HE INCREASES AND SHE DECREASES [Mary, Mother of God]

The Rock ^ | May 1994 | Mark Shea

[Salvation]

HE INCREASES AND SHE DECREASES

By MARK P. SHEA

 

Some friends are always good for a cheery disagreement--like my pal Bill. Here he is, a guy who modestly describes himself as "The Last Bastion of the Reformation," a guy who sings "A Mighty Fortress is Our God" in the shower, a guy who keeps ribbing me about being Catholic when he knows that I can scarcely resist the challenge to respond. Consider the letter I got the other day, written with Bill's usual joie de vivre, in which he urged me to get a recent book devoted to "critiquing" Marian devotion from an Evangelical perspective.

As a former Evangelical, I know anti-Marian arguments. But, having been a Catholic for nearly six years, I've been surprised to discover how much larger Mary looms in many Protestant minds than in Catholic ones. Maybe I'm languishing in a papally-induced spiritual blindness, but Jesus seems as big to me as ever. Only Mary has changed sizes since I "poped." She got a lot smaller and less threatening.

Since I became a Catholic she often, after directing me to her Son, has seemed to slip out of the room for long stretches, leaving me to talk with him while she busies herself with quietly praying for me or doing some other motherly task. She has been a most unobtrusive presence--endlessly loving and interceding, but not nearly as noisy about it as my Protestant upbringing would have led me to believe.

Yet how can this be? Books have "proven" that Catholics are obsessively fixated on our Lady to the exclusion of faith in Christ. They have shown that all we think about is the way in which Mary can save us from sin. They have demonstrated that I spend day and night obsequiously seeking to have her declared a fourth member of the Trinity.

Of course, there are benighted souls in my communion (Mother Teresa, say) whose summary of Marian devotion is: Love Jesus as Mary loves Jesus, love Mary as Jesus loves Mary. Such people seem to think that Mary is not a goddess but that she has a significant place in the drama of redemption. They regard her as remarkable in that her choice to love and obey the as-yet-unseen and unincarnate Messiah was the very key to the Incarnation.

They find a subtle difference between such faith (unbuttressed and unrehearsed) and the wobbly performance of Peter and Thomas. They attach some quirky meaning to the fact she was the first disciple to say "yes" to the incarnate God and that it was this "yes" and the love it expressed which was the basis of the first and deepest love relationship the Son of God ever experienced as man.

Such cultists seem to have this notion that her role in the life of the Church might extend beyond the physical fact of providing a uterine environment and three square meals a day to the Second Person of the Trinity--that she is something more than a disposable first stage in the Incarnation.

For some reason they hold the belief that Jesus, who obeyed the law perfectly, obeyed the command to love his mother in a way unique in human history and that imitating him might involve us in that love relationship too. They are bewitched with the fact the dying Jesus commanded the disciple he loved (that is, you and me) to have Mary as mother and that she was commanded to have the beloved disciple (that is, you and me) as her son.

These people suspect that as the risen Christ remains human forever, so he remains his mother's son forever. If she loves him, she just might love those who are in him as her own and pray they will love her son with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength. Likewise, if Jesus loves her in a unique way and we are to be like him . . . well, you can work that one out.

 

 

[Salvation]

Happy New Year to all and a blessed Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God, to all of you.

[Salvation]

Catholic Discussion Ping!

Please notify me via FReepmail if you would like to be added to or taken off the Catholic Discussion Ping List.

[Salvation]

Please post your favorite prayers, pictures, songs about/of Mary.

Thanks!

Let’s keep this positive.

[Salvation]

HE INCREASES AND SHE DECREASES [Mary, Mother of God]

Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God - Mary, Full of Grace

Happy Mother's Day to Mary - the Mother of God

Catholic beliefs about Mary, the Mother of God

Mary, Mother of God

The Early Church Fathers on The Mother of God - Catholic/Orthodox Caucus

Mary, Mother of God

Mary in Feminist Theology: Mother of God or Domesticated Goddess?

Mary: True Mother of God

Feast of Mary, Mother of God (not a Holy Day of Obligation this year)

MARIAN DEVOTION - Akathist Hymn to the Mother of God

Mother of God

Virgin Mother of God

A Homily on the Dormition of Our Supremely Pure Lady Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary

The Mother of the Son: The Case for Marian Devotion

Mary: True Mother of God

[Salvation]

Visitation of Mary to Elizabeth

[Salvation]

 

 

The Nativity

[Sun]

“Happy New Year to all and a blessed Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God, to all of you.”

Thank you.

Tomorrow we will be going to Mass for the Holy Day, and start the year off right.

[Salvation]

Amen to that!

[Salvation]

[Sun]

And thank you for these very beautiful pictures!

[Salvation]

William Holman Hunt. The Finding of the Saviour in the Temple. 1854-60. Oil on canvas, 33 3/4 x 55 l/2 in. Birmingham City Museums and Art Gallery.

[Salvation]

Joyful Mysteries are now completed.

Hope all enjoy.

[Sun]

Outstanding! Thanks again!

[Salvation]

And now Mary disappears in all the mysteries of the Rosary until she is mentioned in the last two Glorious Mysteries.

They (the Mysteries of the Rosary) all center on the life of Christ — Luminous, Passion of Christ — Sorrowful and Glorious — Resurrection of Christ.

He increases and she decreases!

[Quix]

HE INCREASES AND SHE DECREASES

NOT AT ALL--MUCH MORE the opposite from all the RC UNBiblical propaganda I read hereon.

I was just wondering . . . if we listed all the names of all the RC churches in the world . . . What percentage would be named after Mary and what percentage would be named after Jesus?

Seems to me RC's are rather affronted that Jesus was getting too much acclaim in Christendom and have been working diligently for 1,500 years or so trying to redress the imbalance!

I wonder how many songs have been written TO Mary vs TO Jesus in the RC edifice.

How many RC coloring books for children have been created about Mary vs about Jesus?

What percentage of the Christian doodads in the Vatican shops have something to do with Mary vs something to do with Jesus exclusively? I don't recall as I wasn't so keenly aware of the disparity when I was there.

How many postage stamps have been essentially and primarily about Mary vs essentially and primarily about Jesus?

How many souvenir post cards have had to do primarily with Mary vs primarily with Jesus?

And how many threads and lines of posting from the RC camp, have had to do primarily with Mary on FR vs primarily about Jesus on FR?

I think I know the answer for at least some of those. And I don't think Mary or Jesus are well pleased and certainly not The Father.

[samiam1972]

This artwork is beautiful! Thank you! I’m looking forward to Mass in the morning. It’s one of my favorite Holy Days. :o)

[Salvation]

Thanks. Have a blessed New Year!

[ScubieNuc]

What’s with the European girl standing on the heads of babies?

[Salvation]

Mark Shea puts this quite well. Worth pondering.

If she loves him, she just might love those who are in him as her own and pray they will love her son with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength. Likewise, if Jesus loves her in a unique way and we are to be like him . . . well, you can work that one out.