1. BLESSED VIRGIN MARY “Defending Mary our Mother” (Marwin N. Llasos, OP)

2. “All dogmas are doctrines, but not all doctrines are dogmas”  DOCTRINES are the official teachings of the Catholic Church.  They are rooted in the person of Christ, his words and deeds.  DOGMAS are doctrines stamped by the Church with the seal of infallibility.  “Dogma is nothing other than an interpretation of Scripture.” (Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger)

3. MARIAN DOGMAS  1. Mary as Mother of God (“Theotokos” or bearer of the Incarnate God)- declared in the Council of Ephesus in 431 AD.  2. Perpertual Virginity - pronounced in the Lateran Council in 649 AD presided by Pope Martin I.  3. Immaculate Conception – defined by Pope Pius IX on December 8, 1854.  4. Assumption into Heaven – proclaimed by Pope Pius XII on November 1, 1950.

4. MOTHER OF GOD  BIBLICAL REFERENCE  Luke 1:41-43 = “When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leapt in her womb. Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and cried out in a loud voice: ‘Blest are you among women and blest is the fruit of your womb. But who am I that the mother of my Lord should come to me?’”

5. MOTHER OF GOD  The Council of Ephesus acclaimed the Virgin Mary as “Theotokos” which literally means “God-bearer” because she conceived and gave birth to Jesus Christ who was truly God and truly man.  “As early as the 2 nd century Christians venerated Mary by calling her Mother of God, a title that primarily stresses the divinity of Jesus.” (Funk and Wagnalis New Encyclopedia, 1995)

6. MOTHER OF GOD  The early Church fathers held the divine maternity of Mary.  St. Ignatius of Antioch, the 2 nd successor of St. Peter in the episcopal see of Antioch (where the disciples were first called Christians- Acts 11:16), made the earliest expression of this truth.  The term “Theotokos” had been used as early as 180 AD by Irenaeus of Lyons considered the father of Catholic dogmatic theology. He had been in contact with Polycarp and other Christians who had known the Apostles directly.

7. MOTHER OF GOD  Classical Protestantism (nearly all Protestant reformers) held the historic doctrine of Mary’s Divine Maternity.  Martin Luther, the man who started the Protestant Reformation, was deeply devoted to the Mother of God.  John Calvin, considered the most systematic of the Reformed theologians and the most guarded about Mary, held “that God in choosing and destining Mary to be the Mother of His Son granted her the highest honor.”

8. MOTHER OF GOD  HERESY OF NESTORIANISM  Nestorius, the Patriarch of Constantinople, preached that Jesus Christ was two separate and distinct persons- one divine and one human.  He claimed that Mary did not give birth to the unified person of Jesus Christ who was at once both God and man.

9. MOTHER OF GOD  CONTEMPORARY PROTESTANTS  With the resurgence of Protestant interest on Mary as reported by Time, contemporary Protestant writers are beginning to write more favorably about her.  Protestants are giving a second look on Mary and her Divine Maternity.  As it now seems, Mary is no longer a stumbling block to Christian unity – she fosters it.

10. MOTHER OF GOD  IMPLICATIONS OF THE DOGMA:  According to Fr. R. Cantalamessa, OFM, preacher to the papal household, the dogma talks to us:  1. about Jesus  2. of God.  3. of Mary.  4. of the dignity of women.  5. about our being “mothers” of God, too.  6. about the motherhood of the Church.

11. PERPETUAL VIRGINITY  Biblical Reference for Mary’s Vow of Virginity:  Luke 1:34 – “Mary said to the angel, ‘How can this be since I do not know man.’“  Mary’s declaration “not knowing man” (no sexual relation) was made even after her betrothal to Joseph.

12. PERPETUAL VIRGINITY  Biblical References for Jesus as Mary’s Only Child:  Mark 6:3 – “Is this not the carpenter, the son of Mary, a brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? Are not his sisters our neighbors here?”  John 2:1 – “On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there.”  Acts 1:14 – “…There were some women in their company, and the Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.”  (underscoring mine)  The question about the brothers of Jesus and his sisters cannot be easily be decided on linguistic grounds. Greek-speaking Semites used the terms “adelphos” and “adelpha” not only in the ordinary sense of blood brother and sister, but also for nephew, niece, half-brother, half- sister, and cousin. The question of meaning here would not have arisen but for the faith of the Church in Mary’s perpetual virginity. (NAB notes)  The definite article “the” (Greek “ho”) is very significant because it signifies “the one and only”.

13. PERPETUAL VIRGINITY  “The Catholic Church emphatically affirms the truth of Mary’s perpetual virginity because it is a corollary truth to the Virgin Birth of Our Lord.  It safeguards the virginal conception of Jesus Christ which is a fundamental teaching of Christianity.  The Virgin Birth points to the uniqueness of Christ. Mary’s continuing virginity is a sign of that uniqueness.” (MNLlasos)

14. PERPETUAL VIRGINITY  DIFFERING VIEWS:  1. Hieronymian View- named after St. Jerome, teaches that those called in the New Testament as “brothers” and “sisters” were simply Jesus’ cousins and that St. Joseph was a virgin. The Catholic Church and classical Protestantism adhere to this view.

