Critique of HAIL, HOLY QUEEN by Scott Hahn
Chapter 6 – What About The Children?
The Queen Mother and the Royal Family
It can be exhilarating to find out who Mary really is. At the same time, to some people, the facts can be overwhelming – even off-putting. If she is the new ark of the covenant, then like the old ark, she demands our profound reverence. Consider Saint Methodius’s prayer to the Blessed Virgin, from the third century: God paid such honor to the ark, which was the image and type of your sanctity, that no one but the priests could approach it open or enter to behold it. The veil separated it off, keeping the vestibule as that of a queen. Then what sort of veneration must we, who are the least of creatures, owe to you who are indeed a queen – to you, the living ark of God, the Lawgiver – to you, the heaven that contains Him Whom none can contain?
Note: Churches fell into error in the first century.
“And to the angel of the church in Sardis write, ‘These things says He who has the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars: “I know your works, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead. Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die, for I have not found your works perfect before God. Remember therefore how you have received and heard; hold fast and repent. Therefore, if you will not watch, I will come upon you as a thief, and you will not know what hour I will come upon you.”’” Revelation 3:1-3
Note: Pagans have venerated pagan goddesses for thousands of years.
As royalty, Mary can seem remote to those of us who labor at ordinary jobs, who bear no titles of nobility, who hardly distinguish ourselves from the crowd of royal subjects. How can we, dressed in the rags of our sins, approach Mary, who is sinless and enthroned in glory?
Note: Christians will approach Jesus Christ not sinful Mary.
All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father. Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him. Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. Matthew 11:27-29
Note: Pagans have venerated pagan goddesses for thousands of years.
To answer that question, we need to recognize the serious spiritual and theological problem that lies behind it. It’s not so much a bad Marian image; she is, after all sinless and regal. Rather, this Mary phobia – betrays an erroneous self-image. Moreover, it reveals a deeper problem in the way we have appropriated the gospel of Jesus Christ. For the good news is that, even if we do go about dressed as paupers, we have royal blood coursing through our veins.
Note: The Christian Gospel is about Jesus Christ not sinful Mary.
Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve. 1 Corinthians 15:1-5
Note: Pagans have venerated pagan goddesses for thousands of years.
Royal Flesh
What is the truth at the heart of the gospel? Pope Leo the Great sums it up for us: “This is the gift that exceeds all others: God calls man His son, and man calls God ‘Father.’”
Note: Christians are sons through faith in Jesus Christ not sinful Mary.
For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. Galatians 3:26
We are children of God. This is not a metaphor, not a slogan. It is truth that is more real than the chair you’re sitting on. When we received the sacrament of baptism, we were bound by the covenant of Christ’s blood into the family of God. We were raised, at that moment, to share in the eternal life of the Trinity. Listen to Saint John as he speaks of this mystery in the New Testament: “See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God – and so we are” (1 Jn 3:1). And so we are! After so many decades of preaching the gospel, John still seemed astonished to hear himself speak those words: “we should be called children of God.” Imagine, then, the evangelist’s shock when he first heard the words Jesus spoke upon His resurrection: “I am ascending to My Father and your Father, to My God and your God” (Jn 20:17)
Note: Christians are sons through faith in Jesus Christ not baptism.
For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? 1 John 5:4-5
By baptism we have become “sons in the Son.” The ancient Christians dared to call this action our divinization. “The Son of God became a son of man,” said Saint Athanasius, “so that the sons of men might become sons of God!” After two millennia, we need – right now – to recover the early Church’s sense of awe, astonishment, and gratitude for the gift at the heart of our redemption.
Note: Christians are sons through faith in Jesus Christ not baptism.
For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of no effect. For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 1 Corinthians 1:17-18
For we are children of God. This is the central and most profound fact about our redemption. We are not merely forgiven; we are adopted by God as sons and daughters of redemption and justification. Think about it in everyday terms: you can forgive your auto mechanic if he overcharges you; but it’s unlikely that, upon forgiving him, you’ll adopt him into your family. Yet that is precisely what God has done. He has forgiven us our sins so that we might find our lasting home in the family we call the Trinity.
Note: Christians are sons through faith in Jesus Christ not baptism.
