The Veneration of Mary (Part 2)

The Veneration of Mary the Mother of God

IS VENERATION A CAUSE FOR CONCERN?

In part one we talked about worship and in particular, latria, what it means and to whom it is applied. In part two, we are going to concentrate on ‘veneration’, in particular as it relates to Mary, the Mother of God.

First off, let’s establish a line in the sand – Mary is NOT divine, she is a creature just like you and me and, in so saying, Mary cannot be afforded latria, the reverence and adoration exclusively reserved for God.

dulia	Veneration and invocation which is given to saints as the servants of God, distinguished from latria, the worship of God.
hyperdulia	A level of veneration higher than dulia but less than latria, properly given to the Virgin Mary only.

However.

Although we are all special in the sight of God (made in His image), Mary was chosen from all eternity to be the bearer of the Father’s only begotten Son and which meant that Mary was, above all others, reserved for a special honour. The Catechism of the Catholic Church says:

“God sent forth his Son,” but to prepare a body for him,^[1] he wanted the free cooperation of a creature. For this, from all eternity God chose for the mother of his Son a daughter of Israel, a young Jewish woman of Nazareth in Galilee, “a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary”:^{[2] [3]} 

The angel Gabriel affirmed this when he greeted Mary at the annunciation: “Chaîre kecharitomene, ho Kyrios meta sou” or “Ave, gratia plena: Dominus tecum est” – Hail, Full of Grace, the Lord is with you.” He said that as if addressing her with a given ‘title’ – “Hail, Full of Grace” which could be interpreted as elevating or re-affirming her importance!

Mary’s unequivocal acceptance of God’s command (the free cooperation described in the Catechism of the Catholic Church) is what sets her apart in this salvific action,

“Mary is the creature who opened the door to her Creator in a special way, placing herself in his hands without reserve.” ^[4]

To paraphrase Benedict XVI:

By aligning Mary’s story to that of the history of the Patriarch Abraham, Luke conjoins salvation history. Just as Abraham, the father of believers, responded to God in faith assured only in the divine promise, so Mary trusts implicitly in the word that the messenger of God has announced to her, and becomes the model and Mother of all believers.  ^[5]

Mary leads us in our faith journey, teaching us as one who has travelled the way first:

“It is the profound humility of the obedient faith of Mary, who welcomes within her even what she does not understand in God’s action, leaving it to God to open her mind and heart. “Blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfilment of what was spoken to her from the Lord” (Lk 1:45), her kinswoman Elizabeth exclaims. It is exactly because of this faith that all generations will call her blessed.” ^[6]

It is thus that we venerate Mary, not only as of the Mother of God but also as a teacher, example of faith and first among women. We venerate (dulia) all saints, who rest eternally in beatific communion with God and whose lives are an example to all Christians however, Mary occupies a special place in our hearts. The Church:

“holds Mary up for us as the perfect example of one who heard God’s word, believed it, kept it, and in whom that obedience bore perfect fruit… she (the church) also holds Mary up for our esteem and respect since she was the first disciple and since we, too, are called to be disciples of Jesus. In a sense, the Church would invite us all to become like Mary.” ^[7]

So Mary, as the queen of the saints, attracts special veneration. The term hyperdulia is used to indicate the special veneration due to Mary; it is greater than the ordinary dulia for other saints, but utterly unlike the latria due only to God.

And this is where Catholics and our Protestant cousins so often diverge.

Many fundamentalist Protestants complain that addressing Mary as the Mother of God, for instance, is wrong and is idolatrous for that, they claim would mean Mary was older than God, in effect the origin of God and a deity herself! This is a mistake of over-literalism! Martin Luther himself said: “We too know very well that God did not derive his divinity from Mary…”

Syllogistically, since Mary is the mother of Jesus and Jesus is God, then Mary must be the Mother of God. To posit that Jesus’ divine and human nature were separate and that Mary only carried Christ’s human nature would be a reinvention of the fifth-century heresy of Nestorianism. ^[8]

Therefore, Mary IS the Mother of God, though yet a creature chosen by God.

There are many such objections, all of which have been refuted by apologists and theologians.

It is thus that we venerate her in so special a way, hyperdulia but as a creature of God, this veneration is limited to honouring her as a saint and to following her example of an exemplary life in Christ.

Taking this veneration to extremes though would border on worship which is idolatrous, (or as it is sometimes referred to – Mariolatry) and that, is wrong.

Fundamentalists, though, tend to think of any veneration of Mary or the saints as idolatrous! This is again based on a narrow and literalist view of history and the written word. Think of the fourth commandment – “Honour your father and your mother…”. If honouring Mary and the Saints is idolatrous, then the Fourth Commandment itself is promoting idolatry – which it most certainly isn’t!

“The fourth commandment … shows us the order of charity. God has willed that, after him, we should honour our parents to whom we owe life and who have handed on to us the knowledge of God. We are obliged to honour and respect all those whom God, for our good, has vested with his authority.” ^[9]

Tim Staple puts the importance of Mary this way when discussing Mary:

“When the president comes to a town on an official visit, we expect to see a big to-do. Why? Because of the dignity of his office.

