THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY.

One of the differing issues between Catholics and Protestants is the position of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the history of our salvation. Some Protestants felt that Catholics give undue honor to Mary while majority of them alleged that Catholics even adore and worship her. The truth is that adoration only belongs to God and anyone who adores or worships Mary is not a Catholic. In fact, no Catholic doctrine teaches or suggests that Mary should be adored. Rather, Catholics love and honor Mary because of her role in the history of our salvation. If we honor and make monuments of those who won independence for our country, and immortalize those who played leading roles in shaping or creating better environment for us in education, leadership, production and down to raising our imagine through sports, how much more the one who brought us Christ, our savior? Unfortunately, some of our separated brethren have even argued that Mary id like an envelope used in posting a letter (Christ) to us and what we value is the letter not the envelope because the envelope can easily be thrown away. In a simple analogy, our mothers are the envelops used in posting us into the world but how many of us have discarded this “envelope”?

 I see most arguments against the honor given to Blessed Virgin Mary as based on indoctrination and lacking in due reflection. Otherwise, how can someone value his own “envelope”, respect leading people in the society but expect the mother of Christ to be discarded? Common sense teaches that we treat the mother of Christ based on how we regard and treat our own mothers, if we are to treat others the way we would like to be treated (Lk 6:31). God could have saved the world through other means, like sending Christ directly from heaven, as angels are occasionally sent. If God decided that our savior should come through this means and chose to honor this young lady, Mary, what then is our basis for refusing to honor her? St. Paul pointed out to the Galatians that “God sent his son born of a woman” (Gal 4:4). Christ grew up under her and respected her by following her home after being found teaching in the temple (Lk 2: 48-51); obeying her at the marriage feast in Cana, even when his time for manifesting his mission has not yet come (Jn 2:1-4). 

Catholics honor Mary because it pleased God to honored her as could be seen by the visit and greetings of the angel of God, “hail full of grace, the Lord is with thee” (Lk 1:28). Even her cousin, Elizabeth was quick to admit this special favor from God that made her proclaims: “of all women you are the most blessed, and blessed is the fruit of your womb’’ (Lk 1:42). We recall the bible telling us that Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit when she made this statement. Acknowledging this great favor from God, Mary herself admitted that from now on all generations will call her blessed (Cf. Lk 1:48), that is, based on what the Lord has done for her. What other favor is greater than being made the mother of God? Elizabeth, though well advanced in age, was happy to receive a visit from this young lady whom God blessed in such a way. Thus, she humbly asked, “How does this happen to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” (Lk 1:43).

Is it not right and fitting that all Christians should give Mary this honor that is due to her? Are these greetings, “Blessed Virgin Mary”, “Hail Mary”, “Most favored one”, “Blessed among women”, and similar greetings not found in the bible? If you don’t want to use any of the greetings, why quarrel with those that use them? Perhaps, you still wonder why God should make such a choice, or Lord Jesus accepting to be born by such a poor woman of Nazareth? What then is wrong with Catholics using such biblically based titles for Mary? Some Protestants have also argued that “Hail Mary” is just a greeting which should not be turned into a prayer. These very people pray to God with greetings such as “Almighty God”, “All Knowing God”, “Mighty Savior”, “Prince of peace”, “Sweet Holy Spirit” and so on. Does it not sound ridiculous that those who criticize Catholics for asking the intercession of the mother of Jesus turn around to ask for intercession of their pastors, church members, brothers and sisters, all of whom have not yet attained the perfection associated with Mary in heaven? In other words, fellow human beings can intercede for them but the mother of Jesus is not fit to pray to her son on their behalf?

Like mentioned above, the problem is that some of us do not have time to reflect on the prayers or words used by Catholics to know whether they fall in place or not. In the litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary, for example, Catholics say: god the father of heaven, have mercy on us; God the son redeemer of the world, have mercy on us; God the Holy Spirit, have mercy on us; Holy Trinity in one God, have mercy on us; but, Holy Mary, pray for us. Notice that we do not ask Mary to have mercy on us because she is not God. Rather we ask her to join us in prayer, to intercede for us. Again, in praying the Hail Mary, we use the very word of the scriptures: “Hail Mary, full of grace, the lord is with you” (Lk 1:28); “Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb” (Lk 1:42). Of course, the fruit of her womb is Jesus. The titles “Holy Mary” and “Mother of God” are known facts about Mary. What is wrong with Catholics asking the mother of God to “pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death”? Where lies the problem? Is it in praying for us, or that we are sinners or to pray for us now and at the hour of our death? If we can request prayer from fellow Christians why not the mother of Jesus who is ever ready to intercede for us? 

Mary has always have regarded by the Church as the new Eve whom God vowed will defeat the devil that decided the first Eve when God told the devil, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and you shall bruise his heel (Gen. 3:15)”. Therefore, Mary must be honored in our lives every day both as the mother of Jesus and as our own mother through the words of Jesus on the cross (Jn 19:26-27). The Rosary is a very powerful prayer in honor to the Blessed Virgin Mary and request for her intercession. Through the Rosary, we reflect on the birth, life, ministry, suffering, death, resurrection and ascension of Christ, while recalling the favors granted to Mary her mother.


 By Dike Patrickmary Afamefuna.