There are three important things that the Bible and Jesus show us about His mother, Mary.
Two of them happened at the wedding.
Mary noticed the wine was consumed, so said to her Son Jesus, “They have no wine.”
What did Jesus do?
He admonished her by saying, “Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.”
Notice he addresses her with the common term, “woman.”
The last thing that Mary said in recorded scriptures was “Do whatever he tells you.”
She said this to the servants at the wedding.
It’s very interesting that Mary said do whatever HE tells you.
Very important, we can take that to the bank.
We are to do whatever Jesus tells us to do.
He is The Word became flesh, the Word of God is Jesus.
We have the Holy Spirit God breathed scriptures to guide us.
If we are to take Mary’s words to heart, we should listen to Jesus through His Word, and do as that Word of God tells us.
Mary NEVER made it all about her.
In fact she made it very clear with her last words that it was NOT about her, but about Jesus.
This becomes even more clear when someone told Him your mother and brothers are outside, and want to talk to you.
His response?
Who are my mother and brothers?
Then He said, pointing to His disciples, here are my mother and brothers.
He added that whoever does the will of My Father who is in Heaven he is my mother and my brother and my sister
On the cross the last time while Jesus was alive Mary was there.
Did Jesus lift her up as someone to be treated more special than other believers?
No.
He made sure she was taken care of by John, the disciple that Jesus loved.
He told her, woman here is your son.
Pretty simple.
All paraphrased from scripture, chapter and verse viable upon request. I imagine most of you are familiar with the descriptions of these events in the Bible.
Catholics are not ‘all about Mary’ either, but we do hold her up, as we do other saints, as someone to emulate and to confide in. And yes, we do ask saints and Mary to intercede for us. We believe they can, and since their bodies are dead, the only way to communicate with their living souls is to pray. Not to worship, but to communicate. We can pray sitting, we can pray standing, and yes we can pray kneeling. Kneeling before a statue does not constitute worship any more than kneeling before your beloved to propose constitutes worship. It just focuses us and indicates that we have something important to say. It is a sign of respect, in that the person we are addressing is holy by virtue of already having been saved by God.
It takes nothing away from God. If anything it shines the spotlight on His saving Grace, in that we believe humans are indeed already in heaven and part of the Body of Christ.
Also, I don’t think Jesus used the term ‘woman’ to admonish Mary, firstly because that would be breaking a commandment and secondly because in the end He did as she had hoped He would, and solved the problem. She doesn’t command Him, she has no power to do this, but she never asks Him for anything contrary to His wishes. Do you really think He performed His first public miracle when He didn’t really want to?
I hope that it is not a general belief of Protestants that saints in heaven, who are part of the Body of Christ, lose all contact with us. Angels and God know what goes on down here, why would saints, who have a closer bond with earth by virtue of their humanity, not have that same ability? Do you not think your deceased family members check in on you from time to time? That is a very sad thought.
Love,
O2
"Do what HE tells you..."
Rome would have us believe that SHE has to return to earth; multiple times; to tell the 'faithful' what to do!