Answering Questions About Mary

Welcome to another Keep the Faith program. I’m Fr. Ray Suriani, assistant pastor of St. Pius X Church in Westerly. A couple of months ago, Monsignor Bob McManus gathered several of us together to talk about possible topics for this year’s Keep the Faith series. He wanted to know what topics we each wanted to deal with on our assigned dates. I said to him, "As a parish priest, people ask me lots and lots of questions: questions about the Bible; questions about certain teachings of the Church; questions about moral issues; questions about their own spiritual lives." I told him, "I think that I’d like to deal with some of these questions on the four or five radio programs that I’ll be responsible for in the coming year. Given the fact that they’re so frequently asked, it would be good to address them with such a large audience. And besides, if some of my parishioners listen in, they’ll get the answers they’re looking for over the airwaves, and I won’t get so many telephone calls!"

Now there’s an almost endless list of subjects that I could address with you this morning, but I’ve decided to focus on one and one only--the Blessed Mother. I made the decision to focus on Mary today because both Catholics and non-Catholics have questions concerning what the Catholic Church actually teaches about the Blessed Mother and her role in our lives. And I dare say it’s not only non-Catholics who tend to misunderstand Church teaching on Mary; sometimes Catholics do too--which causes tremendous confusion both in and out of the Body of Christ. You see, it’s one thing to have non-Catholics speaking falsehoods about the Blessed Mother (that is somewhat understandable); it’s quite another thing to have Catholics saying that the Church teaches something about our Lady that the Church in fact does not teach! That is much worse because Catholics should know better! This is one reason why every Catholic should own a copy of the new, universal Catechism which came out a few years ago. Along with the Bible, it’s the most important resource we have for understanding our faith properly.

Okay, enough of the preliminaries; now to the questions--

Here’s something that non-Catholics will often tell us--they’ll say, "You Catholics believe certain things about Mary that are not explicitly stated in the Bible." Here we get into the whole issue of "sola Scriptura" (the Bible alone), which of course was one of the battle cries of the Protestant Reformation back in the 16th century. I don’t have time to discuss the issue at length here, but I will say this: if sola Scriptura is true, then it must be stated clearly in the Bible. In other words, if everything we believe regarding faith and morals must be explicitly stated in Scripture, then that principle itself must be explicitly stated in Scripture. The problem is, it’s not. NOWHERE in the Bible does it say that everything must be explicitly stated in these 73 books. In fact, the Bible says something quite different--the Bible says that it’s the Church and not the Bible which is the pillar and foundation of the truth (that’s 1 Timothy 3:15 for those who have their Bibles handy). And you know what? Every good, devout Protestant believes things concerning the faith which are not taught explicitly in Scripture. For example, take the dogma of the Trinity--the dogma that says there are three Persons in one God (Father, Son and Holy Spirit). Every true Christian believes in the Trinity--there’s even a Protestant television network out in California called the Trinity Broadcasting Network. But the word Trinity is not found anywhere in the Bible! Does the Bible point to this truth? Certainly. But it does not explicitly state it. Trinity is the term that the Church uses to make clear what Christians from apostolic times have believed about the nature of God. And of course, that belief is implicit in the writings of the New Testament (which, of course, were given to us by the Church, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit).

Coming back now to the Blessed Mother, and applying this insight to her: What the Church teaches about Mary does not in any way, shape or form contradict the truth of the Bible. What the Church teaches about Mary flows from the witness of the Scriptures; it’s rooted in the Scriptures; and it makes explicit those things which are sometimes only hinted at in the New Testament.

Some would probably object at this point and say, "Fr. Ray, how can you say that Church teaching on Mary always agrees with Scripture? St. Paul teaches in Romans 3: 23 that "All have sinned." But the Catholic Church teaches that Mary never sinned. The Church teaches that Mary was Immaculately Conceived and then never committed a personal sin in her life. And so the Church must believe that somehow Mary saved herself. But not even Mary believed that. She called God "her Savior" in Luke 1: 47.

Here we have one of the common misunderstandings about what the Church actually teaches about the Blessed Mother. Listen carefully now to this quote from the New Catechism (paragraph #491 for those who have their Catechisms handy):

"Through the centuries the Church has become ever more aware that Mary, ‘full of grace’ through God, was redeemed from the moment of her conception. That is what the dogma of the Immaculate Conception confesses, as Pope Pius IX proclaimed in 1854: The most Blessed Virgin Mary was, from the first moment of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege of almighty God and by virtue of the merits of Jesus Christ, Savior of the human race, preserved immune from all stain of original sin."

