Mariology: More Than an Assumption?

Preface

The knowledgeable Mr. Szatkowski and I are writing today in celebration of a most holy Feast day, that of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary into Heaven. In doing so, we hope to express—with the utmost respect and reverence—just why it is that Our Blessed Mother holds such a special place not only in our hearts, but in the hearts of millions of others, as well as in the doctrine of the Church (which, we feel, is based on much more than mere assumptions). This article will be formatted so as to first cover some introductory Mariological theory before moving on to discuss the benefits of Marian devotion as it relates to everyday practice. Part I will cover how it is that we find Our Lady revealed in Scripture, specifically how she was typologically prefigured in the Old Testament and what this means in the light of the New Testament. Then, in Part II, Mr. Szatkowski will delve into the importance and beneficial nature of devotion to the Virgin Mary as it applies to the daily life of a practicing Catholic. We thank those who take the time to read our work, and hope that it is found to be engaging and informative.

Part I: The Typology of Mariology

One of the most fascinating ways to go about understanding the importance of Mariology in Catholic theology is to take the route of typology, which, briefly defined, means to study the archetypes and symbols of Scripture, specifically those found in the Old Testament, so that we might discover how they can increase our understanding of certain aspects of the Christian faith as revealed in the New Testament. To give a non-Marian example, we learn from Paul that Adam was a type of Christ, as revealed in Romans 5:18-19, which states:

Therefore just as one man’s trespass led to condemnation for all, so one man’s act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all. For just as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous (NRSV).

Similarly, the typology of Mary goes all the way back to the Beginning, because she is often understood as being the New Eve in the same way that Christ is the New Adam. To find our scriptural basis for this notion, we can go to Genesis chapter 3, which discusses the Fall. Immediately after the Fall, God assigned to each individual involved in the original act of sin their respective punishments. For the purpose of this article, we will be looking at the punishment that was assigned to the serpent (commonly understood as being a type of Satan)—a particularly interesting passage because in it we find the first prophecy of Christ as the Redeemer of humanity. In verse 15, God says, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will strike your head, and you will strike his heel” (NRSV). Here God states that as punishment for inspiring the Fall, God will place a relationship of hostility between Satan and the Woman, which will culminate when the Son of the Woman shall crush Satan’s head, and at the same time the Devil will strike His heel—and this is exactly what did happen. During Christ’s crucifixion, He effectively crushed the head of Satan, yet at the same time His heel was literally pierced by the snake bite of Death, in the form of a nail. However, since He could not be contained by the grave, in His Resurrection He once and for all ended the reign of Death, punishing Satan just as God had prophesied from the Beginning.

What is important to notice for the sake of this article is the crucial role of the Woman in all of this. Since Satan tempted the Woman so that she might facilitate the Fall of man via the original sin of Adam, God decided that He would choose a Woman, a New Eve (immaculately conceived without sin in the same way that Eve was created sinless), to facilitate the redemption of mankind, and that is exactly what Mary did. Rather than saying “yes” to Satan’s temptation as Eve did, Mary said “yes” to God via her fiat, when upon hearing that she was to carry the Incarnate Lord, she replied, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word” (Luke 1:38, NRSV). We see this parallel of Mary facilitating Christ’s redemption of humanity in the same way that Eve facilitated Adam’s original sin laid out even more explicitly in John’s Gospel, of which the opening verse, “In the beginning was the Word…” parallels the opening verse of Genesis, “In the beginning God created…” John continues this parallel throughout the opening chapters of his Gospel, using multiple times the phrase, “The next day,” in order to progress the narrative (similarly to how in the Creation in Genesis, we find the repeated phrase, “And there was evening and morning, the second/third/fourth day.”).

