Transcript

Thank you.

From the time of his election, John Paul II's papacy was marked by a profound devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary.

He took as his motto the words, a phrase expressing his personal consecration to Mary.

His love for the Mother of God touched everything he did.

He had the custom of ending most pieces of writing, whatever the topic might be, with a Marian coda, a brief prayer for her intercession or a reflection on her life and virtue.

He prayed the rosary many times a day.

He composed book-length letters about her to the people of the Church.

He even commissioned a prominent Marian image to be installed in St. Peter's Square.

And he made pilgrimage to the sites of church-approved Marian apparitions, celebrating Mass at each place.

It was John Paul who canonized Juan Diego, the visionary of Guadalupe in Mexico.

It was John Paul who declared that the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes should be observed as World Day of the Sick.

It was John Paul who consecrated Russia, and indeed the world, to Mary's Immaculate Heart, just as she had requested of Fatima.

It was John Paul who declared two of the seers of Fatima to be blessed.

John Paul visited with the third seer of Fatima, Sister Lucia, and he interpreted his papacy in light of the third secret the Virgin had revealed to Lucia.

When the Holy Father fell by the bullet of a would-be assassin, he asked that the file on the Fatima secrets be brought to his hospital bed.

Eventually, he sent the bullet that almost killed him to be placed as a jewel in the golden crown of the Virgin of Fatima.

In his book, Crossing the Threshold of Hope, St. John Paul traced the inspiration for his Marian devotion to the books of St. Louis de Montfort.

In these works, he learned that Mary is never a distraction from Jesus.

She's the surest way to him.

She leads us always to do whatever he tells us to do, just as she led the people at the wedding feast at Cana.

It is Jesus on the cross who declared her to be the mother of his beloved disciple, of all his beloved disciples, forever.

In the same book, St. John Paul recalled the many visits in his young years to the venerable image of the Black Madonna of Czestochowa in Poland.

As Pope, he continued to make many pilgrimages, and he urged faithful Catholics to do the same.

He called upon all of us to go to the Marian sites to be converted, to give of ourselves totally, as John Paul did, to the Blessed Mother and her Divine Son, Jesus.

He said every pilgrimage a Christian makes is an important moment in his spiritual life.

It helps him discover the power of prayer, which unifies the being and is the source of the witness each person is called to bear and of his mission.

With Mary, we become humble children in the Lord's hands, asking forgiveness for our faults and thereby rediscovering the joy of being God's children who know they are infinitely loved and so have a deep desire to be converted.

If we don't have the health or the money to make a trip abroad, we can still make our pilgrimages to Mary, just as St. John Paul did.

She waits for us at the simple Marian shrines and images in our parish churches.

She waits for us, too, in the quiet corners of our homes.

She awaits the pilgrimage of our hearts, our constant turning toward Jesus.

So it's the final session of the Bible and the Virgin Mary.

Only one more lesson to wrap up our discussion of the most amazing woman who ever lived.

Last time, we saw that while the Assumption is not explicitly taught in Scripture, the foundation for the teaching is very much rooted in Sacred Scripture.

We looked at John's mysterious vision of the woman clothed with the sun in Revelation, which depicts Mary as the Ark of the New Covenant, daughter Zion, the new Eve, and the mother of the Church, who is the royal queen.

All of these images that John brings to bear, these connections that he's making to the Old Testament, serve as the biblical outline for the dogma of the Assumption.

The other piece of the puzzle, so to speak, is the oral witness of the Church.

The writings of popes, bishops, theologians, and saints have long testified to her Assumption and Coronation.

Now, like the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, the dogma of the Assumption was officially declared relatively recently.

It happened in 1950, when Pope Pius XII penned the Apostolic Constitution, Munificentissimus Deus, the Most Bountiful God.

But also like the Immaculate Conception, the dogma of the Assumption is nothing new to the story.

Since the earliest days of Christianity, the Church has taught that Mary was taken up into heaven at the end of her earthly life.

And in his declaration of the dogma, Pius XII cited the ancient witnesses to that truth.

As far back as the 4th century, early Christians were writing about Mary's Assumption.

And by the 6th century, not only was the doctrine accepted without question, but there was even a feast day established to commemorate the event.

