Scott Hahn: "If We Ignore the Mother, We Can't See the
Child"
Roots of Marian Devotion Go Back to Old Testament
NEWS OBTAINED FROM www.zenit.org
ROME, DEC. 25, 2002
(Zenit.org).- Scholar Scott Hahn roundly
rejects the idea held by some outside the Church that Catholics, by honoring
Mary, somehow detract from God.
"The glories we honor in Mary are merely her own reflections of God's glory,"
says the author of books such as "Rome Sweet Home" and "Hail, Holy Queen." Here,
the one-time Presbyterian minister spells out his ideas.
Q: Why do you say that Catholics should love Mary a lot more than they do?
Hahn: Because God does! And he wants us
to love her as much as he does.
At the time of the annunciation, the angel Gabriel prophesied that all
generations would call Mary blessed. In our generation, we need to fulfill that
prophesy. We need to call her blessed. We need to honor her -- again, because
God did.
Jesus himself, as a faithful Jew, kept the Fourth Commandment and
honored his mother. Since Christ is our brother, she is our mother too. Indeed,
at the end of John's Gospel, Jesus named her as the mother of all of us beloved
disciples. So we too have a duty to honor her.
If we look back into the biblical history of ancient Israel, we discover that
the Chosen People always paid homage not only to their king, but also to the
mother of the king. The "gebirah," the queen mother, loomed large in the
affections of Israelites. And the evangelists are very much aware of this.
In Matthew's Gospel especially, we find Jesus portrayed as the royal Son of
David and Mary as queen mother. The Wise Men, for example, traveled far to find
the Child King with his mother.
We find the mother of the Son of David portrayed in a similar way in the Book of
Revelation, Chapter 12. There she is shown to be crowned with 12 stars, for the
12 tribes of Israel. The New Testament writers, you see, were careful to show us
Mary's important place in the kingdom, and how we should love and honor her.
In my personal life, I've found the Blessed Mother to be a great intercessor, as
she was at the wedding feast in Cana.
Why should we love Mary more? Because of God's grace -- she exemplifies it!
Because of God's Word -- she teaches it! And because she is God's masterpiece.
The Scriptures provide too many reasons to love her; I couldn't list them in so
short a space.
Q: What are the main objections that non-Catholics present against Marian
doctrine and devotion?
Hahn: Some non-Catholics believe that, by honoring Mary, we're somehow
detracting from God. We're not. The glories we honor in Mary are merely her own
reflections of God's glory.
St. Bonaventure put it very well when he said that God created all things not to
increase his glory, but to show it forth and to share it. Mary's sinlessness
itself was a grace from God.
St. Augustine said: When God rewards us for our labors, he is only crowning his
work in us. When God exalted the lowly virgin of Nazareth, he was crowning the
greatest of his creations. When we honor Mary, we recognize God's work, and we
praise him.
Others object to the Church's dogma of the immaculate conception -- that Mary
was without sin from the very first moment of her life. They claim that, if this
were true, she would have no need of a redeemer, no need for Jesus. But that's
not true. Mary's immaculate conception was itself a fruit of Jesus' redemption.
Even today, we can see that Christ saves some people by deliverance and others
by preservation -- some turn away from a life of crime, others are preserved
from it by their good upbringing. Mary was preserved by a singular grace. Mary,
you see, is dependent upon God for everything. She, by her own admission, is his
handmaid.
Some very misguided people try to claim that Catholics make a goddess of the
Blessed Virgin. But that is an abominable fiction. As much as we exalt Mary
above our own sinful selves, we recognize that she is more like us than she is
like God. She is still a creature, though a most wonderful creature. God himself
exalted her to show us both the greatness of our human nature and the
all-surpassing greatness of divine grace.
Even the early Protestant reformers never called for a wholesale rejection of
the Marian dogmas. Luther and Calvin believed, for example, in Mary's perpetual
virginity. Luther even believed in the Assumption and the Immaculate Conception,
centuries before the Church solemnly defined it. Not until later generations
would Christians come to such a far-reaching rejection of Mary's place in
salvation history.
Q: How does Mary help us to understand the mystery of Christmas?
Hahn: Well, it's impossible for us to imagine the Christmas story without her.
Her consent, her "yes," made that day possible. When God became man, he was born
of a woman, born under the law. Christ is at the center of Christmas, but he
chose not to be alone at the center. As a baby, he needed a mother to hold him.
If we choose to ignore the mother, we can't see the Child.
In the stories leading up to Christmas, we encounter Mary as the model disciple.
God found her humility irresistible, and we have to imitate her. God empowered
her to love his Son as much as he deserves to be loved. And so we imitate her in
that as well. Mary helps us to understand the mystery of Christmas because she
received the greatest Christmas present ever, and she gave it to the world, just
as we should.
Q: Why do you most converts to Catholicism have such an intense devotion to the
Blessed Virgin?
Hahn: I can only speak for myself. I discovered the Catholic Church as not only
the family of God, but as my family too. Mary is not only the mother of Jesus,
but my mother too.
That's a wonderful discovery to make so late in one's life. So maybe we're
making up for lost time! Or maybe we have a special affection for the practices
that are distinctive to the ancient Christian faith -- the practices that we
missed in our own upbringing.
ZE02122522
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