This pattern reaches a climax on the seventh day, the new day of Creation, when John depicts the Wedding at Cana. It was Mary’s observation that, “They have no wine,” and subsequent imperative statement to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you,” which inspired Christ to then perform His first miracle (we should also note that in His response, Christ referred to her as Woman, rather than mother)—just as Eve’s words to Adam inspired his first act of sin. In this way, another typological understanding of Mary would be that she exists as the archetypal anti-Satan. Whereas Lucifer began in a state of high esteem, seated above all the other angels, yet allowed his Pride to cause his exile from Heaven and descent into Hell, Mary began in a state of lowliness, that of an earthly handmaiden, and yet as a result of the utmost humility she had before the Lord, and her acceptance of His Will, she was raised up to obtain the highest of honors and be filled with the Presence of the Incarnate Lord. Whereas Satan became the Father of Lies by speaking to Eve, Mary, in birthing Christ our Lord into the world, would became the Mother of Truth and the Queen of Heaven.

Now, you might be thinking, “Okay, the Mother of Truth, yeah I can buy that, very clever; but, where on earth do you Catholics get the idea that she was coronated as the Queen of Heaven? Surely there is no Scriptural basis for this.” As a matter of fact, there is. The justification for this particular title of Mary comes largely from the Hebrew concept of the Gebirah or “Queen Mother.” In the Davidic Kingdom, the mother of the King always assumed the role of the Queen, rather than the King’s wife. For practical reasons, this may have been because the King was likely to have multiple wives and concubines, which would make the concept of a Gebirah much more pragmatic than any of the alternatives. Throughout the Scriptures, only a few of the Davidic Kings were ever mentioned without their Gebirah also being named, and this makes sense when one considers the prominent nature of the position of the Queen Mother, who sat at the right hand of the King and acted as an intercessor on the behalf of the people. We can see evidence for this in Scripture in the 2nd chapter of 1 Kings, which states:

Then Adonijah son of Haggith came to Bathsheba, Solomon’s mother. She asked, “Do you come peaceably?” He said, “Peaceably.” Then he said, “May I have a word with you?” She said, “Go on.” He said, “You know that the kingdom was mine, and that all Israel expected me to reign; however, the kingdom has turned about and become my brother’s, for it was his from the Lord. And now I have one request to make of you; do not refuse me.” She said to him, “Go on.” He said, “Please ask King Solomon—he will not refuse you—to give me Abishag the Shunammite as my wife.” Bathsheba said, “Very well; I will speak to the king on your behalf.” So Bathsheba went to King Solomon, to speak to him on behalf of Adonijah. The king rose to meet her, and bowed down to her; then he sat on his throne, and had a throne brought for the king’s mother, and she sat on his right. Then she said, “I have one small request to make of you; do not refuse me.” And the king said to her, “Make your request, my mother; for I will not refuse you.” (vv.13-20, NRSV)

Reading this, you can now probably better understand why it is that Catholics believe that Mary, as the mother of Christ, King through the line of Solomon, was placed as the Queen of Heaven, and rightfully so (her being the New Bathsheba as Christ was the New David), so that she could sit at His right hand and intercede on the behalf of His people. This is why Catholics so readily call upon Our Lady to intercede on our behalf, knowing that just as Solomon would not deny his mother, nor would Christ refuse the request of His Gebirah. In seeking Our Lady’s intercession, we turn to her not only as the Queen Mother, but as our own, personal mother; for we believe that when Christ spoke to St. John from the Cross, saying, “Son, here is your mother,” He was speaking not only to John, but to all Christians throughout time, inviting us to do as the beloved disciple did, and take her as our own. Just as Eve is considered to be the mother of all living as concerning the flesh, Mary is held to be the mother of all believers as concerning the spirit. 

