Note 431 — Chapter V · SYMBOLISM OF THE MOTHER AND OF REBIRTH

525Very illuminating psychologically is the method and the manner in which Jesus treats his mother, when he harshly repels her. Just as strong and intense as this, has the longing for her imago grown in his unconscious. It is surely not an accident that the name Mary accompanies him through life. Compare the utterance of Matthew x: 35: “I have come to set a man at variance with his father, a daughter with her mother. He who loves father and mother more than me is not worthy of me.” This directly hostile purpose, which calls to mind the legendary rôle of Bertran de Born, is directed against the incestuous bond and compels man to transfer his libido to the Saviour, who, dying, returning into his mother and rising again, is the hero Christ.