Is Mary Divine?

On June 16th, the Pacific Daily News featured an article with the provocative headline, “Christian belief in divine Mary sees revival.”  I haven’t figured out whether Michael McGough affixed this title to the piece originally, or whether a copywriter at the PDN added it.  This article with its title, however, raises a number of issues in an irresponsible way.  Let’s try to deal with them one at a time.  For starters, let’s make it clear that the Catholic Church knows of no “divine Mary.”  The first qualification for being the mother of the Word made flesh is to be human, not “divine.”  A “divine Mary” would never be able to give to Jesus a human nature.  That is what he needed to become our savior.  Mary is the Mother of God, not because she is “divine,” but because the child to who she gave birth is divine.  Because she is the mother of Jesus she is the Mother of God.

Mary, the New Eve

Secondly, Michael McGough reports he had a traumatic experience regarding the Blessed Mother.  His own dear mother and grandmother informed him that Mary was an easier touch than Jesus was when it came to salvation.  “If Jesus won’t let you in the front door of Heave, Mary will let you in the back door.”  The whole idea is ridiculous, not because there’s a control problem on the doors of heaven - as if somehow you could manipulate the softhearted Mary at the back door better than you could the sterner Jesus turning you away at the front door.  The truth is that there are no doors to heaven.  The Lord is not trying to lock anybody out.  The problem is that the devil has convinced the hell-bound that God is a monster.  “Even though things might not be the best, they are worse outside,” he says to whoever will listen.  “So don’t leave.”  That’s why hell doesn’t have any doors either.  The devil doesn’t need to go to the expense.  He has convinced his cronies that their only hope for happiness is to do whatever the heck they want.  The strategy began long ago in the beginning, the day the devil wiggled his way into Paradise.  He looked around and spied little Eve.  “You’ve got a nice place here,” he said.  “I rather like it.  But I hear you’ve got a problem here.  You can’t eat from any of these trees.  The old grunge don’t let you.”  Little Eve was shocked.  She never heard anyone speak this way before.  “Oh sir,” she said, “you misunderstand.  It’s only the one is the middle of the garden that we can’t eat from.  God said that if we eat from it we will die.”  Now the one in the middle was the tree of the knowledge of good and bad, which is to say the knowledge of what is good for me and what is bad for me.  The Lord said: “I’m the only one around here who knows what is good for you and what is bad for you.  Trust me.  Don’t try to be the one that decides what is good or bad for you.”  The devil spun around, and in a fit of exasperation, shouted, “Girl!  How dumb can you be?  Don’t you see what he’s up to?  He just wants to put a bag over your head and keep you dumb and stupid.  He doesn’t want you to know the difference between good and bad so that he can keep all the cookies for himself.  He doesn’t love you.  There is no God who loves you.”  At this point, Eve went into double shock.  “Oh my gosh,” she said, rubbing her head with her hands.  “All these years, I have been going around, thinking that God really loved me.  But, maybe, maybe the guy’s right!”  Bumm!  That’s all it took.  The devil planted in her heart and in the hearts of all her children a doubt about the love of God.  This is a doubt that we all experience.  Whenever anything (that we consider to be bad) happens to us, the devil pops up to whisper to us:  “You poor thing!  You didn’t deserve that.  Didn’t I tell you?  There is no God who loves you.  If there were, this would never have happened.  If there is a god, he is either unable to help you, or, if he is able, he is a monster for not helping.”  Eve shook her head and said, “You know, I think the guy is telling me the truth.  What a fool I’ve been all these years.  Adam, let’s have a bite.”  With that, Adam and Eve both ate, and their eyes were opened, for they tasted death.  If there is no God who loved them, then where were they to get the love they needed to secure their lives?  This is the reason that Hell doesn’t need to have any doors.  The devil has convinced us all that God is a monster whenever the cross appears.  “It may be bad in here, but it’s worse outside,” he says.

The problem that God then faced was how to get this doubt out of our hearts.  His only begotten Son said to him, “Father, sent me.  Let them see what happens when someone gives another answer in front of the tree.”  The Word wanted to become flesh to reveal to us that God is love.  He would come as the New Adam so that the children of the Old Adam might taste life.  But there was one problem.  There had to be a woman to birth to the Son.  Since all are touched by Original Sin and in need of redemption, a New Eve would have to be redeemed in a way that was fitting for her mission, so that when the new angel came she could freely give herself to God’s plan.  Only by the grace of God, merited for her my her son, could the New Eve (Mary) have said the angel “Be it done to me according to your will (Lk 1:38).  And so it was that God to the wicked angel, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will strike your head, and you will strike his heel” (Gen 3:15).  This grace given to the New Eve (the human Mary) the Catholic Church calls her Immaculate Conception.  What is unscriptural about that?

Mary, Our Mother

By his death on the cross, Jesus won the victory over sin and death.  He shared that victory with Mary, his mother, the victory over sin at her conception, and the victory over death in his Assumption after her death.  Rev. 12:1 says: “A great portent appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.”  What is unscriptural about that?  This is why, although hell doesn’t have doors, it does have shades.  The devil doesn’t want his little flock to see this sign of Mary that God has put in the heavens as a sign of his faithfulness and his love.

Mr. McGough, if Mary is just your sister, then you end up being the uncle of Jesus.  The Lord has a better idea.  He wants to make you a brother of Jesus.  That way, as the Catholic Church has long understood, Mary becomes your mother too.  This is why we Catholics have such a love for Mary.  She is the mother of our Lord.  Without her, there would be no Jesus.

Mary, the Queen Mother

The final item Mr. McGough mentions is the Seattle Statement.  Why should the brothers and sisters of Jesus find Mary such a threat to the truth about Jesus?  Time will tell if the Holy Spirit has made us one in faith.  We cannot allow any statement to paper over differences.  Too much is at stake.  Is it really true that Jesus is the fulfillment of the promise made to our father David (Lk 1:32-33)?  If so, then as he sits on his throne, the Davidic king will have his queen mother as part of his royal court with him.  This is why Mary is not just “a nice lady mentioned in the Bible.”