He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. John 1:11-13
We are children of God; by grace, we have been adopted into His family. This truth, which theologians call divine filiation, is present throughout the New Testament, throughout the dogmatic statement of the Church, and in every volume of systematic theology. Divine filiation is the hallmark of an authentically Catholic understanding of the gospel. Still, divine filiation remains a term most Christians are unaware of – even though it’s a truth they cannot live without.
Note: Jesus Christ is the divine truth not sinful Mary.
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. John 14:6
Salvation, then, is not only from sin, but for sonship – divine sonship in Christ. We are not merely forgiven by God’s grace; we are adopted and divinized. That is, we “become partakers of the divine nature” (2 Pt 1:4). From the beginning, this was the life for which God created man. The sin of the first Adam and Eve was not that they desired life but that they desired to be divinized without God.
Note: Christians are saved into a relationship with God as evidenced by the Holy Spirit.
For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together. Romans 8:14-17
Note: The Roman Catholic Church has replaced the Holy Spirit with sinful Mary.
Yet God’s will would eventually be accomplished. According to the Council of Trent, the justification of a sinner is “a translation from that state in which man is born a child of the first Adam to the state of grace and of the ‘adoption of the sons’ (Rom 8:15) of God through the second Adam, Jesus Christ, our Savior.” Justification, according to the Catechism, “consists in both victory over the death caused by sin and a new participation in grace. It brings about filial adoption so that men become Christ’s brethren …. We are brethren not by nature, but by the gift of grace, because that adoptive filiation gains us a real share in the life of the only Son, which was fully revealed in His Resurrection” (no 654).
Note: Christians are justified before the Father by Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit.
Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. 1 Corinthians 6:9-11
Note: The Roman Catholic Church has replaced the Holy Spirit with sinful Mary.
Fit for a King
This is the source of our royal lineage. We are children of God because of our close identification with Jesus Christ. Really, we can’t get any closer to Him than we do through baptism. Pope John Paul II put it this way: “Rising from the waters of the baptismal font, every Christian hears again the voice that was once heard on the banks of the Jordan River: ‘You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased’ (Lk 3:22).” We are so closely identified with Jesus that Saint Augustine could say, “All men are one man in Christ, and the unity of Christians constitutes but one man.” Augustine went on to explain that, identified with Christ, we also share his threefold mission as priest, prophet, and king (see 1 Pt 2:9).
Note: We are children of God through sincere love for Jesus Christ not baptism.
Grace be with all those who love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. Amen. Ephesians 6:24
Sharing His kingship, we share everything, including His mother. Read closely what Pope Pius X had to say about this: For is not Mary the Mother of Christ? Then she is our Mother also. And we must in truth hold that Christ, the Word made Flesh, is also the Savior of mankind. He had a physical body like that of any other man: and again as Savior of the human family, He had a spiritual and mystical body, the society, namely, of those who believe in Christ. “We are many, but one sole body in Christ” (Rom 12:5). Now the Blessed Virgin did not conceive the Eternal Son of God merely in order that He might be made man taking His human nature from her, but also in order that by means of the nature assumed from her He might be the Redeemer of men. For which reason the Angel said to the Shepherds: “Today there is born to you a Savior Who is Christ the Lord” (Lk 2:11). Wherefore in the same holy bosom of his most chaste Mother Christ took to Himself flesh, and united to Himself the spiritual body formed by those who were to believe in Him. Hence Mary, carrying the Savior within her, may be said to have also carried all those whose life was contained in the life of the Savior. Therefore, all we who are united to Christ, and as the Apostle says are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones (Eph 5:30), have issued from the womb of Mary like a body united to its head. Hence, though in a spiritual and mystical fashion, we are all children of Mary, and she is Mother of us all.
Note: Jesus Christ was unaffected by a world filled with sin that included Mary.
And it happened when He was in a certain city, that behold, a man who was full of leprosy saw Jesus; and he fell on his face and implored Him, saying, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.” Then He put out His hand and touched him, saying, “I am willing; be cleansed.” Immediately, the leprosy left him. Luke 5:12-13
Here, Pope Pius echoes a teaching that reaches back to Saint Irenaeus (whom we discussed in Chapter 2) and so, likely, to the apostle John himself. Remember that Irenaeus described Jesus’ birth as “the pure one opening purely that pure womb which regenerates men unto God.”
Note: Mary was a sinner as evidenced of her being “troubled” by a holy angel.
Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. And having come in, the angel said to her, “Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!” But when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and considered what manner of greeting this was. Luke 1:26-29
We are made brothers and sisters of Christ – adelphos, “from the same womb.” Thus we can confidently approach the queen mother of heaven not just because she condescends, in her great mercy, to hear us, but because we are her children, of royal birth, of noble blood. We can go to her not only because she is Christ’s queen mother but because she is ours.
Note: Christians will approach the Father in love through Jesus Christ as evidence by the Holy Spirit.
And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!” Therefore, you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ. Galatians 4:6-7
Note: The Roman Catholic Church has replaced the Holy Spirit with sinful Mary.
Labor Paeans
How, then, are we – in our newfound royalty – to relate to this queen mother? The Marian dogmas take us only so far; and in fact, they seem to point beyond themselves. Even the dogma most recently defined, the assumption, has a penultimate quality: now that she’s in heaven, what does she do? We know after all what Jesus does; the book of Revelation tells us that He reigns (Rev 22:3). We know, too, what the martyrs do in heaven; the book of Revelation tells us that they pray for the satisfactory resolution of matters on earth (Rev 6:9-10).
Note: Martyrs of God are murdered for Scripture and their testimony of Jesus Christ.
When He opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held. Revelation 6:9
It should be no surprise, then, that the book of Revelation tells us what Mary does in heaven. As the New Eve, the “mother of all the living,” she mothers the Church, “the rest of her offspring” (Rev 12:17). Addressing the question of why the woman of Revelation is still in labor, though she is in heaven, Pope Pius X said: “What birth was it? Surely it was the birth of us who, still in exile, are yet to be generated to the perfect charity of God, and to eternal happiness. And the birth pains show the love and desire with which the Virgin from heaven above watches over us, and strives with un-wearying prayer to bring about the fulfillment of the number of the elect.”
Note: The Holy Spirit watches over and makes intercession for Christians.
But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance. Likewise, the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God. Romans 8:25-27
Note: The Roman Catholic Church has replaced the Holy Spirit with sinful Mary.
Always a mother, Mary watches over us, prays for us, and leads us to fulfillment in life. The Second Vatican Council teaches: This motherhood of Mary in the order of grace continues uninterruptedly from the consent which she loyally gave at the annunciation and which she sustained without wavering beneath the cross, until the eternal fulfillment of all the elect. Taken up to heaven, she did not lay aside this saving office but by her manifold intercession continues to bring us the gifts of eternal salvation …. Therefore the Blessed Virgin is invoked in the Church under the titles of Advocate, Helper, Benefactress, and Mediatrix. (Lumen Gentium 62, cited in Catechism, no. 969)
Note: The Holy Spirit will help Christians to be witnesses for Jesus Christ.
“But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me. And you also will bear witness, because you have been with Me from the beginning.” John 15:26-27
Note: The Roman Catholic Church has replaced the Holy Spirit with sinful Mary.
The Mediatrix Is the Message
You will sometimes hear non-Catholics objecting to the title “Mediatrix” applied to Mary. In my days as an evangelical, I would rush to the one Bible verse that seemed to snuff out that title: Saint Paul’s categorical assertion that Christ is the “one mediator between God and man” (1 Tim 2:5). How can these two claims – Christ as the one mediator and Mary as mediatrix – be reconciled?
Note: Scripture cannot be reconciled with Roman Catholic paganism.
For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time, for which I was appointed a preacher and an apostle—I am speaking the truth in Christ and not lying—a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth. 1 Timothy 2:5-7
Note: Mary is not named in 1 Timothy Scripture.
The apostle Paul touched upon this mystery when he stated, “We are God’s coworkers” (1 Cor 3:9). If Christ is the one mediator, why would He have coworkers? Can’t God get the job done by Himself? Of course He can. But since He is a Father, He job is raising up mature sons and daughters; and the way to do that is by making us coworkers.
Note: Scripture cannot be reconciled with Roman Catholic paganism.
Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Romans 8:33-35
Note: Mary is not named in Romans Scripture.
His work is our redemption, which He shared in an unparalleled way with Mary – to whom God entrusted such tasks as feeding His Son with her own milk, singing Him to sleep and accompanying Him all the way to the cross, where she gave her sorrowful yes to His self-offering. In short, the Father willed that His Son’s entire existence as a man would hinge, so to speak, upon the ongoing consent of Mary. Can there be a more intimate coworker?
