Posted on 01/05/2014 9:52:14 AM PST by ebb tide
Pope Francis’ Protestant Meditation on Our Lady Our Lady may have thought, “Lies! I was deceived!”?
Pope Francis delivered a homily on Friday December 20, in which he gives the impression that the Crucifixion of Our Lord was something that took Our Lady by surprise, and that she may have been tempted to believe the Angel’s promise to her were ‘lies’, and that she was “deceived”.
We will first present Pope Francis’ text from Vatican News Service and then provide the Catholic response.
“The Mother of Jesus was the perfect icon of silence,” the Pope said. “From the proclamation of her exceptional maternity at Calvary.” The Pope said he thinks about “how many times she remained quiet and how many times she did not say that which she felt in order to guard the mystery of her relationship with her Son,” up until the most raw silence “at the foot of the cross. The Gospel does not tell us anything: if she spoke a word or not… She was silent, but in her heart, how many things told the Lord! ‘You, that day, this and the other that we read, you had told me that he would be great, you had told me that you would have given him the throne of David, his forefather, that he would have reigned forever and now I see him there!’ Our Lady was human! And perhaps she even had the desire to say: ‘Lies! I was deceived!’ John Paul II would say this, speaking about Our Lady in that moment. But she, with her silence, hid the mystery that she did not understand and with this silence allowed for this mystery to grow and blossom in hope.”*1
Pope Francis is certainly a newsmaker, as he continually utters confusing statements that leave Catholics reeling the world over. The above statement about Our Lady is certainly one of the most troublesome.
Pope Francis, by claiming Our Lady was probably surprised and confused by the drama of the Crucifixion, actually promotes a Protestant reading of the Blessed Mother that emphasizes her “humanity” over the unique exalted gifts she received as Mother of God. Whether he realized it or not, Pope Francis’ statements are actually a denigration of Our Lady, and the first who would say so is Saint Alphonsus Ligouri.
Queen of Martyrs
In The Glories of Mary, one of the greatest treaties on Our Blessed Mother, St. Alphonsus explains that Our Lady’s understanding of Old Testament prophecies surpassed the understanding of the prophets themselves.
Citing saints and holy teachers, St. Alphonsus writes that the Blessed Virgin Mary, even before she become Our Lord’s Mother, “[knew] how much the Incarnate Word was to suffer for the salvation of men.”
Saint Alphonsus explains that this profound understanding of Our Lord’s suffering was one of the great sufferings of her life, for when She gave birth to Our Lord, when she nursed Him and warmed the baby Jesus in her arms, she was aware of the death that awaited him, and this sword continually pierced her Immaculate Heart.
Thus Saint Alphonsus teaches that Our Lady was the “Queen of Martyrs,” as we recite in the Litany, since her martyrdom was “longer and greater than that of all the martyrs.”
In short, the Passion and Crucifixion of Our Lord did not take Our Lady by surprise, as Francis would suggest, nor did she misunderstanding Scripture to mean that the “kingdom” would be a glorious rebirth of a kind of Davidic Kingdom.
A “Continuity” of Confusion
Saddest of all, Pope Francis hearkens back to Pope John Paul II as the basis of his meditation. In this Francis is accurate.
In the new Way of the Cross, composed by John Paul II, we read the following or the fourth Station of “Jesus Meets His Sorrowful Mother”:
The mediation contains a flashback to the Annunciation, and a recounting of the prophecy of the Angel regarding Our Lord, “…and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David, and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end.”
John Paul’s Fourth Station continues:
“Mary heard these words. She often returned to them in the secret of her heart. When she met her Son on the Way of the Cross, perhaps these very words came to her mind with particular force, ‘He will reign, His Kingdom will have no end,’ the heavenly messenger had said. Now, as she watches her Son condemned to death carrying the cross on which He must die, she might ask herself all to humanly, ‘So how can these words be fulfilled?’ In what way will He reign over the house of David. And how can it be that His Kingdom will have not end?’ Humanely speaking, these are all reasonable questions. But Mary remembered that she first heard the angel’s message, she had replied, ‘Behold, I am the handmade of the Lord. May it be done to me according Your Word.”*2
Again, the text gives the false impression that the Passion and Crucifixion of Jesus was something that took Our Lady by surprise. It was as if, during the Way of the Cross, she was baffled as to how the prediction of “His Kingdom shall have no end” could square with the present reality of the bloody Passion, before He had ‘established’ His Kingdom.
In one sense, this meditation puts the Queen of Prophets on the same level as the blind Pharisees who had no idea of what Our Lord was talking about when Jesus told them He was establishing His Kingdom, which is the New Covenant of His Holy Catholic Church, purchased by His Precious Blood. John Paul’s text simply said she made an act of Faith in something she probably did not understand. Pope Francis’ words simply claim Mary had the prudence to “keep silent” about something she did not understand.
How much more satisfying, and more Catholic, is the teaching of Saint Alphonsus Ligouri wherein he embodies the teaching of saints on this topic:
“’The Passion of Jesus began with his birth.’ Says Saint Bernard. Now just as Jesus suffered through his whole life, so Mary, too, in all things like her Son, endured her martyrdom throughout her whole life. One of the meanings of the name of Mary, Albert the Great tells us, is ‘bitter sea,’ Hence the text of Jeremiah is application to her: Great as the sea is your destruction [Lam 2:13]. Just as the sea is extraordinarily bitter and salty, so was the life of Mary always full of bitterness, for the thought of the Passion of her son was always present in her mind.”
