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Exactly! There you go! I knew you'd do it, you did it in one short sentence, and I'm proud of you.

What you've got here, is a whole book of the Bible that's all about the extravagance of attraction and desire,: the cascade of praises, the lush images, the unrestrained bridegroom/bride reciprocity, etc.all understood in the light of the supreme love of God..

If a clueless person were to say,

"This is idolatry because it talks about a man in terms of his body being carved ivory and gold--- like an idol --- and a woman ‘fair as the moon and bright as the sun,’ like a goddess,” or
”This is pagan because it praises creatures but not the Creator," or
”It’s blasphemous because it speaks of human love being “as strong as death” and a spotless perfect bride," or
"It's humanistic because it doesn't mention God" Or
"It's non-Christian because it is never quoted in the Gospels or in any part of the New Testament," or
"It can't be referring to God's people because it never uses the words 'Church' or 'children of Israel' or 'daughter Zion'"

--- we'd say that person had made the fundamental mistake of reading it outside of the much wider context, which is the totality of God's Word.

Why? Because it achieves its proper meaning only if it is read in the context of God.

In other words, a person who interprets it apart from God, is reading it wrong.

That is exactly the error made by people who read with disapproval the extravagant praises of Mary. They are interpreting wrongly because they are ignoring the much wider context, which is that Mary is a creature and God is the Creator; Mary is handmaid and God is Lord; Mary is saved and God is Savior.

The praise of Mary can never be wrenched out of this context, because she is not the Supreme Being. Anything that is great about her is constantly referred back to God the Mighty One who has done great things for her.

It is simply head-smackingly wrong to read the praise of Mary in an idolatrous or pagan or blasphemous or even humanistic way. It is being blind to the entire context which gives it meaning: and that context is God’s greatness regarding the lowliness of His handmaid.

“Think Christ and His bride the church and read it again.”

Exactly! Right you are!

G’night, dear CynicalBear.

They are interpreting wrongly because they are ignoring the much wider context, which is that Mary is a creature and God is the Creator; Mary is handmaid and God is Lord; Mary is saved and God is Savior.

We all are.

And we are all blessed in Christ as well.

The problem is, Song of Songs is Scripture. Most of the Catholic specific teaching about Mary is not.

All well and good and I could even understand some of that respect for Mary. There is still the problem of placing Mary in between Jesus and us. And please don’t start with that “asking others to pray for us” stuff. That is much different because we don’t pray to them to pray for us. Neither is Mary omnipresent. Jesus told us to go “boldly before the throne” and that there is only one mediator. No mediatrix or helper. Then there is the made up story of the bodily assumption. I could go on but you get the picture.