James,
Greetings to you. I am excited to hear about your interest in the Catholic Church. As a convert to the Church (from Presbyterianism), it always excites me to hear about this sort of thing.
Being reluctant about “all that Mary business” is a very normal thing to occur for those new to the Church. Before I make my remarks, I would like to recommend you some excellent resources that will clear all of this up for you.
Catholic Apologist Mark Shea’s Trilogy “Mary, Mother of the Son”. This series is an all encompassing look at Mary in Catholicism that looks at it from every possible angle and does great in depth explanations of all Marian related teachings. It can be found here:
amazon.com/Mary-Mother-Son-Vol-I/dp/1933919191/ref=pd_sim_b_1
amazon.com/Mary-Mother-Son-Vol-II/dp/1933919205/ref=cm_cr-mr-title
amazon.com/Mary-Mother-Son-Vol-III/dp/1933919213/ref=pd_sim_b_2
Also helpful is this book:
amazon.com/Refuting-Attack-Mary-Defense-Doctrines/dp/1888992085/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1382744020&sr=1-1&keywords=refuting+the+attack+on+mary
Now, let me say two things by way of clarification.
1. Not every claimed “vision” about Mary is approved by the Church. There is plenty of nonsense out there, and weird people claiming all manner of things. That’s why it’s good to stick to the officially Church approved visions.
2. Although Marian devotion in the West and East can take significantly different forms, you will find that Marian devotion in the East can be very intense. In terms of the actual liturgy, it far surpasses anything in the west. In addition, the early Protestant reformers held to a significant Marian take on things, but it faded with the advent of Puritanism.
Now, let me give you just a brief run down of some of the key Marian concepts in the Church, hopefully this will help you understand it all a bit better.
The starting concept is this: The Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, in assuming a human nature, became the only person who had the opportunity to choose his own Mother. All of us are born with Mothers that were not of our choosing. But Christ was able to choose whom he wished to dwell in, indeed, even create her! It is for this reason that Catholics hold that Mary is the star of God’s creation, because God prepared her as his own holy temple! It is for this reason the Church teaches the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception. Mary was preserved from all stain of Original Sin because she was to be a Holy Ark of the New covenant, if you will, in which The Lord of Glory would dwell.
Now, in the account of the Fall of mankind in Genesis we see that through Eve’s disobedience, Adam plunged the human race into death. Eve made the fall possible, and the fall was actually enacted through the transgression of Adam. In redemption, Mary will make redemption possible, and Christ will actually redeem us. We see not only Christ as a new and better Adam, but Mary as a new and better Eve. God wanted the free consent of his creature in this redemption, and he got it in Mary, who is the ultimate Daughter of Zion. Mary’s “Yes!” to God is what enabled the Incarnation and Redemption. It is this reason that the Church fathers said “Death through Eve, Life through Mary.” Mary’s “yes” to God continued all the way through the ministry of Jesus, to the end of her life. She never forsook God through any personal sin.
Moving on, then, Mary is not only the Mother of Jesus, but our Spiritual Mother as well. This is apart of what it means to be United to Christ. When Christ was on the Cross he said to the Apostle John, who was at the foot of the cross in place of all of us, “Man, behold thy Mother”. We believe this was spoken to all of us. Indeed, Revelation 12 speaks of those who follow the testimony of Jesus as “offspring” of the woman. So Mary is the Mother of all believers. She was with Jesus at the hour of his death, and her sufferings were closely united to his sufferings on the Cross.
At the end of Mary’s earthly life, the Church teaches she was assumed into heaven, both body and Spirit, by God. This was Christ’s special reward to his most faithful follower. The womb that bore the incarnate Son of God would not be allowed to see corruption.
When Mary was then in heavenly glory, she was crowned as the Queen of Heaven and Earth. This has Old Testament roots.In the Davidic Kingdom, the Queen Mother would rule on a throne beside her King Son. This emphasized the Son’s rightful decent. It is the same way in the New Covenant, Mary reigns under Christ as the Queen. In this role, as the Queen and The Mother of the Faithful, she intercedes for us, being closest to her Son, bringing us the fruit of her womb, Jesus.
That is a very brief synopsis of Catholic Marian belief, but the end of the matter is this: We honor Mary because we worship Christ. Mary is our Mother and guide in the faith, who ever anew shows us the blessed fruit of Her womb, Jesus.
