Mary
What role does Mary play in our relationship with God?
The Catholic Catechism teaches that
“...the Blessed Virgin is invoked in the Church under the titles of Advocate, Helper, Benefactress, and Mediatrix” (para. 969).
“Advocate,” “Helper,” “Benefactress,” and “Mediatrix” are not just descriptions of Mary’s role in our relationship with God, they are titles given to Mary by the Catholic Church. Let’s look at these titles and compare them to how they are used in the Bible.
First, let’s look at “advocate.”
“...if anyone does sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous one” (1 John 2:1).
“...I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Advocate to be with you always, the Spirit of truth...” (John 14:16–17).
“The Advocate, the Holy Spirit that the Father will send in my name—he will teach you everything and remind you of all that (I) told you” (John 14:26).
Next, let’s look at “helper.”
“ ‘The Lord is my helper, [and] I will not be afraid’ ” (Hebrews 13:6).
“God is present as my Helper; the Lord sustains my life” (Psalm 54:6).
Next, let’s look at “mediatrix.”
“...There is also one mediator between God and the human race, Jesus Christ...” (1 Timothy 2:5).
Since Jesus is the “one mediator between God and the human race,” Mary cannot be another.
Finally, let’s look at “benefactress.” A benefactress, or benefactor, is basically a helper. Although God is never referred to as our Benefactor in The New American Bible for Catholics, as shown above, it is God who is our Helper.
“Advocate,” “Helper,” “Benefactress,” and “Mediatrix” are all applied to God the Father, God the Son, or God the Holy Spirit—all God. Nowhere does the Bible record any of these titles in reference to Mary, because the titles belong to God, not her. Although the Bible does not teach that all uses of these words are reserved only for reference to God, the Bible does not give any of these titles to any person to elevate their position above others, as the Catholic Catechism has done with Mary. While Mary was alive on Earth, she most likely helped others and most likely prayed for others; she therefore could have been considered a helper—but not our Helper; a mediator—but not our Mediator; an advocate—but not our Advocate; a benefactress—but not our Benefactress. These titles should be applied to her in the same manner that they would be to other godly people of the Bible, but not as they are applied to God the Father, Son, or Holy Spirit. Giving Mary the title of Mediatrix between God and mankind clearly and directly contradicts God’s Word which states that there is
“...one mediator between God and the human race, Jesus Christ...” (1 Timothy 2:5).
Who does the Bible say Mary was?
Luke 1:28 says that the angel Gabriel spoke to Mary, saying,
“Hail, favored one! The Lord is with you.” (Luke 1:28)
Mary did find favor in God’s sight, but others in the Bible also found favor in God’s sight. One such example is Noah,
“...Noah found favor with the Lord” (Genesis 6:8).
Being favored by God, or finding favor in His sight, is a wonderful thing, but it is not exclusive to Mary and therefore does not make her more special than the others.
The Bible also tells us that when Mary went to visit her cousin Elizabeth before Jesus’ birth, Elizabeth said to Mary,
“Most blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb...” (Luke 1:42).
The Bible tells us here that Mary was truly the most blessed among women, but compared to God, she was still a woman—not a Helper or a Benefactor or an Advocate or a Mediatrix, all titles that belong to God alone.
The verses above are the only verses in the Bible that speak of Mary in a favorable manner. Nowhere in the Bible is she spoken of unfavorably, but neither is she spoken of in any manner that would lead one to believe that she should be exalted. Teaching that Mary is a Helper, Benefactress, Advocate, or Mediatrix is definitely not from the Bible.
How did Jesus address Mary?
At the wedding feast of Cana, Jesus spoke the following to Mary:
“Woman, how does your concern affect me? My hour has not yet come” (John 2:4).
When Jesus was hanging on the cross, He said to Mary,
“ ‘Woman, behold your son.’ Then He said to the disciple, ‘Behold, your mother.’ And from that hour the disciple took her into his home” (John 19:26–27).
Earlier when Jesus was told that His mother and brothers wanted to speak to Him, Jesus replied,
“ ‘Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?’ And stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, ‘Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my heavenly Father is my brother, and sister, and mother’ ” (Matthew 12:48–50).
In the first two passages above, Jesus referred to His mother as “woman.” He did not show disrespect for her, but neither did He show her any special respect or honor. He referred to her as “woman,” which shows that she was just that—a woman. Jesus did not address her as “Most Holy Mother,” nor did He even address her as “mother.” Although Mary was a very special and righteous woman, she was still just a woman—not a venerated Helper or Benefactor, and definitely not an Advocate or Mediatrix.
