Traditional Catholic Teaching - Lesson 18

Lesson 18 - The Blessed Virgin Mary

In every Catholic church you will see a statue of Mary the Mother of Jesus. Rarely does a Catholic pray without asking Mary also to pray with him. This devotion to the Mother of Christ is a characteristic of the Church of Christ throughout the ages. The Eastern Orthodox Churches which broke away from the Catholic Church nearly a thousand years ago are if anything more expressive in their devotion to Mary than the Catholics themselves. Nor is this surprising.

The Mother of God

Whatever honour we give to Mary will always fall short of the honour which God Himself gave to her when He chose her to be the Mother of His Son. His Son Jesus Christ was Himself God and therefore we rightly call Mary the Mother of God as was solemnly defined in the Third General Council of the Church held at Ephesus in the year 431.

We first hear of Our Lady in the Gospels when God sent His angel to tell her that she was to be the Mother of His Son. Here is the account from St. Luke's Gospel, chapter I:

And in the sixth month the Angel Gabriel was sent from God into a city of Galilee, called Nazareth; to a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin's name was Mary. And the Angel being come in, said unto her: Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women. Who having heard, was troubled at his saying, and thought with herself what manner of salutation this should be. And the Angel said to her: Fear not, Mary for thou hast found grace with God. Behold thou shalt conceive in thy womb and shalt bring forth a son; and thou shalt call his name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of David his father: and he shall reign in the house of Jacob for ever, and of his kingdom there shall be no end. And Mary said to the Angel: How shall this be done, because I know not man? And the Angel answering, said to her: The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the tower of the Most High shall overshadow thee. And therefore also the Holy which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. And behold thy cousin Elizabeth, she also hath conceived a son in her old age; and this is the sixth month with her that is called barren; because no word shall be impossible with God. And Mary said: Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it done to me according to thy word. And the angel departed from her,

The significance of this account cannot be overestimated. When He decided that the moment had come to redeem the world God did not send His Son until He had asked the consent of Mary. When Mary said:

Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it done to me according to Thy word,

she gave the signal for the salvation of the world to begin and the Son of God took flesh and became man for us in her womb.

The Immaculate Conception

AGAIN notice that the angel addressed her by the title "Full of grace". The Church has always seen in that title the meaning that she was without sin. There were times indeed when some in the Church doubted if it could mean that she never for one moment had any original sin upon her soul. (See Lesson 7.) (Everybody was always certain that she was born without original sin and never committed personal sin in her life.)

The question was debated for many years until it became clear that Christ redeemed His Mother from the very first moment at which she was conceived, so that there never was a moment in which she was under the power of the devil. And this is what we mean by the Immaculate Conception that Mary from the first moment of her existence was free from any stain of original sin.

The Virgin Birth

The Immaculate Conception does not mean the Virgin Birth of Christ. The Virgin Birth is implied in another phrase:

How shall this be done for I know not man. (Luke 1.)

She was a virgin and clearly intended to remain a virgin. Otherwise there would have been no point in her question. The angel's answer makes it clear that the Son of God was to have no human father. Mary remained a virgin even though miraculously she became a mother. In this way Almighty God honours in Mary both motherhood and virginity. The unanimous tradition of the Church is that Mary was always a virgin, before, during and after the birth of her divine Son.

The Childhood of Christ

The Child was born on the first Christmas Day and worshipped by the shepherds whom the angels had sent to Bethlehem.

They found Mary and Joseph, and the Infant lying in the manger. (Luke 2: 6.)

Not long afterwards Mary and Joseph her husband, the foster-father of Jesus, took the Child to present Him in the Temple. There they were recognised by an old man who had been told by God that he should not die before he had seen the Christ. The old man, Simeon, took Jesus into his arms and thanked God for bringing him to see that day. And then he said to Mary:

Thy own soul a sword shall pierce.

He prophesied to her that she would share in the sufferings and sorrows of her Son just as she had shared in the joy of his birth.

Those sufferings began very soon afterwards. She and Joseph and the Child had to fly into Egypt to escape the murderous designs of King Herod who had heard that a Child had been born Who was to be King of Israel.

