“Do YOU actually believe Mary was born without sin?”
My non-catholic friends usually ask me this question at some point during our friendship. They do so with a pained expression or a haughty one. Those who’ve taken the time to know me and have born witness to my devotion to our Lord Jesus, usually express the former. I can see in their eyes the anxious hope that I’ll say “No.” If I say “Yes,” then they’ll have to reconcile this news with the fruits they’ve born witness to or convince themselves it’s all been a lie and I am a follower of Beelzebub (Look it up). The haughty ones truly don’t care. They’ve convinced themselves they are right in their own sight and my answer in either case doesn’t sway them.
To my sincere friends whom fear I’ve given my soul over to idol worship of the Virgin Mary, I like to respond in kind, with deepest and sincerest love as I beckon them to remember Mary is the Mother of our Lord & Savior. I don’t Dietize her, I Recognize her and Honor her “YES” to bring Life to the World. Loving Mary is no different than loving the Mother of my Spouse. I have a Mother-In-Love who means the world to me. Because of her “YES” to life and the birth of my husband, my children now have a future in this earth. It’s ridiculously inconsistent and hypocritical to me that a Christian would not consider this as the single most greatest act of Love next to Jesus’ act on the cross.
Further, recognizing Mary’s Sinless Conception only further bolsters my faith in God’s Awesomeness. If He could see our future from the moment of the world’s conception and plan to redeem you and me before we were born, why would he not do something infinitely more Wonderful by exampling to us his great love for humanity in showing to us how he personally chose his Mother. There is nothing random about God’s Redemption Plan. Why would I reject this wonderful Grace the Immaculata reveals by trying to limit this God into using it only at certain points in time. “Does the clay tell the Potter what to do?”
It’s through the eyes of Jesus that I can look at Mary and find a treasure trove of graces to help me live out my faith, especially because she’s a woman and especially because she’s a mother and especially because I can see how Jesus loves her.
I see this with my own son, how he learns from me, how I have the opportunity to prepare him for his calling and nurture him in his relationship with God. Mary no doubt did the same for Jesus, and he loved her.
If you’re one who professes that you see the Gospel only thru the eyes of Jesus, that you simply refuse to look anywhere else than him then I say Bravo! Because Jesus spent the last minutes of his life here Beholding His Mother. What kind of pride must we have in our hearts that we cannot see her as he does. She is the greatest Saint. The first human to be saved by Grace. What a disservice to go an entire lifetime never learning from her example through Jesus.
Understanding Mary is not complicated. You simply have to begin with this question: How do you think Jesus would feel about how you speak of his Mother?
The difference between this form of Christianity and mine is that one of us is living in the fullness of the Truth.
“If you deny my Mother, you deny Me.”
Ask Him, ask Jesus. How does He behold his mother?
Wonderful.