Veneration of Mary

WE HONOR THE VIRGIN MARY
In assenting to be the Mother of Our Savior Jesus Christ (cf. Luke 1:38), Mary became the only human being to directly cooperate with God in the redemption of the human race. (Remember, Christ is not a human person, but a divine person with two natures, divine and human.) Standing at the foot of the Cross on Calvary, moreover, she became by the Lord's command the Mother of the Church (cf. John 19:26-27). Having been assumed body and soul into heaven, she now fulfills this role by interceding in prayer to Christ for her children on earth.

WHY DO WE HONOR THE VIRGIN MARY?
Adapted from the book Come and See

We honor the Virgin Mary because of her wholly unique role in salvation history. Catholics accept the biblical truth that Jesus Christ is the sole Mediator between God and man (1 Tim. 2:5). Since He alone is both God and man, only Jesus was able to restore our friendship with God through the Cross. He required no assistance in accomplishing the Atonement, furthermore, and His self-sacrifice on our behalf was in itself perfect, complete, and efficacious. Yet God desired that Christ Our Savior would enter into the world as sin had, through a woman (cf. Catechism, par. 488). And Mary said "Yes" to God's plan.

To the Archangel Gabriel at the Annunciation, Mary declared: "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be done to me according to your word" (Luke 1:38). We revere these words as Mary's Fiat—the words by which Our Savior came to us. By divine providence, Mary is an indispensable part of our salvation in Christ, to the degree we cannot fully comprehend the mystery of our salvation apart from her.

The Bible presents Jesus as the fulfillment of King David. In the same way, Mary fulfills the role of the Queen Mother, who often interceded for others with the king. We see this in the account of Adonijah, who beseeches Queen Bathsheba to speak for him to King Solomon. "Pray ask King Solomon—he will not refuse you," begs Adonijah. "Very well," answers Bathsheba; "I will speak for you to the king." As she enters the throne room, her son bows down to her (a provocative gesture for a king), and has a throne brought in for her and placed at his right side. She then says, "I have one small request to make of you; do not refuse me." And Solomon answers, "Make your request, my mother; for I will not refuse you" (1 Kgs. 2:17-20).

Mary's role as the primary intercessor with Her Son is revealed at key points in the New Testament, such as in the scene of the Visitation, in which Elizabeth and her unborn child are filled with the Holy Spirit at the sound of Mary's greeting (Luke 1:41). "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!" exclaims Elizabeth. "And why is this granted me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?" (Luke 1:42-43). The exalted manner in which Elizabeth, speaking under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, addresses her younger kinswoman, calling her "the mother of my Lord," and her expression of unworthiness to receive a visit from her—"Why is this granted me?"—provide a strong biblical precedent for Marian devotion. Finally, it is through Mary's voice that the Spirit comes upon Elizabeth and her child. Mary is not the source of divine grace—the One whom she bears in her womb is the Source—, yet she serves as a powerful channel of grace for others nonetheless.

We see Our Lady's vocation to intercede for others with Her Son at the Wedding Feast at Cana. Here she goes to the Lord on behalf of the young couple to inform Him the wine has run out. He replies to her enigmatically, "O woman, what have you to do with me? My hour has not yet come" (John 2:4). "Woman"—an unusual way to address one's mother—points back to Genesis 3:15, revealing Mary as the "Woman," Mother of the Redeemer, who would cooperate with Her Child in defeating Satan. Christ calling Mary "Woman" at the wedding feast indicates an event of great significance in the plan of salvation is about to transpire. Mary responds by instructing the servants, "Do whatever he tells you" (2:5), then quietly fades into the background. These, her last spoken words in Scripture, verify her desire ever to bring others to Her Son. They also show her profound humility, a sure sign of holiness. Even though she is the Mother of God, Mary considers herself but the Lord's lowly handmaid (cf. Luke 1:38, 48), in imitation of Her Son, who is "gentle and lowly in heart" (Matt. 11:29).

Remarkably, in spite of His apparent reluctance, the Lord grants His Mother's request, turning water into wine. We can almost hear resounding beneath the surface of this scene Solomon's reply to Bathsheba: "Make your request, my mother, for I will not refuse you." Cana is the Lord's first public miracle, the beginning of His earthly ministry. In anticipating going into the world to fulfill His mission, therefore, He awaits Mary's consent—"What have you to do with me?"—, just as He had before coming into the world at the Annunciation. This, of course, is not from necessity on God's part, but from His loving desire that His handmaid participate in the redemption of His children. For this reason, her response to Him at Cana, "Do whatever he tells you," is regarded as her Second Fiat.