So it is with Mary. Her vocation is immeasurably greater than that of any king, president, or prime minister. She is the Mother of God.” ^[10]

In a thought-provoking article entitled, Mary – The Symbol of the Power of God’s Grace and Love, the late Professor Brian Gaybba describes Mary as “…being singled out by both Catholics and the churches of the East as being unique amongst human beings because she and she alone had a role to play in the actual unification of the community of the Trinity with the community of humanity.” She did this he said, “…by giving her body to God as the womb in which the second person of the Trinity would take on human flesh while remaining fully divine as well.” It is for this reason, he said, that she is seen as the second Eve, a new beginning where God demonstrates His Grace to forgive and to heal this world, so full of goodness, yet filled with sin! Prof. Gaybba goes on to say: “She came to be seen therefore as a symbol, as the example of all that the church is meant to be, of all that salvation is meant to be, of all that God’s love is meant to do for us.”^[11]

As you travel through the shrines devoted to our Blessed Mother on the pilgrimage, give some thought to the role that Mary played in our salvation. And while that veneration may happen in front of a statue, a shrine or just a landscape remember, it is not what you are looking at that is being venerated but that which, in your mind, is behind the object of your thought – Mary the holy Mother of God.

Let’s pray:

Hail Mary, full of grace.
The Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou amongst 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.

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Notes

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[1] Gal 4:4; Heb 10:5

[2] Lk 1:26-27

[3] (Catholic Church, 2000, p. CCC. # 488)

[4] (H.H. Benedict XVI, 2012, p. 2)

[5] ibid. p. 2

[6] ibid. p. 4

[7] (Hill, 2013)

[8] (Catholic Answers, 2004)

[9] (Catholic Church, 2000, p. CCC. # 2197)

[10] (Staples, 2014, p. 6 Answering Objections)

[11] (Prof. Brian Gaybba, Lent of 2013)

 

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Bibliography

1. Andrew M. Greenwell, Esq. (2013, March 13). Hail Mary: Kecharitomene, A Unique Word for a Unique Lady. Retrieved September 22, 2019, from Catholic Online: https://www.catholic.org/news/hf/faith/story.php?id=50095
   
2. Biography.com Editors. (2019, August 05). Saint Joseph Biography. Retrieved August 10, 2019, from The Biography.com: https://www.biography.com/religious-figure/saint-joseph
   
3. Catholic Answers. (2004, August 10). Mary: Mother of God. Retrieved August 10, 2019, from Catholic Answers: https://www.catholic.com/tract/mary-mother-of-god
   
4. Catholic Answers. (2004, August 10). Tract: Mary – Mother of God. Retrieved from Catholic Answers: https://www.catholic.com/tract/mary-mother-of-god
   
5. Catholic Church. (2000). Catechism of the Catholic Church (2nd ed. ed.). (U. S. Conference, Ed.) Washington DC: Libreria Editrice.
   
6. Catholic Straight Answers. (2019). Why do we call Mary “Mother of God”? Retrieved July 30, 2019, from Catholic Straight Answers: http://catholicstraightanswers.com/why-do-we-call-mary-mother-of-god/
   
7. David Manthei. (2018, Nov 25). Veneration vs. Worship: Are they the same thing? Retrieved from A Humble Servants Catholic Blog: http://daves-ahumbleservant.blogspot.com/2018/11/veneration-vs-worship-are-they-same.html
   
8. Fr. Edward Looney. (2019, June 9). Mother of the Church. Retrieved Nov 8, 2019, from Catholic Digest: http://www.catholicdigest.com/faith/spirituality/mother-of-the-church/
   
9. Fr. William G. Most. (1990). The Catholic Church is the Mystical Body of Christ. Retrieved Nov 8, 2019, from EWTN Global Catholic Network: https://www.ewtn.com/catholicism/teachings/catholic-church-is-the-mystical-body-of-christ-89
   
10. H.H. Benedict XVI. (2012, December 19). General Audience of Benedict XVI. Retrieved from The Holy See: https://w2.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/audiences/2012/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20121219.pdf
    
11. Hill, M. (2013, August 13). What About Mary? (Explaining Catholic devotion to Mary). Retrieved from Saint Pauls Street Evangelisation: https://streetevangelization.com/mary/
    
12. Ignatius Press. (2001). The Ignatius Catholic Study Bible (RSV – Second Catholic Edition ed.). (S. Hahn, & C. Mitch, Eds.) San Francisco, USA: Ignatius Press.
    
13. McBrien, R. P. (1994). Catholicism (New – Revised & Updated ed.). New York, USA: Harper Collins Publishers.
    
14. OrthodoxWiki contributors. (2019, July 2). Theotokos. Retrieved July 30, 2019, from OrthodoxWiki: https://orthodoxwiki.org/index.php?title=Theotokos&oldid=126811
    
15. Pelikan, J. J. (2018, January 31). Mary. Retrieved July 30, 2019, from Encyclopaedia Britannica: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Mary-mother-of-Jesus
    
16. Prof. Brian Gaybba. (Lent of 2013). Mary – The Symbol of the Power of God’s Grace & Love. Retrieved from St. Patrick’s Catholic Church, Grahamstown: http://catholic.co.za/stpatricks/documents/Mary%20The%20Embodiment%20of%20Power%20an
    
17. Staples, T. (2014). Behold Your Mother – A Biblical and Historical Defense of the Marian Doctrines (Kindle ed.). El Cajon, California, USA: Catholic Answers.
    
