Why We Celebrate St. Mary

Mary, the mother of Jesus, has been much maligned in recent years. Many people mistake devotion to Mary as a sort of worshiping of her. I suppose if we truly viewed her like our own parent, we would understand Marian devotion much more clearly.

When we celebrate Mother’s or Father’s Day for example, we tend make our parents feel our appreciation for all their sacrificial love for us. With Mary, we have a more complex situation because her role in humanity is so vital. Without her accepting the will of God, and accepting the Christ to the point of baring him in her own body, and presenting Him to our human race, we would have no path to our own salvation. When we think about what she completed by her “yes” to the Father, we realize that without that “yes” we would not see the Son.

It’s easy to associate Mary to the role of a children’s devotion, because motherhood is perfectly expressed in caring for children. But even grown-up children rely on their mothers. As we mature, our relationship with our mothers changes. We begin to view or mothers’ lives through our own life experiences. An adult child grasps the depth of difficulty their own parents overcame to raise them. In the same way, the Church (through reflection on the Divine plan for humanity) becomes aware of how important this woman, Mary, is.

Mary bent eternity towards us, and bore it in her body. Through what she accomplished, we all share in salvation. Of course the power of Jesus saves us, and he chose this woman from among all other means (remembering nothing is impossible with God) to dwell with us, die for us, and raise us to eternal life everlasting.

Those saints who pleased God by their holy lives are recalled by all peoples. We celebrate their good examples and their reminder to us that we are called to be holy. The greatest of all the saints is Mary. She completed the will of God with great joy.

When we honor Mary with celebrations, and place statues depicting her in our churches, it is out of knowing this will please Jesus. He raised his servant, Mary, to the highest place of honor, to a height of being a queen over all the creatures He created. God does this to reflect His wondrous plan to include created mankind into His kingdom of eternal happiness. His desire to come to the world through Mary makes us marvel at how God uses us to do his will.

We have a wonderful mother in Mary who keeps after us to follow her son, Jesus. It is fitting that our Church celebrates such a wonderful mother.