Although most of the writings we have from the early Church chronicle all the challenges made to the Christian faith, there is no writing contesting Mary's Assumption.

This indicates that nobody was challenging the doctrine.

Even more notably, during the period of the Church Fathers, no church or city ever claimed to possess the bones of Jesus' mother.

Now to understand just how unusual that is, you have to know how passionately churches and cities in the first centuries after Christ vied with one another for possession of the bones of the greatest apostles and martyrs.

If Mary's bones remained on earth, they would have been the grand prize of early Christianity.

Moreover, the search for her relics and their transfer from one city to another would have been very well attested.

But again, the historical record shows not even a hint of a Marian reliquary, aside from her empty tomb, and two cities lay claim to that, Jerusalem and Ephesus.

As I said, there are writings and homilies from the 4th century onward about the Assumption.

Perhaps the best extant preaching on the doctrine, however, comes from the last official Father of the Church, St. John of Damascus, who died in the mid to late 8th century.

In his homilies on the Assumption, St. John used the very readings that the Church uses today in the Mass for the Feast of the Assumption.

And he focused in particular on Mary as the Ark of the New Covenant.

But he also connected Mary's Assumption to her role as the New Eve, noting how fitting it was that she should be taken up into heaven to be with her son.

In one of those homilies he said, "This day the Eden of the new Adam welcomes its living paradise, in whom our sentence has been repealed.

Eve gave ear to the message of the serpent, and together with Adam was condemned to death and assigned to the world of darkness.

But how could death swallow this truly blessed soul, who humbly gave ear to the word of God?

How could corruption dare touch the body that it contained life?"

Such thoughts are aberrant and totally repugnant in regard to the body and soul of the Mother of God.

In that passage, St. John of Damascus made an argument very similar to the argument made by Pope Pius XII in Munificentissimus Deus, that Mary was assumed body and soul into heaven because it was fitting, it was appropriate.

As we see in this study, there's biblical evidence for the belief.

There's also ample historical evidence for the belief.

And ultimately, Mary's Assumption just makes sense.

As Pope Pius XII wrote when declaring the dogma, "Hence, the revered Mother of God, from all eternity, joined in a hidden way with Jesus Christ, immaculate in her conception, a most perfect virgin in her divine motherhood, the noble associate of the divine Redeemer who has won a complete triumph over sin and its consequences, finally obtained as the supreme culmination of her privileges, that she should be preserved from the corruption of the tomb, and that, like her own son, having overcome death, she might be taken up body and soul to the glory of heaven."

Like with the Immaculate Conception, no matter how new some of this may seem to you, it's really not.

You've actually heard this interpretation of these biblical texts many times.

In fact, you've heard it every time you go to Mass on August 14th or 15th, the Feast of the Assumption and the Vigil of the Assumption.

The Vigil for the Feast begins with a reading from the first book of Chronicles.

In that passage from chapters 15 and 16, David brings the ark of the Lord to the place which he had prepared for it.

The psalm for the vigil likewise celebrates this event.

The epistle from 1 Corinthians 15 gives thanks for the victory over death won for us by Jesus Christ.

And the gospel reading from Luke 11 celebrates Mary not only as the mother of Christ, but also as the one who heard God's word and believed.

The Mass of the actual feast begins with a reading from Revelation, the vision of the ark in the heavenly temple.

The psalm depicts the queen standing at the king's right hand, and the epistle envisions Christ the King putting his enemies under his feet, the last enemy being death.

Finally, the gospel for the feast is Mary's visit to Elizabeth from Luke chapter 1. That passage, as we explored in earlier lessons, depicts Mary as the Ark of the Covenant.

So, the scriptures, tradition, and the church's liturgy all illuminate the truth about Mary's assumption into heaven.

But what do they tell us about her role as Queen of Heaven and Earth?

What do they say she does as the Queen Mother of the Kingdom of God?

Basically, they tell us that as the Queen Mother, she has the same responsibilities that Israel's Queen Mother had.

If you think back to Lesson 7, you'll recall that the Queen Mother was the chief intercessor of the people.

So Bathsheba went to King Solomon to speak to him on behalf of Adonijah.