18. Trinity Communications. (2019). Catholic Dictionary. Retrieved from Catholic Culture.org: https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/dictionary/index.cfm?id=34505
    
19. Wikipedia Contributors. (2016, May 9). Gospel of Luke. Retrieved 2016, from Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Gospel_of_Luke&oldid=719342441
    
20. Wikipedia contributors. (2016, March 17). Gospel of Matthew. Retrieved 2016, from Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Gospel_of_Matthew&oldid=710564760
    
21. Wikipedia contributors. (2019, March 21). Joseph (Genesis). Retrieved March 21, 2019, from Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Joseph_(Genesis)&oldid=888759895
    
22. Wikipedia contributors. (2019, July 30). Mary, mother of Jesus. Retrieved July 30, 2019, from Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mary,_mother_of_Jesus&oldid=908491530
    
23. Wikipedia contributors. (2019, October 22). Mother of the Church. Retrieved November 8, 2019, from Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:CiteThisPage&page=Mother_of_the_Church&id=922492266
    
24. Wikipedia contributors. (2019, August 05). Tektōn. Retrieved August 10, 2019, from Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Tekt%C5%8Dn&oldid=909461853
    
25. Wikipedia contributors. (2019, June 5). Theotokos. Retrieved July 30, 2019, from Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Theotokos&oldid=900475991
    
26. Wikipedia contributors. (2019, July 29). Veneration of Mary in the Catholic Church. Retrieved July 30, 2019, from Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veneration_of_Mary_in_the_Catholic_Church
    
27. Wikipedia contributors. (2019, July 12). Visitation (Christianity). Retrieved July 30, 2019, from Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Visitation_(Christianity)&oldid=905878464
    

The Veneration of Mary (Part 1)

The Veneration of Mary the Mother of God

IS VENERATION A CAUSE FOR CONCERN?

Introduction

Not long after I converted to Catholicism (yes I’m a convert!), an Evangelical Protestant colleague at work asked of me:

‘Why do Catholics worship statues?’
          ‘What?’ was my rather puzzled response!
‘No’, he said ‘we believe that Catholics bow down before statues and worship them, more specifically’ he said ‘statues of Mary the Mother of Jesus’
          I most certainly do not worship statues or graven images, that
          would be idolatry!’ I said in a rather indignant manner.

Being a recent convert to Catholicism and not having the depth of knowledge to combat doubt, my mind began to race! I tried to explain to him the difference between worship and veneration, although I don’t think that I was entirely convincing!

As we head toward the Pilgrimage of Our Lady in Europe, a journey filled with wonder at the tenderness, love and compassion of our Blessed Mother for the "Poor Banished Children of Eve", that dialogue from so long ago came back to me – were there still some nagging doubts in my mind? After all, the first commandment of God states –

"You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a graven image…" (Ex.20:2-6)

A rather specific and emphatic rule don’t you think and very clear? However, if you don’t try and understand what it means, what it entails then, like our Protestant and Evangelical cousins – you will come to very incorrect and misdirected conclusions!

What is Worship?

"All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me." Then Jesus said to him, "Begone, Satan! for it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.’" (Ignatius Press, 2001, pp. Matt. 4:9-10)

This verse comes from Matthews Gospel, describing the temptation of Jesus by Satan.

Worship is a nebulous word, meaning simultaneously honour, reverence, great or extravagant respect, devotion – words that can legitimately be used to describe a relationship to anyone. No, to me the relationship between God and His creation (us) and which embraces the first commandment goes way beyond that. My relationship with God is, in a way, linear, single-minded. He and only He is due from me adulation, adoration, obeisance, obedience.

In short:

"When I say ‘God’ I confess a constant, unchangeable being, always the same, faithful and just, without any evil. It follows that I must necessarily accept his words and have complete faith in Him and acknowledge His authority. He is almighty, merciful, and infinitely beneficent … Who could not place all hope in Him? Who could not love Him when contemplating the treasures of goodness and love He has poured out on me? Hence the formula God employs in the Scripture at the beginning and end of his commandments: ‘I am the Lord.’" (Catholic Church, 2000, p. CCC. 2086 [adapted])

This … is latria.

What, for goodness sake, is latria, I hear you say?

Latria is the adulation, adoration, obeisance, obedience – the type of veneration due to God alone for his supreme holiness and to show people’s complete submission to him. It is essentially adoration. Latria is sacrificial in character and as absolute latria, it is given only to God, as the Trinity, or one of the Divine Persons, Christ as God and as man, the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and the Holy Eucharist. Representations of God as images connected with the Divinity may receive relative latria, which is given not to the symbol but to the Godhead, whom it signifies. (Etym. Greek latreiā, service, worship.) (Trinity Communications., 2019, pp. Catholic Culture.org – Latria)

Latria is derived from the Greek "latraia" which means to worship, and the Greek "latreuein" which means to serve. It means worship and service and we rightly use it to connote what we owe to God. To know, love and serve God is to worship him and to worship Him is the proper response of the creature towards his Creator. This is the type of worship which God commands we give to Him in that first commandment and so this is what Catholics (and other Christians) do when they give latria to God, and to God alone.

From a general Catholic perspective, we see God as being at the centre of the life of the Christian disciple and of the community of disciples (the Church). At the heart of that spirituality is the worship due to God, a comprehensive and complex term that encompasses both liturgical and non-liturgical prayer. (McBrien, 1994, pp. 1063 – Worship: Liturgy, Prayer, Devotions)

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This short treatise on veneration versus worship will be concluded in the next post.

Mary – Full of Grace, Mother of God and Mother of the Church (Part 2)

Mary – The Mother of God

Was Mary the Mother of God?

This question is fraught with controversy outside of Catholic and Orthodox circles – why?

