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.
Good for you. Ever wonder why you have Protestants supporting you and I have none?
I don’t wonder about other Freepers, especially who left the Catholic Church.
betrayal: go against promise: to act in a way that is contrary to a promise made
The Lord's Passion was foretold in Isaiah 53 and Psalms 22:16 and was the fulfillment of God's promise. Therefore, when our Blessed Mother gave her fiat, she knew what she was consenting to, and thus the speculations regarding a sense of "betrayal" on her part contradict what we know to be true.
53:1 Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed? 53:2 For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. 53:3 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. 53:4 Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. 53:5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. 53:6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. 53:7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth. 53:8 He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken. 53:9 And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth. 53:10 Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. 53:11 He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities. 53:12 Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
---------------
For many dogs have encompassed me: the council of the malignant hath besieged me. They have dug my hands and feet.
Good. Let me know when you come back to the Church.
perhaps she had the urge to say: ‘Lies! I was deceived!' [...] But She, with silence, covered the mystery that She did not understand and with this silence she left this mystery so that it could grow and flourish in hope.Pope Francis: Silence Reveals the Mystery of God's Plan
You guys never quote in full context. I wonder why.
I think y’all are messin’ with this protestant pastor coming up with all these Francis Mary treads.
Is there a Saint Francis Mary the Protestor?
If there is, I’m gonna LOL!
If I happened to be speaking about you and said "perhaps he had the urge to say: 'Lies! I was deceived!', the implication would be clear - that in fact your possession of such thoughts would have to exist within the realm of possibility (which scripture, traditional Church teaching, history, and common sense demonstrate to be untrue in the case of our Blessed Mother, who was perfectly united with Our Lord in His Passion.) The words ("perhaps she had the urge to say: ‘Lies! I was deceived!") in association with the Mother of God (even in a speculative sense) are demonstrably counterfactual, which is the reason Pope Francis' remarks resulted in such widespread incredulity. If the objective was to contrast her response with that of an ordinary person, then the effort fell short, because the words that would have made the supposed contrast unambiguous are simply not there.
If this WIDESPREAD surprise and confusion among the faithful is the result of a poor choice of words on his part, then perhaps the Vatican ought to issue another clarification.
I don't wanna bust yer bubble, but Francis' homily and its understanding of Mary was way too high a view of Mary for almost the entire field of churches derived in some way, shape, or form from those early protestant churches. And it's too high a view even for the descendants of the original Protestans, except maybe historically the Anglican, and the Anglicans barely count any more given their many heresies -- (with apologies to the African Primates)
That homily is Roman Catholic or it's nothing. Realizing that I think you are misinterpreting the homily, maybe the human view of Mary is more orthodox. Perhaps the Orthodox have a high view of God's Ark but also one that doesn't require her sinless conception to such an extent that it prevents the human human from shining through.
Source? Context?
Are you that lazy?
These are the kinds of articles that make me dislike Catholics.
Did you ever?
It's nothing. And I don't pay attention to Protestants who think they can tell me what is and isn't Roman Catholic.
What I told u is that the dumb title says it’s Protestant. I’d suggest u take a deep breath and read for comprehension
Re-read your post. You told me no such thing.
You haven’t backed up what you posted with proper documentation and you ask if I am lazy?
Hmmmm....
Anyone can read the entire report at the link; my quote is complete context: it shows the antecedent “perhaps she had the urge to say: ‘Lies! I was deceived!’”, and the conclusion “But She, with silence [...]”
Learn to understand written text.
I’m sorry, but you need to read #49 again. It talks about protestants, old and new. It talks about orthodox. It says that it isn’t protestant, that maybe it’s orthodox. And, since Francis is a Roman Catholic pope, (for Pete’s sake), I said it’s either Roman or nothing.
I didn’t try to instruct you about Catholicism at all. Maybe I’m the worst writer in the world. That’s a possibility. I think I was clear. Therefore, I’m thinking that you must be reading a different post than the one that I wrote.
Not at all; the implication would be that the situation would provoke most anyone to such words, and the Cross was exactly such type of a situation.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.