The Five Doctrines on Mary For behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed. ~ Luke 1:48 HE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY has a very special what he was going to do about it. His own Son, the place in the teaching and devotional life of second person of the Blessed Trinity, would become the Catholic Church. Here, we examine a man. God the Father desired that his Son become Twhat the Church teaches about Mary. Why truly one of us. He would live among us and reveal does the Catholic Church give so much attention to God the Father to us. He would restore our friend- Mary? Mary is honored because of her Son. In ship with God that had been lost by the sin of Adam other words, Mary is important because her Son is and Eve. so much more important. Her great dignity flows Mary is the woman out of all human history who directly from her being the human mother of Jesus was chosen by God the Father to give human flesh Christ. No human being could be more blessed and and blood to his divine Son. This fact makes Mary exalted than the woman whom God chose to be the absolutely unique and special. God knew that Mary mother of Christ. It is a uniquely high calling and would be the mother of Christ before he ever cre- privilege. ated Adam and Eve — and long before he created It must be made clear at the outset that the Catho- Mary. Certainly God could have done things differ- lic Church does not teach ently. God is not bound that Mary is divine. She “Mary is important because to do anything in par- is no goddess but a crea- her Son is so much ticular, for he is the Al- ture like all of us, who has mighty. Nonetheless, been made by almighty more important.” he freely chose to give God. God alone is to be Mary a very special role adored and worshipped. in the redemptive work of Christ. God’s Redemptive Plan Throughout the and the Role of Mary Scriptures he calls mere God knew before he human beings to partic- created Adam and Eve ipate in his plan of sal- that they would disobey vation. He continual- him and thereby bring ly comes down to meet sin, suffering and death us where we are. He into human history. Yet speaks with us through God’s desire to share his his Word and reveals life with us could not be himself to us in ways that squelched by human sin. we can understand and He chose to create hu- relate to. Nothing could manity anyway, knowing be more comforting than that he would send his the fact that the almighty own Son as our Savior to Creator of the universe make it possible for those loves us so much that he who love him to be with became one of us. He him forever in Heaven. became a tiny embryo, This is an important and was born as a help- point. God knew that hu- less babe into the arms of manity would sin against his mother Mary. This is him, and yet from the Virgin and Child, by Daniel Tipton, copy of an original painted on the our Lord coming to save very beginning he knew wall of an Ethiopian monastery us in the same way that The Association for Catechumenal Ministry (ACM) grants the original purchaser (parish, local parochial institution, or individual) permission to reproduce this handout. all of us come into the “Mary is the woman out of all abeth, Elizabeth greet- world — through a moth- ed her with the words, er. human history who was chosen “And why is this granted me, All doctrines of the that the mother of my Lord faith come from the Word by God the Father to give human should come to me? For be- of God that consists of flesh and blood to his divine Son.” hold, when the voice of your both Scripture and Tra- greeting came to my ears, the dition. The Church is the babe in my womb leaped for handmaid to God’s Word; joy” (Lk 1:43-44). The she faithfully transmits Greek word used by St. and interprets this Word Luke in writing these to the world. Nothing words for “leaped” is pre- that the Church teaches cisely the same word in is her own. It is the same the Greek Septuagint teaching given to her by translation of the He- Christ. Therefore, doc- brew, which we render trines concerning Mary into English as “danced”: are also part of the Word “And David danced before the of God, either in Scrip- Lord with all his might… ture or Tradition. So David and all the house of Let us now take a deep- Israel brought up the ark of er look into Mary’s role in the Lord with shouting, and God’s plan of salvation, as with the sound of the horn” it is revealed to us in Sa- (2 Sm 6:14-15). This is cred Scripture and Sacred no accident: St. Luke in- Tradition. There are five tended us to understand key doctrines that reveal Mary as the new Ark of the truth of who Mary is. the Covenant, she who All of these doctrines are carries within herself rooted in the Bible, either not the Ten Command- explicitly or implicitly. If ments, but the Lawgiver we are to know and un- himself; she who carries derstand the mother of not manna from the des- Christ as she really is, ert, but the very Bread then we must understand Annunciation of the Archangel Gabriel to the Virgin Mary, of Life; she who carries these five doctrines. 15th century illuminated manuscript, French Book of Hours not the rod of Aaron the high priest, but the eter- Mother of God nal high priest himself. This understanding is rein- “And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a forced in the book of Revelation: “Then God’s temple son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great, and in Heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant was seen will be called the Son of the Most High” (Lk 1:31-32). within his temple … And a great portent appeared in Heav- One of the central truths about Jesus is that he is en, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her both fully God and fully man. To understand this, one feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars” (Rv 11:19, must understand the distinction between the terms 12:1) — that is, the Ark of the Covenant is Mary, the “person” and “nature.” Person refers to who we are. “woman clothed with the sun.” Nature refers to what we are. If we ask, “who is Jesus At the Council of Ephesus in 431 AD, the Church Christ?” the answer is that this is the name of God the proclaimed that Mary is “the Mother of God.” In do- Son, the second person of the Holy Trinity Incarnate. If ing so, the Church was actually defending and pro- we ask “what is Jesus Christ?” the answer is that he is tecting the whole truth about Christ which, at the a being with two natures — divine and human. time, was being denied by a man named Nestorius. When Mary, newly pregnant with Jesus, left Naz- The term “Mother of God” is often misunder- areth to go to her heavily-pregnant kinswoman Eliz- stood. It has a very specific meaning. It does not Five Doctrines on Mary — Page 2 “The merit and grace of Christ’s redemption was applied by God to Mary at the very first moment of her conception in her mother’s womb. In this way she was preserved from being born with original sin.” mean that Mary gave to Jesus his divine nature. The Mary was officially proclaimed a dogma of the Cath- almighty God is one God existing from all eternity as olic Church by Pope Pius IX in 1854, although it can three Persons — the Father, the Son, and Holy Spir- readily be documented that it has been taught and it. This is the Holy Trinity. At a particular moment believed at least as far back as the third century. in history, the second person of the Holy Trinity took At this point we must recall that God knew what he to himself a human nature. He became a man, while was going to do to save us all along. From all eternity, remaining at the same time, fully God. This is called God knew that Mary would be the mother of Christ. the “Incarnation.” This is where Mary comes into the This helps us to understand why Mary would receive picture. When the Son special graces and priv- of God “stepped into” ileges from God. She human history, he did would need all the grace so through Mary. The that God could give her womb of Mary is where in order for her to fulfill he received his human such an awesome task. nature. But Mary did The doctrine of the Im- not give to Jesus his di- maculate Conception vine nature. He pos- means that at the moment sessed his divine nature of her own conception already; he has always in her mother’s womb, been divine. In child- God intervened and pre- birth, however, moth- served Mary from origi- ers bring forth persons, nal sin.