Firstly, what IS Theotokos, what does it mean? Collins dictionary defines the word as:

Theotokos (θɪˈɒtəˌkɒs) – the mother of God or the Virgin Mary; literally the ‘God-bearer’ [i] Definition

In Orthodoxy, it is explained:

The title Theotokos (in Greek, Θεοτόκος) is a Greek word that means "God-bearer" or "Birth-giver to God."

The Virgin Mary is the Theotokos, the mother of Jesus Christ, the Son and Word of God. She conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit. She is also called Panagia, the "All-Holy," indicating her closeness to God in her obedience. [ii] OrthodoxWiki

So, in simple terms, Theotokos means ‘Mother of God’.

This is a ‘logical’ and ‘true’ statement of Mary but which gets some fundamentalist protestant, evangelical and other non-Catholic/Orthodox groupings (e.g. Jehovah’s Witness adherents) up in arms, declaring that this is not possible – how can Mary, a creature, be older than God, which would be so if she was His mother? This view is short-sighted and a literal error. Paraphrasing from the tract ‘Mary: Mother of God’:

However, their reaction often rests upon a misapprehension not only of what this particular title of Mary signifies but also of who Jesus was …

A woman is a man’s mother either if she carried him in her womb or if she was the woman contributing half of his genetic matter or both. Mary was the mother of Jesus in both of these senses, because she not only carried Jesus in her womb but also supplied all of the genetic matter for his human body, since it was through her—not Joseph—that Jesus “was descended from David according to the flesh” (Rom. 1:3).

This is NOT a matter of Orthodox/Catholic dogma, but a statement of logical fact!

Since Mary is Jesus’ mother, it must be concluded that she is also the Mother of God: If Mary is the mother of Jesus, and if Jesus is God, then Mary is the Mother of God. There is no way out of this logical syllogism.

Although Mary is the Mother of God, she is not his mother in the sense that she is older than God or the source of her Son’s divinity, for she is neither.

Rather, we say that she is the Mother of God in the sense that she carried in her womb a divine person—Jesus Christ, God “in the flesh” (2 John 7, cf. John 1:14)—and in the sense that she contributed the genetic matter to the human form (the incarnation) God took in Jesus Christ.

To compound their error of literality, they fall into Nestorian error by asserting that Mary did not bear God but only Christ’s human nature.

This assertion reinvents a heresy from the fifth century known as Nestorianism [iii], which runs aground on the fact that a mother does not merely carry the human nature of her child in her womb. Rather, she carries the person of her child. Women do not give birth to human natures; they give birth to persons. Mary thus carried and gave birth to the person of Jesus Christ, and the person she gave birth to was God.

This, again, leads to the logical conclusion that Mary was the Mother of God or – Theotokos.

Mary as Mother of God is not a new dogma invented recently but one which was attested to by the in the early Christian Church.

Hear what the Fathers of the Church have to say:

Irenaeus

“The Virgin Mary, being obedient to his word, received from an angel the glad tidings that she would bear God” (Against Heresies, 5:19:1 [A.D. 189]).

Hippolytus

“[T]o all generations they [the prophets] have pictured forth the grandest subjects for contemplation and for action. Thus, too, they preached of the advent of God in the flesh to the world, his advent by the spotless and God-bearing (theotokos) Mary in the way of birth and growth” (Discourse on the End of the World 1 [A.D. 217]).

Cyril of Jerusalem

“The Father bears witness from heaven to his Son. The Holy Spirit bears witness, coming down bodily in the form of a dove. The archangel Gabriel bears witness, bringing the good tidings to Mary. The Virgin Mother of God bears witness” (Catechetical Lectures 10:19 [A.D. 350]).

Ephraim the Syrian

“Though still a virgin she carried a child in her womb, and the handmaid and work of his wisdom became the Mother of God” (Songs of Praise 1:20 [A.D. 351]).

Athanasius

“The Word begotten of the Father from on high, inexpressibly, inexplicably, incomprehensibly, and eternally, is he that is born in time here below of the Virgin Mary, the Mother of God” (The Incarnation of the Word of God 8 [A.D. 365]).

Mary – The Mother of the Church

This title can sometimes be misunderstood by Protestant adherents, who complain that Mary was a Creature and as such cannot be afforded the adoration of the churched which is reserved for God alone and which statement, I also find to be true.

However, there is a great difference between veneration and worship/adore – but adherents to the ‘veneration is worship’ school of thought make the fundamental mistake of conjoining veneration with adoration (or worship).

The common thread of definitions given by Websters, Cambridge and Oxford are the honour and respect of a creature over the reverence and adoration given to a deity.

Veneration

• respect or awe, inspired by the dignity, wisdom, dedication, or talent of a person. – Websters
• to honour or very much respect a person or thing. – Cambridge
• regard with great respect; revere. – Oxford

Worship

• to honour or show reverence for, as a divine being or supernatural power. – Websters
• to have or show a strong feeling of respect and admiration for God or a god – Cambridge
• The feeling or expression of reverence and adoration for a deity. – Oxford.

The title, ‘Mother of the Church’ was first used in the 4th century by Saint Ambrose of Milan, as rediscovered by Hugo Rahner [iv]

It was first used in a papal context by Pope Benedict XIV in 1748 and then by Pope Leo XIII in 1885. The title was also used by Pope John Paul II and is also found in the Catechism of the Catholic Church.[v] This title became official during the Second Vatican Council when promulgated as such by Pope Paul VI.

Despite the controversial nature (Protestant disagreement), for me, it is not only recorded in the Gospels, but it is also a premise of logic.