Now, before passing the mantle on to Collin and allowing him to further explain the benefits of devotion to the Blessed Mother in the latter half of this article, I would first like to discuss the third and final major type of Mary as revealed in the Old Testament, which would be the Ark of the Covenant. Just as the Ark of the Covenant was revered by the Jews because it housed the Presence of God, so Mary is revered by Christians because she was the Ark of the New Covenant, who housed the Presence of the Incarnate Lord. Just as the Ark of the Old Covenant contained the stone tablets of the law, the rod of Aaron which budded so as to designate him a true Priest, and the manna from Heaven, so Mary, whilst pregnant, contained in Christ the Eternal Word, the Shepherd and High Priest of Heaven, and the Bread of Life. This parallel between Mary and the Ark of the Old Covenant is drawn most clearly in the opening chapters of Luke’s Gospel. For instance, during the Annunciation, the angel Gabriel revealed to Mary that, “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 holy; he will be called Son of God” (Luke 1:35, NRSV).

This is almost the exact same terminology we see in Exodus 40, during the description of God’s Presence entering the Ark of the Covenant: “Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle” (v.34, NRSV). Luke continues this comparison as he describes Mary’s visitation of Elizabeth, which parallels King David bringing the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem in 2 Samuel chapter 6. Just as David inquired, “How can the ark of the Lord come into my care?” (v.9, NRSV), likewise Elizabeth said upon Mary’s arrival, “And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me?” (Luke 1:43, NRSV). Just as David required that the Ark of the Covenant be kept in the house of Obed-edom for three months (2 Samuel 6:11), so too did Mary stay with Elizabeth for three months. Furthermore, just as David leapt and danced before the Ark as it was brought into Jerusalem, so too did the yet unborn John the Baptist leap inside the womb of his mother when Mary’s salutation rang out in the house of Elizabeth. It is also interesting to consider that in the same way as God commanded the Jews to follow specific guidelines when constructing the Ark, overlaying it with a covering of pure gold so as to make it most fitting to accommodate the Holy Presence of God, so too when creating Mary did God fashion her as a masterpiece worthy of bearing the Incarnate Lord—as pure as the gold which coated the Ark of the Covenant. Now, to wrap things up I would like to point out that Luke was not the only New Testament writer to draw this parallel between Mary and the Ark, so just as we started in the Beginning, we now are going to move toward the end, to Revelation, in which St. John wrote:

Then God’s temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant was seen within his temple; and there were flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake, and heavy hail… A great portent appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pangs, in the agony of giving birth. (Revelation 11:19, 12:1-2, NRSV) 

Ave Maria!

– Jeff Shott

Part II. Benefits of Devotion to the Blessed Virgin. 

For one man alone to write, while doing the matter any degree of justice, on the benefits of devotion to the Blessed Virgin (a discipline concerning which much ink has been spent over the past two millennia) is no easy task. Therefore, in my attempt to do so, I will take counsel with the Magisterium, Sacred Tradition, Sacred Scripture, and of course, one of the greatest treatises on this devotion, St. Louis-Marie De Montfort’s True Devotion To The Blessed Virgin Mary. I will attempt to outline some of the principle benefits of this devotion (which finds its apex in total consecration to Jesus Christ through Mary), as described by St. Louis-Marie De Montfort, as well in my experiences, and studies elsewhere.

As St. Louis-Marie De Montfort explains, one of the initial benefits of Marian devotion is a greater knowledge and contempt of self.¹St. Louis-Marie De Montfort, True Devotion To The Blessed Virgin Mary, N.145 Through Mary, we begin to realize that man is incapable of goodness, unless it originates from God. This rejection of self also follows the recommendations of Thomas A. Kempis, in his Imitation of Christ. Through a complete rejection of self, we find our will at the mercy of another, namely Jesus Christ. We also discover that once you have brought your own self-esteem down to the lowest degree it becomes impossible to despise your neighbor on account of his own faults (and thus making it much easier to love him). Once we have rejected ourselves, we begin to imitate Mary in her supreme humility, in the same way that she rejected herself and offered her own will and intentions to Christ via her fiat.

