Love Mary

Love. It frequently looks like worship. Have you ever said to your spouse or has your spouse ever said to you, "I adore you."? Or have you ever heard anyone say that to a spouse or to a parent?

We love Mary, because she is the Mother of Jesus Christ and our Mother. But, to non-Catholics, this frequently looks like worship. I’ve had Protestants ask me, “Why do you worship Mary?” That’s a loaded question isn’t it? Much like, “Why do you beat your wife?” The answer is that we don’t worship Mary and I hope you don’t beat your wife. Or that she doesn’t beat you, either.

If we ever say we adore Mary, the context is from one creature to another and we mean that we love her exceedingly. Because we love Jesus Christ, whom she carried in her womb for nine months and then gave Him to us.

But, you know, non-Catholics, especially Evangelicals and other Protestants, want to see it written in Scripture, that we should have a special relationship to Mary. Is there a verse in Scripture which might alleviate their concerns?

I think there are quite a few.

Let’s start here:

Luke 1:26-28

26 And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth,27 To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin's name was Mary.28 And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women.

And let’s try to go a little bit deeper than the surface. First of all, who is the Angel Gabriel. Well, he’s…

1. A messenger of God. That is what the word, angel, means.

and 2. He’s one of the four angels that stands before the throne of God.

Why is that important? Well, its a pretty big deal. This heavenly creature who sits before the throne of God is an important individual. And God sent this angel to Mary. That’s kind of like, the President of the U.S. sending one of his 4-Star Generals to your house.

Stop for a second and think about this. Since this angel is a messenger of God's, God sent Him to deliver a message. Therefore, the angel was not speaking on his own, but was communicating God's message to Mary. If we skip down to verse 28, we see that this was a message of praise (i.e. blessed art thou). Therefore God praised Mary through His Angel.

That is great praise indeed. Do you know of any man whose praise is worth more than God's? In other words, what do you value more highly, the praise of man or the praise of God?

But, there's more. God sent the Angel to do His Will. What is His Will. Obviously, God sent the Angel to deliver a message of praise. Therefore it is God's will that the Angels praise Mary. Do you understand, or do I need to repeat that?

One of the characteristics of a heavenly creature is that they only do God’s will. They always obey God. So, when the Angel went to praise Mary, he did it in obedience to God. This is what God wants. He wants the Angels to praise Mary.

That’s just one verse. But if we move on down just a few verses, we see that the Holy Spirit inspired a holy woman to exclaim, ""Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! "

All of my prayer warriors should recognize those words from the Rosary. Let’s go to Scripture.

Luke 1:41-45 says:

41 And it came to pass, that, when Elisabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb; and Elisabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost: 42 And she spake out with a loud voice, and said, Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb.

Notice that the Holy Spirit, God the Third Person of the Holy Trinity, inspired Elisabeth to praise Mary.

Let me repeat. God inspired St. Elizabeth to praise Mary. Doesn’t that mean God AGAIN praised Mary? This time through His Saint. Since Elisabeth is a member of the human race, then is it safe to conclude that God wills that men praise Mary?

I think so. In fact, Mary confirms this in the Magnificat when she says, “all generations will call me blessed”.

There are many other verses in Scripture where God tells us that Mary is very important to Him and therefore, should be very important to you. So, if anybody ever says to you, “Why do you pray to Mary?” Tell them, because that is what God wants us to do.