And the king rose to meet her and bowed down to her.

Then he sat on his throne and had a seat brought for the king's mother.

And she sat on his right.

That short passage speaks volumes about the role of the Queen Mother.

First, it tells us why the Queen Mother has come to her son.

She's come to place another's request before him.

The passage also tells us that the king rises from his throne when his mother enters the room.

And that's important because, other than his mother, the king rises for nobody.

Everyone else rises when he enters the room, not vice versa.

But not only does the king rise to his mother, he also bows to her.

And then he seats her at his right hand.

What do those actions of Solomon tell us about the queen mother?

First, they tell us that his power and authority are in no way threatened by her.

He bows to her, but he remains the monarch.

He sits her at his right hand.

He doesn't sit at her right hand.

It also shows us that he desires to answer her requests.

He listens to her.

The same can be said of Jesus and Mary.

Think back to the wedding at Cana.

There, Mary approached her son to intercede for a couple in need.

She counsels her son about the matter at hand, but she counsels others to obey him, not her, with the words, "Do whatever he tells you."

Although Jesus remains his mother's superior, he still defers to her request and turns the water into wine.

What the Queen Mother did in Solomon's day and what Mary did at Cana is what Mary continues to do in heaven.

She intercedes for her children on earth before her Son in heaven.

That work of motherly intercession illuminates the passage in Revelation 12 that describes the woman in anguish.

Even though she's in heaven, she's still in labor.

Why?

Pope Pius XII answered the question this way: 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 unwearying prayer to bring about the fulfillment of the number of the elect.

Always a mother, Mary watches over us.

She prays for us and leads us ever closer to her Son, Jesus Christ.

And because of that, you'll sometimes hear her referred to as co-redemptrix, mediatrix, or advocate, titles that identify her unique role in salvation history.

Now, I have to admit, this drove me nuts before I became Catholic.

I couldn't think of anything more blasphemous than that.

And non-Catholics usually protest these titles, citing, for example, St. Paul's categorical assertion in 1 Timothy 2:5 that Christ is the one mediator between God and man.

So, how do you reconcile those two claims?

Christ is the one mediator and Mary's participatory role as well.

Well, St. Paul gives us some insight into that mystery when he states in 1 Corinthians 3:9 that we are God's fellow workers or co-workers.

Now, if Christ is the one mediator, why does he need co-workers?

Well, he doesn't need them.

He could get the job done all by himself if that's what he wanted.

But he doesn't want that.

What he wants is to raise up mature sons and daughters.

And as any parent knows, the best way to do that is to get your kids to help out.

That's what Christ does.

He makes us his co-workers.

And what do we do as Christ's co-workers?

The basics.

We live according to his word.

We love others as we love him.

And we accept our crosses.

As St. Paul said in Colossians 1:24, "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, that is, the church."

Now, if you and I can be Christ's co-workers, helping him in his work of redemption by completing what is lacking in his afflictions, just think how much more Mary can help him.

As his mother, Mary shared in his work in an unparalleled way, from her yes to God when he asked her to bear his son, to all the love and care she showed for him in his lifetime, and to her final acceptance of his self-offering on the cross.

Mary partnered with God in the work of our salvation.

Essentially, God willed it so that his son's incarnation hinged on the consent of a woman.

Could there be a more intimate co-worker than her?

Likewise, could any human person have suffered more than Mary did at Calvary?

Could anyone have made an offering more perfect than her acceptance of her perfect son's suffering and death?

Of course not.

By accepting God's plan from first to last, Mary was Christ's co-worker par excellence.

As his co-worker, she helps mediate grace and salvation to the world.

And as our mother, she regularly intercedes for us in heaven.

This is why she can be called co-redemptrix, mediatrix, and advocate without taking anything away from her son's role.

Because Mary has done and continues to do so much for us, we honor her, we venerate her, we celebrate the great work of grace God has done in her life with feasts commemorating her Immaculate Conception, her birth, the Annunciation, her Holy Motherhood, her Assumption, and more.

We also praise her for her obedience and holiness through hymns, poems, and beautiful litanies.

