Thomistica

Dealing with Ignorance

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Mary is accused of sin, not based on sin that is made apparent in scripture, but from ambiguous generalizations made by the apostle Paul in his letter to the Romans such as: “There is no one who is righteous, not even one” (v. 10) and “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (v. 23). But if we take these generalizations in the absolute sense, then we are to include Christ, who we know did not sin. This would also mandate that the verse include other categories of people that we know have not willingly sinned or have completed sanctification, for example, infants or those beatified in heaven. It is evident, based on the context, that these quotes are directed toward the communities who are receiving the instruction, the first generalization being directed toward Israel (Psalms 14) and the second generalization being reapplied to the new Israel, the church. In Luke 2:22-23 some unstudied men have supposed that Mary goes to the temple to present a sin offering. However, this is false because we know from Leviticus 12 that following child bearing, Jewish women are ritually unclean in the same manner that they are after menstruation. Here offering in Luke 2 is not out of guilt but due to childbirth for the sake of obedience to Jewish law. Worse than this accusation is the denial of Mary’s perpetual virginity based on the mention of Jesus’ brothers (Matthew 12:46, John 7:3, Matthew 13:55, ) using the Greek word adelphoi which is most frequently used in reference to blood brothers or brothers from the same mother. However, this word adelphoi is not confined to the strict sense and can be used to describe cousins, relatives, or even spiritual brothers and friends (Romans 8:29, 1 Corinthians 1:10). We must exclude the possibility of using the word in the strict sense to mean brothers of the same mother since we see that his brothers, James, Joseph, and Simon are said to be sons of Mary of Clopas (Matthew 27:56, John 19:25). With the possibility of Jesus being a brother of the same mother excluded, his adelphoi are either cousins or step-siblings from a marriage of Joseph. Mary was consecrated to the Lord and Joseph merely served a protective and provisional role, as all fathers should. Joseph’s sacrificial contribution toward Mary’s celibacy, and his humble, obedient, servant-like care demonstrate perfectly the character that every father must embody. In the Protoevangelium of James, a work from around 145 AD, which is supposedly the infancy gospel of James, Joseph is affirmed as Mary’s guardian, Jesus’ brothers being from a prior marriage making them step-siblings, confirming that Jesus humanity is from his mother alone since there is no opposing view among any Christian denomination that Christ was born of a virgin as was prophesied in Isaiah 7:14 and fulfilled in Luke 1:34-35. In Matthew 1:25 it is said that Joseph “had no marital relation with her [Mary] until she had born a son.” The word until does not necessarily imply that abstinence ceased after the birth but only affirm that it did not occur before the birth. We know this because the same phraseology is used in Matthew 28:20 when Jesus promises that he will be with his apostles “until the end of the age.” In this case, the opposite of the cessation of that action can easily be inferred: that Christ will continue to be with them. Though words and phrases can be translated, some of their meaning in one language as opposed to another may be more commonly implicit of other consequences in meaning through use of that word. Another controversy regards the verses which people mistakenly perceive that Jesus shuns his mother. In Matthew 12:46-50, when Christ is told that his mother and brothers are awaiting him outside, he insists that his mother and brothers are the ones who are with him, doing his will. When he says this, he does not deny the importance of his mothers and brothers or that they do the Lord’s will. Only a fool can deny that Mary had done the Lord’s will. A similar instance occurs in Luke 11:27-28, when a woman shouts “blessed is the womb that bore you and the breasts that nursed you!” to which Jesus responds: “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it.” While the word rather may seem to correct the woman’s statement, it only builds on it. Jesus is claiming that she is blessed not because she bore and nursed him but because she was obedient to God’s word. The root of her blessedness is not in her privilege to raise him but in her devotion to God through the submission of her will to his. These many objections manipulate scripture to pose a threat against what has been taught by the Church and the tradition of the apostles for 20 centuries. The objections are weak but become snares for those who have no biblical or spiritual education. Through these, devious men hope to snatch the unlearned seeking Christ before they become learned and therefore capable of identifying falsity. Their motive is to take the spotlight off of everyone but Christ. This motive may seem good but it opposes Christ’s mission which is to glorify those in communion with him. When Christ pours out his heart the night before his suffering and death he states the following as he speaks to the Father: “The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me” (‭‭John‬ ‭17‬:‭22‬-‭23‬). We are his body (1 Corinthians 12:27) and so the glory of the body's members is the glory of the entirety of that body as well. When those who are united to Christ and therefore to God are glorified, God is glorified. And when God is glorified all who are united to him are simultaneously glorified. To separate the glory of the saints and the glory of God nullifies the goal of Christ’s sanctifying work. Suddenly, when we understand God’s motive, we find no shame in the glory of his beloved creatures. If God wills to glorify those which he loves should we not find great joy in their glory accordingly? If we share God’s love, we will love that which he loves. Above all God loves her who He chose to enter the world through. It is not necessary but rather fitting to enter the world through a pure and undefiled vessel. This is analogous to how it was not necessary that God became man for our salvation but fitting so that our freedom to love is maintained as we are sanctified. The fitness of the immaculate conception has nothing to do with the merit of the vessel but everything to do with emphasizing what is contained in the vessel. 

