THE PRE-EMINENT BLESSED VIRGIN MARY
THE WOMAN FULL OF GRACE
(A Commentary Honoring the Blessed Virgin Mary
in commemoration of the Feast of the Assumption,
August 15; and the Feast of the Nativity, September 8)
By: The Rev. Dr. Hermogenes P. Verano
Former Mission Priest, Birhen Balintawak Mission, Sucat, Paranaque
"Hail Mary full of grace, the Lord is with you. Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb Jesus. Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen.”
INTRODUCTION
Many religions raise the example of holy men and women as a means of guiding and inspiring the current believers to lead good and moral values (Stanford, 2010). Faithful believers look for inspiration, strength, and succor in times of trouble and suffering caused by adversity. To most people, good people, God is a belief. But to the saints, He is an embrace.
Not surprisingly, among the venerated saints, it is the Blessed Mother who is apparently attracting more reactions (either positive or negative) from those who are persuaded, as well as those who are doubters. For Mary's adherents, she is impressively pre-eminent. But to skeptics, she is less a saint. Well-known and acknowledged, her biblical roots will attest to her prominence with regards to references compared with other holy men and women in halo.
SOME ALLUSIONS TO THE MOTHER OF JESUS IN THE BIBLE
In the New Testament, the synoptic Gospels: Mark, Matthew and Luke, and the autoptic Gospel John, expressed direct or indirect references to Mary. The Old Testament, too, featured her indirectly. There are perhaps many situations mentioning about the Holy Mother, but I am only citing a few of them. References to her in the New Testament are quite vivid. The first Gospel, Mark, referred to her as "Jesus’s mother." Matthew, the second Gospel, cited her as "the mother of Child Jesus." The Lukan narrative featured the Blessed Mother as "the daughter of Zion." Again, in the Gospel of John, Mary was pictured as "the mother of Jesus."
The Old Testament was not straightforward nor explicitly open in its allusion to Mary. In the book of Genesis 3:15, it mentions that "she shall bruise the serpent's head." While Proverbs 8 portrayed her as "wisdom, personified as the woman."
THE CATHOLIC DOGMAS
A dogma is a doctrine or a body of doctrines formally proclaimed by a church. It is something that is taught. There are four dogmas mentioned in the Catholic tradition particularly the Roman Catholic tradition about the Blessed Mother. These dogmas are: 1) The Mother of God; 2) Perpetual Virginity; 3) The Immaculate Conception; and 4) The Assumption of Mary. To educate us in defining these dogmas, let us ask the help of noted Theologians and Mariologists (those who study about the Virgin Mary) like Patrick Coffin, James Gontis, and JK Chesterston, to enlighten us on the enigma that is the Blessed Mother Mary. The Vatican II documents also present the BVM in the final chapter of its Dogmatic Constitution, “The Lumen Gentium”.
- The Mother of God Dogma
Defined in 431 A.D. by the Vatican II, this dogma explains that "Jesus is God, Mary is Jesus’s mother; thus Mary is the mother of God." The Blessed Mother is the "Theotokos", a Greek word for "God Bearer," a slogan for the idea of Mary in giving birth to Jesus Christ, had given birth to God. But this was criticized by Nestorius, the Bishop of Constantinople. Instead, he preferred "Christotokos" which means the "Bearer of Christ" the human being Jesus Christ. Consequently, he was deposed and branded as "heretic," an unbeliever.
Patriarch, or Bishop Nestorius claimed that Mary only gave birth to human Jesus, but not divine Jesus, therefore she should not be called the Mother of God. This essentially makes Jesus into two persons rather than one person. We can see how distorting the truth about Mary, even more importantly distorts the truth about Jesus. But Jesus is a divine person with two natures -- divine and human. What is the difference between person and nature?
But Mary did not give Jesus His divinity. He always is God. He does not take his humanity from Mary because he fully possesses the divine nature and the human nature. Therefore, Jesus is true God and true man. However, Mary did not merely give birth to a nature but rather to one person of Jesus who is a Divine Person, the Second Person in the Trinity, with two natures (divine and human). When a woman gives birth, we can’t hear her say, "Look at this little nature in my arms;" but might say, "Look at this person in my arms," or something close to that.
The Second Person of the Holy Trinity honored this woman above all women by becoming Jesus’s Mother. Jesus is the Son of God, Son of Mary. If He honored her so, then we should honor God the Son, the only Person who ever lived who chose His birth mother. She becomes His mother the moment He becomes incarnate in her womb by the power of the Holy Spirit. We can never love Mary more than Jesus does.
- The Perpetual Virginity Dogma
Made possible in 649 A. D., this dogma enunciates that Mary is virgin before, during and after the birth of Jesus. Her virginity is no way to be understood as the Church saying that sex is evil or bad. To the contrary, sexual union in its context is good and even holy. The material act is created by God for procreation and the union of spouses, and sanctified by Christ through the Sacrament of Matrimony. Mary's virginity is the sign of her undivided gift of herself to God. Mary as a virgin and mother is a model both to those who are married and those who have been called to live out the evangelical councils of poverty, chastity, and obedience in consecrated virginity, for those who have chosen virginity for the "sake of the Kingdom (Matthew 19:20)."
Mary's virginity shows forth God's absolute initiative in the Incarnation. She was impregnated by the power of God in the Holy Spirit in a holy unique way. The Church has traditionally seen Jesus's "brothers" mentioned in the Gospel to be close relatives.