We keep her in our minds and hearts as an example of faith, hope, and love by hanging pictures of her on our walls, placing statues of her in our parishes and homes, and wearing scapulars or miraculous medals around our necks.

And we ask for her intercession by praying prayers such as the Memorare, the Hail Holy Queen, and of course, the Rosary.

Of all the different ways Catholics love and honor Mary, praying the Rosary is perhaps the most common and the most important.

Now, non-Catholics often dismiss the Rosary as a mindless, mechanical recitation of words, but nothing can be further from the truth.

First, if you're doing it the right way, there's nothing mindless about the Rosary.

It's a meditation on the life and work of Christ that engages the whole person on at least three levels with the sound of the voice, the feeling of the beads, and the sight of devotional images.

All the senses are brought into a spirit of prayer.

Furthermore, the devotion itself is deeply scriptural.

It includes prayers such as the Our Father, which Christ taught us to pray in the Gospel of Matthew, and the Hail Mary, a prayer which originated in the words of the angel Gabriel at the Annunciation.

Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee.

And the words of Mary's cousin Elizabeth at the Visitation.

Blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb.

The Rosary also requires us to meditate on 20 different mysteries of the Gospel, mysteries from both the life of Christ and the life of Mary.

When we pray the Rosary, we bring our whole selves and most of our senses into prayer.

We say the words of Scripture, words of love, trust, devotion, and faith, and we reflect on the mysteries of salvation.

To pray the Rosary is to tell Christ and his mother over and over again how much we love them and how wholly we believe in the truths of the faith.

Praying the Rosary is an act of love, which is why it's been one of the most beloved devotions of Catholics for hundreds and hundreds of years.

Over the past 12 sessions, we've seen how different biblical images, including Daughter Zion, the Virgin Eve, the Ark of the Covenant, and the Queen Mother, help us understand who the Blessed Virgin Mary is and what her role in salvation history has been.

We've also studied the scriptural and historical roots for the four Marian dogmas: the motherhood of God, Mary's perpetual virginity, the immaculate conception, and Mary's assumption into heaven.

Some anti-Catholics would have you believe that those Marian dogmas add up to idol worship, that Catholics have given Mary honors and devotions that belong to God alone.

But that's simply not the case.

We worship and adore only God.

In fact, we have three terms in Latin that make this clear.

We give Latria, or adoration, to God alone.

We give Hyperdulia, a special kind of veneration, to Mary, and Dulia to the rest of the saints.

So we worship God alone.

There is no one above him or before him.

He's the author of creation.

He's the author of our being, the author of Mary's being as well.

She's a creature, not a goddess, and not our Redeemer.

We do, however, honor and venerate Mary with great love and devotion.

And by now, you should understand why.

We honor her because she so clearly manifests the grace of God in her sinless nature, in her total obedience to God's will, and in her great love for her Son.

She shows us what's possible with God's grace.

We also honor her because she reminds us of what we're all called to be, beloved sons and daughters of God perfectly conformed to His will.

We honor her because of the great part she played in helping bring about Christ's saving work.

We honor her because of the great part she continues to play in that work, praying and interceding for us in heaven.

Above all, we honor her because she's our mother in faith, given to us by Christ as He hung upon the cross.

As we read in John 19:26-27, when Jesus saw His mother and the disciple whom He loved standing near, He said to His mother, "Woman, behold your son."

Then He said to the disciple, "Behold your mother."

And from that hour, the disciple took her to his own home.

Now, this scene is but one more piece of evidence that Jesus had no biological brothers or sisters.

After all, why would Mary go to live with John if she had other children to take care of her?

But on a deeper level, we need to recognize that we are all the beloved disciple.

We are all commanded by Christ to take Mary into our homes.

We're all her children.

Because of that, she loves us.

She prays for us and does all she can to lead us closer to her Son.

Our Son Jesus obviously loves and honors her.

For us to fail to love and honor the one whom He loves would be to fail to love and to honor Him.

And there is no greater failing than that.

Thank you so much for joining me for the Bible and the Virgin Mary.

I hope and pray this study has helped you come to a more full appreciation of the person of Mary and her role in salvation history.

Don't ever forget she's your mother, given to you by Jesus Christ himself.

Turn to her, and she will lead you ever closer to her Son.