Simply, the Mother of Lord Jesus Christ
an Article related to the title written
by PEDRITO B. PLACIO
THE MARY OF THE CHRISTIANS
PEDRITO B. PLACIO
MY MOST FAVORITE saint was Mary, mother of Jesus, who, I was taught is also my mother, a mother I share with God for she is God’s mother, TOO! In my childhood years in Marihatag, a small coastal town in Surigao del Sur in Eastern Mindanao, I was sacristan and convent boy from Grade I to second year high school, serving three successive Dutch priests, namely, Rev. Alfonso Brekelmans, Jose Van de Sande, and Mateo Van Santvoord.
In these formative years I longed for a mother’s love and I got it in the thought that Mary was my own mother in the best and fullest sense of the word. I prayed the rosary every night, recited her litany, threw flowers at the beloved statue with other children during the months of May and October, read stories about her, knew her numerous miracles in diverse parts of the world – Fatima, Lourdes, Guadalupe, etc.
She was invariably young and beautiful except in her latest appearance along EDSA at corner Ortigas Avenue in Mandaluyong, Metro Manila where she looks so horrifying. But I had been so sure that this Mary would be on hand on my dying day, to lead me to her Son in heavenly bliss. Such beautiful thoughts nourished me in my eight years of seminary life which culminated in 1967 at San Carlos seminary in Makati, Metro Manila. What beautiful thoughts to enliven my sad life on earth! But Oh! What a letdown to discover that this is all a mirage, an illusion!
MARY AS DESCRIBE BY HOLY SCRIPTURES
An inquisitive and scholarly mind readily discovers that the sources of information concerning the Mary of the Catholics are not from the Bible. An examination of the Bible’s contents concerning Mary, mother of Christ, reveals a totally different Mary.
A. MATTHEW’S GOSPEL. Matthew portrays Mary as a young woman engaged to be married to Joseph but discovered pregnant before they came together. Joseph was about to call off the marriage when an angel of the Lord told him what happened to Mary. He then went on with the marriage and did not have sexual relations with her until after Jesus was born, strongly implying that Mary and Joseph lived as a normal married couple afterwards ( cf. Mt. 1:18-25)
Matthew goes on to say that Mary was present when wise men from the East came to visit the child Jesus, that Mary fled to Egypt with Joseph her husband and the child to escape the wrath of Herod (cf. Mt. 2:11-14). They returned home after Herod’s death (cf. Mt. 2:19-21).
No mention of Mary is made until some scoffing Jews traced Jesus’s ancestry – that He is the son of Mary and that He has brothers and sisters (cf. Mt. 13:55-56). At the time of Jesus’s crucifixion, Matthew mentions two Marys present but did not say whether the mother of Jesus was present also (cf. Mt. 27:56-61).
Thus, in Matthew’s account, Mary was portrayed as an ordinary Jewish girl, engaged to be married to Joseph, caught under the extraordinary circumstances where she conceived without having known man yet through the work of the Holy spirit. Women ordinarily lose their virginity the result of which they ordinarily conceive. Mary does not play a prominent role in Christ’s public ministry, so unlike the Mary of the Catholics who is so inseparable from the Christ-God of the Catholics as “Co-Redemptrix.”
B. MARK’S GOSPEL. Mark mentions Mary when Jesus was told that His mother, brothers, and sisters were looking for Him. Jesus’s retort is very revealing—anyone who does the will of God is His father, His brother, His sister, and His mother! (cf. Mk. 3:32-25) Adopted, not literal mothers, brothers, sisters!
Just like in Matthew, Mary is mentioned again in Mark in connection with the sneering remarks of unbelieving Jews concerning Jesus’s ancestry – He is a carpenter, His mother is Mary, that he has brothers and sisters (cf. Mk. 6:3)
At the crucifixion, Mark mentions two Marys present, but as in Matthew, Mary the mother of Jesus was not mentioned as present (cf. Mk. 15:47;16:1).
