Marian Doctrines and Questions about Mary - Notes

Class date: Feb 04, 2018

Prayer: Breathe in me, O Holy Spirit

Many Protestants think Catholics honor the Blessed Virgin Mary too much – they reject the defined doctrines
1. Divine Maternity (Mother of God)
2. Perpetual Virginity – think she had other children after Jesus
3. Assumption
4. Immaculate Conception

Often, they want to discuss Mary first – she can be a real stumbling block
1. But discussion will probably be more fruitful if begin with more basic issues like Apostolic authority, the Eucharist, and Sola Scriptura.
2. After that, we should be prepared to discuss the Marian doctrines.

Basics
1. Ask why they think it is so wrong to honor the mother of our Savior.
  1. The answer may be key to your understanding their real concern & responding.
  2. Catholic view: God honored Mary above all other creatures by making her the mother of His Son
  3. we are only following His example – though we could never honor her as highly as God already has
2. Reason for defining Marian doctrines
  1. most important ones are really about Jesus
  2. How can that be? Let’s think about it …
3. The Council of Ephesus defined in 431 that Mary was the “Mother of God”
  1. Why was that council called? (Nestorian heresy)
  2. Which claimed what? (Christ is two persons – one human, one divine – and Mary was the mother of only the human Christ.)
  3. So … the title Theotokos was not primarily about honoring Mary, but about safeguarding orthodox doctrine about Jesus, that He is ONE Person.
  4. Chalcedon (451) was also about a Christological heresy (Monophysitism) but again repudiated those who would deny the title of Theotokos to the BVM.
  5. A proper view of Jesus Christ depends on a proper understanding of Mary’s role and identity.
  6. Conversely: heretical understandings of Jesus (e.g. not divine, two persons, only one nature – divine absorbs human) have always gone along with a denial of Mary’s privilege to bear God in her womb.
4. The Christological teachings of these councils plus the earlier ones at Nicaea and Constantinople are accepted by many Protestants, though they reject the Marian teachings of the same councils.

Scriptural basis for honoring Mary:
1. Read Luke 1:26-33 (Annunciation)
  1. Gabriel greatly honors Mary in his greeting, even in the “highly favored” version
  2. relays God’s plan honoring her greatly as the mother of His Son
2. Luke 1:39-45 (Visitation)
  1. Elizabeth “filled with the Spirit” calls Mary “blessed” twice in her short speech
  2. Also honors Our Lady saying, “Why is this granted to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?”
  3. Who is Elizabeth’s “Lord”? (God. Therefore, Elizabeth, while “filled with the Spirit” calls Mary the “mother of my Lord” = mother of God)
3. Luke 1:46-49 (beginning of the Magnificat)
  1. Mary prophesies that all generations will call her blessed.
  2. Catholics call Mary the “Blessed Virgin” – very rarely do Protestants do the same
  3. Ask why they do not. Let them see that the Catholic practice is the Biblical one.

After showing the biblical basis for honoring Mary, begin with “Mother of God”
1. This is Mary’s 1st and greatest privilege. Everything else depends on this.
2. It’s easiest to defend logically, biblically, and historically
3. The first Protestants, the three “pillars of the Reformation” – Luther, Calvin, and Zwingli – wholeheartedly accepted this doctrine.

Mary, Mother of God
1. Logically:
  1. Jesus is God.
  2. Mary is the mother of Jesus.
  3. Therefore, Mary is the mother of God.
  4. May help to clarify: Mary is the mother of God the Son.
  5. Those who deny that Mary is the mother of God are denying the Incarnation – e.g. saying Jesus isn’t God, or that He is two persons.
2. Scripturally: See handout
3. Historically:
  1. Many quotes from the Fathers – see resources post
  2. The first Protestants, the “fathers of the Reformation” all believed divine maternity – see resources post
4. The other 3 Marian doctrines are not as explicit in Scripture, but also not contrary to it.
  1. Assumption - follows from Immaculate Conception.
  2. Immaculate Conception. Also all about Jesus. A nswer from Fr. Vincent Serpa: “It was because he was to take on his human nature in her womb that God deigned her to be free of all sin and therefore ‘full of grace’ (Lk 1:28). It would be unthinkable, given the revelation that we have in Scripture and Tradition, for him to be conceived in anything but a holy place."
  3. Perpetual Virginity – will discuss in more detail in just a bit

Before we go on to typical Qs re: Mary,
1. Remember: Marian doctrines safeguard the truths about Jesus
2. review a few items – Study Guide p. 8, n. 4, 5, 7, 8

“Questions Asked About Mary” (p. 21-23 Beginning Apologetics 1)
1. Q1-4, p 21
2. We covered many questions but since I don't have permission to post part of the book here, I'll go with a few questions that I researched more extensively myself. :-)

