Mary
Catholics perpetrate a grave injustice against the Virgin Mary and commit the grossest of idolatries when they present Jesus’ mother as “the gate of heaven, hope, life, and salvation.”
Catholics perpetrate a grave injustice against the Virgin Mary and commit the grossest of idolatries when they present Jesus’ mother as “the gate of heaven, hope, life, and salvation.”
Mediatrix (60–62)
In the Middle Ages the practice grew of praying to *saints. Mary became especially popular. There was a tendency to see Jesus Christ as stern and unapproachable, and so the faithful were directed to Mary as a sympathetic figure who could *mediate between the believer and Christ. This view of Mary as mediatrix was forcefully stated in 1891 by Pope Leo XIII in an encyclical: ‘Nothing is bestowed on us except through Mary, as God himself wills. Therefore as no one can draw near to the supreme Father except through the Son, so also one can scarcely draw near to the Son except through his mother.’ The Second Vatican Council reaffirms Mary’s role as mediatrix, but states that it should be so understood as ‘neither [to] take away from nor [to] add anything to the dignity and efficacy of Christ the one mediator’ (62; cf. 60, where 1 Tim. 2:5–6 is quoted).
the cult of Mary burgeoned during the Middle Ages. She came to be seen as Queen of Heaven, a title that enjoys no favour in Scripture (Jer. 7:18; 44:17–19, 25). She was increasingly venerated with a worship (hyperdoulia, Gk hyperdouleia) above that offered to other saints (doulia, Gk douleia) but below that offered to God (latreia).
Immaculate conception (59)
By the beginning of the Middle Ages it had come to be believed that Mary had lived without *sin. But when had she been delivered from sin? *Anselm held that she was born with original sin (Cur Deus Homo? 2:16). *Bernard of Clairvaux held that she was conceived with original sin but purified before birth (Ep. 174). This view was also held by *Thomas Aquinas and the *Dominican school. It was *Duns Scotus who popularized the idea that Mary was conceived without original sin. This new idea did not meet with universal acceptance, and Pope Sixtus IV in 1485 and the Council of *Trent (see *Roman Catholic theology) in 1546 both left the matter undecided. But eventually Duns Scotus’ view prevailed, and in 1854 Pope Pius IX proclaimed it a dogma in his bull Ineffabilis Deus: ‘We declare, pronounce and define that the most blessed Virgin Mary, at the first instant of her conception was preserved immaculate from all stain of original sin, by the singular grace and privilege of the omnipotent God, in virtue of the merits of Jesus Christ, the saviour of mankind, and that this doctrine was revealed by God and therefore must be believed firmly and constantly by all the faithful.’
This doctrine was proclaimed on the basis of the unanimity of the contemporary church. There was no scriptural basis for it. It was asserted that this doctrine had always been held in the church as a revealed doctrine. But this is not so much an appeal to tradition (which does not support the doctrine) as the triumph of dogma over tradition. The definition of the immaculate conception is rightly seen as a ‘trial run’ for the doctrine of papal infallibility, to be defined sixteen years later at the First Vatican Council.
Her motherhood of the Word of God is not just an external bringing about of Christ’s bodily existence. Mary was mother of the Redeemer in the full sense of being his assistant in the work of redemption.… The mystery which completes Mary’s cooperation in the work of Christ is her role as Mediatrix of Grace.… All of the graces which God accords us on account of Christ’s merits come to us directly or indirectly through Mary.
As the mother of sinless Jesus, Mary could not have been a transmitter of inherited sin to her son. Thus she has been presented in Roman Catholic doctrine as sinless by a special grace (this as early as 1439) and herself born as the result of an Immaculate Conception (this received papal approval in 1483 and papal definition in 1854). According to this teaching, Jesus received his sinless nature from his mother.
How should we consider Mary, the mother of Jesus?
A. Agreement about Mary
B. Cause for Agreement about Mary
C. Scriptural disagreement about Mary
c.1. The doctrine of Mary as Mediatrix
Summary: Mary mediates between the believer and Christ.
This view of Mary as mediatrix was forcefully stated in 1891 by Pope Leo XIII in an encyclical: ‘Nothing is bestowed on us except through Mary, as God himself wills. Therefore as no one can draw near to the supreme Father except through the Son, so also one can scarcely draw near to the Son except through his mother.’
The Second Vatican Council reaffirms Mary’s role as mediatrix, but states that it should be so understood as ‘neither [to] take away from nor [to] add anything to the dignity and efficacy of Christ the one mediator’ (62; cf. 60, where 1 Tim. 2:5–6 is quoted).
c. 2. The doctrine of the Immaculate Conception
Summary: The teaching that Mary, the mother of Jesus, was either conceived without original sin or at least born without original sin.
in 1854 Pope Pius IX proclaimed it a dogma in his bull Ineffabilis Deus: ‘We declare, pronounce and define that the most blessed Virgin Mary, at the first instant of her conception was preserved immaculate from all stain of original sin, by the singular grace and privilege of the omnipotent God, in virtue of the merits of Jesus Christ, the saviour of mankind, and that this doctrine was revealed by God and therefore must be believed firmly and constantly by all the faithful.’
According to this teaching, Jesus received his sinless nature from his mother. It has also come to be Roman Catholic teaching that Mary was preserved from the corruptions of the grave and taken up body and soul into heaven (this is found as early as the fourth century and was given papal definition in 1950).
