Most converts from Protestant churches to the Catholic church will tell you that the most difficult teachings of the Church are those regarding Mary. Intellectually the arguments are not that difficult but to overcome years of conditioning is difficult to say the least. There was conference in Lubbock this weekend that dealt with the Biblical reasons for the Church's teachings on Mary. It helped me to have a deeper appreciation for Biblicity of the Church's actual teachings on Mary. Many of you had the opportunity to go and hear some of their recommended readings. I would like to suggest a few as well. First is "Catholic for a Reason II, Scripture and the Mystery of the Mother of God." Ed. Hahn and Suprenant. Second, "Hail Holy Queen," Hahn. I am sure there are other great books. Of course you know my two favs on most matters are Armstrong "Biblical Defense of Catholicism" and Romero's "Unabridged Christianity."
I would like to take a couple of minutes and address two things. 1. Why the uneasiness surrounding the Church's teachings on Mary. 2. A brief look at the Biblical background for those teachings. For those of you in my class this is a brief description of what we are studying.
1. Jennifer and I were working out at the gym a couple of weeks ago. They have four thousand tvs at the gym that play everything from Oprah to Fox News. One of the stations was a rap a channel. There was a guy singing about his great love for his, well, woman. Showing a great deal of disregard for women and decency at the same time. On his jacket were two pictures. On the left a Rosary on the right La Virgen de Guadalupe. (Mary as she revealed herself to Juan Diego, more about it later.) I got mad at seeing it but wasn't surprised. Mary in many parts of the world has become more of a cultural icon than a guide to holiness. This is one of the reasons there is such uneasiness about Mary...she is seldom understood by the vast majority of people who claim to be Catholic and this representation carries over into the world. When a protestant asks a Catholic about their worship of Mary rather than saying we don't worship her they don't know for the above reasons. I thought for the longest time that Catholics worshipped Mary to the neglect of Jesus. I was right and wrong. Many fallen away and other mildly committed Catholics plaster their walls with pictures of Mary and neglect the One she wishes we would go to. I was wrong because the Church is clear about the fact that Catholics are not supposed to worship Mary. She is our guide, she is the mother of God, she is our mother but she is not God. So when I as a protestant I felt weird about being around people who seemed to worship her to the neglect of Christ. As well I had been taught many things that the Catholic church supposedly taught about Mary. Most were not true. I viewed her as a great follower who had been given a wonderful responsibility of bearing Christ. After Jesus though I believed her work was done and she lived faithful to God at best. I never looked at her from a Biblical lens and knew few people who had. So, the cultural misrepresentations, the weak Catholics and the false preconditioning left me wanting to run from any idea of honoring Mary. When I converted I could make a Biblical argument but my heart was still tense about the matter. I assumed this will take a while to overcome. However it is important to understand that what the Catholic church teaches about Mary is Biblical. Someone who speaks as an authority about what the Catholic church teaches, from outside the church, usually does so based on the information provided by marginally informed Catholics. I would encourage both Protestant and Catholic Christians to read what the Church teaches on Mary. Catechism of the Catholic Church 963 and following.
2. Is there any Biblical evidence for what the Church teaches about Mary?
I have already written too much so I will list some verses below with a brief description of why. Read them in their greater Biblical context. As well ask questions if you want, I am not saying I have the answers but you can ask.
Revelation 11:19= John sees the Ark of the Covenant. Revelation 12 the Ark, it is Mary.
Parallels between 2Sam 6 and Luke 1
-Arose and went to Judah
-Blessed
-Mother/Ark come to me
-Leaping
-Three months
(You have to read the text for that to make sense, but look for those key words when you do.)
The brothers of Jesus are from another Mary, according to the New Testament
-Matthew 13:55
-Matt 27:55-56; 27:61; 28:1
-John 19:25
She is identified as Mary the mother of the others then John tells us she is the other Mary.
Ok that is a good start and I am running out of time. I don't get to hang out on the computer all the time.