She suffered again when they had returned to Galilee. They went up each year to Jerusalem to worship in the Temple and one year when they were on their journey home they found that the Child was missing.

He was twelve years old. He was lost for the space of three days and then they found Him sitting amidst the learned men of the Temple hearing them and asking them questions.

And all that heard Him were astonished at His wisdom and His answers, (Luke 2: 47.)

And when His mother said to Him:

Son, why hast Thou done so to us? He answered them: how is it that you sought Me? Did you not know I must be about My Father's business?

Already He was teaching His mother that one day He would leave her for good that His task was to save the world. He spent nearly thirty years in the company of His mother and only came to preach publicly to the world in the last three years of His life.

The Marriage Feast of Cana

At the beginning of His public life there is one more episode in which His mother figures.

The incident is told in St. John's Gospel, chapter II. There was a wedding in a little place called Cana near His home, As usual in the East it was accompanied by great festivity. There came a time when the wine ran short and

The Mother of Jesus said to Him: They have no wine, And Jesus saith to her: Woman what is it to Me and to Thee? My hour is not yet come.

In other words He had decided that He would not yet work any miracles.¹

His mother said to the waiters. Whatsoever He shall say to you do ye.

She was His mother and she knew Him well. A moment later He went across to the waiters and changed the water into wine so that the young couple would not be disgraced before their guests.

This was the first miracle He performed. And He worked this miracle before its time, at the request of His mother. Everything Our Lord did has significance. The significance of this miracle was surely to show us how powerful are the prayers of His mother with Him.

¹There are some who have thought that in addressing His mother as "Woman". He was rebuking her and even being rude to her. This suspicion is quite unfounded. The word "Woman" in the language He spoke was as courteous a title as the word "Madame" in French.

The Foot of the Cross

The last scene is at the foot of the cross.

Now there stood by the cross of Jesus His mother and His mother's sister Mary of Cleophas and Mary Magdalen. When Jesus therefore had seen His mother and the disciple standing whom He loved, He saith to His mother: Woman, behold thy son. After that He saith to the disciple: Behold thy mother. And from that hour the disciple took her to his own. (John 19.)

The Church has always seen this incident as meaning that Our Lord gave His mother at this point to be our mother also. We have honoured her as our Mother ever since.

She was at the foot of the cross when He was taken down. She was beside the sepulchre when He was laid in it. She was in the Upper Room with the Apostles when the Holy Ghost descended on them on the first Whit Sunday and after that we have no record of the rest of her life.

Mary in the Tradition of the Church

All we know is that from the very earliest days the Church has honoured her with the highest honour that can he given to any human being.

The early writers speak of her as the second Eve. As Eve our first mother led Adam into the sin which caused the fall of the human race so Mary brings the second Adam her Son to save the human race.

St. HIPPOLYTUS in the third century speaks of her as being free from defilement and corruption. ORIGEN, another early writer speaks of her as worthy of God, immaculate of the immaculate, most completely holy. St. AMBROSE in the fourth century spoke of her as a virgin immune through grace from every stain of sin. St. EPHREM also in the fourth century wrote a beautiful prayer to her in which he calls her:

"Most holy lady, mother of God, alone most pure in soul and body, home of all the graces of the Most Holy Spirit, innocent and free from sin as Eve before the fall."

The Assumption

It is Catholic teaching that when the term of her natural life was ended Mary was assumed body and soul into heaven. We hold that this is true because she was entirely free from sin, and because Christ would not allow His mother to suffer the indignity of corruption when there was no reason for it. Death and corruption is the consequence of original sin.

By one man sin entered into this world and by sin death. (Rom. 5: 12.)

As Mary was free from sin there was strictly speaking no reason why she should die. Some have thought she did not die but passed straight to God, although the more general opinion is that she died in order to be the more like her divine Son Who died for us on the cross.

But no Christian teacher ever went so far as to say that her body corrupted in the tomb. It is Catholic teaching that she is now already, as we hope we shall one day be, body and soul glorified in heaven.

For the doctrine of the resurrection of the body see Lesson 19.