As we grow in our imitation of Mary, we then become capable of experiencing that which I find to be at the root of this devotion—participation in Mary’s faith. In Paul’s letter to the Colossians, he wrote, “I am completing what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church” (Col. 1:24, NRSV). In a similar way, Mary’s faith can be seen as the pinnacle of devotion to our Lord, as she quite literally suffered alongside Christ—her soul being pierced in much the same way as His side—which reminds us that we too are to share in His suffering and become co-redeemers in Christ. The principle benefit of emulating Mary’s faith is that it allows us to love Christ more fully, as we come to experience vicariously the most intimate, motherly love which she has for Him. For instance, in meditating upon the mysteries of the most holy Rosary, we learn to take into consideration Mary’s perspective in all of the events of Christ’s life—from the joy she had at His birth, or in finding Him in the Temple—to the sorrow which she carried in her heart as she watched her most beloved Son endure His Passion. In thus empathizing with Mary’s relationship with Christ, we come to love both Mary and her Son more totally than ever before.  This pure love and devotion to her evokes a remission of inordinate fear from our hearts, as, “She will open and enlarge [them] to obey the commandments of her Son with alacrity and with the holy freedom of the children of God.”²Montfort, True Devotion To The Blessed Virgin Mary, N.215

This pure love, this enlarged heart, brings about a growing confidence in Our Lady, and subsequently in the graces that Our Lord makes available through His suffering. This is because you will now find yourself under the loving patronage of your mother, Mary, who will intercede to her Son on your behalf (as Bathsheba did Solomon)—and, provided that you’ve cast all of your iniquities and graces at her feet, you will in turn obtain her virtues and “clothe yourself in her merits.” Now, having given yourself completely to Mary, she, who is liberal—that is generous—will be liberal when dealing with those that are liberal in the same way.  One should not think anything of calling on her intercession saying,  “Tuus sum ego, salvo me fac— I am thine, O Blessed Virgin, obtain for me salvation” For we can take confidence that where we place our treasury, here also lies the treasury of the Lord. For Mary, when we surrender to her our merits, offers them up to God in a way most acceptable to Him—much the same way as Rebecca, asking of her son Jacob two young sheep, then proceeded to prepare them in the manner which she knew would most please her husband Isaac, so that Jacob might be blessed by him.

And, if we are clad in her merits, as spoken of above, we are undeniably tied to Christ, as her devotion to Him, is as perfect a devotion to Christ as one can attain. In the same way, this conformation to Mary enables us to totally mould into the image of Christ Himself. It is all but impossible to totally conform to Christ, if we don’t take a guide with us, choosing rather rely to our own devices. What better guide is there than the perfect sinless guide God provided for us? The one St. Augustine refers to as forma Dei, or the mould of Christ. St. Louis-Marie De Montfort offers a similar comparison—and warning—when he notes that one must first melt to be cast into a mould. A sculptor trying to make an exact likeness of Christ can work endlessly chiseling out stone to find a perfect match, and still come up short; but if we are to surrender to another and melt, we will enter the mould perfectly. 

Greater glory to Jesus Christ is to be seen as the greatest fruit of this devotion to Our Lady. If we are to faithfully devote ourselves to her, we will give greater praise to Jesus Christ in a single moment than we otherwise could in many years on our own. This is because you leave behind your own will, and in turn adopt the intentions of Mary, which are so pure that it is said the smallest of her actions gave more glory to God than the Deacon, St. Lawrence, could have with his terrible death on the gridiron, or indeed all the afflictions of all the Saints combined. Since the very essence of devotion to Mary is to praise God, we never fret, when praising Mary, as we are also praising God with her, as she thinks of God for you. Let us close with these words of St. Louis-Marie De Montfort:

She is an echo of God, speaking and repeating only God. If you say “Mary” she says “God”. When St. Elizabeth praised Mary calling her blessed because she had believed, Mary, the faithful echo of God, responded with her canticle, “My soul glorifies the Lord.” What Mary did on that day, she does every day. When we praise her, when we love and honour her, when we present anything to her, then God is praised, honoured and loved and receives our gift through Mary and in Mary.”³Montfort, True Devotion To The Blessed Virgin Mary, N.225.

Dominus Vobicum,

-C.E.R.S.