Hi!
Since the feast/solemnity of the Immaculate Conception is about to be upon us, I was curious as to why Catholics focus so much on Mary?
I was always taught that Christianity was about Jesus!
With all of the Protestant Churches I have gone to, there is barely a mention that she even existed.
I was always taught that only Jesus was sinless. I know that Catholics argue that she was “full of grace” per the bible.
Doesn’t the bible say that all of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God? Since Jesus is God it makes sense that he would be sinless. It seems like a bit of a contradiction here. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, yet Mary was full of grace?
Also, if she is the Queen of Heaven does that make God her husband? Sounds like Mormonism.
And why do people believe in the Marian apparitions? Did Juan Diego really exist? I thought that once you died, you were not able to come back from the afterlife.
Many good things can be said of the Blessed Virgin Mary from many different angles from the sources of divine revelation, that is, from Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition.
I will just mention a few here. Firstly, Jesus Christ did not appear on the earth out of the blue as an adult man. By God’s will and the divine plan of the redemption of the human race, the eternal Son of God became incarnate for the salvation of the human race in the womb of the Blessed Virgin by her free assent to the message of the angel Gabriel at the Annuciation. Jesus Christ took flesh through the power of the Holy Spirit in the womb of Mary for the salvation of the human race. Mary freely cooperated with God’s will in His plan for the salvation and redemption of the human race. And Mary together with St Joseph raised Jesus. Thus the Catechism of the Catholic Church says " “In a wholly singular way she cooperated by her obedience, faith, hope, and burning charity in the Savior’s work of restoring supernatural life to souls. For this reason she is a mother to us in the order of grace.” (#968).
And (CCC#494): As St. Irenaeus says, “Being obedient she became the cause of salvation for herself and for the whole human race.” Hence not a few of the early Fathers gladly assert. . .: “The knot of Eve’s disobedience was untied by Mary’s obedience: what the virgin Eve bound through her disbelief, Mary loosened by her faith.” Comparing her with Eve, they call Mary “the Mother of the living” and frequently claim: “Death through Eve, life through Mary.”
And (CCC#488): “The Father of mercies willed that the Incarnation should be preceded by assent on the part of the predestined mother, so that just as a woman had a share in the coming of death, so also should a woman contribute to the coming of life.”
Mary’s cooperation in the divine plan of salvation did not end with the incarnation of Jesus Christ or at her death. We find our Blessed Lady at the foot of the cross at Jesus’s crucifixion uniting her sufferings with that of Jesus to the Father for the redemption of the human race “And a sword will pierce your own soul too” (Luke 2:35). On the cross, Jesus gave us Mary to be our mother. So, the CCC#969 says " “This motherhood of Mary in the order of grace continues uninterruptedly from the consent which she loyally gave at the Annunciation and which she sustained without wavering beneath the cross, until the eternal fulfilment of all the elect. Taken up to heaven she did not lay aside this saving office but by her manifold intercession continues to bring us the gifts of eternal salvation … Therefore the Blessed Virgin is invoked in the Church under the titles of Advocate, Helper, Benefactress, and Mediatrix.”
And again " Jesus is Mary’s only son, but her spiritual motherhood extends to all men whom indeed he came to save: “The Son whom she brought forth is he whom God placed as the first-born among many brethren, that is, the faithful in whose generation and formation she co-operates with a mother’s love.”(CCC#501).
If we meditate and contemplate on all this and on Mary’s role in the divine plan of salvation, we can see why the Catholic Church and catholics should honor and love our Blessed Mother, as Jesus did, with special devotion. We honor, esteem, and love her out of gratitude and thanksgiving as well as because of the role she plays in our spiritual lives as Mother of divine grace. Mary loves us much more than we can return her love for us to her. The fourth commandment of God is “Honor thy father and thy mother.” God is our Father and Mary is our spiritual mother. The Scripture says “like one who stores up treasure, so also is he who honors his mother” (Sirach 3:4). And “those who provoke their mother are accursed by their Creator.” (Sirach 3:16).
Mary is God’s masterpiece of creation, His most perfect creature and the one who is like God more than any other creature. When we honor and love our Blessed Mother, we are also honoring He who created her, that is, God. We are honoring He, the Artist, who made such a beautiful creature.