By virtue of her unique participation in the divine plan, Mary is given the honor of intimately sharing in the joy of the Lord's birth, the sorrow of His death, and the glory of His Resurrection. At the Presentation in the Temple, Simeon reveals to her that Her Son is destined to be "a sign that is spoken against," and that "a sword" shall pierce her own heart as well, "that thoughts out of many hearts may be revealed" (Luke 2:34, 35). In the Presentation, then, a Jewish rite acknowledging the child belongs first to God, Mary receives her initial indication Christ will suffer, and that she will suffer with Him.

This would come to pass thirty-three years later on Calvary where she would witness Her Son offering Himself to God for the sins of the world. Ordinarily, a mother would instinctively fight to save her child from harm. Yet not a word of protest from Mary is recorded; nor does she swoon in agony. Rather she courageously stands at the foot of the Cross, as the Gospels tell us (John 19:25), silently consenting to His Sacrifice in her heart.

A parallel might be drawn here to Abraham, whom God likewise asked to sacrifice his only son. Abraham, too, consented. In the end, though, the Lord stayed his hand, sparing Isaac’s life; and in reward for his faithfulness, his willingness to give everything to the Lord, even his own son, Abraham was promised offspring as numerous as the stars in the heavens and sand on the seashore (Gen. 22:17). On Calvary, however, God did not hold back the executioners’ hands. Thus, an act of far greater faith was asked of Mary; and for her faithfulness she received a far greater blessing, being announced there as the Mother of all the redeemed, the fulfillment of the Edenic title, “Mother of all the living” (Gen. 3:20). “When Jesus saw his mother, and the disciple whom he loved standing near,” Scripture tells us, “he said to his mother, ‘Woman, behold, your son!’ Then he said to the disciple, ‘Behold, your mother!’” (John 19:26-27). Once again Jesus identifies Mary as the Woman from Genesis. At Cana, He had asked why she approached Him before His “hour” had come, an inference the predestined time for her to come to Him would be at the foot of the Cross. It was there that they would fulfill their respective destinies as New Adam and New Eve, Redeemer and Woman.

It is curious, is it not, that Jesus speaks first to Mary on Calvary, asking her to care for John, the beloved disciple, given that John is an adult fully capable of caring for himself, and that his own mother happens to be there with him as well (cf. Matt. 27:56)? Clearly, something of greater significance than Jesus merely providing for His Mother’s welfare is transpiring here. The Lord’s request only makes sense when interpreted as the entrustment of Mary with the spiritual care of John, and by extension with that of the Church, whom he represents. We, for our part, are called to take her into our own hearts, just as John “took her into his own home” (John 19:27). To the contrary, to neglect to take Mary as one’s spiritual Mother is to disregard Our Lord’s direct command from the Cross. After this, as John tells us, Jesus knew “that all was now finished” (John 19:28).

Speaking to His disciples earlier, Jesus had compared His Passion to the birth of a child, saying, “When a woman is in travail she has sorrow, because her hour has come; but when she is delivered of the child, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a child is born into the world” (John 16:21). Mary standing at the foot of the Cross is the Woman in travail, laboring to bring forth spiritual children; and the pangs she suffers are her share in Christ’s pangs. This is affirmed by John’s celestial vision of “a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars; she was with child and she cried out in pangs of birth, in anguish for delivery” (Rev. 12:1-2). Though the Woman’s Child is identified as the Redeemer, “the one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron” (12:5), the narrative goes on to speak of “the rest of her offspring, those who keep the commandments of God and bear testimony to Jesus” (12:17). This is the Church, borne to Mary on Calvary through the sacrifice of Her Son.

There has been some debate over the birth pangs in Revelation 12, with non-Catholics alleging they refute the Church’s belief in Mary’s sinlessness. The ancient consensus among the faithful has been that Mary delivered the Christ Child without pain, in keeping with Isaiah’s prophecy: “Before she was in labor she gave birth; before her pain came upon her she was delivered of a son” (Isa. 66:7). That she was exempted from Eve’s punishment of pain in childbirth would certainly seem to coincide with the Immaculate Conception (cf. Gen. 3:16). The matter of birth pangs, however, is not inherent to the dogma, and it is possible to imagine she endured labor pains in spite of her sinlessness, just as Jesus, too, suffered pain. Interpreting the pangs symbolically, though, we may come to see them as relating not to the physical birth of the Savior at Bethlehem, but to the spiritual birth of the Church at Calvary (cf. Pope Pius X, Ad Diem Illum).