People are sometimes puzzled because the dogma of the Assumption was only defined recently by the Church, on November lst, 1950. But the doctrine itself has long been held by the whole Church. A definition of a doctrine is an exact statement of it guaranteed by the Infallible authority of the Pope or a General Council. No definition had been made in years previously because legends had grown up pretending to give the circumstance of Mary's death and assumption. The Church did not define the doctrine because she did not wish to give any authority to these legends. Now that in our own days the legends are seen to be worthless stories , the Church has been able to define the doctrine on the clear basis of the truth, we know without there being any danger of her guaranteeing mere legends.

Those then in short are the great titles of Mary. She is the Mother of God, ever a virgin, conceived immaculate, free from all sin, assumed into heaven.

How We Pray to Mary

We pray to her because we know her prayers are most powerful with God. We believe that she prays for us all the time and that every grace we receive from God is obtained in some way by Mary's prayers. Needless to say we do not worship her as God. High though her position is she remains a human creature. She was redeemed by her Son although most perfectly redeemed of all. But we pray to her because we are all one family and this is what is meant by the Communion of Saints.

The Communion of Saints

We have used several times in this course the term the Mystical Body of Christ. All the members of the Church in Heaven, on Earth and in Purgatory (see lesson 19) are united together because we all live with the same life that comes down to us from Christ our Head. We do not live in separate compartments. Every action of ours affects the whole body of the Church. Just as the hand in a body helps the head, the head helps the hand, so all the members of the Church help each other by their prayers and good works.

Our devotion to the saints is grounded upon this doctrine. We pray to them and they pray for us. Just as we pray for one another and for the souls in Purgatory and they pray for us.

Mary the Test of Truth

Chief of all the saints is Mary. It may truly be said that unless one understands the Catholic teaching on Mary one has no real understanding of the Catholic Faith. Unless one has the right idea about Mary one cannot have the right ideas about God or man. She has always been the test.

When in the early years of the fifth century false teaching about the nature of Christ was current it was brought to the test by the title of Mary, Mother of God. A man called Nestorius was saying that Christ was not truly God; He was prepared to say that He became God. He would not say that He was born God. But Nestorius wrapped up his teaching so cleverly that it was not immediately easy to see that he was teaching error.

That is why the Church defined the doctrine at the Council of Ephesus that Mary is Mother of God. Nestorius refused to acknowledge that claim and so was excommunicated by the Church because it was thus clear that he did not believe that Christ was always God.

Again in later years when another man was casting doubt upon the Real Presence of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament Catholics sang a hymn to the Blessed Sacrament which ran:

"Hail to Thee true body Sprung from the Virgin's womb."

Once again Mary saved the Faith, this time in the reality of Christ's presence in the Blessed Sacrament.

Those who have a Protestant background often need to make a great effort to see Mary in her true light. But that effort must be made if they wish to be one in mind and heart with the teaching of the Church from the earliest times. Those who know the Faith from within have learnt from their earliest Childhood to love Mary and so to love more fully her Divine Son. How can we love the Son if we do not love the mother?

Mary's Appearance at Lourdes and Fatima

Throughout the history of the Church there have been notable incidents in which Mary has appeared to chosen souls to urge them to prayer and penance. An outstanding example in our own day is Lourdes where she appeared to the little shepherd girl Bernadette. And again at Fatima in Portugal in the year I9I7 where she appeared to three peasant children, Always the message has been the same — prayer and penance, And always the message has been accompanied by great graces and favours given to those who honour her Divine Son at these shrines.

Notice that these apparitions are not guaranteed by the Church in the same way as the doctrines we have mentioned above. They are not part of the Faith although they are well grounded on evidence. But everybody who prays to Our Lady knows from experience what graces she can obtain from God.

Every good Catholic mother in particular knows how Mary can help her to bring up her children in the knowledge and love of God, Prayer to Our Lady is the test of a good Catholic.

Here is the prayer we most commonly say to her. The first part is taken from the Gospel (see above), the second part is added by the Church.

"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."

And here is another short prayer:

"O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee."

End of Lesson 18

Supplement A

Supplement B: "Mary Pondered"

Appendix One: "Meditation by Bishop Prohaszka"

Appendix Two: "The Virgin Birth"

Appendix Three: "Ever Blessed Virgin"

Appendix Four: "The Perpetual Virginity of Mary"

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