Where Christ is There is Mary

From conception to the cross, Mary is there.

It was the Nativity, Madonna and Child that it dawned on me.  When the shepherds and the wise men bowed before their King of Kings Mary wasn't in the other room.  She wasn't on the barn flood next to the wise men bowed.  She was holding Jesus.  She was nursing Jesus.  She was caring for Him in ways only she could.  This set Mary apart.  She wasn't just another person same as the other adorers.  

When I watch The Journey Home on EWTN, one of the most common questions asked of converts is, "how did you overcome your objection to Mary?"  Everyone has their own answers.  This is my contemplation:

As soon as we were torn out of Catholicism and entered the very anti-Catholic Assembly of God Church when I was 4 years old, Mary disappeared.  She only emerged when she was dusted off for her quiet place in the Nativity at Christmas, and sometimes made a cameo for Mother's Day where she was held as an example of being obedient to God's will (with her possible age at conception of Christ thrown in as shock value).  Any hint or indication of veneration was squelched and often more greatly followed by anti-Catholic rantings about how Mary is just a humble, normal, "one of us" and Catholics are pagan goddess worshippers for even considering her as something more.

Once I started studying and contemplating Catholicism, I, too was faced with the "what to do about Mary" question.

I soon learned that Catholics don't worship Mary and that worship of Mary is heresy.  Rather, they venerate her.  When I posed that to an AG debater, they said, "it amounts to the same thing!  God doesn't share His Glory with Mary.  Mary was just one of us and never would have expected or wanted to be worshipped that way."

The Catholic Church maintains that Mary is venerated as Mother of God and an integral part of Christ's life and ministry.  She is a humble origin, yet set apart.  King David, Moses, Rahab, Ruth, the disciples....humble origins, yet set apart in their own ways in service to God.

I still had trouble wrapping my head around Mary and Jesus, Jesus and Mary and all the cooperations. There was still this separation.  Just Jesus.  Just Jesus.

Then, I took a close look at the Nativity and realized where Jesus is, there is Mary.

At agreement and conception, there is only Mary.  The angel, Gabriel, venerates her.  "Hail, Mary, favored one," or as the Catholic pray, "Hail, Mary, full of grace." 

When the Christ Child is first recognized, Mary was still carrying Him.  Her cousin, Elizabeth and her own unborn John the Baptist knew the Christ Child, and Elizabeth venerated Mary.

When Christ was born, it was of Mary.  She wasn't a spectator, an outsider.  She was doing the work!

When the shepherds and wise men came, they bowed down before Christ.  Mary wasn't among them.  She was with Jesus caring for Him as only she could.

When Jesus was presented at the Temple, Mary was also addressed.  Her heart would be pierced, too.  She would suffer in alignment with her Son's suffering.

When Jesus was lost and then found at the temple teaching, it was Mary who spoke to Him.

When Jesus began His ministry (wedding at Cana), it was His mother who was the catalyst.  The servants obeyed her to obey Jesus.

Then, we come to the cross.  There is Mary, given as mother to John.

The Pieta.  Mary holds her Son.

Mary is not Christ.  She is not equal to Christ.  She is not to be worshipped as we worship Christ.  She has no power, glorification, or authority of her own merits except that which may be given by God.  She is human.  But, she is in cooperation with Christ and God established her.  God made her, prepared her, impregnated her through the Holy Spirit, Christ was created in his human form in her.  He was cared for by her.  She raised Him.  She knew Him for who He was.

Mary, herself acknowledges that she is a humble servant in her Song.  Then, she goes on to say, "For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed."  It doesn't say, "for behold, from now on all generations will forget about me except as a figure-head for Christmas."

We humans put more stock in favorite politicians, celebrities, sports stars, even our pets!  And yet Mary is placed in obscurity, feared even to be considered, spoken of, or thought of in case we accidentally "worship" her like "those pagan Catholics" do.  I cannot be a part of that nonsense anymore.  There is more to Mary.  So much more.