Why do Catholics pay so much honor to Mary, when she was only an ordinary woman? Does not Catholic devotion to her detract from the worship due to Christ?
The Catholic Church has always paid special honor to the Blessed Virgin, because God honored her above all creatures by bestowing upon her the highest dignity He could confer the divine maternity. The Scriptures tell us that Jesus honored her by dwelling with her under the same roof at Nazareth for thirty years until He began His public ministry, and that He showed His love to her on the Cross, when He left her to the kindly care of His beloved disciple, St. John (John xix. 26). I could never understand how intelligent men hoped to extol the Son of God by making little of the Mother of God. We do not win the affections of our fellowmen by despising or making little of their mothers.
How can you call Mary an ordinary woman, and at the same time pretend that you have studied the Scriptures? Would God choose an ordinary woman to be the Mother of His only Son, when He had countless millions of women to choose from? The prophet Isaias spoke of her coming centuries before (vii. 14), and God sent from heaven a special ambassador to announce her supereminent dignity (Luke i. 26), and another to comfort St. Joseph in his doubting (Matt. i. 20). Both the angel and St. Elizabeth called her "blessed among women" (Luke i. 2&, 43), and her own prophecy that "henceforth all generations shall call me blessed" (Luke i. 48) is fulfilled to the letter every day by Catholics the world over.
Instead of detracting from the love of Christ, devotion to Mary increases our love for Him. The devout client of Mary is ever the strong defender of the divinity of Jesus Christ, her Son. The divine maternity, as the Council of Ephesus clearly recognized in 431, has ever been the standard of orthodox belief in the true doctrine of the Incarnation.
Love for Mary, the masterpiece of God's creation, by its very nature leads us to the love of Christ her Son. He cannot be jealous of the praise we give her, for every one of her privileges and prerogatives are His own free gift. Is the artist jealous of the praise you give his masterpiece? Is the author jealous of the praise you give his book?
in addition
Many Protestants do not know that both Luther and Calvin admitted the dogma of the divine maternity. Luther writes: There is no honor, no beatitude, capable of approaching an elevation which consists in being, of the whole human race, the sole person, superior to all others, unequaled in the prerogative of having one Son in common with the Heavenly Father" (Deutsche Schriften, xiv., 250). Calvin writes: "We cannot acknowledge the blessings brought us by Jesus without acknowledging at the same time how highly God honored and enriched Mary in choosing her for the Mother of God" (Comm. sur VHarm., Evang., 20). (emphasis added)
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Barrett, Our Lady in the Liturgy; Friedel, The Mariology of Cardinal Newman; Ganss, Mariolatry; Garriguet, La Vierge Marie; Gerrard, The Cult of Mary; Hogan, The Mother of Divine Grace; Lattey (ed.), The Incarnation, ix.; Livius, The Blessed Virgin in the Fathers; Nesbitt, Our Lady in the Church; Neubert, Marie dans VEglise Anteniceenne; Newman, Mary, the Mother of Jesus; Northcote, Mary in the Gospels; Petitalot, The Virgin Mother; Pohle, Mariology; Schaefer, The Mother of Jesus; Stewart, The Greater Eve; Shahan, The Blessed Virgin in the Catacombs; Vassall-Phillips, The Mother of God; The Mother of Christ; Vonier, The Divine Motherhood. A. Q. 1878, 594.—C. E. xv. 459-472.—C. W. i. 129.—D. T. ix. 2339-2474.—Kirchenlexicon, viii., 711.