6 comments:
Thank you for this Eben! I just wanted to make a few comments. If anybody is interested in learning about what the Catholic Church teaches READ THE CATECHISM, go to a priest or a faithful, involved Catholic, and/or go to a class. (I happen to know of a wonderful class here in Lubbock taught on Thursday nights at CTK by a really handsome bald guy!) DON'T ask a non-Catholic or an uninvolved Catholic (meaning a person who claims to be Catholic, but is not involved past Sunday mass-if even that). What I am getting at is that you should check your source. If what you are hearing isn't backed up by the Catechism, then it isn't a teaching of the Church. If what you are hearing isn't scriptural, then it DEFINITELY isn't a teaching of the Church!
Does it matter if it's backed up by Catechism, or if it's backed up by the Bible?
It is backed up by both. The church is a servant of scripture. Tradition and scripture work in unison, not in contrast to one another. The assumption that they are opposed usually comes from people teaching about what they heard the Catholic church teaches, many times these teachings are non-biblical, and should be dealt with. This says it better than I could, this is taken from the Catechism number 101-108
101 In order to reveal himself to men, in the condescension of his goodness God speaks to them in human words: "Indeed the words of God, expressed in the words of men, are in every way like human language, just as the Word of the eternal Father, when he took on himself the flesh of human weakness, became like men."63
102 Through all the words of Sacred Scripture, God speaks only one single Word, his one Utterance in whom he expresses himself completely:64
You recall that one and the same Word of God extends throughout Scripture, that it is one and the same Utterance that resounds in the mouths of all the sacred writers, since he who was in the beginning God with God has no need of separate syllables; for he is not subject to time.65
103 For this reason, the Church has always venerated the Scriptures as she venerates the Lord's Body. She never ceases to present to the faithful the bread of life, taken from the one table of God's Word and Christ's Body.66
104 In Sacred Scripture, the Church constantly finds her nourishment and her strength, for she welcomes it not as a human word, "but as what it really is, the word of God".67 "In the sacred books, the Father who is in heaven comes lovingly to meet his children, and talks with them."68
II. INSPIRATION AND TRUTH OF SACRED SCRIPTURE
105 God is the author of Sacred Scripture. "The divinely revealed realities, which are contained and presented in the text of Sacred Scripture, have been written down under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit."69
"For Holy Mother Church, relying on the faith of the apostolic age, accepts as sacred and canonical the books of the Old and the New Testaments, whole and entire, with all their parts, on the grounds that, written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, they have God as their author, and have been handed on as such to the Church herself."70
106 God inspired the human authors of the sacred books. "To compose the sacred books, God chose certain men who, all the while he employed them in this task, made full use of their own faculties and powers so that, though he acted in them and by them, it was as true authors that they consigned to writing whatever he wanted written, and no more."71
107 The inspired books teach the truth. "Since therefore all that the inspired authors or sacred writers affirm should be regarded as affirmed by the Holy Spirit, we must acknowledge that the books of Scripture firmly, faithfully, and without error teach that truth which God, for the sake of our salvation, wished to see confided to the Sacred Scriptures."72
108 Still, the Christian faith is not a "religion of the book." Christianity is the religion of the "Word" of God, a word which is "not a written and mute word, but the Word is incarnate and living".73 If the Scriptures are not to remain a dead letter, Christ, the eternal Word of the living God, must, through the Holy Spirit, "open [our] minds to understand the Scriptures."74
I hope that helps because I want it to be clear that we are not bypassing scripture but take it in it's whole.
So were the verses you just quoted out of the actual bible?
No. You asked if "it matter if it's backed up by Catechism, or if it's backed up by the Bible?" The original post contained the scripture. I was quoting Catechism to show that the two work in unison not contrast to one another. If you are making a statement about the Catechism being my actual bible I want to be clear that it is not. While it is true that the church is the servant of scripture and through it's pastoral ministry, Catechism, guides us closer to the Author scripture is of utmost importance. If that's not what you were saying cool but lately people have assumed I believed certain things because the information came from dishonest people. Read the texts that were on the post and the last response I think it makes it clear.
Resources like the one you mentioned here will be very useful to me! I will post a link to this page on my blog. I am sure my visitors will find that very useful.
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