The early Christians honored Mary’s unique sanctity, which they spoke of always in close association with the sanctity of Jesus. Writing in about 107, for example, Saint Ignatius of Antioch sees Mary’s virginity as being intimately connected to the Redemption. “The virginity of Mary, her giving birth, and also the death of the Lord, were hidden from the prince of this world,” he says: “—three mysteries loudly proclaimed, but wrought in the silence of God” (Letter to the Ephesians 19:1). Aristides of Athens says around the year 125, “He was born of a holy Virgin without seed of man, and took flesh without defilement” (Apology 15). In about 155, Saint Justin the Martyr, presenting Mary as the New Eve, writes,

For Eve, a virgin and undefiled, conceived the word of the serpent, and bore disobedience and death. But the Virgin Mary received faith and joy when the angel Gabriel announced to her the glad tidings that the Spirit of the Lord would come upon her and the power of the Most High would overshadow her, for which reason the Holy One being born of her is the Son of God. And she replied: “Be it done unto me according to thy word” (Luke 1:38) (Dialogue with Trypho the Jew 100).

“Mary alone co-operat[ed] with the pre-arranged plan,” remarks Saint Irenaeus of Lyons in 185. “… [T]he knot of Eve’s disobedience was loosed by the obedience of Mary” (Against Heresies 3:21:7; 3:22:4). In about 215, Saint Hippolytus of Rome writes, “For whereas the Word of God was without flesh, He took upon Himself the holy flesh of the holy Virgin” (On Christ and Antichrist 4). And elsewhere he refers to Our Lady as “the spotless and God-bearing Mary” (Discourse on the End of the World 1). The Sub Tuum Praesidium, a prayer dated to about 250, states, “Under your mercy we take refuge, O Mother of God. Do not reject our supplications in necessity, but deliver us from danger, [O you] alone pure and alone blessed.”

God did not need to include Mary in His plan of salvation; and yet He chose to include her in an integral way. The Lord awaited her affirmation before coming to us, both at Nazareth and at Cana; and from the Cross He called her to be Mother to His disciples. Consequently, to reject Mary is to reject a fundamental part of the gospel message and Our Lord’s direct command from the Cross. Mary confirms Her Son’s identity in who she is. Her virginity confirms He is God; and her maternity confirms He is man. Her holiness confirms His holiness; and her rising confirms His rising. Apart from Mary we cannot fully know Jesus. In her we come to know Him truly as God, Savior, King, and Brother.

DO LUKE 8 AND 11 REFUTE DEVOTION TO MARY?
Those who seek to undermine Marian devotion from a biblical point of view often cite two episodes from Luke's Gospel: the one in which, upon being told that His Mother and brethren have come to see Him, Jesus remarks, “My mother and my brethren are those who hear the word of God and do it;” and another in which a woman in the crowd calls out to Him, “Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts that you sucked!”; and He replies, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!” (8:21; 11:27-28). In reading His responses in the full context of Luke’s Gospel, though, it becomes clear that Jesus is not denying His Mother’s blessedness, but in fact revealing the deeper reason for it. For in both cases He blesses those who hear the word of God and keep it—the very thing that is said of Mary earlier in the book: “Blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord” (Luke 1:45). Jesus corrects the woman in the crowd, not because she spoke wrongly, but because she said too little. Certainly Mary is blessed for bearing Him, but the greater reason for her blessedness is her faith, her supernatural closeness to Him. The woman erred in focusing solely on the physical aspect of Mary’s maternity, ignoring the spiritual.

"The Mother is not denied," observes the great Saint Ambrose. "... Rather, preference over ties of flesh are given to a type of relationship which is prescribed from above" (Commentary on the Gospel of Luke 6:38). In Mary we see a transformation of motherhood from the merely physical to the spiritual. A spiritual mother nurtures her children through prayer. In her constant intercession for Her Son's disciples from heaven, Mary embodies in a profound way the call of all Christians to pray for one another (1 Tim. 2:1).

Read more about the veneration of Mary in the Catechism of the Catholic Church.