Note: Scripture cannot be reconciled with Roman Catholic paganism.
They sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying: “Great and marvelous are Your works, Lord God Almighty! Just and true are Your ways, O King of the saints! Who shall not fear You, O Lord, and glorify Your name? For You alone are holy. For all nations shall come and worship before You, for Your judgments have been manifested.” Revelation 15:3-4
Note: Mary is not named in Revelation Scripture.
Being a disciple, a co-worker with Jesus, takes effort. At times it takes suffering. One passage that seemed to have escaped my attention as a Protestant was Saint Paul’s rather curious line “I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I complete what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of His body, the Church” (Col 1:24). Cradle Catholics may remember with some fondness being told (in the event of an unsuccessful team tryout, a skinned knee, or a broken heart) to “offer it up.” This simple phrase holds the key that unlocks the mystery of Mary’s coredemption, and ours. By consciously uniting our sufferings to our Lord’s redemptive sufferings, we become coworkers. By uniting her heart to His, especially at Calvary, the Blessed Mother became the coworker par excellence.
Note: Scripture cannot be reconciled with Roman Catholic paganism.
To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. To this end I also labor, striving according to His working which works in me mightily. Colossians 1:27-29
Note: Mary is not named in Colossians Scripture.
Furthermore, the epistle to the Hebrews explains Christ’s high priesthood in terms of His being the firstborn Son of God (Heb 1:1 – 2:17), which serves as the basis for our own divine sonship (Heb 13:10-17), as well as our priestly sanctity and service (Heb 13:10-16; see also 1 Pt 2:5). Once again, there is no tug-of-war between the Redeemer and the redeemed.
Note: Scripture cannot be reconciled with Roman Catholic paganism.
Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Hebrews 12:1-2
Note: Mary is not named in Hebrews Scripture.
As firstborn Son in God’s family, Jesus mediates as the High Priest between the Father and His children; whereas Mary mediates as queen mother and advocate (see 1 Kgs 2:19). Pope John Paul II called this her “maternal mediation.” For the Father, Mary mothers the Son, she mothers His siblings. When it comes to Mary’s role in God’s saving plan, “mother” is not only a noun but a verb, and hence an office.
Note: Scripture notes the “firstborn” status of Jesus Christ as His preeminent position as God over creation.
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or [e]principalities or [f]powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence. Colossians 1:15-18
Note: The Roman Catholic Church has replaced Jesus Christ with sinful Mary.
As the Mother of God and His children, Mary shows us how to glorify the Father, not by groveling but by receiving the gift of His Son in the fullness of the Spirit. So if you want to judge how well people grasp the gospel in its essence, find out how much they make of having God as their Father – and Mary as their mother.
Note: The Christian Gospel does not include Roman Catholic paganism and Mary.
Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, 1 Corinthians 15:1-4
Note: Mary is not named in 1 Corinthians Scripture.
Abba, Not Allah
This, after all, is the essential difference in Christianity. It’s not that Christians believe in only one God; there are three monotheistic religions on earth. What makes Christianity distinctive is that Christians dare to call God “Father.” In ancient Israel, the people of the old covenant spoke of God’s fatherhood, but mainly in a metaphorical sense – He fathered them by providing for them and guiding them through perils.
Note: The Holy Spirit reveals to Christians the nature of God the Father through Jesus Christ.
This Jesus God has raised up, of which we are all witnesses. Therefore, being exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He poured out this which you now see and hear. Acts 2:32-33
Note: The Roman Catholic Church has replaced the Holy Spirit with sinful Mary.
Only Christianity can call God “Father” because only through the new covenant has God revealed Himself as a Father from all eternity. The doctrine of God the Father requires the revelation of the Trinity, because God can be an eternal Father only if there is with Him an eternal Son.
Note: The Holy Spirit reveals to Christians the knowledge of God the Father through Jesus Christ.
But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you. John 14:26
Note: The Roman Catholic Church has replaced the Holy Spirit with sinful Mary.
Judaism is noble because it raises believers to be good servants of God. The very word “Islam” literally means “submission” to Allah. But Christianity consists neither in servility nor in mere submission. Christianity consists in the love of sonship, the love of the eternal Son for the Father, the divine love in which we participate. And a loving son serves better than even the most willing and loyal slave.