Luke 11:27 and 28 demonstrate Jesus’ lack of emphasis on the importance of Mary:
“While he was speaking, a woman from the crowd called out and said to him, ‘Blessed is the womb that carried you and the breasts at which you nursed.’ He replied, ‘Rather, blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it.’ ” (Luke 11:27-28)
The woman was publicly proclaiming that Mary was a special person who deserved special blessing. Some explain that this praise was intended to show that Mary was blessed because of Jesus. Either way, it was the perfect opportunity for Jesus to say, “Yes, My mother, Mary, is to be blessed and exalted.” Or at least, “Yes, you are correct.” But instead, Jesus responded by turning attention away from Mary and to the importance of hearing and observing God’s Word. He said, “Rather, blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it.” Jesus clearly placed greater value on God’s Word and the importance of hearing and observing it than He did on Mary.
Is Mary the “All-Holy One”?
The Catholic Catechism identifies Mary as the “All-Holy One”:
“By asking Mary to pray for us, we acknowledge ourselves to be poor sinners and we address ourselves to the ‘Mother of Mercy,’ the All-Holy One” (para. 2677).
However, the Bible tells us that God alone is holy:
“Who will not fear you, Lord, or glorify your name? For you alone are holy” (Revelation 15:4).
If God alone is holy, can Mary be the “All-Holy One”? The Bible tells us in numerous other places that God is the Holy One. One example is from the book of Psalms:
“Restore my honor; turn and comfort me, That I may praise you with the lyre for your faithfulness, my God, And sing to you with the harp, O Holy One of Israel” (Psalm 71:21, 22).
There are other references to the “Holy One” throughout the Bible; each one refers to God, either God the Father or God the Son. God is the only All-Holy One. To be the All-Holy One, Mary would have had to be sinless her entire life.
Was Mary sinless her entire life?
The Catholic Catechism teaches that Mary was free from original sin:
“Through the centuries the Church has become ever more aware that Mary, ‘full of grace’ through God, was redeemed from the moment of her conception. That is what the dogma of the Immaculate Conception confesses, as Pius IX proclaimed in 1854: ‘The most Blessed Virgin Mary was, from the first moment of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege of almighty God and by virtue of the merits of Jesus Christ, Savior of the human race, preserved immune from all stain of original sin’ ” (para. 491).
Many think that the “immaculate conception” refers to Jesus’ conception, when in fact the Catholic Catechism teaches that it refers to the conception of Mary! The doctrine of the Immaculate Conception cannot be found anywhere in the Bible, and it did not become Catholic doctrine until 1854. The Catholic Catechism teaches that Mary never sinned:
“By the grace of God Mary remained free of every personal sin her whole life long” (para. 493).
In contrast, the Bible teaches that
“All have gone astray; all alike are worthless; there is not one who does good, [there is not] even one” (Romans 3:12).
And that
“...all have sinned and are deprived of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).
Romans 3 does not state that “all except Mary have sinned” or that “most have sinned.” Instead, it states that “all have sinned” and that “there is not one who does good, [there is not] even one.” “Not even one” means that not even Mary was without sin. We are all sinners, and we all need to be saved from our sins; therefore we all need a Savior. If someone had never sinned, that one would not need a Savior. Mary acknowledged her sin and need of a Savior when she said,
“My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord; my spirit rejoices in God my Savior” (Luke 1:46, 47).
If Mary had never sinned, she would have had no need for a Savior.
Should we trust in Mary, “the ark of the covenant”?
The true ark of the covenant, not to be confused with Noah’s ark, that the Lord told the Israelites to build is described in the book of Exodus:
“ ‘They shall make a sanctuary for me, that I may dwell in their midst. This Dwelling and all its furnishings you shall make exactly according to the pattern that I will now show you. You shall make an ark of acacia wood...’ ” (Exodus 25:8–10).
In this passage, the ark is referred to only as “an ark.” However, that same ark is later called “the ark of the covenant.” Deuteronomy 10:8 says,
“At that time the Lord set apart the tribe of Levi to carry the ark of the covenant of the Lord, to be in attendance before the Lord and minister to him, and to give blessings in his name, as they have done to this day.” (Deuteronomy 10:8)
The ark of the covenant was made as a dwelling place for God. And since Jesus, God the Son, dwelt in Mary’s womb, the Catholic Catechism teaches that Mary is the new “ark of the covenant”:
“Full of grace, the Lord is with thee: These two phrases of the angel’s greeting shed light on one another. Mary is full of grace because the Lord is with her. The grace with which she is filled is the presence of him who is the source of all grace. ‘Rejoice . . . O Daughter of Jerusalem . . . the Lord your God is in your midst.’ Mary, in whom the Lord himself has just made his dwelling, is the daughter of Zion in person, the ark of the covenant, the place where the glory of the Lord dwells. She is ‘the dwelling of God . . . with men.’ Full of grace, Mary is wholly given over to him who has come to dwell in her and whom she is about to give to the world” (para. 2676; italics in original).