Then later on the Catechism adds this line:

By the grace of God Mary remained free of every personal sin her whole life long.

This means that Mary needed a Savior and had a Savior--the same one we have: Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh. Notice that the dogma says that the grace of the Immaculate Conception was given in virtue of the merits Jesus. In other words, the grace he won for the world on Calvary was applied to Mary in advance. She was saved by grace, only in a different way than the rest of us are. Let me give you a visual analogy to make this clear. Imagine a man walking toward a deep pit. The pit represents sin. There are two ways that he can be saved from that pit. One way is for him to be pulled out after he’s fallen into it. (That’s the way we are saved.) The other possibility is for him to be stopped before he falls in. (That’s the way Mary was saved.) And regarding that line from Romans 3 which says, "All have sinned." St. Paul’s point there is that both Jews and Gentiles alike need the salvific grace of Jesus Christ (read verse 9 of that chapter again). His point is not that every single human person on earth has committed personal sins. Because that’s not true! For example, a three month old child has not committed any personal sins--his crying may cause you to commit a sin--but he’s not guilty of violating God’s law, before he reaches the age of reason and becomes personally responsible to God for his actions.

From what I’ve said so far, it’s hopefully clear to everyone: Catholics do not worship Mary! We honor her, because she was a human person who said "Yes" to God at every moment of her life! What she said to the Lord through Gabriel at the Annunciation she said every day: "Be it done unto me [O God], according to your Word." David Duplessis, who died a few years ago, was a well known Protestant evangelist. He was affectionately known as "Mr. Pentecost." David Duplessis once said something to this effect; he said, "I have always loved Mary, because I’ve tried to live my life by the two great lines that are attributed to her in the Bible: ‘Be it done unto me according to your Word,’ and ‘Do whatever he [Jesus] tells you." That’s a great witness--from a non-Catholic, no less! Mary was passionately devoted to the Word of God; she was passionately devoted to living the Word of God. That’s why Catholics honor her; among human persons, she was the greatest work of God’s grace. (This is among human persons--remember, Jesus is a divine person, so he’s in a different category.) And so when we honor Mary, we give glory to God, because she is HIS creation, she is HIS work of art. And so she gives us hope: hope that we can grow in holiness if we follow her example every day and say "Yes" to God and his will.

I think this would be a good time to take a short break. Please stay tuned, we’ll be back in a minute.

Welcome back to our program. Today we’re dealing with some of the common questions and concerns that people have about our Blessed Mother. Here’s one that you meet up with every once in a while: Someone will say, "Why do Catholics call Mary the "Mother of God?" How can anyone be God’s Mother? Do Catholics somehow believe that Mary existed before the Lord did? That’s RIDICULOUS. Mary is certainly the mother of Jesus, (the Bible tells us that)--but there is no way she can be called the ‘Mother of God.’"

This brings us to an important principle that underlies all that the Church teaches about Mary. You can find it in the New Catechism, paragraph #487: "What the Catholic faith believes about Mary is based on what it believes about Christ." That is so important! We call Mary the Mother of God, for example, not because Mary has a dignity greater than her Son, not because Mary preexisted her Son--the Church believes neither of those things; we call Mary the Mother of God because of who we believe Jesus is. We state in the Nicene Creed that we believe in Jesus Christ who is "God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God." We believe that Jesus is a divine person, with both a divine nature and a human nature. The Church solemnly defined this belief way back in the 4th century against the views of the heretic Arius. The Church always believed this, of course, but she only had to solemnly define it when it was being challenged publicly by Arius and his followers. So, when the Church says that Mary is the Mother of God, she is expressing her belief in the divinity of Jesus. She’s affirming the fact that Mary gave birth on Christmas Day to a divine person--to the Word made flesh--to the God-man.

At this point I should probably add a word about Catholic belief in the Assumption of Mary into heaven. This dogma does not state (I repeat, it does not state) that Mary, at the end of her life, ascended to heaven by her own power--as Jesus ascended to heaven by his own power on Ascension Thursday. As the new catechism reminds us (here I quote from paragraph #966, "The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin is a singular participation in her Son’s resurrection, and an anticipation of the resurrection of other Christians." Mary was taken to heaven, body and soul, at the end of her life, through the power of her Son; through the power of the risen Jesus. And this is one reason why we call Mary "our hope": what has already happened to her we hope will happen to us at the final judgment--at that time we hope to receive our resurrected bodies and be taken to God’s heavenly kingdom.