 

The Biblical Truth About Mary

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The Bible tells the story of salvation history which can be broken down into three parts. Creation is the first part: the transcendental God of reality deposits his own being into various forms so that they may partake in his own blessedness. Following creation, God prepares humanity for his own timely coming in order to uplift men who unite all of creation with God himself by virtue of resembling him, being made in his image and likeness. And finally, God comes and sanctifies creation through man. Out of love he created and so it was necessary for him to first woo mankind as if pursuing a bride and secondly consummate himself with mankind through Christ becoming one with mankind. To undermine Christ’s coming is to reject his proposal. And therefore, those who reject it are not participants in the wedding with God but only his church, his bride, those who have accepted his call and are being sanctified so that they may be pure for the heavenly feast with the triune God and Lord of all (Ephesians 5:32 Revelation 19:7, 2 Corinthians 11:2). The pioneer of accepting this invitation is our mother Mary. This is a great mystery because she was ordained by God for this acceptance, that she was prepared for it by grace, and chosen as his favorite creature within all of creation, selected as the gate of His entry. There are two roles that Mary plays in salvation, keeping in mind that she is not the one sanctifying. Rather, she is used as an instrument through which God sanctifies. She is the first example of what we ought to be. Since we are members of Christ and Christ sanctifies (Hebrews 2:11), Christ also sanctifies through those who are being sanctified. Mary is the first to experience the grace which came through Christ and therefore it follows that she is the first tabernacle which Christ inhabits and so the first person through which Christ sanctifies. Biblically, not only is Mary the first to be sanctified by Christ, but in a miraculous way, she is sanctified fully and from the moment of her own conception. When the angel presents good tidings from the Lord, he uses a word that is found nowhere else in the Bible, in Greek, kecharitomene (Luke 1:28). There is no approximate translation of this word into English and so it is most accurately rendered, “full of grace” or “favored with grace.” Mary’s own proper name is not even used in the greeting, rather kecharitomene is the name the angel attributes her. To say that a messenger from God errs in his delivery would be uncharacteristic of God, making it necessary to trust this unique title lest we say that God has falsely relayed his message to mankind throughout the Bible. The word kecharitomene is the perfect passive participle of the verb charitoo, meaning “to endow with grace.” Its perfect passivity indicates that the action of bestowing grace was completed and that it happened in the past. We also know that Mary calls God her savior (Luke 1:47) which is implicit of Mary’s need for Christ’s grace which sanctifies. Here, we find the only scenario where Christ’s grace is working retroactively. Not only does it work retroactively but also instantaneously. The sanctification of men is a process, often throughout a lifetime. In this case sanctification is completed, not during any stage in life as we see in the saints, but from the moment of fertilization when her soul is infused by God. A common analogy made for the effects of Christ’s saving grace in Mary is that of a man who falls in a hole and needs to be lifted out. All of us fall into the hole by our sin and Christ pulls us out through His grace if we call for help through faith (not discounting that we must maintain our grip as we are being pulled out which is analogous for our obedience to Christ’s commands and the merit that follows). Mary, however, was caught before falling into the hole. The grace provided to Mary is God’s gift reaching its full effect and serves as an example of the power of his grace. Mary is predestined for salvation first and foremost to emphasize most perfectly the one who was to come into the world but also to give us hope in the inevitability of our sanctification. Nothing can stop God’s love for his adopted children through Christ. Several times in the gospels Mary is referred to as “woman” by Jesus (John 2:4, John 19:26). Only the fool thinks that Jesus is violating the fifth commandment. Addressing a female as “woman” in today’s culture is degrading but it was a more courteous term in 1st century Jewish culture. Even moreso, this use of the word woman has roots in the old testament: God says to Satan, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your offspring and hers” (Genesis 3:15). We know that the offspring of the woman who conquers Satan is Christ our