Question #5 on p 21 (Perpetual Virginity): Mt 13:55-56 says: “Isn’t this the carpenter’s son? Isn’t his mother’s name Mary, and aren’t his brothers James, Joseph, Simon and Jude [Judas]? Aren’t all his sisters with us?” [write names on board]
1. Note names of the “brothers” (= James, Joseph, Simon, Judas)
2. Ask student – any thoughts about how to begin? Hint: is the word “brother” always used literally (meaning son of the same parents)?
3. Read Genesis 13:8 (Douay/NIV84) or 14:14 (Douay/KJV), cf. Genesis 11:27. Lev 10:4. Bible, following Hebrew usage, uses “brother” to also mean near relatives such as cousins, uncles, nephews. NB some Eng translations may translate as “kinsman,” “relative” etc., but the Hebrew word is “brother.” cf. YLT. Even when speaking a language that actually has distinct words, e.g. Greek, LXX + e.g. Acts 7:23, 26 (“Moses … desired to visit his brethren, his fellow Israelites”), 1 Cor 15:6 (“appeared to 500 of the brothers …”, Mt 23:8 “you have one Master and you are all brothers”. Various apostles address listeners / readers / Israelites as “brothers / brethren” (ἀδελφοί).
4. Let's also look at what else the Gospels tell us about these “brethren of the Lord” by comparing the Gospel accounts of the women at the foot of the cross:
  1. Mt 27:55-56 (“among whom were Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of the sons of Zebedee”) Matthew also refers to this Mary as “the other Mary” (27:61, 28:1) – clearly not Jesus's mother, who is always ID'd as such
  2. Mark 15:40 (“among whom was Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the less and of Joseph, and Salome”)
  3. John 19:25 (“his mother, and his mother's sister, Mary of Clopas, and Mary Magdalen”) – the “ands” in the Greek are as in English, therefore Mary of Clopas is His mother's sister, so “sister” is used more broadly here, too! (Unless Mary's parents named both her and her sister the same name!)
5. We don't know exactly how Simon and Judas were related to Our Lord, but we do know that two of the listed “brothers” – James and Joseph – are not the sons of the BVM but of “the other Mary,” who was likely “his mother's sister [i.e. relative].” If they are not his actual siblings, neither do the others have to be.

Another objection: “Matthew 1:25 says: '[A]nd he did not know her until (or till) she brought forth her firstborn son.' Saying 'until' means that after Jesus was born, Joseph and Mary lived as any other husband and wife and had other children together. Also, since Jesus is called her first-born son, doesn't that mean that there was at least a second-born and maybe more?”
1. There are two arguments here – one about the word “until” and the other about the term “first-born”. How would you respond?
2. Ex 13:2 or Nb 3:12 – meaning of “firstborn” from Mosaic Law
3. Gn 49:10, Mt 22:44 (=Ps 110:1) and others (e.g. 2 Sam 6:23, Gn 26:13, Gn 46:34), some on h/o – “until” does not imply a change after the event mentioned
4. Much more … most refs on the handout
  1. E.g. why does the angel in Mt say to Joseph “take the child and his mother” rather than “your wife” both when must leave Bethlehem and return from Egypt? Mt himself same “he rose and took the child and his mother ...” (Mt 2:13-14, 20-21)
  2. Why does Mary ask her famous question: “How can this be …?” (Lk 1:34)
  3. When they go to the Temple when Jesus is 12, He is the only child in the Holy Family. Luke also tells us they went up every year to Jerusalem – imagine doing this with at least four sons and some daughters in addition to Jesus. What did they do with them all when they had to go back and search for Jesus? (Lk 2:41-51)
  4. In some Gospel passages (e.g. Jn 7:3-4), the “brothers” advise or even scold Jesus – in short, they act like they are his elders. Therefore, they can't be Mary's sons.
  5. And the fact that the first Protestants, men like Luther and Calvin, wholeheartedly believed in the doctrine of Mary's perpetual virginity. (Read from p. 20) So, if the original Protestants believed that Mary remained ever-virgin, then what happened? (Draw out implications for Protestant theology: Either (1) Not essential, so why is Catholic belief a problem?, or (2) Essential, so why the change from first Prots to today?)

General notes on Questions about Mary

We continued our discussion of Marian doctrines with responses to questions about Mary. If you have the Beginning Apologetics 1 student book, the questions are on pages 21-23.

A general insight is that questions are often based on misconceptions — first ask questions to root them out and correct. For example:

People might think that a doctrine is “invented” at the time that it is defined. We can use the example of the Trinity or any of the Christological definitions (e.g. two natures = God + man, one divine person) to explain that a belief may be held but not officially defined until something happens to require that clarification.
An example is the Immaculate Conception, which was defined in 1854, but California’s “La Purisima Conception” (= Immaculate Conception) Mission was founded in 1787. Even before that, Popes in the 1600s put the feast on the calendar. Even Martin Luther (back in ~1530-45) believed a version1 of this doctrine! Pretty odd for something the Pope supposedly invented in 1854.
“Vain repetitions” is another example that people sometimes use to argue against prayers like the Rosary. In this case, there’s both a mis-translation of the Bible verse in question (Mt 6:7) which really says not to babble in order to try to impress God with your many words. The King James translation renders this as “vain repetition” which leads some Protestants to think that repetition is in itself bad. However, Jesus repeats himself at the Garden of Gethsemane, and Revelation tells us that the angels repeat their “Holy, Holy, Holy, …” without ceasing. Also, we’d want to explain that the Rosary is meant to be a meditative prayer, with the words helping us to track time and reduce distractions as we meditate.

1He believed Mary had been “purified” by the Holy Spirit at some point before the Incarnation and was without sin.