Hi *****‚ I am so happy that you wrote to me. I very much enjoy having a deep theological discussion. Especially with those of other Christian persuasions. Because I think one of the greatest things we can do towards Christian unity is to more deeply understand each other. And at the end of the day even if we don't agree we can't help but have more respect for each other by understanding why we believe what we believe and how we have arrived at those beliefs. For I am pretty sure if there is one thing which is true of just about all Christians is that we believe that we are following God's word in order to do his will. And when I sit down with other Christians I often times find that we are closer in belief and we previously thought.
Normally I would not start out on the subject of Mary because it is a pretty large subject and if there is one subject in which Protestants are likely to find objections to the Catholic faith it is this one.
CS Lewis and his introduction to mere Christianity writes this.
“There is no controversy between Christians which needs to be so delicately touched as this [concerning Mary]. The Roman Catholic beliefs on that subject are held not only with the ordinary fervour that attaches to all sincere religious belief, but (very naturally) with the peculiar and, as it were, chivalrous sensibility that a man feels when the honour of his mother or his beloved is at stake. It is very difficult so to dissent from them that you will not appear to them a cad as well as a heretic. And contrariwise, the opposed Protestant beliefs on this subject call forth feelings which go down to the very roots of all Monotheism. To radical Protestants it seems that the distinction between Creator and creature (however holy) is imperilled: that Polytheism is risen again. Hence it is hard so to dissent from them that you will not appear worse than a heretic — a Pagan.”
But since you asked I am happy to answer to the best of my ability and I hope I can do the Catholic understanding some justice.
You asked about terminology‚ most Catholics will refer to her in one of the following ways. The Virgin Mary‚ The Blessed Virgin‚ The Blessed Mother or simply as Our Lady. To keep things simple going forward in this I will just refer to her as Mary.
Before I explain what we believe about her I think it is important to make some distinctions which I think will help clear up some possible misconceptions about what Catholics believe about Mary.
First‚ though we believe that she is the most perfect creature ever created. She is still just that a creature. And as such it is absolutely forbidden to worship her.
Second‚ the primary role of Mary is to point the way to her son Jesus. We believe this was summed up perfectly at the wedding feast in Cana when she turns to the servants and says do whatever he tells you.
And thirdly‚ any Holiness she has achieved is strictly through the saving work of her son. The Church Fathers compared her to the moon. In that the moon appears bright but in actuality has no light of its own but simply reflects the light of the sun.
With those distinctions in mind‚ we do believe that she was preserved from the effects of original sin at the moment of her conception. That throughout her life she did not commit personal sin. And at the end of her life she was assumed into heaven. We also believe that in spiritual sense she is the mother of all Christians.
We do not believe this because of Scripture but we believe that we believe this because we have always believed it. We do however think that Scripture and Tradition both support this belief.
Though for the last one that she was assumed into heaven Scripture has less to say about it since at the time that it happened most of Scripture had already been written except for maybe the Book of Revelation.
However as I mentioned last time we talked that God would assume someone into Heaven is not entirely without precedent. As we read in the book of 2 Kings Elijah was assumed into heaven. If we Catholics are correct in our assertion that Mary was the greatest creature whoever lived and God saw fit that Elijah should not see death then it seems fitting that he would do the same for her.
I assume you will find Scripture to be the most persuasive so I will focus mostly on it.
To quote St Augustine‚ “The New Testament lies hidden in the Old, and the Old Testament is unveiled in the New.” To understand the sinlessness of Mary it is helpful look at how she is the fulfillment of three types in the Old Testament. The first is Mary as the new Arc of the Covenant. The second is Mary as Queen Mother. And the third is Mary as the New Eve.
In the next email I will try to cover Mary as the Ark of the New Covenant and try to explore some of the implications of that. Then in the following email I will try to cover Mary as Queen Mother and her as the New Eve. All of this will be just an introduction so if there are specifics you would like to go into more detail about please feel free to let me know.
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