If:

1. You accept the definitions provided above and
2. You subscribe to the belief that the church is the Mystical Body of Christ and
3. you believe that you are a member of that Mystical Body through your membership of the church militant and
4. that Christ is God in the second person and you agree
5. that Mary is Mater Christi / Mater Dei, then
6. you must agree, Mary is Mater Ecclesia – the Mother of the Church.

Mary becomes our Mother, the Mother of the Church, in virtue of our membership and part of Christ’s eschatological family.[vi] Jesus willed to give Mary as a mother to the early Church, when, from the cross, he looked at his mother and said, “Woman, behold, your son” (John 19:26). And to the beloved disciple, “Behold, your mother” (John 19:27).[vii]

To paraphrase Looney:

As a mother, Mary cares about the Church at-large and also for each individual member.

Her example of faith encouraged the Church in the past and continues to do so to this very day. She shows the way, making herself the example to follow – from her, we learn how to live a life of virtue. However, we can only learn from her if we invite her into our lives, just as St. John did. Talk to her as your mother, because that is who she is — she is our mother and the Mother of the Church.[viii]

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[i] https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/theotokos

[ii] https://orthodoxwiki.org/index.php?title=Theotokos&oldid=126811

[iii] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nestorianism

[iv] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother_of_the_Church

[v] https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P2C.HTM

[vi] http://www.catholicdigest.com/faith/spirituality/mother-of-the-church/

[vii] http://www.catholicdigest.com/faith/spirituality/mother-of-the-church/

[viii] http://www.catholicdigest.com/faith/spirituality/mother-of-the-church/

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Bibliography

1. Andrew M. Greenwell, Esq. (2013, March 13). Hail Mary: Kecharitomene, A Unique Word for a Unique Lady. Retrieved September 22, 2019, from Catholic Online: https://www.catholic.org/news/hf/faith/story.php?id=50095
2. Catholic Church. (2000). Catechism of the Catholic Church (2nd ed. ed.). (U. S. Conference, Ed.) Washington DC: Libreria Editrice. Retrieved April 04, 2019
3. Fr. Edward Looney. (2019, June 9). Mother of the Church. Retrieved Nov 8, 2019, from Catholic Digest: http://www.catholicdigest.com/faith/spirituality/mother-of-the-church/
4. Fr. William G. Most. (1990). The Catholic Church is the Mystical Body of Christ. Retrieved Nov 8, 2019, from EWTN Global Catholic Network: https://www.ewtn.com/catholicism/teachings/catholic-church-is-the-mystical-body-of-christ-89
5. OrthodoxWiki contributors. (2019, July 2). Theotokos. Retrieved July 30, 2019, from OrthodoxWiki: https://orthodoxwiki.org/index.php?title=Theotokos&oldid=126811
6. The Holy Bible: Revised Standard Version (Second Catholic Edition ed.). (2006). San Francisco, USA: Ignatius Press. Retrieved July 29, 2019
7. Wikipedia contributors. (2019, June 10). Hypostasis (philosophy and religion). Retrieved August 10, 2019, from Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hypostasis_(philosophy_and_religion)&oldid=901252076
8. Wikipedia contributors. (2019, July 30). Mary, mother of Jesus. Retrieved July 30, 2019, from Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mary,_mother_of_Jesus&oldid=908491530
9. Wikipedia contributors. (2019, October 22). Mother of the Church. Retrieved November 8, 2019, from Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:CiteThisPage&page=Mother_of_the_Church&id=922492266
10. Wikipedia contributors. (2019, August 05). Tektōn. Retrieved August 10, 2019, from Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Tekt%C5%8Dn&oldid=909461853
11. Wikipedia contributors. (2019, June 5). Theotokos. Retrieved July 30, 2019, from Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Theotokos&oldid=900475991
12. Wikipedia contributors. (2019, July 29). Veneration of Mary in the Catholic Church. Retrieved July 30, 2019, from Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veneration_of_Mary_in_the_Catholic_Church
13. Wikipedia contributors. (2019, July 12). Visitation (Christianity). Retrieved July 30, 2019, from Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Visitation_(Christianity)&oldid=905878464

 

 

Mary – Full of Grace, Mother of God and Mother of the Church (Part 1)

In a bucolic village in Palestine called Nazareth, there lived a Galilean Jewish peasant girl by the name of Mary. Tradition has it that she was the daughter of St’s Anne and Joachim.

Mary was betrothed to Joseph, a carpenter [i] from the same area. The Gospel of Luke begins the account of Mary’s life with the Annunciation when the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary: [ii]

In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said:

“Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you!” … And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. [iii]

Even though this could have meant a huge scandal, Joseph bravely took Mary into his house and treated the infant Jesus as his own.

Although understandably apprehensive at first, Mary became fully aware of the gravitas and the enormity of the task given to her by God.

Mary – Full of Grace

The Catholic Church teaches that Mary is a creature and NOT a divine being [iv] as so many fundamentalists would have you believe of Catholic belief and practice. This is an important concept, needed when trying to grasp the place of our blessed mother in the scheme of things.

But, though a creature, Mary occupies a unique place in the history of humankind. God chose Mary from the depths of all time and eternity, to be the willing receiver of the Holy Spirit and to bear His Son—the Salvation of man!

It is to this uniqueness that the Archangel Gabriel, at the Annunciation, addresses Mary using the phraseology (in Luke’s Greek):

Chaire, kecharitōmenē, ho kyrios meta sou!

