It is a really terrible thing that I am just now getting to a post on Mary so far already into the month of May. I can assure the readers that I have been quite preoccupied with very important matters. But, as I am presently looking to Mary in these days for much strength I thought perhaps a bit of von Balthasar on Mary and the Church would be beneficial to readers and hopefully strike up some conversation. In the book Mary The Church at the Source, von Balthasar speaks of the femininity of the Church within the mold of Mary. He writes,

In Mary, the Church is embodied even before being organized in Peter. The Church is first--and this first is permanent--feminine before she receives a complementary male counterpart in the form of ecclesial office. The Church is primarily feminine because of her primary, all-encompassing truth is her ontological gratitude, which both receives the gift and passes it on. And the masculine office, which has to represent the true giver, the Lord of the Church (albeit within the Church's feminine receptivity), is instituted in her only to prevent her from forgetting this primary reality, to ensure that she will always remain a receiver and never become self-assertive possessor and user. From a certain point of view, the Church's structure is primarily matriarchal and only secondarily patriarchal, although these sociological categories can be applied only in a very loose sense to the Church. We use them here because there can be a demand for ecclesiastical office only when there is a failure to appreciate the real dignity of women in the Church (as Church). Such a demand levels out, and thereby neutralizes, they mystery of the sexes, instead of bearing it to its open, perfected tension and fruitfulness.

How wonderful is this imagery!! Here is a theology for the Catholic position on priesthood and issues in human sexuality if I ever saw one. This is why Catholic teaching in moral theology and sacramental theology carries so much authority and truth. Pope Paul VI knew well what he was theologically doing when he referred to Mary with the title 'Mother of the Church'.