C. LUKE’S GOSPEL. Luke mentions Mary early in his Gospel as “a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph” (Lk. 1:27, King James Version). The angel Gabriel greeted her with the words that now form an integral part of that popular Catholic prayer “The Hail Mary” (cf. Lk. 1:28).
Mary reacted to the angelic greeting by asking questions. The angel explained that she had found favor with God and that she was to be the mother of the savior who should be conceived without the aid of man but through the Holy Spirit. Thus she was a virgin although she conceived. Mary humbly accepted the work given to her and the angel left her (cf. Lk. 1:29-30).
Informed by the angel that her cousin Elizabeth had conceived in her old age, Mary went to visit her and Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, greeted her “Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb” (Lk. 1:36-45, KJV). This greeting now forms the latter part of the Catholic prayer “The Hail Mary.”
Mary’s response, the famous Magnificant tells of her happiness and acknowledgement of God’s great deeds to her although she was just Lord’s handmaid. She stayed with Elizabeth three months and then returned to her own house (cf. Lk. 1:46-56).
Catholic teacher use this event to justify their glorification of Mary, but in doing so, they have generated another Mary so different from the true one.
Luke next mentions Mary after Emperor Ceasar Augustus of the Roman Empire issued a tax decree which necessitated that Mary and Joseph should go to Bethlehem to be taxed. It was during this time that Jesus was born in a manger (cf. Lk. 2:1-7). Shepherds came and found Mary, Joseph and the child (cf. Lk. 2:16). Luke remarks that Mary kept pondering the unusual events in her heart (cf. Lk. 2:19).
Thus, In Luke’s Gospel, Mary and Joseph took active roles in the bringing up of the child Jesus. They marveled at what they were seeing and hearing about him. They worried when they lost him and when they found him after a long, wear some and anxious search, they receive a strange reply which they did not understand (cf. Lk. 2:21-510.
Catholic authors make full use of this to justify their contention that Mary deserves all the honors they can possibly give her as a reward for her role in bringing up the Savior. There is no objection if it is God who gave her those honors, but the Bible does not indicate this. Only Catholic authorities gave her those honors that properly are God’s or Christ’s. Besides, what Mary did for her son is done by any mother for her children. In fact it takes a lot more heroism and sacrifice to care for a child whom one knows to be the Savior of the World!
Luke did not speak of Mary again even after Jesus’s crucifixion. He speaks of two Marys present but was silent on whether or not Mary the mother of Jesus was there.
Thus, although Luke describes lengthily Mary’s role in the rearing up Jesus, he does not relate her involvement in Christ’s public ministry.
D. JOHN’S GOSPEL. John first mentions the mother of Jesus during the marriage feast at Cana where Mary told him that the wine has run out. She got a strange reply but proceeded anyway to tell the servants to do what Jesus would tell them. Jesus performed his first miracle by changing water into first class wine afterwards he departed with his mother, brethren, and disciples for other places (cf. Jn. 2:1-2).
John next mentions Jesus’s mother as standing by the cross as Jesus was dying. Jesus entrusted his mother to the care of the disciple he loved and who was brave enough to be with him at that moment with the words “Woman, behold thy son…behold thy mother” after which the disciple took her to his own home (cf. Jn. 19:25-27). After that John does not mention Mary again.
Thus, John’s Gospel portrays Mary as tagging along with Jesus during his public ministry but shows only one instance where Mary took an active part in Christ’s work were Mary got a strange retort from Jesus. Catholic teachers belittle this retort of Jesus and use this event to tell us that Mary can ask anything from Him and He will give it to her. This is an addition to what is written.
Mary was helpless with Jesus gone entrusted her to the care of His beloved disciple. Catholic authors assert that the disciple represent mankind when Jesus made Mary that disciple’s mother although nothing of the sort is stated in the Bible. That is why Catholics consider Mary their “Mommy Mary,” with all the power of God, readily available to her supposed “children”.
When Jesus said to Mary “Woman, behold thy son” and to the disciple “Behold, thy mother” he was only talking to these two, and there is no indication that the disciple represents the whole mankind. What happened was an adoption of Mary and the disciple as mother and son to each other respectively so that Mary would not be abandoned with the death, resurrection, and ascension of her real son.
E. ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. The Acts records the history of the Church of Christ immediately after Christ’s ascension into heaven. Mary, the mother of Jesus, is mentioned as being with the brethren in an upper room where the apostles reside (cf. Acts 1:13-14). Then, nothing is heard about her again.
The Acts, therefore records Mary as an ordinary member of the first century Church of Christ and not as Queen of the Apostles as Catholic doctrine would have us to believe.
As a human being, Mary shares with all humans the fate God has decreed for all humans – death (cf. Gen. 3:19). This fact even Catholic accept although they termed Mary’s death as “dormition”, a Latin word which means a falling asleep,” which is correct because physical death is really falling asleep (cf. I Thess. 4:13; Jn. 11:11-14; Acts 7:59-60; I Kings 2:10).
As a member of the Church of Christ, she shares what God’s beloved people have in store – wait in the grave (cf. Job 17:13), for her change (cf. Job 14:14) into a being incorruptible and immortal (cf. I Cor. 15:51-53) which will happen when all of His people will receive their reward.
In the meantime that Christ has not yet returned, she shares the lot of those who have died - cannot participate in anything that is done under the sun (cf. Eccl. 9:5-6). She has not yet gone into heaven for only three men so far have gone there, namely Enoch (cf. Gen. 5:24; Heb. 11:5), Elijah (cf. II Kings 2:11, and Jesus Christ (cf. Acts 1:11). The Bible does not mention any other human who has gone to heaven.
THE MARY OF THE CATHOLICS
This Mary of the first-century Christians was transformed into a completely different personality at the Council of Ephesus in 431 A.D. when she was proclaimed “Mother of God”. This council made it the standard of orthodoxy, excommunication Nestorians heretic who claimed it (The Question Box, p. 325). Thus was created a new personality, the Mary of the Catholics, “Mother of God,” not handmaid of the Lord. We should note that the ancient Ephesians worshipped Diana, the moon goddess.
From that time on, there was no stopping of the honors that the Catholic Church heaped upon this Mary a few of such honors, if minutely examined, will put Mary in embarrassing situations. Here are a few of them:
A. “Daughter of God the Father, Mother of God the Son, and wife of God the Holy Spirit” (Compedio Historico de la Religion, p. 501). This leads to a rather complicated relationship: The Holy spirit, as husband of Mary, daughter of God the Father-in-law of God the Father; the Father, as father of Mary the mother of Jesus, becomes grandfather, not father, of Jesus; the Father of Jesus is now the Holy spirit. And what about Joseph? It would show that Mary has two husband at the same time, the Holy Spirit who is the father of her Son, Joseph who takes the role of father which the Holy Spirit should have done! My, my, my! How so absurd and different from what the Bible says!
B. Daughter, spouse and mother of God (Glories and Virtues of Mary, p. 143). Implication: God married His own daughter who is also his own mother! What an unspeakable crime in the eyes of God and man!
C. Mary has taken over the honors that belongs to Christ.
"…Mary, whom He has made sovereign of heaven and earth, general of his armies…restorer of the human race, Mediatrix of men, the exterminator of the enemies of God, and the faithful companion of His grandeurs and triumphs." (True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, pp.18-19).
Such honors heaped on Mary by the Catholic authors have no basis in fact. They have no proof that God did these things to Mary. On the contrary, these honors belong to Christ. That would make Mary a usurper.
D. The Mary of Catholics is greater than God, has become God.
“Mary, being altogether transformed into God…that in heaven and on earth, everything, even God himself, is subject to the Blessed Virgin.” (Ibid. p. 17)
“…that the length of her power, which she exercises even over God himself, is incomprehensible…” (Ibid. p.6)
“St. Bernardine of Sienna declares that all obey Mary’s commands, even God Himself.” (Glories and Virtues of Mary, p.177)
“I will say plainly that I had rather believed (which is impossible) than there is no God at all, than that Mary is greater than God.” (The Book of Catholic Quotations, p. 101.)