Pronounced: key-car-it-oh-may-nay

Translated as: Hail, "Full of Grace", the Lord is with you!

Or in Latin: Áve, grā́tiā plḗna, Dóminus tḗcum!

To quote Greenwell: [v]

Kecharitōmenē is who Mary is, and not only what she has.
She is Kecharitōmenē as a result of that "singular privilege and grace granted by God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the human race,"

… ‘all generations will call me blessed…’ says Mary, and rightly so, for such an honour has never been bestowed upon any creature before, since and certainly, ever will be again. Indeed, I would go so far as to say that this honour is singularly unique in all of the history of humanity, bar the incarnation itself! [vi]

What the Angel Gabriel wants to communicate to Mary and to us is that, in the word Kecharitōmenē, Mary has a unique name, a unique title, a unique role in sacred history, and so—though human—is a unique being in the economy of salvation.

Mary is she whose very name, whose very title, whose very office, whose very person is to have been endowed with grace in anticipation of her role as Mother of God and Mother of the Church.[vii]

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• This biopic on Mary will be concluded in the next post.

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Notes

[i] Carpenter was probably a misnomer – Joseph would more likely be know as a ‘tekton’, The Ancient Greek noun tektōn (τέκτων) is a common term for an artisan/craftsman, in particular a carpenter, woodworker, mason, builder or teacher engineer. (Wikipedia contributors, 2019)

[ii] (Wikipedia contributors, 2019)

[iii] (The Holy Bible: Revised Standard Version, 2006, pp. Lk. 1:26-31)

[iv] “God sent forth his Son,” but to prepare a body for him, he wanted the free cooperation of a creature. For this, from all eternity God chose for the mother of his Son a daughter of Israel, a young Jewish woman of Nazareth in Galilee, “a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary” (Catholic Church, 2000, p. CCC 488)

[v] (Andrew M. Greenwell, Esq., 2013)

[vi] I have excluded Jesus in His humanity, who is our Lord and Saviour because of His hypostasis. ( (Wikipedia contributors, 2019, p. Hypostasis)

[vii] (Andrew M. Greenwell, Esq., 2013)

Bibliography

1. Andrew M. Greenwell, Esq. (2013, March 13). Hail Mary: Kecharitomene, A Unique Word for a Unique Lady. Retrieved September 22, 2019, from Catholic Online: https://www.catholic.org/news/hf/faith/story.php?id=50095
2. Catholic Church. (2000). Catechism of the Catholic Church (2nd ed. ed.). (U. S. Conference, Ed.) Washington DC: Libreria Editrice. Retrieved April 04, 2019
3. OrthodoxWiki contributors. (2019, July 2). Theotokos. Retrieved July 30, 2019, from OrthodoxWiki: https://orthodoxwiki.org/index.php?title=Theotokos&oldid=126811
4. The Holy Bible: Revised Standard Version (Second Catholic Edition ed.). (2006). San Francisco, USA: Ignatius Press. Retrieved July 29, 2019
5. Wikipedia contributors. (2019, June 10). Hypostasis (philosophy and religion). Retrieved August 10, 2019, from Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hypostasis_(philosophy_and_religion)&oldid=901252076
6. Wikipedia contributors. (2019, July 30). Mary, mother of Jesus. Retrieved July 30, 2019, from Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mary,_mother_of_Jesus&oldid=908491530
7. Wikipedia contributors. (2019, August 05). Tektōn. Retrieved August 10, 2019, from Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Tekt%C5%8Dn&oldid=909461853
8. Wikipedia contributors. (2019, June 5). Theotokos. Retrieved July 30, 2019, from Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Theotokos&oldid=900475991
9. Wikipedia contributors. (2019, July 29). Veneration of Mary in the Catholic Church. Retrieved July 30, 2019, from Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veneration_of_Mary_in_the_Catholic_Church
10. Wikipedia contributors. (2019, July 12). Visitation (Christianity). Retrieved July 30, 2019, from Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Visitation_(Christianity)&oldid=905878464

Worthy is the Lamb

I read somewhere of a non-Christian postulating that if the Catholic Christian truly believed that the bread and wine of the Eucharist was indeed the Body and Blood of Jesus the Christ – God present in the Mass, they would approach reception of this Sacrament on their knees in the profound knowledge of their unworthiness! How could one look upon the fount of all holiness, knowing the extent of one’s own sinfulness?

In fact the nonchalant attitude many adopt when approaching the Eucharistic Table betrays an unawareness or innocence of the real nature of that which is about to meet them. Indeed, were that awareness more acute we should ‘tremble’ in anticipation of love sublime – but our perception is clouded by the cataract of our own humanity.

A common misnomer is to refer to the Eucharistic Meal as ‘representative’ or ‘symbolic’ of what transpired on that fateful night so long ago. The fact of anamnesis does not lessen its reality, it is not an evocative demonstration but is Christ present for all time.

“This is my body”, “This is my blood” says our Lord. ^[i] “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them” ^[ii]

Christ, our Salvation from the bondage of sin, make us worthy to approach your most holy table. Give to us the wisdom to understand the nature of your Spiritual nourishment and allow us to approach you in humble adoration.

Amen

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^[i] Matthew 26:26-28

^[ii] John 6:56

…as we forgive those who trespass against us…

How easily these words slip over the tongue at mass each week!

For all petitions for clemency or otherwise, there is an attendant responsibility on the petitioner. You ask for forgiveness but to receive forgiveness, you are also expected to forgive those who have hurt you; this is so glibly said but it becomes a very different ‘kettle of fish’ when we come to put it into practice.

