My journey into the Catholic Faith reached its 5
year mark this past Easter. I’ve learned
a lot over that time. One of those
things is that there’s a lot more to learn and that I likely will never learn
it all. One of the areas of learning I
am undergoing is in regard to Marian Devotion.
As a Protestant all the things the Catholic Church
believes about Mary scared me. I thought
Catholics worshiped Mary. I thought it
was idolatrous and offensive to God. I
have discovered it is nothing of the kind, but rather that it is something
good, encouraged, and even necessary.
What do we mean when we speak of devotion to
Mary? We simply mean that we recognize
that the saints are alive and well and continuously interceding on our behalf
(see Heb. 12:1; Rev. 5:8; 8:3). Mary is
among the saints. In fact, we believe
she is queen over them all. So it stands
to reason that she is constantly engaged in prayer on our behalf. So we pray, “Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray
for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death.” Notice that we are not worshiping Mary. We are asking for her prayers. This is similar to calling up a trusted
Christian friend and asking them to pray for you. Only it’s better because Mary is in the very
presence of our Lord and her relationship is such with Him that her prayers are
more effective than the best of us ever would be. Note also that we refer to her as the Mother
of God. This is a very precise
theological term hammered out at the Council of Ephesus in 431. Its intent is to safeguard the doctrine of
the incarnation: Jesus is truly and fully God.
Therefore to refer to Mary only as the Mother of Christ and not as the
Mother of God was deemed to undercut the incarnation. So the Church determined that this would
become one of her proper titles.
The Church has also defined a couple of other things
about Mary. She is Immaculate, which is
to say, she was conceived without sin by a special grace of God due to the
merits purchased by our Lord on the cross.
Mary needed a savior just like we do: “My spirit hath rejoiced in God my
Saviour,” (Lu. 1:47). The difference is
that she was saved from ever experiencing sin whereas we are saved from being
in sin. The Church also calls Mary
Ever-Virgin to emphasize that once she gave birth to our Lord her womb was
sacred space and could not be returned to common usage.
With all these things in mind Catholics believe that
Mary is our Mother as well as the Lord’s.
She was given to John when our Lord hung upon the cross (Jn. 19:25-27)
and the Church teaches that by extension she was given to the Church as our
Mother. Another way to see this is to
acknowledge that if we who believe in Jesus are in Him then His Mother naturally
becomes ours. So it is that we come to
what it means to be devoted to Mary. It
means that we love her and honor her as we would our own mothers.
In the hymn the Church calls the Magnificat we hear
Mary say these words: “Behold from henceforth all generations shall call me
blessed,” (Lu. 1:48). What does this
mean? I believe it is tied to what is
said in Proverbs 31:28- “Her children rose up, and called her blessed: her
husband, and he praised her.” When we
call our mothers blessed it is only meaningful if we act like they are. No mother is pleased if her children call her
blessed and then ignore her and disobey everything she says. Rather a woman is honored when her children
act like she is indeed blessed. So it is
with our Mother. When we call her
blessed it is a statement of relationship.
It means that we are intent on listening to what she is saying and
obeying her. So what is she saying? The
same as she has always said: “Whatsoever he shall say to you, do ye,” (Jn.
2:5). Mary always points us to Jesus and
devotion to her has its end in union with Him.
This is why the Church emphasizes it so much.
It has taken a long time for me to shake my previous
biases against our Blessed Mother. But
now that I have I am beginning to discover the wonderful treasure she is to
us. I want to encourage all to explore
this aspect of our faith more deeply so as to discover this treasure and rise
up and indeed call her blessed. When our
hearts are being formed by her direction we shall indeed be in the deepest
union with our Lord Jesus Christ and made fit for heaven. Isn’t this our goal? Then why not avail ourselves of every means
necessary to attain it, especially this one which was given by our Lord Himself?
“Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is
the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now, and at the hour of our death. Amen!”
the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now, and at the hour of our death. Amen!”