savior. Therefore, it is mandatorily implicit that the mother of Christ, of whose the offspring is, also possesses victory over Satan through the promise of God. In the same way that sin and death entered the world through Adam, godliness and eternal life entered the world through Christ, our savior (Romans 5:12, 18). Consequently, if Christ is the new Adam then Mary must be the new Eve. The earliest christians, Justin Martyr being the first example that we see in writing, had caught onto this. Through the fruit taken by the old Eve death entered the old Adam. But through the fruit given to the New Eve, life entered the world through Christ. Mary undid what Eve had done. Her yes to God unravelled Eve’s yes to Satan. In John 4:21, however, Jesus addresses the Samaritan woman by the well as “woman” too which leads us to question whether he means woman in different regards in either situation. However, there is a difference in the scenario that can be used to suggest that Christ had intent when addressing Mary by “woman” while with the Samaritan, he did not. He knew Mary’s name, perhaps having many titles for her growing up as her child. There are various titles he could have addressed her as. However, the Samaritan woman was anonymous, nor did he lead the conversation by calling her woman. In the same way that Eve instructed Adam to eat of the fruit, Mary instructed Jesus to begin his ministry through his first miracle at Cana. In the same way that Eve had coerced the first sign of death for humanity, Mary coerced the first sign of life for mankind. If that first Adam was stainless before sin so was it necessary for Jesus to be stainless from his birth but also until his end. And likewise for Mary as Eve’s reciprocal. God’s intent for man’s life which was love was destroyed by Adam and Eve in the garden yet was brought to fruition through Christ and Mary. It is no doubt that the purity granted to her by the grace of God expands the glory of the incarnation. What is equally as relevant to the topic is Mary’s place among creatures in the eyes of God. Filled with the Spirit, Elizabeth exclaims two things in Luke 1:42-43 which, when dissected, lead to conclusions that alarm the ignorant. When Elizabeth calls her “blessed among women,” what is rendered in Greek and translated to English is incongruent to what was said in Hebrew. In Hebrew, there is no superlative, no word that expresses “most” or “ best.” In Hebrew, “from,” which is signified by “min” or “me,” is used in reference to those within a group while “among,” which is signified in Hebrew by “kerev” or “be’kerev,” is used in reference to the group as a whole. By saying that Mary is blessed from women is saying that she is blessed within the group while by saying that she is blessed among women is saying that she is the most blessed of the entire group, that group being women. So what is meant by Elizabeth in English is: “You are the most blessed among women.” Being filled with the Spirit, we cannot deny that Elizabeth’s words are inspired by God, proceeding from him through her. We know that God predestines those he loves all according to his plan (Romans 8:28-29) and to carry out his will through the divine economy. Divine predilection, or God’s relative favoritism for particulars in creation, has as its terminus the good of the whole of creation but works toward that end through those who are favored as his instruments. Some play larger roles and have a more profound effect (1 Corinthians 12:14-26) yet all receive the reward: sanctification which is salvation, through faith, all by God’s grace and our cooperation with it. By indicating that Mary is favored, it must also be said that she is the recipient of the grace equally with her rank within the salvific economy. Being most favored, she is correlatively most graced. We cannot say Christ is more favored or graced because he is the one who gives favor and possesses grace, through his union to the divine nature in the hypostases or person of the Word. He does not receive favor or grace since favor belongs to an object in the mind and grace is given to that object. This is the first of the two roles: her assistance in the incarnation. God would not have entered the world without Mary’s yes, and so, in his foreknowledge, he graces Mary as a worthy vessel. What is contingent to man is necessary to God and unpreventable by any creature. God chooses what is necessary and it cannot fail but what He chooses is free within Him. It is sovereign and unchanging for eternity. His plan always comes to fruition and all things that happen are indeed His will, yet not in the sense that He deems every event to be good since, through some evils, He works greater goods. Mary gave her choice freely, though it was prepared and mandated by God for the sake of mankind. The second role that Mary plays in salvation is