- The Immaculate Conception Dogma
Discussed and approved in 1854 A. D., it maintains that the Most Blessed Virgin was from the first moment of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege of the Almighty God and by virtue of the merits of Jesus Christ, Savior of human race, preserved immune from all stain of original sin.
The belief in the Immaculate Conception dates back to the early centuries of the Church but was not well-defined and acted upon until Pope Pius IX expressed it in his encyclical, “Iniffabilis Deus” in 1854. In Mary’s apparitions to St. Bernadette of Lourdes in 1858, the mother of God referred to herself by saying, "I am the Immaculate Conception."
She was redeemed and saved by Jesus too, but her redemption was anticipatory. That is, God applied the merits which Jesus gained for us on the Cross, prior to the act of crucifixion. In an analogy, there are two ways to be saved from fire. One is to be pulled out of a burning building; that is us. The other is to be prevented from entering the burning building; and that is Mary.
The fruit of Christ's redemption was applied to Mary to preserve her from the original sin. It is applied to us to remove sin (which ordinarily God first does for each of us when we are baptized). We need to do all that we can to teach that Baptism is not merely a symbolic act but has life-giving and life-changing effects. We are changed ontologically by Baptism, that is, we are changed in our very being. By God's grace and her willing cooperation with His grace, Mary remained free of every personal sin her whole life long.
It is appropriate that the all-Holy God would take human nature from one untainted sin. The idea of the Immaculate Conception is often confused with Virgin Birth. What is the distinction? In the Immaculate Conception, Mary is preserved from the original sin from the first moment in her conception by the anticipated merits won for us by Jesus's sacrifice. On the other hand, the Virgin Birth, the Blessed Virgin Mary gives birth to Jesus.
Consequently, a raging debate occurred in the West with regards to the Augustinian doctrine of original sin. The Dominicans including Thomas Aquinas opposed the doctrine, while the Franciscans promoted the Feast of the Immaculate Conception.
Meanwhile, the Protestant reaction was negative. The Orthodox Church reacted against the 1854 Dogma because of their belief that everyone, Mary included, is affected with sin in the sense of human infirmity.
Cautioning the impact of the Dogmas to other religions, the Second Council of Niceae made clear distinctions between worship and reverence. "Latria" which means worship is assigned for God alone. While "Dulia" which means reverence is ascribed to the saints. Although for the Blessed Virgin Mary, "Hyperdulia," which means higher reverence, is especially assigned to her. It means that Mary the Mother should have the highest degree of respect and reverence.
- The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Dogma
Finally, the last of the already accepted Dogmas was defined in 1950 in the encyclical of Pope Pius XII. It says that the "Immaculate Virgin preserved free from all stain of original sin, when the course of her earthly life was finished, was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory, and exalted by the Lord as Queen over all things, so that she might be more fully conformed to her Son, the Lord of lords and conqueror of sin and death." Mary's Assumption is the result of her perfect obedience and cooperation with her Son.
Though not defined until 1950, the Assumption of the Mother of God has been believed from the time of the early Church. In Revelation 12:1, it states "the woman clothed with the sun..." refers to the Church and Mary, Mother and model of the Church. Mary's Assumption is a singular participation in the resurrection of Jesus. At the same time, it is an anticipation of all those who have died and will die in a state of sanctifying grace. Everyone will experience the Resurrection of the body when Jesus comes again to judge the living and the dead. Our risen body will be united to our soul. For those who are with God in heaven, their risen bodies will be glorified bodies, possessing magnificent characteristics, and will be beautiful beyond our imagining.
The Assumption is often confused with the Ascension. So what is the difference? The Ascension refers to Jesus going to "sit" at the right hand of the Father. He ascends by His own power. The Assumption refers to Mary, at the end of the earthly life, being taken up body and soul into heaven. She was not assumed by her own power, rather, she was assumed into heaven by God. Did Mary die or not? But the Church had not answered this question definitively. Look closely at the language used by Pope Pius XII in his Munificentissimus Deus “...when the course of her earthly life was finished..."
Our Blessed Mother is first in the Order of Grace. What does this mean? This means that she powerfully protects us and intercedes for us before her Son. Her Motherhood in the order of grace begins with her consent at the Annunciation. It continues unwaveringly at the foot of the Cross (John 19:26-27). She is the handmaid of the Lord. She gives her complete fiat (complete consent) to God and to His plan. Her love and service for the Lord are also exemplified in her advice at the wedding in Cana, "Do whatever He tells you.” (John 2:1-12, Matthew 12:46-50)
The Emerging Dogma in the Process
There is an upcoming Dogma which was proposed to the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith of the Roman Catholic Church by an international lay organization based in the United States. Started in 1993, this global movement of ordinary people, lay scholars, priests, 500 bishops and 55 cardinals from all over 150 countries, the Vox Populi Mariae Mediatrici ("The Voice of the People for Mary Mediatrix") organized a world-wide effort to encourage Pope John Paul II (when he was still alive) to define as Catholic Dogma that the Blessed Virgin Mary is "Co- redemptrix, Mediatrix of All Graces and Advocate for the People of God." Whatever happens to this supposedly fifth Dogma of the Catholic Church especially created for BVM is posturing to us to wait and see.
CONCLUSION
With this exposition, I hope that we are at least educated in our understanding of the indispensability of the Blessed Virgin Mary in our Church. My perception is that next to the Eucharist and the role of Peter and Paul, the Marian devotion is surely the most distinctly Catholic enterprise. I am reminded of JK Chesterton, a noted Mariologist and Christologist as well, when he once commented, "It’s not that Marian doctrines have not been investigated and proven false; it's that they've yet to be investigated."