Note: The Holy Spirit reveals to Christians the love of God the Father through Jesus Christ.
Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. Romans 5:5
Note: The Roman Catholic Church has replaced the Holy Spirit with sinful Mary.
I will go so far as to say that this loving sonship is possible only when believers hold to the authentically Catholic understanding of the gospel. In his book-length interview, Crossing the Threshold of Hope, Pope John Paul II spoke of what happens when Christians sin or otherwise lose their sense of divine worship: “Original sin attempts, then, to abolish fatherhood, destroying its rays which permeate the created world, placing in doubt the truth about God Who is Love and leaving man only with a sense of the master-slave relationship.”
Note: The Holy Spirit reveals to Christians their sinfulness.
But if you bite and devour one another, beware lest you be consumed by one another! I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. Galatians 5:15-17
Note: The Roman Catholic Church has replaced the Holy Spirit with sinful Mary.
I believe the master-slave relationship – or as I prefer to think of it, the boss-worker relationship – is pervasive in Christianity today. What are its warning signs in believers? They put on their best face for God, but they never tell Him what they really think. They have what they call a personal relationship with Him, but they consider it impious to ask Him hard questions. They speak of God’s sovereignty while they seethe with resentment over His demands. They scrupulously fulfill His commandments, but they have little sense of a family relationship with Him, His Church, or His mother. How, then, can they begin to call upon him as Jesus did, as “Abba,” which means “Daddy”?
Note: The Holy Spirit reveals to Christians their loving relationship with the Father via the Son.
For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together. Romans 8:14-17
Note: The Roman Catholic Church has replaced the Holy Spirit with sinful Mary.
Taking a Contract Out
I feel a familiar ache in my heart as I say those words, because for many years I pursued such an understanding of God, salvation, and justification. As a Protestant minister and seminary professor, I followed Calvin and Luther, who read Saint Paul’s letters to the Romans and the Galatians as if God were sitting as judge in a Roman courtroom, acquitting us even though He knew we were guilty, all because Christ had paid our penalty.
Note: Roman Catholic Church amillennial eschatology violates Old Covenant promises to Israel.
I say then, has God cast away His people? Certainly not! For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. Romans 11:1
But the deeper I went into Romans and Galatians, the more I realized that the ancient authors were Hebrew before anything else. Their categories, language, and assumptions were steeped in the covenants, not in the juridical structures of the Roman empire. I had long assumed that a covenant was a legal instrument – a contract. Gradually, however, I began to wake up to something that the Catholic Church has taught from the beginning: that a covenant differs from a contract almost as much as marriage differs from prostitution. A contract exchanges property, goods and services, rights and duties; a covenant exchanges persons. In a contract, this product is yours and that one is mine; but in a covenant, I am yours and you are mine. Thus the covenants God makes always say the same thing: I will be your God and you will be My people – My family, My kinfolk – because covenant creates kinship.
Note: It is written that a covenant is a promise from God.
Yet the Lord would not destroy the house of David, because of the covenant that He had made with David, and since He had promised to give a lamp to him and to his sons forever. 2 Chronicles 21:7
Covenant creates family bonds that are even stronger than biological family bonds. That’s something that every ancient Hebrew knew. That’s what Paul knew, and John, and James. So when they heard the news that God was making a covenant with them, they knew that He was no longer merely a lawgiver or judge. He was a Father foremost, and forever.
Note: It is written that a covenant is a promise from God.
For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my countrymen according to the flesh, who are Israelites, to whom pertain the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service of God, and the promises; of whom are the fathers and from whom, according to the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, the eternally blessed God. Amen. Romans 9:3-5
Bond for Glory
A strong sense of sonship – the sense that comes with deep conversion – frees us to love our mother. For as long as we cling to the master-slave relationship, we will never understand the Blessed Virgin Mary. As long as we consider ourselves God’s servants or mere prisoners whom He has freed, so long we will see her as a threat to His glory. A master is glorified by his slave’s servility. A master is sovereign as long as his servants grovel. But not so a father, who desires only the love of his children.
Note: For Christians, the glory of God is manifested as grace and truth that produces love.