not within salvation history but within the economy of God’s grace. It is her spiritual motherhood for all who are citizens of heaven. He who does not have Mary as mother cannot have Christ as Lord and savior. At the foot of the cross, Jesus assigns Mary a role in the lives of all Christians. When it was excruciatingly painful to murmur even a word, Christ, at the pinnacle of his suffering, said to the only disciple who followed him all the way to the cross, “Here is your mother” (John 19:27). Now this could not be said to John unless it was also applicable to all who followed Christ. Prior to this, he had given Mary stewardship over those who follow Christ, the church, when he said, “Woman, here is your son” (v. 26). Her motherhood, not only over John, but universally, is affirmed in Revelation when it is said that her children are “those who keep the commandments of God and hold the testimony of Jesus” (Revelation 12:17). Those who do not adhere to Jesus' command during the pinnacle of his ministry cannot be counted among those who keep the commandments of God (John 14:15). How can the one who does not love God have faith? And how can the one without faith adhere to his commands? The commandments of God are for our sanctification through faith. Our adherence to them increases our capacity to receive his grace, the grace that sanctifies. For it is no doubt that there is grace that moves and grace that cleanses our wounded nature. Christ came to restore the nature of man by uniting it with the nature of God so that all may see how God appears in man in order that that may imitate God. Whenever Christ assigns his handworkers with roles, whether that be prophet, judge, king, or saint, he equips them for their call. In the old covenant, it is by revelation of the law, while in the new, it is by grace (John 1:14) so that they may be made like God. The equipment that happens through Christ by grace is supernatural, of a different kind then of old. Mary’s role as mother of God’s children, of the church, is the greatest role in the kingdom. To equip her for this role God made her the first example of grace fully realized which is the resurrection. Unlike the souls who are beatified but waiting for the incorruptible bodies which are of a heavenly kind of glory (1 Corinthians 15:40,52), Mary already possesses such a body so that our faith may be reinforced. The final effect of Christ’s grace and everlasting sustenance in men is first fulfilled in Mary so that she may be an example for our hope. Through her, we know for certain that Christ’s promise is true. Ark of the covenant typology in the Old Testament is commonly used as a proof for the immaculate conception. However, this concept is conveyed directly by God in Genesis and through the angel Gabriel. Since those references should suffice, it is more fitting to use the Ark’s marian prefigurement to foreshadow the assumption. Within the Ark is contained the ten commandments, the manna, and Aaron’s rod. The law, the bread of God, and the authority of God (the priesthood) is merely foreshadowed in an imperfect form in these three things. These things that symbolize those which are to come are inferior to the ultimate reality which they prefigure. These types of things to come reveal God’s overarching mission. It is as if the mission which is fulfilled in Christ seeps through creation amidst signs gradually until it is once and for all fulfilled into creation. The signs of old manifest bodily that which is delivered spiritually through Christ. He is the law incarnate (Matthew 5:7), the living bread (John 6:48-51), and the high priest delegating his sovereign authority (Hebrews 5:1-10, Matthew 28:18). Mary is the new, spiritual Ark, the perfect Ark, the fruition of that which prefigured her. We cannot say that Chris is the Ark that contains those things which prefigures himself. Rather, he is those very things which are inside the Ark. How can we say that he is being carried by himself? It would be absurd to say that he is inside himself. Now the disappearance of the Ark is very similar to the unknown resting place of Mary. The early Christians cherished relics and always collected and preserved the bodies of the saints. Had Mary’s body been available to them, they would have done everything in their power to locate her remains. But this is not the case. Andrew, James the Great, James of Alpheus, Bartholomew, Jude, Matthew, Mathias, Paul, Peter, Phillip, and Thomas all have relics that tradition tracked and this list doesn’t include the relics of the saints and martyrs which we know of. But there is no trace of mother Mary’s remains. John was in exile so we know why his remains were likely never recovered. Even still, there is still dispute over where the bodies of Simon and John the beloved lie, the only two apostles which tradition was not consistent