Tragically, in their befuddled teaching on the Blessed Virgin Mary, Popes John Paul & Francis tell us more about their maimed theological formation than they do about Our Blessed Mother.
Contrary to the irreverent claim that Our Lady in her humanity may have thought to herself “Lies! I was deceived!”, Saint Alphonsus, in union with saints and holy Catholic teachers, assures us Our Lady was fully aware of the suffering Our Lord would endure. She was not confused about Our Lord’s predicted “kingdom” as were the blind Pharisees. The Passion did not take her by surprise or cause her to doubt in any way.
“Mary is the Queen of Martyrs” writes St. Alphonsus, “because her martyrdom lasted longer [the entire life of Christ] and was more severe than that of all other martyrs.”*3
Notes:
1. "Pope: silence guards one's relationship with God," Vatican.va, Dec. 20, 2012 2. Pope John Paul II’s Way of the Cross was published in L’Osservatore Romano, May 13, 2000. 3. For quotes, see The Glories of Mary, St. Alphonsus Ligouri, [Ligouri Publications, 2000] 250th Anniversary edition, pp. 282-298.
I don’t know how old the author is, but I’d bet he’s one of the “new” Old Rite people who is more a old than the old and more Catholic than the Pope.
This was a standard homily or meditation on Our Lady when I was growing up (50s and pre-VII 60s) So I’m assuming he’s not well-read enough in traditional Catholic devotion or piety to understand this.
I don't believe the above statement. I grew up in the same time period. Maybe I payed more attention to the sermons.
What does that mean in English??? Does that mean, 'bible, I don't need no stinkin' bible'???
On what pedestal would you put the Mother of God?
Thus Saint Alphonsus teaches that Our Lady was the “Queen of Martyrs,” as we recite in the Litany, since her martyrdom was “longer and greater than that of all the martyrs.”
So Mary never died yet she was a martyr...
So what do you do, store one truth on one side of your brain and the other truth on the other side and hope they never meet???
Q. Did Mary die as a martyr???
A. Well yes she did...All Catholics know that...
Q. Well then Mary was not assumed to heaven while still alive???
A. Well of course she was...Our Church has always taught that...
Oh, I see....get me outta' here, quick!!!
Its only a denigration of Mary if you have her placed on too high a pedestal.
____________________________________________________________
If Jesus was born the Son of God, one third of the Trinity and not just a boy who became a man who became God, then she is the Mother of God, so it is deserving of being placed on a high pedestal. She was not just some ordinary woman who just happened to give birth to our messiah.
You remembered.
Reading this thread, I just think this latest issue shows that nobody really understands what this Pope thinks, means, or says. If I were Catholic, that would worry me.
So the author likes the idea by St. Alphonsus, that Mary foreknew her Son’s death on the Cross better than Pope Francis’ idea that she could have been surprised by it.
Note first that this is a far cry from the earlier “Pope has blasphemed” that you and your friends or alter egos were running around with.
Second, there is not contradiction. The pope stated as a fact that Mary remained silent “in hope”, that is she remained in the faith. In order to better deliver her astonishing faith the Pope points out that the natural thing to do would be to feel betrayal. The pope never said that Mary was actually feeling betrayed.
forgot to ping you to the post directed to both of us.
So now you’re equating Francis with St. Alphonsus Ligouri?
Secondly, to my knowledge, I’m the only one, so far, who has accused the pope of blasphemy. And I stand by it.
You’re false accusations have become tiresome.
Actually, the Church doesn’t specifically teach Mary physically died or not, only that she was assumed bodily into Heaven. Pope Pius XII solemnly defined in Munificentissimus Deus on Nov. 1, 1950, that the “Immaculate Mother of God, the ever-virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory.” However, if she physically died, the Church doesn’t provide a date or means.
She is Queen of Martyrs, as she is also Queen of Heaven, as mother of the King, the first Christian martyr.
It seems logical to me that Mary, being human, would have any number of human questions. What were those questions? I don’t know. However, we can suppose she may have had questions, and how she may have responded.
Think Enoch and Elijah. Similar words.
Genesis 5:24 says only that God “took” him (Enoch), but doesn’t say where. Sirach 44:16 and 49:14 make it clear that he was taken up from the earth, and Hebrews 11:5 adds “so that he should not see death.”
In Elijah’s case, 2 Kings 2:11 states that “Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.” First Maccabees 2:58 adds, “Elijah because of great zeal for the Law was taken up into heaven. “
The pope said that Mary thought, “Lies! I was deceived!”
What part of “ feeling betrayed” does that not fall under?
Both are my teachers.
If you stand by your thought that the Pope has blasphemed, despite my quite patient explanation what His holiness has said and what he did not say, then my accusation is not false. You have left the Catholic Church through your contumacy.
No, His Holiness did not say that.
Good post. But you failed to mention that Mary, unlike other humans, was born without original sin.
That is true, she was born without original sin, but having human nature, like her Son, she would have had any number of human thoughts.
Anyone can speculate on those thoughts, but none of them are recorded in Scripture.
"Anti-Catholic bigot"
"Cretin"
"Idiot"
"Look, get lost"
But thoughts that were not sinful, correct?
Stand by them...
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