Mariology

Her person, virtues,

role and the Dogmas
Mariology: The Study on Mary
Catechism of the Catholic Church # 487 :

What the Catholic faith

believes about Mary is based
on what it believes about
Christ, and what it teaches
about Mary illumines in turn
its faith in Christ.
“To Christ

through
Mary”
Misconceptions about Mary

The
Fundamental
Errors of the
Fundamentalist
Misconceptions about Mary
(a) "Biblical" Mary Dramatically Different
from the Mary of Mariology
(b) Mary in Scripture Seen as Slighted by
Christ
(c) Marian Doctrines Are Without Exception
Unscriptural
(d) Marian Mediation and Intercession
Contrary to Salvation by Faith Alone
(e) Idolatry and Diabolic Signs and Wonders
Who is
Mary?
The Person of Mary
The Meaning of the name of Mary:
In Hebrew: Miryam means the Exalted One;
In Greek: Maria, Mariam can mean “lady”,
“beautiful”, or “well-beloved”
In Latin: Mar means sea (song: star of the sea)
In Typology:
Eva inverted into Ave:
Mary is the 2nd Eve
as Jesus is the 2nd Adam;
the tree in the Garden caused the fall of humanity;
the tree in Calvary caused the salvation of all
humanity.
 So Who is Mary?
First Name: Mary
Last Name: N/A
Civil Status: Betrothed to a Man
named Joseph
Occupation: Mother of God
Special Skills: Saying NO to Satan
Hobby: Following Jesus
Motto: “Do whatever Jesus Tells you
to Do”
A. Mary in Scripture
Both Matthew and Luke present Mary with
many allusions to great figures in the Old
Testament
Matthew recounts Mary’s virginal conception of
Jesus as fulfilling Isaiah’s prophecy
the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said,
"Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary your
Therefore the Lord himself will wife into your home.
give you this sign: For it is through the holy Spirit that this child has been
“the virgin shall be with child, conceived in her. She will bear a son and you are to name
him Jesus,
and bear a son, and shall
because he will save his people from their sins. "All this took
name place to fulfill what the Lord had
him Immanuel.” (Is 7:14). said through the prophet: "Behold, the virgin shall be with
child and bear a son,
and they shall name him Emmanuel,"
which means "God is with us.“ When Joseph awoke, he did as
the angel of the Lord (Mt 1:20-24;).
 A. Mary in Scripture
In the Gospel of Luke, The angel’s greeting to Mary
relates her to the “Daughter of Zion”
(Zep 3:14,1 7).
(Lk1:28;).
Shout for joy, O daughter Zion! sing
joyfully, O daughter Jerusalem! And coming to her, he
The LORD, your God, is in your midst, said, "Hail, favored
a mighty savior; He will rejoice over one! The
you with gladness, Lord is with you."
and renew you in his love,

The coming of the Holy Spirit upon her, and her

carrying the Child in her womb, pictures Mary as the
living Ark of the New Covenant in Christ
her Son.
A. Mary in Scripture
Mary as the Ark of the Covenant
"The cloud covered the Tent "The power of the Most High will
of meeting and the glory of cover you with its shadow. And so
Yahweh filled the the child will be holy and will be
tabernacle." Exodus 40:34. called Son of God." Luke 1:35.

"However can the Ark of "Why should I be honored with a visit

Yahweh (= My Lord) come to from the mother of My Lord?"
me?" 2 Samuel 6:9. Luke 1:43.

"And David danced before the Lord "As soon as the voice of thy
with all his might ... So David salutation sounded in mine ears,
and all the house of Israel the babe leaped in my womb for
brought up the ark of the Lord joy." Luke 1:44..
with shouting, and with the
sound of the trumpet." 2 Samuel
6:14-15.
 Luke’s account of the Annunciation
inspired the Fathers of the Church to
compare Mary with Eve
the Virgin Mary Eve
obediently
accepted the
received the word
word of the
of the angel
serpent

gave birth to the

living salvation gave birth to
of all through disobedience
Jesus Christ and death
The Role of Mary
Mary’s place in the History of salvation is very
significant.
When Mary said YES to the Angel she became the
spokesperson of the whole condemned humanity
who have long been waiting for the savior.