15.  2. Epiphanian View – named after St. Epiphanius, Bishop of Salamis, who followed the tradition that St. Joseph was an old widower whom God wanted to stand beside the young Virgin Mary as her sole guardian and guarantor of her reputation. Following the Protevangelium of James, this view considers the “brothers” and “sisters” spoken of in the Gospels as Joseph’s children from a previous marriage. The Orthodox churches affirm this view.

16.  3. Helvidian View – named after the heretic Helvidius who questioned the perpetual virginity of Mary. This view, followed by the Fundamentalists and Evangelicals, avers that Mary had children with Joseph. The “brothers” and “sisters” of Jesus mentioned in the Bible are his half-siblings.

17. PERPETUAL VIRGINITY  THEOLOGICAL MEANING:  “Mary is a virgin because her virginity is the sign of her faith ‘unadulterated by any doubt,’ and of her undivided gift of herself to God’s will.” (CCC- 506)  Virginity is the state of wholeness, completeness, and integrity of a person according to what he is meant to be in purpose of God by which man has been created. (MNLlasos)

18. IMMACULATE CONCEPTION  The Catholic Church confesses that “at the very moment of Mary’s conception, both her soul and her body were created without the stain of Original Sin.”  This dogma means that God created Mary without the stain of Original Sin and preserved her from actual personal sin and concupiscence or the inclination to sin.  In Mary was the perfect harmony of nature and grace; there was nothing disordered about her.

19. IMMACULATE CONCEPTION  Biblical Reference:  Luke 1:28 – “Upon arriving, the angel said to her: ‘Rejoice, O highly favored daughter! The Lord is with you. Blessed are you among women.’”  Highly favored daughter- Mary is to be the recipient of the divine favor, i.e., of the sanctifying power of God, in view of her office of mother of the Messiah, which the angel announces to her. (NAB notes)

20. IMMACULATE CONCEPTION  PROTOEVANGELIUM:  Genesis 3:15 – “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; He will strike at your head, while you strike at his heel.” (NAB)  Later theology saw in the passage more than unending hostility between snakes and men. The serpent was regarded as the devil, whose eventual defeat seems implied in the contrast between head and heel.  The passage can be understood as the first promise of a Redeemer for fallen mankind. The woman’s offspring then is primarily JESUS CHRIST.  (NAB notes)

21. IMMACULATE CONCEPTION  THEOLOGICAL CONTROVERSY  At the beginning of the 12 th century, a heated controversy arose from two ideas:  1. the Augustinian doctrine on the transmission of Original Sin: the concupiscence involved in the generative act stains the flesh generated; this stain affects the soul when body and soul are joined somewhat later; and  2. the universality of the Redemption is incompatible with the Immaculate Conception of Mary; for if the Virgin is immaculately conceived, she will be exempt from the Redemption through having no sin, original or personal.  RESOLUTION:  St. Thomas Aquinas (and the Church for this matter) held that Mary is herself saved by her Son. During his time, Redemption was taught to be “liberative”.  Bl. John Duns Scotus (a great Franciscan philosopher and theologian) provided the way out of the difficulty by asserting that Mary’s redemption is “preservative”.

22. IMMACULATE CONCEPTION  FITTINGNESS OF THE DOGMA:  The Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary was for the sake of Christ himself.  It is “demanded” by the Incarnation, of God becoming man.  It is “demanded” by the holiness of God.  It is appropriate to safeguard the honor of the Son.

23. ASSUMPTION  “The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin is a singular participation in her Son’s Resurrection and an anticipation of the resurrection of other Christians.” (CCC- 966)  As distinguished from Jesus’ Ascension with him “going up” by his own divine power, Mary’s Assumption was her being “taken up” by the power of her Son and God.

24. ASSUMPTION  Biblical Support:  Revelations 11:19- 12:1 = “Then God’s temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant was seen within his temple; and there were flashes of lightning, loud noises, peals of thunder, an earthquake, and heavy hail. And a great portent appeared in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under feet, and on her head is a crown of twelve stars.” (RSV)  INTERPRETATIONS:  Ark of his covenant – Mary being the bearer of Jesus, the Word of God.  Woman – Mary with bodily existence.  Sun – Jesus.  Twelve stars – the twelve Apostles.

25. ASSUMPTION  Absence of Relics – In the Council of Chalcedon in 451 AD, St. Juvenal, the Patriarch of Jerusalem, explained to Emperor Marcian and recounted that “Mary had died in the presence of the Apostles; but her tomb, when opened later…was found empty and so the apostles concluded that the body was taken up into heaven.” (a belief since Apostolic times)  Admittedly, there is no Biblical account of the death of Mary or the apostles, except for Judas (Mt. 27:3-8; Acts 1:18-19) and James the son of Zebedee, the brother of John (Acts 12:1-2) simply because they were still alive when the New Testament was still being written.  Are we to assume that the Apostles never died just because their death is not mentioned in the Bible?  (MNLlasos)

26. ASSUMPTION  THOUGHTS TO PONDER:  1. The Assumption tells us that our destiny is heaven.  2. It reminds us that we will be saved in the totality of our human personhood- body and soul.  3. It gloriously shows forth the power of Christ’s resurrection- of his victory over sin and death.  4. Mary precedes us in grace and glory.  5. Mary’s Assumption imbues us with a special confidence in Mary’s intercession because of her closeness to God.  6. With Mary our mother in heaven, we can look forward to heaven as our true home.  (MNLlasos)

27. PRAISE GOD!