I have learned that sometimes "sorry" is not enough. Sometimes you actually have to change. – Claire London

I had occasion recently, to feel this first hand. Something important to me was ruined; on top of that the circumstances surrounding this ‘accident’ were being fabricated and that hurt!!

It was so easy to feel angry, hard done by – after all this was an impairment to my sensibilities and it didn’t sit well! Suddenly there was an artificial distance between us, a gulf that just seemed wrong and in the end, it only made me feel worse. Had justice now been served?

The Catechism puts it well when it says: ‘In refusing to forgive our brothers and sisters, our hearts are closed and their hardness makes them impervious to the Father’s merciful love; but in confessing our sins, our hearts are opened to his grace.’ (CCC 2840)

Is that why so many seem to feel empty, even after they have been to mass?

Our Lord’s love was so deep and so powerful that the Catechism notes it as a love that loves to the end. It would do one well to remember the parable of the merciless servant – ‘…so also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.’ We always forget that it is beyond us not to feel or forget offense – it will ALWAYS affect us. However, the Church says: ‘…but the heart that offers itself to the Holy Spirit turns injury into compassion and purifies the memory in transforming the hurt into intercession.’ (CCC2843)

So I let go and reconciled myself to the Lord; and it felt good. Now, while the damage is still there, it doesn’t seem at all as bad. As it is so succinctly put by the Church, ‘Forgiveness is the fundamental condition of the reconciliation of the children of God with their Father and of men with one another.’ (CCC2844)

What is Truth?

Some years ago, a friend asked me why I was studying theology, to which I answered that I was searching for the truth.

At the time, it seemed rather an innocuous question but as time has passed, it has assumed greater import for me. Faith is a foundational aspect of any belief system, no more so than in mine, but is it compatible with the truth? To borrow from an early writing of mine:

To seek the truth should be one of the fundamental elements in the noble quest of all people, not only of Christians. Christ said, ‘I am the way, the truth and the light…’ He enjoins – ‘For My Way is the way of life, the road that leads to the Father, trust in Me for I am the fount of all that is true and just, for I am the light of eternal salvation and in Me you will find the fullness of life’

In this context, we still need to ask the questions:

–        What is truth?

–        What is the truth that we seek?

–        Are truth, that which we seek and faith compatible?

These are far-reaching questions. For the sake of this work though, let us define that truth as an ultimate reality which exists outside of our own sphere of perception. A reality, which is perhaps best embodied in Pontius Pilate’s question to Jesus: Quid est veritas – What is truth? Or rather the rhetorical nature of that question – for as a coincidental anagram of ‘quid est veritas’ would have it, ‘est vir qui adest’ or ‘It is the man who is here ‘!  Christ is truth – God is truth, it is He who is sought by a great many others and me, for He is the path to ultimate reality and truth.

As truth by virtue of the foregoing is difficult to hold to empirical values, that truth becomes faith but not before, we have applied our minds!

As children and in the normal human sense, faith is a product of the trust relationship we have built with others – with our mothers for example. We come to accept the trustworthiness, the honesty of others; consequently, we rely on the previously mentioned relationship as a foundational support in that truth claim.

The faith that derives out of the search for ultimate truth is analogous to the trust bond that we build between ourselves; only it is so much more profound. As children, we gain our religious insight in the same way as we do in the normal human sense, but as we mature and our minds become more critical, we begin to need more. To accept blindly the views of another as the truth, no matter the source or the trust bond that may exist, without adding our own intellectual assent makes that faith irrational; indeed, it is not faith but a gamble! It is also a prime source of personal deception; of trapping oneself into believing only what one wants to believe. Demosthenes said ‘Nothing is easier than self-deceit. For what each man wishes, that he also believes to be true’

A human being, in general, is by nature an inquisitive being; this together with his intelligence has, more than most, contributed to his advance in nature – he is always seeking. However, his intelligence has been the interpretive cornerstone of his search and the wellspring for his ideas; it is the support, the foundation to his subsequent belief structures.

Thus, for example, in the apologetic of my own belief structure, my belief is best described as being based on thought, research, logic, reason and experience or spiritual awareness. These are the building blocks, the logical progressions of what I have witnessed, how I have reasoned that witness and which allows me to commit to intellectual assent. This ‘process’ helps lead me to an ever strengthening commitment in those convictions.

It is at this point that I can embrace faith. It has been said that faith is not belief without proof, but trust without reservation – a trust based on the convictions aforementioned.

So, belief is grounded in the search for truth, a truth we seek in many different ways; through prayer and stillness, through participation in the sacraments but also in study, the study of theology. To me theology is, in essence, the search for the truth.

We have seen the truth that we are seeking and that it is compatible with faith. However, the question ‘What is truth?’ will always be for me ‘The Holy Grail’, the ultimate prize. One that, I believe, I will come to know only when I meet Him to whom Pilate addressed that profound question:

‘Quid est veritas’

Stay The Course!

A meditation on the readings for the 33rd Sunday of Ordinary Time.

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‘Stay the course, embrace your destiny!’ seems to be the cry of this parable, ‘For you are here to serve your God to the glory of Him who sent you!’

What a thought provoking reading and one that should sound alarm bells to those who procrastinate over the responsibilities attached to their eternal destiny!