The whole life of Mary has been spent in : serving

the Son of God – Jesus her only Son. (“I am
the handmaid of the Lord.”)
calling the lost humanity to recognize and
follow Jesus:
(“do whatever Jesus tells you to do”)
The Dogmas on Mary
The most important features of Mary's role and person are
captured in the four Marian dogmas
1. What are dogmas?
A dogma proposes truths contained in Divine
Revelation
These truths are immediately or mediately
grounded in Scripture
They reflect the full authority of the Church
received from Christ and also the Church's tradition,
liturgical practice and the faith of the people (sensus
fidelium)
Dogmas are lights on our path of faith. They have
binding character, and intellect and heart to a deeper
understanding of God's mystery. Read CCC 88-89 (85-95)
The Dogmas on Mary
2. The Marian Dogmas
The following dogmas are stating the
important aspects of Mary's role in
salvation and her personal relationship with
God. Their names are:
A Divine Motherhood
B Perpetual Virginity
C Immaculate Conception
D The Assumption
E. The Veneration, Invocation of and
Devotion to Mary
The Divine
Motherhood(t
heotokos)
MARY IS THE MOTHER OF GOD
Theotokos: Greek for “God-bearer” or Mother of
God.
the principal title of the Virgin Mary in the Oriental
Church The Dogma defined in the Council of
Ephesus 431AD,
That was a result of the resolution of the heresy
propagated by Nestorius, who claimed that in
Jesus, there are two persons the Divine Person and
the human person. He further claimed that Mary
gave birth only to the Human Jesus and thus can
only be called Cristotokos, but not as the
Theotokos.
Scriptural basis of the Theotokos
“Behold the Virgin shall be with child, and
shall bring forth a Son; and they shall call
his name Emmanuel; meaning God is with
us.” (Isaiah 7:14)

And the angel said to her in reply, "The Holy

Spirit will come upon you, and the power of
the Most High will overshadow you.
Therefore the child to be born will be called
holy, the Son of God. (Luke 1:35)
Scriptural basis of the Theotokos
“When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the infant
leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth, filled with the
holy Spirit, cried out in a loud voice and said, "Most
blessed are you among women, and blessed is the
fruit of your womb. And how does this happen to
me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?
“ (Luke 1: 41-43)

Since Mary is the mother of Jesus and

Since Jesus is God,
therefore Mary is the mother of God
Scriptural basis of the Theotokos
One striking parallel has been drawn between Mary and
Moses: When they revealed God’s will to the people

Moses then went, convoked all the elders of the people and
related to them all that Yahweh had ordered him to tell them.
Then the entire people, with one accord responded: 'All that
Yahweh has said, we will do.' And Moses brought back to
Yahweh the response of the people." (Ex 19:7-8).

closely parallels the words of Mary to the servants at Cana:

"Do whatever he tells you" (Jn 2:5).
"John puts on the lips of Mary the profession of faith that the
whole community of the chosen people pronounced one
day in front of Sinai."
Scriptural basis of the Theotokos
Mary as the Ark of the Covenant
"And the Ark of the Lord
continued in the house of "And Mary abode with her about three
Obededom the Gittite months." Luke 1:56.
three months." 2 Samuel
6:11.

at the end of the infancy gospel

As Jesus enters the Temple Thus it is that Simeon can die
Simeon greets him as 'the
glory of Israel' (Luke 2:32). happy (Luke 2:26, 29): he now
can "see death" since he has
"seen the glory of the Lord."
Protestant Reformers on Mary as Mother of God
Martin Luther: “In this work whereby she was made the Mother of
God, so many and such good things were given her that o one
can grasp them… Not only was Mary the mother of Him who is
born (in Bethlehem), but of Him who, before the world, was
eternally born of the Father, from a Mother in time and at the
same time man and God.” (Weimer, p. 572)
John Calvin: “It cannot be denied that God in choosing and
destining Mary to be the Mother of His Son, granted her the
highest honor… Elizabeth calls Mary Mother of the Lord,
because the unity of the person in the two natures of Christ was
such that she could have said that the mortal man engendered in
the womb of Mary was at the same time the eternal God” (Calvini
opera, p. 348, 35)
Ulrich Zwingli: “It was given to her what belongs to no creature,
that I the flesh she should bring forth the Son of God” (Zwigli, v.
6, 1, p. 639)
The
Immaculate
Conception
The Immaculate Conception of Mary
Immaculate Conception is the title given to the
Blessed Virgin Mary as sinless at the moment her
mother (St. Anne) conceived her in the womb