E. But the Mary of the Catholics is lesser than the Catholic priest!
Truly God has bestowed ‘great things’ upon us priests which would be the envy of the ancient Jewish priesthood. We may justifiably ask the question: Upon whom has he bestowed more? Only on Mary. And as we know we are more blessed in many ways than she was, for we can call Christ down on the altar and absolve sinners. Mary could not do these things.” (Mary And The Priest, p. 58).
THE MARY OF THE CATHOLICS IS NON-EXISTENT
I fully understand if any Catholic reading this piece feels a murderous rage against this writer for that was exactly what felt when, as a believer in Mary of the Catholics, I heard attacks against her. I felt that the attacks were directed against my own mother.
The truth hurts, but it is still the truth. The Bible is the truth, the word of God (cf. Eph. 1:13) and the Mary portrayed in the Bible is the true Mary. The Majestic Mary of the Catholic is a creation of Catholic bishops, priests, writers. The Mary of the Catholics was created by Cyril, bishop of Alexandria, at the Council of Ephesus when he declared Mary to be the “Mother of God.” Such a Mary was embellished with more and more honors and titles, most of which is usurped from God, making her even greater than God Himself but strangely enough, lesser than the Catholic priest. Thus, the Mary of the Catholics is not only a big lie but a blasphemous creation of Catholicism!
But what about the numerous apparitions and miracles which this Mary has supposedly displayed lately? Such miracles are cures of incurable diseases, all for the good of the people who sorely need help. Such miracles dazzle even the most educated. Are these not proofs that Mary of Catholics is the true Mary of the Christians.
Miracles can also be done by pagans, as the one done by the priest of Pharaoh (cf. Gen. 7:10-12); by false prophets (cf. Mat. 24:24; Rev. 13:13-16), and by spirits of devils (Rev. 16:13-14).
Mary who is now “fallen asleep” in the grave, who cannot participate in anything done under the sun, cannot possibly the author of these miracles and apparitions. Those who patronize these miracles and apparitions, who claim that it was Mary who did all these, evidently lied. Liars are children of the devil (cf. Jn. 8:44). Hence, these teachers about the Mary of the Catholics, who coincidentally prohibit their priests from getting married – forbidding their priest to marry and who command their faithful to abstain from meats during some days of Lent – doctrines of devils (cf. I Tim. 4:1-3) – are from the devil, the instigator of such apparitions and miracles. Such miracles appear to help cure the sick and to do apparently good works. However, these deny the knowledge that saves man – the knowledge that the Father is the only true God (cf. Jn. 17:1-3). Advocates of Mary of the Catholics teach that the Father is not the only true God because they have Christ as true God also and the Spirit as true God also.
How about the “Women Clothed with the Sun.” Is this not Mary? Woman in prophecy means church – the Church of Christ is likened to a chaste virgin (cf. II Cor. 11:12). That is why Jesus is often portrayed as the husband to the Church of Christ. The “Woman Clothed with the Sun.” in Revelation 12:1-2 is not Mary but the Church of Christ.
Note: Brother Pedrito B. Placio, former Roman Catholic Seminarian, is currently a contributing editor of the PASUGO. He was also a history and philosophy professor in the College of Evangelical Ministry, and former Dean of College of Arts and Sciences of the New Era University.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Alberione, J. Glories and Virtues of Mary,Manila: Daughters of St. Paul, 1960.
Chapin, John. The Book of Catholic Quotations, USA: John Calder Publisher) Ltd., 1937
Conway, Bertrand L. The Question Box. New York: The Paulist Press, 1929.
De Mantfart, Louis Mary. True
Devotion to Mary, New York: The Mantfart Father’s Publications, 1941
Lyans, Mark J. Mary And The Priest (Meditations). Milwauhes, USA, The Bruce Publishing Company, 1962.
Pintan, Jasef. Compedio Historico de Is Religion. Manila:, University of Santo Tomas, 1932.
SOURCE: PASUGO (God’s Message)