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:14
How much more true is this of the ageless Father, God Himself. God does not gain glory from our groveling; nor does He lose glory when we pay due honor to His creatures. God the Son gained not a drop of glory for Himself – after living, dying, and rising as a human being – that He lacked beforehand. Not even God can increase that which is infinite. He came and died and rose and reigns in order to share His glory with us.
Note: Christians will endure trials through sincere belief in Jesus Christ with joy and glory resulting in salvation.
In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ, whom having not seen you love. Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith—the salvation of your souls. Peter 1:6-9
Note: Pope Peter had nothing to say about the Blessed Virgin, the Mother of God, or the Queen of heaven.
As recipients of that glory, as coheirs with Christ, as sharers in His kingship, as children of God, it’s fair for us to ask: How much glory is He willing to share? And how successful will He be?
Note: Christians are heirs of salvation as revealed by the Holy Spirit.
For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for you Gentiles— if indeed you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which was given to me for you, how that by revelation He made known to me the mystery (as I have briefly written already, by which, when you read, you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ), which in other ages was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to His holy apostles and prophets: that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, of the same body, and partakers of His promise in Christ through the gospel, of which I became a minister according to the gift of the grace of God given to me by the effective working of His power. Ephesians 3:1-7
Being perfect love, He wants to share it all. But since we’re finite creatures and He’s the infinite creator, how could we possibly share in the fullness of divine glory? We can’t do it on our own. But surely perfect love will do everything He can to give us all His glory. And, being all-powerful, He will surely succeed. Indeed, when we see Mary, we realize that He has already succeeded. He gave us all His glory by giving it to the only one who would give it to all of us: our mother.
Note: The Holy Spirit transforms and gives glory to Christians.
Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord. 2 Corinthians 3:17-18
Note: The Roman Catholic Church has replaced the Holy Spirit with sinful Mary.
If you come to visit my home and you give something to my small children – say, a box of candy – I can guarantee you that a fight will ensue over who gets how much. But if you give a box of chocolates as a gift to my wife, I can just as surely guarantee you that the candies will make their way to each and every child in due proportion. That, God knows, is how motherhood works.
Note: The Holy Spirit gives eternal life.
What then if you should see the Son of Man ascend where He was before? It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life. John 6:62-63
Note: The Roman Catholic Church has replaced the Holy Spirit with sinful Mary.
God did not create and redeem the world in order to get more glory, but rather to share it, in due proportion, with all of us. There is no tug-of-war between the Creator and His creatures. The Father made and redeemed us through the Son and the Spirit, but He did it for our sake – starting with Mary, in whom it was accomplished not only first but best.
Note: Stephen the first recorded martyr was empowered by the Holy Spirit to give glory to God and was received into heaven before Mary.
When they heard these things they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed at him with their teeth. But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God, and said, “Look! I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!” Acts 7:54-56
Note: The Roman Catholic Church has replaced the Holy Spirit with sinful Mary.
Do we detract from Christ’s finished work by affirming its perfect realization in Mary? On the contrary, we celebrate His work, precisely by focusing our attention on the human person who manifests it most perfectly.
Note: Christians will focus attention on Jesus Christ not sinful Mary.
Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Hebrews 12:1-2
Note: The Roman Catholic Church has replaced the Holy Spirit with sinful Mary.
Mary is not God, but she is the Mother of God. She is only a creature, but she is God’s greatest creation. She is not the king, but she is His chosen queen mother. Just as artists long to paint one masterpiece among their many works, so Jesus made His mother to be His greatest masterpiece. To affirm the truth about Mary does not detract from Jesus – although refusing to affirm it does detract from Him.
Note: The Holy Spirit will empower Christians to be witnesses of Jesus Christ.
“But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me. And you also will bear witness, because you have been with Me from the beginning.” John 15:26-27
Note: The Roman Catholic Church has replaced the Holy Spirit with sinful Mary.
The Blessed Virgin’s Merit
The problem comes when people think of divine providence in terms of human economics. What, after all, did Mary ever do to earn such honor from God? All her good works flowed from His graces. Thus all honor and glory belong to God. He owes us no graces.
Note: Christians are saved by Jesus Christ, sanctified by the Holy Spirit, and heirs of eternal life.
But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. Titus 3:4-7
Note: The Roman Catholic Church has replaced the Holy Spirit with sinful Mary.