Since Jesus did dwell in Mary’s womb during her pregnancy, a person could possibly compare Mary to the ark of the covenant. But after Jesus’ birth, He no longer dwelt in Mary’s womb, and therefore any comparisons should end there. But the Catholic Catechism teaches that Mary is still the “ark of the covenant” and that we should trust in her. The Catholic Catechism teaches:
“Because she gives us Jesus, her son, Mary is Mother of God and our mother; we can entrust all our cares and petitions to her: she prays for us as she prayed for herself: ‘Let it be to me according to your word.’ By entrusting ourselves to her prayer, we abandon ourselves to the will of God together with her: ‘Thy will be done.’
Pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death: By asking Mary to pray for us, we acknowledge ourselves to be poor sinners and we address ourselves to the ‘Mother of Mercy,’ the All-Holy One. We give ourselves over to her now, in the Today of our lives. And our trust broadens further, already at the present moment, to surrender ‘the hour of our death’ wholly to her care” (para. 2677; italics in original).
Should we place our trust in Mary, the “ark of the covenant”? Notice what happened when the Israelites placed their trust in the ark of the covenant:
“When the troops retired to the camp, the elders of Israel said, ‘Why has the Lord permitted us to be defeated today by the Philistines? Let us fetch the ark of the Lord from Shiloh that it may go into battle among us and save us from the grasp of our enemies’ ” (1 Samuel 4:3).
Here is what happened:
“The Philistines fought and Israel was defeated; every man fled to his own tent. It was a disastrous defeat, in which Israel lost thirty thousand foot soldiers. The ark of God was captured, and Eli’s two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, were among the dead” (1 Samuel 4:10, 11).
When the Israelites placed their trust in the ark of the covenant, they were not just defeated—they experienced a “disastrous defeat.”
Entrusting our cares to the ark of the covenant is not what God wants. He wants us to be devoted to and trust in Him and in Him alone. God made His desire clear after the Israelites returned to Him:
“Samuel said to them: ‘If you wish with your whole heart to return to the LORD, put away your foreign gods and your Ashtaroth, devote yourselves to the LORD, and worship Him alone. Then he will deliver you from the power of the Philistines.’ So the Israelites put away their Baals and Ashtaroth, and worshiped the LORD alone” (1 Samuel 7:3, 4; italics added).
The Israelites confessed that they had sinned against the Lord (1 Samuel 7:6) and began trusting in God alone to save them, not in the ark of the covenant or anything else. They asked Samuel to
“Implore the LORD our God unceasingly for us, to save us from the clutches of the Philistines” (1 Samuel 7:8).
Did God save them? First Samuel 7:10 reports,
“That day, however, the Lord thundered loudly against the Philistines, and threw them into such confusion that they were defeated by Israel.” “Samuel then took a stone and placed it between Mizpah and Jeshanah; he named it Ebenezer, explaining, ‘To this point has the Lord helped us’ ” (1 Samuel 7:10-12).
It is clear that we are to trust in the Lord and in Him alone! The Catholic Catechism, in agreement with the Bible, also teaches,
“It is right and just to entrust oneself wholly to God and to believe absolutely what he says. It would be futile [useless] and false to place such faith in a creature” (para. 150).
The Catholic Catechism teaches in one place to “entrust oneself wholly to God,” and in another to “entrust all our cares and petitions” to Mary, to “give ourselves over to her,” and to “surrender the hour of our death wholly to her care.” If one entrusts himself wholly to God, then he cannot entrust his or her cares to Mary. Should we surrender “‘the hour of our death’ wholly to her care”? Or would it “be futile and false to place such faith in a creature”?
The Bible teaches us that we should entrust all our cares to God:
“Cast your care upon the Lord, who will give you support” (Psalm 55:23).
“Cast all your worries [or cares] upon him because He cares for you” (1 Peter 5:7).
If we follow what the Bible teaches, we should entrust Jesus with all of our cares. For He, being God, is completely able to protect us and provide for us. If we believe the Bible to be true, then entrusting even some of our cares to Mary would be disobeying what the Bible teaches.
___________________________________________________________
If you would like a free copy of the book
for yourself or to share with family or
friends, simply e-mail me at:
Joe@TeachingsOfTheCatholicChurch.com
and I will be happy to send one to you.
____________________________________________________________