Another commonly asked question: Why do Catholics pray to Mary? And then some will add, "I don’t need to go to Mary. I go directly to Jesus." Well, to answer that objection I would say, "So do I. I often go directly to Jesus; but I also ask other people to pray for me." After all, Scripture says, in James 5: 16 that the prayers of a holy person are powerful before the Lord. And since Mary was the holiest human person who ever lived, it seems to me that her prayers are extremely valuable. This is why the Church encourages prayers to our Blessed Mother. Of course, our prayers do not end with her, because she is not God. When we pray to Mary we are simply asking her to intercede for us and our needs. For example, in the "Hail Mary" we say "Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us, sinners, now and at the hour of our death." I don’t know about you, but I definitely want holy people like Mary praying for me now--at the present moment--in the midst of my present problems; and I want them praying for me at that decisive moment when I’m about to "check out" from this earthly life and meet my maker!

And for all those who say that this idea of the saints in heaven interceding for us is not in the Bible; to you I would say, "Please pick up the Book of Revelation and read chapters 5, 6 and 8. In chapter 5 the elders are portrayed as bringing the prayers of God’s people before the throne of the heavenly Father; in chapter 6 the martyrs actively intercede for the suffering Christians still on earth; and in chapter 8 the angels intercede. So this is a very biblical idea.

But for those who might still object to the practice of seeking the intercession of the saints--to you I would say, "Okay, but please, please be consistent! You say that you don’t need anyone to pray for you because you go right to Jesus. All right, then please don’t ever ask any of your relatives or friends to pray for you either! If you don’t think you need the perfected saints in heaven to intercede for you, then you certainly don’t need the imperfect saints here on earth to intercede for you. Please be consistent, and only go to Jesus yourself." Personally, I’ll take all the prayers I can get--from Mary, from the saints in heaven, and from godly souls here on earth--because I need them.

In bringing this program to a close, I’d like to consider briefly one of the titles of Mary. Our Blessed Mother is honored by the Church with many titles. (Take a look at a Litany of the Blessed Mother sometime; you can find many of them there). The one I’d like to focus on today is the title, "Queen of heaven and earth." Why is Mary called the Queen of heaven and earth? Well, once again, it has something to do with her son Jesus. Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of David, the one whose coming was prophesied time and time again in the Old Testament. Well, if you know the history of the Davidic kings, you know that the mother of the king had an official place in the royal court. She was the Great Lady (the "gebira") of the kingdom. Notice, for example, in First and Second Kings, how often the mother of a particular king is mentioned. And then we have that famous scene in 1 Kings 2, where Solomon sets up a throne for his mother Bathsheba, who comes and sits on his right. This, apparently, was a common practice among the Davidic kings--enthroning their mother in this fashion. Well, Jesus our Savior is King not only of Judah; as Scripture says he is the King of kings and the Lord of lords. His Kingdom is ‘heaven and earth’--it’s the entire cosmos--it’s all of creation. And so, when the Church says that Mary is the Queen of heaven and earth, she is basically saying that Mary is the "gebira"--the Queen Mother--in the Kingdom of her Son. And certainly the Book of Revelation points to this truth: St. John, in chapter 12, has a vision of a woman "clothed with the sun, with the moon at her feet, and on her head a crown of 12 stars." This woman certainly represents the People of God; but this is also the Blessed Mother. It must be, because in verse 5 it says that she gave birth to a Son--"a boy destined to shepherd all the nations with an iron rod." That, of course, is Jesus, our Lord and Savior. And by the way, here in this chapter we also get a Scriptural insight as to why we call Mary "our Mother." John 19 is the text most people go to in order to illustrate this point, but here’s another: At the very end of chapter 12, it says that the dragon (that is, Satan) "went off to make war on the rest of [the woman’s] offspring, on those who keep God’s commandments and give witness to Jesus." In this text Mary’s children are described as those who obey God and witness to Jesus Christ. Hopefully, all of us want to be children of our Blessed Mother. I sure do!

I hope and pray that this program has helped to give you some new insights regarding Catholic beliefs on the Blessed Mother. I’d like to close now by seeking her intercession for all those in our listening audience, and all those who need special prayers today. I invite you to join me:

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.