To become the mother of the Savior, Mary "was

enriched by God with gifts appropriate to such a
role." The angel Gabriel at the moment of the
annunciation salutes her as "full of grace". In fact,
in order for Mary to be able to give the free assent
of her faith to the announcement of her vocation,
it was necessary that she be wholly borne by God's
grace. (CCC 490)
The Immaculate Conception of Mary
That is what the dogma of the Immaculate
Conception confesses, as Pope Pius IX proclaimed
in 1854: (CCC 490)
The most Blessed Virgin Mary was, from the first
moment of her conception, by a singular grace and
privilege of almighty God and by virtue of the
merits of Jesus Christ, Savior of the human race,
preserved immune from all stain of original sin.
(Pius IX, Ineffabilis Deus, 1854)
2 Effects of Immaculate Conception
Freedom from Concupiscence
Mary was never attracted in disobeying God.
Rather her lifestyle is in following God’s will.
“Let it be done to me according to your
word.” (Lk 1:38)

Freedom from Actual Sin

Mary did not do anything that is displeasing
to God.
Proofs from Scripture
Old Testament Prefigurement
The doctrine of the Immaculate Conception is not explicitly
revealed in Scripture, but is contained implicitly in the
following passages.
“I will put enmity between you and the
woman, and between your seed and her
seed; he shall bruise your head, and you
shall bruise his heel." (Gen. 3:15)
Proofs from Scripture
Old Testament Prefigurement
enmity = War;
There will be a war between
the WOMAN vs the SERPENT
this woman cannot be EVE because Eve has
already been defeated.
this Woman will bear the child that will
destroy the Head of the Serpent
So this Woman is the Mother of the Savior,
And this woman will never be defeated by
the serpent, that is she will never succumb to
Temptation
Proofs from Scripture
New Testament Fulfillment
“And he came to her and said, "Hail, full of grace,
the Lord is with you!"…And the angel said to her,
"Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor
with God… For with God nothing will be
impossible." (Luke 1:28,30, 37).
“And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary,
the babe leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was
filled with the Holy Spirit and she exclaimed with
a loud cry, "Blessed are you among women, and
blessed is the fruit of your womb!” ( Luke 1:41-
42).
Scriptural Foundation
"Rejoice so highly favored"/"Hail full of grace". Luke 1:28.
Both translations are derived from the Greek word kecharitomene
which refers to a person transformed by
the grace of God.

The word is used only one other time in the New Testament and that is in the
epistle to the Ephesians.

where Paul is addressing those who by becoming Christians are

transformed by grace and receive the remission of sins.

It is obviously significant that Mary is considered to already

have been transformed by grace before the birth of Christ.
kecharitomene
Christians have been 'transformed by grace'
'according to the richness of his grace, they find
redemption by his blood, the remission of sins.'
(Ephesians 1:7).
The perfect passive participle is used by Luke
to indicate that the transformation by grace
has already taken place in Mary, well before
the moment of the Annunciation.
kecharitomene
Sophronius of Jerusalem, for example, interprets the
term 'full of grace' in this manner:
'No one has been fully sanctified as you ...; no
one has been purified in advance as you.'

Mary had been 'transformed by the grace' of God in

view of the task which she awaits, that of becoming
the Mother of the Son of God, and to do so while
remaining a virgin.

(Ignace de la Potterie, Mary in the Mystery of the Covenant, pp.17-20.)

