Posted on 12/26/2002 8:14:38 AM PST by NYer
Roots of Marian Devotion Go Back to Old Testament
ROME, DEC. 25, 2002 (Zenit.org).- Scholar Scott Hahn roundly rejects the idea held by some outside the Church that Catholics, by honoring Mary, somehow detract from God.
"The glories we honor in Mary are merely her own reflections of God's glory," says the author of books such as "Rome Sweet Home" and "Hail, Holy Queen." Here, the one-time Presbyterian minister spells out his ideas.
Q: Why do you say that Catholics should love Mary a lot more than they do?
Hahn: Because God does! And he wants us to love her as much as he does.
At the time of the annunciation, the angel Gabriel prophesied that all generations would call Mary blessed. In our generation, we need to fulfill that prophesy. We need to call her blessed. We need to honor her -- again, because God did.
Jesus himself, as a faithful Jew, kept the Fourth Commandment and
honored his mother. Since Christ is our brother, she is our mother too. Indeed, at the end of John's Gospel, Jesus named her as the mother of all of us beloved disciples. So we too have a duty to honor her.
If we look back into the biblical history of ancient Israel, we discover that the Chosen People always paid homage not only to their king, but also to the mother of the king. The "gebirah," the queen mother, loomed large in the affections of Israelites. And the evangelists are very much aware of this.
In Matthew's Gospel especially, we find Jesus portrayed as the royal Son of David and Mary as queen mother. The Wise Men, for example, traveled far to find the Child King with his mother.
We find the mother of the Son of David portrayed in a similar way in the Book of Revelation, Chapter 12. There she is shown to be crowned with 12 stars, for the 12 tribes of Israel. The New Testament writers, you see, were careful to show us Mary's important place in the kingdom, and how we should love and honor her.
In my personal life, I've found the Blessed Mother to be a great intercessor, as she was at the wedding feast in Cana.
Why should we love Mary more? Because of God's grace -- she exemplifies it! Because of God's Word -- she teaches it! And because she is God's masterpiece. The Scriptures provide too many reasons to love her; I couldn't list them in so short a space.
Q: What are the main objections that non-Catholics present against Marian doctrine and devotion?
Hahn: Some non-Catholics believe that, by honoring Mary, we're somehow detracting from God. We're not. The glories we honor in Mary are merely her own reflections of God's glory.
St. Bonaventure put it very well when he said that God created all things not to increase his glory, but to show it forth and to share it. Mary's sinlessness itself was a grace from God.
St. Augustine said: When God rewards us for our labors, he is only crowning his work in us. When God exalted the lowly virgin of Nazareth, he was crowning the greatest of his creations. When we honor Mary, we recognize God's work, and we praise him.
Others object to the Church's dogma of the immaculate conception -- that Mary was without sin from the very first moment of her life. They claim that, if this were true, she would have no need of a redeemer, no need for Jesus. But that's not true. Mary's immaculate conception was itself a fruit of Jesus' redemption.
Even today, we can see that Christ saves some people by deliverance and others by preservation -- some turn away from a life of crime, others are preserved from it by their good upbringing. Mary was preserved by a singular grace. Mary, you see, is dependent upon God for everything. She, by her own admission, is his handmaid.
Some very misguided people try to claim that Catholics make a goddess of the Blessed Virgin. But that is an abominable fiction. As much as we exalt Mary above our own sinful selves, we recognize that she is more like us than she is like God. She is still a creature, though a most wonderful creature. God himself exalted her to show us both the greatness of our human nature and the all-surpassing greatness of divine grace.
Even the early Protestant reformers never called for a wholesale rejection of the Marian dogmas. Luther and Calvin believed, for example, in Mary's perpetual virginity. Luther even believed in the Assumption and the Immaculate Conception, centuries before the Church solemnly defined it. Not until later generations would Christians come to such a far-reaching rejection of Mary's place in salvation history.
Q: How does Mary help us to understand the mystery of Christmas?
Hahn: Well, it's impossible for us to imagine the Christmas story without her. Her consent, her "yes," made that day possible. When God became man, he was born of a woman, born under the law. Christ is at the center of Christmas, but he chose not to be alone at the center. As a baby, he needed a mother to hold him. If we choose to ignore the mother, we can't see the Child.
In the stories leading up to Christmas, we encounter Mary as the model disciple. God found her humility irresistible, and we have to imitate her. God empowered her to love his Son as much as he deserves to be loved. And so we imitate her in that as well. Mary helps us to understand the mystery of Christmas because she received the greatest Christmas present ever, and she gave it to the world, just as we should.
Q: Why do you most converts to Catholicism have such an intense devotion to the Blessed Virgin?
Hahn: I can only speak for myself. I discovered the Catholic Church as not only the family of God, but as my family too. Mary is not only the mother of Jesus, but my mother too.
That's a wonderful discovery to make so late in one's life. So maybe we're making up for lost time! Or maybe we have a special affection for the practices that are distinctive to the ancient Christian faith -- the practices that we missed in our own upbringing.
Without apology, I believe God. He says witchcraft is evil.
There is no excuse for any Christian to try and use a "good" witch (when there are NONE according to God) as a vehicle in literature.
I really have no respect for the books that spawned the totally evil Dungeons and Dragons games.(LOTR)
I have no respect for C.S. Lewis either due to his unorthodox beliefs.
Just because they wrote about a few "Good Witches" you think I would respect that over what God Himself says?
I trow not.
Since Mary has been glorified by God - that is, since she has been made like our first parents before the Fall, she possesses qualities which are lacking to us.
She has the additional privilege been removed from time and placed into eternity, since saints no longer dwell in time.
She can, like other saints, view time as it were from the outside and also view the actions of her fellow creatures in time as a completed reality.
This knowledge is given to her and to all the blessed by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Simultaneity causes no confusion for her - we are bound by constraints of time and space, she isn't.
The distinction between God and the blessed is an enormous gulf - just because the blessed can view all time and all space does not mean they can create it. It does not mean they can alter it or change it by their own power. They can be given knowledge of everything God has created, by the power of the Holy Spirit - but they cannot conceive the mind of God.
By human standards a saint would probably appear to be omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotent - but they are only able to be in the places, know the things, and have the power that God permits them to have.
Mary can be very much more powerful than we are without ever approaching the status of anything other than a mere creature.
(2) Witchcraft is real - the spells and potions, etc. are silly tokens and do not work, of course. But witches invoke Satan, and he does allow them to do things they wouldn't naturally be able to do.
Witchcraft is one of the means the enemy uses to seek "whom he may devour".
The Church does not teach that you are going to Hell.
She was.
Isaiah 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.
Romans 3:10 As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:
11 There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.
12 They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.
What Scripture do you base your supposition on? Thanks for your reply.
So St. Paul's words are not cut-and-dried chess pieces - he is teaching something rather complex. He claims that righteousness is an external appellation and also an innate quality. This tension is there throughout his letters. He speaks of those who do righteous deeds, and then he claims that no one has done righteously.
I note that you do not quote other passages in the Bible where Phineas is considered righteous, and others, specifically kings like Hezekiah are acknowledged as upright.
If the Witchking and the other Nazgul are not literary figures who exemplify the danger and evil of the worship and enamourment of the Enemy, you will be hard pressed to find better ones. And for that matter, while it is not an allegory per se, strong Christian thought runs throughout the Lord of the Rings, and even more so, the Silmarillion.
Since Mary was filled with grace, she was free of the stain of sin and her soul did not have to be separated from her body. Elijah is an example of such a person.
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.