on. What is more relevant to the matter is the last known location of the Ark which is in Jerusalem. And what does Jerusalem prefigure? Heaven. Jerusalem was home to the Judaic temple where God was present but hidden (1 Chronicles 28:1-8). God is present in the new Jerusalem or heaven in his glory, fully revealed. In Hebrews, Mount Zion is used interchangeably with “the heavenly Jerusalem” (Hebrews 12:22) and Paul contrasts a Jerusalem in slavery, what he calls the present Jerusalem, with a Jerusalem that is above (Galatians 4:26). It would make sense that Mary is taken up to this heavenly Jerusalem since the Ark of old is brought to the Earthly Jerusalem to remain there for all of time. Her bodily presence in heaven is the victory of Christ fully realized in the creature. Without an assumption, Christ’s victory over Satan in uplifting the creature back to God’s original plan for it, would still remain incomplete. The resurrection of the body is a key Christian doctrine which is emphasized in 1 Corinthians 15. To deny such a doctrine has not yet arrived is not to deny that Christ’s work is complete but to deny that it has come to its full effect, not its effect entirely, but in an individual. This grace has been wrought by Christ for our hope and for his glory.

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The Implications

Contrary to the light of revelation, many Christians not in communion with Rome can be placed in two categories: 1) those who deny these revelations entirely and 2) those who deem these revelations as unessential or irrelevant. For those who deny these revelations outright, it is fitting to ask what remains to be proved from scripture? If the arguments presented are disagreed with, there must be alternative understandings presented for the verses aforementioned. And even if alternatives are presented, what is that particular understanding subjected to? If a certain exegetical interpretation is not subjected to the Holy Spirit, what else can it be subjected to except to the whims of human will. The gaps of human knowledge are vast but the Lord fills all gaps, containing all knowledge, and governing creation through it. We can only determine an interpretation to be inspired by the Spirit if God’s authority rests on it. We know that the gates of hell will not prevail against the church (Matthew 16:18) and that whoever is united under the visible head of the church can bind and lose (v. 19). Moreover, we know that the church is the last line of defense and that everything within the boundaries that the church sets around dogma is permissible but also that anything conjectured from outside of those bounds is anathema and the one who holds to that conjecture is anathematized (Matthew 18:17). As to the latter, those who deny that Mary is irrelevant in the economy of salvation, let them tell that to the demons who cower at the mere mention of her name. Nothing is more essential than the promise of everlasting life from Christ and every moment, every act in this life is a means to that end. If Christ gives our heavenly mother as an advocate, for our aid, not only is it foolish to deny such a gift, but it is a blatant negligence of the very precious promise of Christ. Not only do we see a clear example of Mary’s influence on Christ as she compels him to perform his first miracle, opening his ministry at Cana after Christ was unwilling (John 2:1-11), but we learn something of God’s character: that though God has power over all things, he loves and submits himself to things which are pure and perfectly in sync with his sovereign will. When the creature’s will gains similitude to God’s as a result of His own predestining it to, the participation that he invites the creature into serves an outward seal of approval inviting witness into that same participation. Jesus is a Davidic king and Mary fills the intercessory role of the mother, since the queenship of mothers throughout the Old Testament prefigures Mary’s queenship of the invisible kingdom which is ushered in by Christ. In the same way that all male figures which are ordained by God in the Old Testament culminate, perfect, and are fulfilled in one individual who perfectly embodies all masculine roles, so are all feminine prototypes fulfilled in Mary perfectly. If Christ is the new Adam and Mary the new Eve, the divine intention for authentic masculinity and femininity are fulfilled in Christ and Mary. The Logos fittingly united itself to Christ because the relationship of God to creation is masculine to feminine respectively. Christ is the eternal high priest who impregnates creation with love, inviting it into communion with the divine. Creation, the feminine, and Mary in particular are receptive to the gift, exercising docility toward that which is holy and giving themselves back entirely. Christ is not the new Adam