If “merit” is understood as a purely economic term, then to speak of anyone meriting honors from God is untrue and offensive. But if we consider merit in a familial sense, it is as natural as an inheritance, or an allowance. In other words, as children in God’s family, we merit grace as a child earns dessert – by eating everything on his plate. What father begrudges his kids the gifts he gives them? Or resents those whom he rewards? As Saint Augustine wrote: “When God rewards us for our labors, He is only crowning His work in us” (Catechism, no. 2006).
Note: The Holy Spirit empowers Christians to have Jesus Christ as their Lord.
Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be ignorant: You know that you were Gentiles, carried away to these dumb idols, however you were led. Therefore, I make known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God calls Jesus accursed, and no one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit. There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. 1 Corinthians 12:1-4
Note: The Roman Catholic Church has replaced the Holy Spirit with sinful Mary.
According to the Catechism, it is God’s “fatherly action” that enables us to merit: “Filial adoption, in making us partakers by grace in the divine nature, can bestow true merit on us as a result of God’s gratuitous justice. This is our right by grace, the full right of love, making us ‘co-heirs’ with Christ” (nos. 2008-9).
Note: The Holy Spirit empowers Christians to live a godly life and become heirs of eternal life with Jesus Christ.
For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together. Romans 8:13-17
Note: The Roman Catholic Church has replaced the Holy Spirit with sinful Mary.
Christ has merited our capacity to merit – which He confers on us with the grace of His divine Sonship and the life of His Spirit. Indeed, Jesus did not merit a single thing for Himself, since there was nothing He needed. Thus, He merits only according to our need.
Note: Christians need the Holy Spirit to be bold witnesses for Jesus Christ.
“But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” Acts 1:8
Note: The Roman Catholic Church has replaced the Holy Spirit with sinful Mary.
Where does God the Father show the world just how much His Son really merited? In each one of us, to be sure, but most of all in Mary. Unlike the rest of us – in whom there is often a yawning gap between what we want and what God wants – with Mary, there is no gap. The Church ascribes to Mary an unlimited capacity to merit. Far from detracting from Christ’s saving work, she exemplifies it. By the gift of infinite grace, Mary attained to goal of the covenant: a perfect interpersonal union of divine and human wills. With Mary, the ideal and the real are one and the same.
Note: Christians need the Holy Spirit to be bold witnesses for Jesus Christ.
And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness. Acts 4:31
Note: The Roman Catholic Church has replaced the Holy Spirit with sinful Mary.
This Is a Test
Mary is the test of how well a Christian has accepted the gospel. It’s not that she’s the central figure of salvation history. She’s not; Jesus is. But our understanding of Mary reveals everything about how we understand Jesus and His saving work.
Note: Christians will glorify Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit in spiritual knowledge.
“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you.” John 16:12-14
Note: The Roman Catholic Church has replaced the Holy Spirit with sinful Mary.
We live our sonship best by listening to Mary and loving as she loves. Listening means responding when she says: “Do whatever He tells you.” Loving means standing by Christ, even to the cross. Loving means choosing Him, in every instance, over sin.
Note: Those who trust Jesus Christ will listen to the word of God and are sealed unto salvation by the Holy Spirit.
In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory. Ephesians 1:13-14.
Note: The Roman Catholic Church has replaced the Holy Spirit with sinful Mary.
Divine motherhood is the place where Eve and the ark are fulfilled in heaven and in your home. Divine motherhood is the place where the Church’s dogmas become mother’s milk for those who wish to grow in wisdom. Divine motherhood is the place where mysticism meets theology – in our heart of hearts.
Note: The Roman Catholic dogma on divine motherhood is blasphemy.
For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us. Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us is God, who also has sealed us and given us the Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee. 2 Corinthians 1:20-22
Note: The Roman Catholic Church has replaced the Holy Spirit with sinful Mary.
Divine motherhood is the place where God wants Christians to meet Christ, their brother. I’ll say it again: adelphos means “from the same womb.” What establishes brotherhood, then, is motherhood. For Mary to have given us her Son is remarkable. But for Jesus to have given His mother to us – the very people who crucified Him and sinned against His Father – that’s something great beyond imagining! After giving us His mother, we can be sure that there’s nothing He would withhold.
Note: The Roman Catholic dogma on divine motherhood is blasphemy.
He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. John 7:38-39
Note: The Roman Catholic Church has replaced the Holy Spirit with sinful Mary.