The lesson from this parable has a lot to tell us, especially as we approach a time of good will and charity. Though there are many lessons to be had from this week’s Gospel, two for me are quite profound:

The first is to do with those who believe that attending church every week, is the sum total of their commitment, worse still are the ‘hatch, match and despatch‘ followers – those who are only to be seen on high occasions and then claim the fullness of their duty! Yes, you recognise the gratuitous grace given to you but then you bury it to prevent it being lost. You can return that which was entrusted to you at the time of reckoning; but does the seed grow, germinate, and so produce fruit – No. How can that grace grow, allowing others to learn of your revelation – it does not and clearly, this is a problem! These are the one-talent servants. Those who would not risk their abilities but would rather use them to preserve their own good. Jesus tells us very clearly the deserts of these servants! Are you in this segment of Christ’s servants?

The second lesson has more to do with the talents you have rather than the direct graces that you receive, although I suppose in reality, they are two views on the same thing! Each of us has a talent for something, big or small and in the norm, you use that talent to provide for you and your family and I suppose, rather begrudgingly, sometimes the taxman! The church too has needs, big and small, ranging from service in the diaconate and teaching in RCIA to helping one of the sodalities in caring for the destitute and even just making a cup of tea for the parishioners after mass. Big or small, all are a contribution to the evangelisation of the Word.

So invest those talents, let the Word grow and when the time comes, good and faithful servant, you too can share in your Master’s joy! And what joy that will be!!

A warning from the vineyard!

A meditation on the readings for the 27th Sunday of Ordinary Time.

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When reflecting on the theme for the readings of the 27^th Sunday in Ordinary time, I am reminded of those haunting words from John Sanders’: The Reproaches – ‘O my people, O my people, what have I done to you?’

Today’s reading is the third in the vineyard trilogy of parables as told by Matthew. In this exposition by Matthew, the priests and elders of the temple confront Jesus; they are indignant at His activities and want to know on whose authority He does these things? These priests and elders were less than ideal stewards of their vineyard, the people of Israel; in fact, a common consensus holds that they were rather a narcissistic and opinionated bunch, more interested in their own welfare than that of the people entrusted to them!

Jesus, obviously angry at their hypocrisy relates the parable of the landowner who planted and prepared a vineyard and then entrusted it to tenants. When time came for the collection of the harvest, the owner’s servants were rejected and beaten by the tenants! In a final attempt at rectifying the situation, the owner sends his son, thinking that the tenants would respect his son. However, he too is rejected, cast out of the vineyard and killed.

Typically, the landowner refers to God, the vineyard to ‘the people of Israel and the tenants to the leaders and elders of the Temple. His servants were the prophets gone before and the son, well He is Christ our Lord. Despite having blessed His people with all the goodness from the ‘promised land‘ and more, they still reject Him, ‘they produce no fruit’! Now the owner will take away their stewardship and pass it onto those who will be fruitful and so the mantle is passed on to the followers of Jesus. I do not distinguish here between Jew or Gentile in specific, Jesus was a Jew and Jews (Matthew a case in point) did follow the message of Jesus Christ, the new Covenant of God.

Ironically, the priests and the elders did recognize that the justice emanating from this parable referred to them but of course, in an act of selfish self-preservation they chose to ignore the wisdom they had heard and instead sought to arrest Jesus. Prophetically, the justice described in this parable was to come true 70 or so years later when the Romans destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple, contributing in some way, to the ascendency of Christianity!

‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is amazing in our eyes’?

The obvious question is what relevance does this parable have in contemporary society? I would posit – everything! Allegorical – perhaps but with so much moral and spiritual relevance, we cannot afford to abandon it to ancient moralizing!

Rather than concentrating on the parable’s corporate relevance, I would rather highlight its significance on the individual. We are all branches of the one True Vine, part of the Body of Christ. Consequently, we are stewards over our branch of the Vine and are expected to produce fruit. This might take the form of many things related to Christian life, but always contributing to His Body.

When the Lord comes to collect His dues – will we equally be found wanting?

Oh how the mighty have fallen!

A meditation on the readings for the 21st Sunday of Ordinary Time.

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So filled with pride and self-interest is today’s society, that one is hard-pressed to find any form of moral baseline against which society can take their mark. This has shown itself in recent events in the riots in England and America; riots which were, by and large, committed by the youth, the future of our society. Scenes of rampant looting, anarchy and blatant immoral behaviour without any apparent reason – scenes which a few decades ago, would have been tainted with the stain of moral indignation, instead society is dumbfounded at scenes of apparent insatiable immoral conduct and left unable to understand this senseless behaviour!

Trusted with the preservation of the moral structure in society, the principled leadership of those most susceptible, the young – have we as society failed them?

The readings this week-end underline this dilemma. The Lord rebukes Shebna, the unworthy and unprincipled master of the palace and replaces him with Eliakim who will be as a father to the household – chide and correct when necessary, comfort and shelter as a father should. He will be a steward, invested with the key of authority, acting on behalf of the master of the palace.

Likewise in the Gospel, we see our Lord investing Peter, the foundation of His Church, with the keys to the kingdom of heaven – the symbol of authority to bind and loose. He is entrusting to His Church the moral wellbeing of His flock, that His Church would guide, teach, protect and act as the wellspring of moral rectitude to the people He sacrificed all for!

Yet man in his arrogance and pride, does not feel the need for such moral leadership and is content to stumble along under his own misguided relativistic nature!

However, Paul reminds us of the glory of God, His unbounded wisdom and power and from whom all righteousness originates. God only wants us to choose the path of life, not the road to destruction.

Which path are you on?