The Protestant Reformers on the
Immaculate Conception
Martin Luther - "But the other conception, namely the infusion of the
soul, it is piously and suitably believed, was without any sin, so that
while the soul was being infused, she would at the same time be
cleansed from original sin and adorned with the gifts of God to
receive the holy soul thus infused. And thus, in the very moment in
which she began to live, she was without all sin..."3 (Martin Luther,
Weimar edition of Martin Luther's Works, English translation
edited by J. Pelikan [Concordia: St. Louis], Volume 4, 694.)
John Calvin - "It cannot be denied that God in choosing and destining
Mary to be the Mother of his Son, granted her the highest honor."9
(John Calvin, Calvini Opera [Braunshweig-Berlin, 1863-1900],
Volume 45, 348.)
Ulrich Zwingli - "I esteem immensely the Mother of God, the ever chaste,
immaculate Virgin Mary." (E. Stakemeier, De Mariologia et
Oecumenismo, K. Balic, ed., (Rome, 1962), 456.)
Revisiting the Misconception
some of the basic issues at stake.
First, there is interpretation.
Here the choice is between one historic, consistent, and
authoritative interpretation protected by the Holy Spirit and an endless
succession of contradictory interpretations.
Secondly, there is the question of faith and works.
Sola fides, sola gratia
If salvation comes from grace alone and faith alone with no
response of the believer involved in accepting or rejecting grace and faith,
then we are simply puppets or robots. What is more, those who affirm
grace and faith alone also say that God predestines the vast majority of
humanity to damnation.
Revisiting the Misconception
Finally, the Fundamentalist doctrine that no
creature can be a mediator between God and man
If he preaches the Word of God then he is mediating the grace of
God, even salvation, to his fellow man - "Let him know, that he which
converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from
death, and shall hide a multitude of sins." (James 5:20).
Paul says quite unambiguously that "We are God's
fellow workers" (1 Corinthians 3:9).
Revisiting the Misconception
Regarding the Fundamentalist charges against
Mariology:
(a) the Biblical Mary is, if anything, far more mysterious and
majestic a figure than the Mary of Mariology
(b) that Mary is not "slighted" by Christ: she is seen as a key
participant in His salvific mission and also as a Mother who
has to offer up her Son in sacrifice
(c) the key Marian doctrines are all clearly taught by Scripture as
recognized by the earliest Christians
(d) that Marian mediation and intercession highlight our own
freedom and remind us of our responsibilities in both
accepting the offer of salvation and mediating it to our fellow
beings.
A brief response to Fundamentalist
critiques of major Marian doctrines.
Mother of God
Fundamentalist criticisms of the fundamental Christian teaching
that Mary is the Mother of God inevitably end up repeating the
ancient heresies of Nestorianism, Adoptionism, Arianism and
Monophysitism.
According to Nestorianism, there are two persons in Jesus Christ,
one human and the other divine.
According to Adoptionism Jesus was a man by nature and later
became God by adoption; because of his exemplary life he was
exalted to divine sonship.
Arianism essentially holds that Jesus Christ was only a man and
not God.
Monophysitism, also called Eutychianism, is the view that Jesus
Christ had a divine but not a human nature; although He
"wore" human flesh He was not truly human.
A brief response to Fundamentalist
critiques of major Marian doctrines.
Immaculate Conception
Fundamentalists argue that the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception
implies that Mary has no need of a Savior and is therefore divine and
also that the doctrine runs contrary to Scripture.
It should be noted that no orthodox presentation of the doctrine suggests
that Mary does not need a Savior or that she is divine:
on the contrary the doctrine explicitly states that Mary was saved from
her sins by her Son's redemptive death but that these graces were
applied to her at the moment of her conception.
We see in the Old Testament that many of the prophets were prepared for
their mission beforehand by God and also that some of them were
sanctified by God at birth (Jeremiah, John the Baptist).
To be immaculately conceived, is not the same as being divine or semi-
divine. Both Adam and Eve were immaculately conceived. (not
through the womb but in the mid of God)
A brief response to Fundamentalist
critiques of major Marian doctrines.
Immaculate Conception
"As a child of Adam and Eve, Mary shares
our fallen condition de jure. But de facto
she was rescued from it at her conception.
All was grace, but in her grace was
preventive medicine. For us it is
therapeutic, healing the actual damage of
sin."
Implications of the Marian Dogma
Mother of God
explicitly shows that Jesus is True God and
True Man. He is a divine person who
became man and Mary give birth to Him.
Implications of the Marian Dogma
Immaculate Conception
God’s grace makes us truly righteous.
That is we are completely cleansed and healed from
the wounds and stains of Sins
Enabling us to strive to be Holy as our God is Holy
That is we can say NO to Temptations and like Mary
we keep our baptismal robe as spotless as the
lamb, or our keep our Promise at confession. With
God’s grace kecharitomene
That’s all Folks

Mary
Mother of God,
Pray for US sinners
now and at the
hour of our death
Amen