{"id":31791,"date":"2020-09-21T12:35:00","date_gmt":"2020-09-21T12:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/catalog.obitel-minsk.com\/blog\/?p=31791"},"modified":"2020-09-21T12:35:00","modified_gmt":"2020-09-21T12:35:00","slug":"does-the-new-testament-tell-us-that-mary-is-the-mother-of-christians-the-mother-of-the-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/catalog.obitel-minsk.com\/blog\/2020\/09\/does-the-new-testament-tell-us-that-mary-is-the-mother-of-christians-the-mother-of-the-church","title":{"rendered":"Does the New Testament Tell Us that Mary Is the Mother of Christians, the Mother of the Church?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last time we saw how often the Virgin Mary is mentioned in the New Testament. Nobody except her Son comes close. Then\u2026 well, go back and read it for yourself. We stopped in the middle this section.<\/p>\n

What the Bible teaches about Mary<\/h3>\n

5\u00a0<\/strong>Does the New Testament tell us that\u00a0Mary is the Mother of Christians, the Mother of the Church? Yes. There is, of course, no distinction between the titles, since the Church is the People of God.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s spend some time on this one.<\/p>\n

\"\"
The Church of Christ Icon<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

First, the theology. In the New Testament, the Church is the \u201cBody of Christ\u201d, \u00a0the place of his bodily Presence in the world \u2013 as is the Holy Eucharist, but that\u2019s another story. As Paul put it, Christ is the Head, we are the members of his Body.\u00a01 Corinthians 12:27<\/em>\u00a0 \u2013 united with him just as hands and arms are part of the human body. Now, Christ is God. He has never been limited to the Divine Human Being who dwelt on earth \u2013 neither before his Incarnation nor after his Ascension. In his Person he now incorporates all who are joined to him into a \u201cmulti-personal bodily Person\u201d. (Is that a safe way of expressing the Mystery?) Anyway, the point is that, since Mary gave birth to Christ bodily and is his Mother, it follows that she is necessarily also Mother of his Body the Church. She is our Mother, too.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s come at it in another more \u201chuman\u201d way, and look at a sometimes misunderstood passage.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile Jesus was still talking to the crowd, his mother and brothers stood outside, wanting to speak to him.\u00a0<\/span>Someone told him, \u2018Your mother and brothers are standing outside, wanting to speak to you.\u2019\u00a0<\/span>He replied, \u2018Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?\u2019\u00a0<\/span><\/span>Pointing to his disciples, he said, \u2018Here are my mother and my brothers.\u00a0<\/span><\/span>For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and\u00a0\"\"sister and mother.\u2019\u201d\u00a0Matthew 12:46-50<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

At first reading this seems to be a sort of \u201cputdown\u201d of his Mother. But that couldn\u2019t have been the case. We know how he loved and respected her. For example, at the Wedding at Cana of Galilee he even allowed her to influence him \u2013 and indeed he learned from her how to \u201cmake the most\u201d of his first great Sign. (We\u2019ll say more about that in a minute.) You know how from the Cross, he provided her a new \u201cson\u201d John, to care for her after his death. And especially in this instance when she came worrying, as all loving mothers would, to make sure her Son was looking after himself, how could he help but love her? So he could not have been rejecting her. There must be another \u201cangle\u201d on this.<\/p>\n

There is. Here Jesus was honoring his Mother, for he knew she had completely obeyed and kept the will of God. She had said to the Archangel, \u201cLet it be to me according to your word\u201d. Now Christ was expanding his family (and hers) from a natural family into a \u201csuper-natural\u201d Family. People would become members of his Family, not by the water of the womb and physical birth, but by the water of Baptism and a new spiritual birth into a life of doing the will of his Father \u2013 just as she already had.<\/p>\n

\"\"An Italian movie from the 1960s showed the Virgin Mary realistically, now in her 40s. When she first heard these words of Jesus, a look of shock came over her \u2013 but then she looked out over the crowd, and very slowly a big smile came over her face. You could see what she was thinking: \u201cNow they\u2019re\u00a0all<\/em>\u00a0my family!\u201d<\/p>\n

What would any family be without a loving mother? And Mary is the best of them. Why else would God have chosen her to be his own dear Mother? Generation after generation of Christians have turned to her for what mothers provide so well: a godly pattern to follow, help, consolation, comfort, guidance, motherly love \u2013 \u00a0someone to care about us as she did for her Son. Mary, the Mother of Christ our God and Mother of all Christians, all who follow her example: \u201cLet it be to me according to your word.\u201d<\/p>\n

Does this in any way detract from our love of God? our love for Jesus? \u00a0Of course not. People, get rational! Think! Does your love for your own natural mother separate you from God? Then why ever should our love for our Mother Mary do that?<\/p>\n

\n

6\u00a0<\/strong>Does the Bible teach that Mary is our Advocate with her Son? Yes. At the Wedding in Cana of Galilee she \u201cadvocated\u201d with her Son on behalf of a family friend. If she did it then, why would she have stopped now? Certainly she doesn\u2019t talk him into something he does not will to do, contrary to the will of his Father. But\u00a0\"\"at Cana she helped him to see what his will really was. He was hesitating. I\u2019d guess he wanted to do something more significant for his first Sign, rather than \u201cwaste\u201d it making wine for a wedding reception. It was our son David\u2019s godmother who helped me understand this, just as Mary helped Jesus to understand. This was an act of pure unselfish humble kindness, done quietly without calling attention to himself, just to save a family friend from embarrassment. That was no \u201cwaste\u201d. It was the love of God in action.<\/p>\n

So why should their relationship have changed now? I\u2019m thinking things in heaven are not so far different from those on earth \u2013 including the relationship of Mary and Jesus. I think we tend to \u201coverspiritualize\u201d (de-humanize?) heaven. We don\u2019t know the \u201cins and outs\u201d of that blessed Country. But we do know that Jesus Christ rose bodily and ascended bodily. He is still a human being, a Man \u2013 the Fourth Ecumenical Council made that clear. And his Mother is still his Mother. I suspect she still whispers into his ear from time to time.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

7<\/strong>\u00a0Do the Scriptures teach that Mary has been glorified in heaven? Yes.<\/p>\n

Yesterday, August 15, is the day when both Orthodox and Roman Catholics celebrate the major feast of Mary\u2019s death and and\u00a0\"\"entrance into heaven. We each take a slightly different approach concerning precisely what happened then. English-speaking Orthodox usually title the day \u201cThe Dormition\u201d, which is Latin for \u201cFalling Asleep\u201d. (The Greek word is \u201cKimissis\u201d.) Our Orthodox icon shows Christ receiving her pure soul into heaven.<\/p>\n

Roman Catholics call the day \u201cThe Assumption\u201d. They have a dogma (promulgated not until 1950, but believed much earlier) that she was taken bodily (assumed) into heaven, like her Son. Probably most Orthodox believe this as well (I do, on the evidence), but we have no formal teaching about it. Many Orthodox sources take her bodily Assumption for granted. However, after thirty years of searching I have found not one Orthodox hymn or text that clearly refers to it. Both Roman Catholics and Orthodox agree that the Mother of God has now been glorified in heaven.<\/p>\n