An old priest who had long made an apostolate of Protestant clergy was invited to speak to them. As they chose their versions of the Bible, he directed them to Matthew 6, verse 9 and then to Luke 1, verses 28 and 42. In his charming style, he persuaded them to repeat Luke, and then do if for a third time.

“Reverend gentlemen, you’re half way through the rosary, we might as well finish!” They did.

The point, of course, is that the root of our devotions to Mary is in the scriptures, especially the Rosary. We can see this unique woman only in the perspective of Christ, as the Dutch theologian, Father Edward Schillebeck puts it.

The central fact of Christianity is Christ our Lord, “We have but one mediator between God and man, himself man, Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 2,5-6). The mediator (God and man) and redeemer (a ransom for all) is absolutely unique. Mary is virgin mother, free of evil desire and free of death’s decay—but she is not divine or to be adored.

Those Who Hear

It was the will of the Council Fathers to speak clearly on Mary, the Virgin Mother. St. Augustine was quoted: “clearly she is the mother of the members of Christ.” The Council of Ephesus (431) is even more explicit, “She is the mother of God.”

Why not? Our Lord himself gave her a priority of honor and love, at Cana and at Calvary. The gospels and the Acts of the Apostles fill in more details—the message of the incarnation at Nazareth, and her presence in prayer on Pentecost.

But the most poignant incident (and perhaps the most unbelievable) concerned the woman in the crowd who called out “blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts that nursed you!’ (Luke 11, 27). Why did Jesus apparently rebuff his mother?

His answer, as St. Augustine writes, turns the rebuff into a rare tribute. “Rather, blessed are they who hear the word of God and keep it.” Mary’s greatness, her holiness is not primarily that she was his physical mother. Rather she is all holy, blessed and full of grace because she is most like Christ in mind and will. Like Son, like Mother.

Her great gifts were not honors. They flowed from her own goodness, a holiness foreordained by the Father. She was conceived without flaw. So that she would be distracted by nothing that would distort God’s glory. She was a virgin because she was totally and personally dedicated to her love for God. She was taken into heaven, soul and body, without corruption, because she is the first of the redeemed. (Godfrey Dickmann, “Mary Model of Our Worship”)

Madonna In Plastic

We do her a disservice when we sentimentalize this pure creature as “Our Lady of the Goldfish” or stick plastic Madonnas near the car window.

Too often we pay tribute to Mary the cult of the trivial. As Msgr. Montini (now Paul VI) said in 1954: “Anxious and self-interested pleading for help in moments of need” must not be substituted for “that character of maturity and depth so necessary in the spiritual life.”

Protestants And Mary

An Emory professor, Dr. John Lawson, recently examined the popular Protestant view of the Virgin Mother:--

“Popular Roman Catholic devotion to the Virgin is excessive, and despite the disclaimers of Roman Theologians will inevitably be misunderstood among simple people as idolatry.” (and he adds, many responsible Protestant theologians.)

He analyzes Marian theology, and concludes that the great difficulty to Protestants is “an inherited distaste; emotional and esthetic rather theological or rational.”

Here is one of the standard roadblocks to ecumenism. But it is worth examining. That is why the direction of the Church today is Christo-centric, not Mary-oriented.

A retired Protestant minister once said to me: “When I realize that in 30 years of sermons, I never once preached on the Mother of Christ, I am ashamed. In honor to this great woman I have not followed Christ.”

Lawson makes an example of the Middle Ages when Marian abuses ran wild. But a poor and simple people found the images of Christ, the agonizing Redeemer, and the Christ the stern judge—truths and they are—quite unapproachable. The balance of Christian life was gone. We must restore it by an unflinching belief in Christ the one mediator. And we need Mary to take her due place.

Reflected Glory

It is a place neither too high nor low, and its glory must be reflected from her divine Son. “Our Lady of Mercy,” a woman, a mother, is needed for a heart of tender sympathy which understands. Certainly the Redeemer and Judge understand, but do God’s people?

On one side Vatican II warns Christians against stripping the scriptures and history of the Church of “the unique dignity of the Mother of God.” But it warns too against “false exaggeration?” It has happened before—read the warning of St. Bernard and St. Bonaventure.

As both Protestants and Catholics come to understand the place of Mary in the Church, a great ecumenical step forward will be taken.

Father Karl Rahner, one of the Church’s most eminent theologians, closed a retreat with this prayer.

“Holy Virgin, you walked the way of all the children of this earth, the narrow paths wandering so aimlessly through this life of time, commonplace sorrowful roads until death. But they were God’s way…and in a moment that never passes, but remains valid for all eternity, your voice became the voice of mankind, your yes was the Amen of all creation.”

Paul J. Hallinan

Archbishop Of Atlanta