in respect to his divine nature but in respect to his human nature. In Christ’s masculine human nature, Mary is the feminine reciprocal, both embodying the masculine and feminine geniuses perfectly and as God had intended. The fall of human nature was merely so that its glory could be illuminated after it is fulfilled in Christ, the new Adam, and in Mary, the new Eve. Mary is all that Christ is relative to their humanity but she is nothing that Christ is in respect to his divinity, because the divine essence is absent from her. Her humanity is not perfected by virtue of union and therefore accord with a divine hypostasis, but by virtue of grace from the human who is perfected through hypostatic union with the divine. The cancer that plagues those who do not cherish this revelation is a destruction in the feminine prototype, a prototype which was presented once and for all purely by God through Mary. Docility to the Spirit and receptivity of the Logos, which is carried out even carnally in Mary, is difficult for woman to obtain, not because it is absent from the fullness of revelation through Christ, but because all perfections are seen perfectly and in form when they are embodied. The feminine roles are not merely known in the mind but are manifested and performed in our Blessed Mother so that they may be observed by us. Woman is the glory of man (1 Corinthians 11:7) not because she is better than man but because, as his counterpart and completion, she is his beauty. The beauty of man would not be visible without women. It is the nature of men to fight for women not because women are superior but because a man would not be fully expressed without the complementation of a woman. They are biologically designed to be one, each completing the other. The dependency of women on men is analogous to the dependency of creation on God since the latter is the origin of the former. The expression of women for men is a communicative illustration of his beauty in the same way that creation expresses the goodness of God. God would not be known as good if he was not expressed through creation and man could not be good if he didn’t fight for woman who conceives his goodness, animates it, and becomes an outward expression of it. In all ways women are superior to men not essentially, but because men more closely resemble the nature of brute animals. They are animalistic and women are self-conscient. This is why the best men are those who control their appetite and the best women are those who are conscious about things pertaining to the divine. A woman who is not in tune with heavenly things is more a brute than men because she falls farther from her nature since her potential is higher. This is why a man is made to work. He is the origin of his glory, the woman, and superior in his flesh, though tempted through it more than she is. That which is higher is purer and this is what Mary exemplifies. She maintains contemplation of heavenly things perfectly within her conscience. But modern women, consumed by contemplation of the world, have become envious of man because he possesses fleshly superiorities. A woman who is concerned with heavenly things will never envy a man and may even cause a healthy envy in man for her holiness. Without Mary as the exemplar for femininity, this vision is lost. Men serve women. They protect, sacrifice, provide, and lead women to heaven from this world, which is precisely what Christ did. Holy women sanctify men and uplift them to heavenly things because men see the heavenly glory in women. A woman who is meek, pure, caring, motherly, and receptive of holy things is the kind of woman who fills men with inspiration to attain heavenly things for her and for the entire world. If we reintroduce Mary into theology, women will be pure, receptive, compassionate, homemaking, and very pleasing to holy men. If femininity and masculinity complement one another, then what holy men are attracted to in women are the virtues which women should aspire to attain, and what holy women are attracted to in men are the virtues which men should aspire to attain. Meditate on these things, bring them to prayer, and sanctify the world by feminizing women and masculinizing men for holiness and for the glory of the Lord through his beloved women. For this reason, Mary must be reintroduced as the feminine prototype. In the same way that men must ask “What would Jesus do?” women must ask “What would Mary do?” Although, no masculine or feminine virtue is mutually exclusive, rather they have a different effect when they take a different form in the same way that all things in creation embody a resemblance to one and the same goodness, God himself, but are expressed in different modes, restricted by their various forms for his Glory.

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Written by Matthew Shuler