Mother of My Lord

One of the things which always astounded me. Astounds me to this day, really, is the fact that a Protestant and a Catholic can look at the same verse and come up with two radically different understandings of that verse.

The difference, in my opinion, stems back to how we read the Bible. Protestants DISCOVER the meaning of a Bible verse every time they read it. They, in good faith, endeavor to read the Bible without any presuppositions cluttering their mind. At least, that's what many of them have told me. They suggest that I do the same. That I shed the Catholic presuppositions and approach the Bible as though I had never seen it before.

That, however, would be precisely against Catholic Teaching. The Catholic Church instructs us to read the Bible according to the Traditions of the Church.

113 2. Read the Scripture within "the living Tradition of the whole Church". According to a saying of the Fathers, Sacred Scripture is written principally in the Church's heart rather than in documents and records, for the Church carries in her Tradition the living memorial of God's Word, and it is the Holy Spirit who gives her the spiritual interpretation of the Scripture (". . . according to the spiritual meaning which the Spirit grants to the Church"81).

I have thought about why, the Catholic Church and the Protestants approach Scripture reading with such disparate methods. And I have come to the conclusion that the Catholic Church is the only Church which can legitimately approach Scripture with presuppositions.

You see, God did not drop a Bible down to earth and say, "You guys read that and figure it out." No. God inspired holy men to preach and then to write the Scriptures (2 Peter 1:19-21). Remember the day of Pentecost?

What I mean is this:

1. Christ taught the Apostles and commanded them to preach (Matt 28:20).

2. The Apostles obeyed and went into the world preaching and baptizing (Acts 2:38).

3. The Church then began to write the New Testament Scriptures (2 Peter 1:19-21).

Therefore, the New Testament is based upon the Traditions of Jesus Christ. The Traditions are the presuppositions with which the Church approaches the Scriptures. And that is why Catholics and Protestants can look at the same verse and see totally different things.

I was reminded of this reading the words of St. Elizabeth to Our Lady:

And how does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?

There we see an explicit declaration of the title, Mother of God, being used in Scripture. But most Protestants deny it.