Understanding Mary's Role: Veneration vs. Worship

If you were to get in your car this afternoon and drive down I-4 in the direction of what the news commentators refer to as ‘the attractions’, you will notice, as you near the attractions, on your left, the sign for a shrine that is titled in honor of Mary, Queen of the Universe. [00:00:00]

Back in the sixteenth century, of course, the greatest schism in the history of Christendom took place with the Protestant Reformation which we celebrate every year on Reformation Sunday, which happened to be last Sunday. And we know, at the time of the Reformation the dispute became so bitter and the hostilities so escalated that we saw the formation of the Spanish Inquisition and of people being tortured on the rack and burned at the stake, and Christendom was at war with each other. [00:01:24]

Now, at Vatican I in 1870, under the authority of Pope Pius 9th, Protestants were described as sismatics and heretics. Fast forward to the 1960s, to the Vatican Council II, and in that council Protestants were referred to as separated brethren. You see the stark difference of contrast in the language of communication between the two bodies, how the hostilities have settled down. [00:03:05]

The recent Roman Catholic catechism of 1994 reaffirmed the Counsel of Trent and its teaching of their doctrine of justification, their understanding of salvation, the treasury of merits, indulgences, purgatory and all that. But, despite the ongoing dispute of the heart of the matter of the Gospel itself and how a person is saved, since the sixteenth century — though there were many in the church at that time who believed in papal infallibility — it was not a formal doctrine defined ‘de fide’ by Rome until 1870, at that counsel I mentioned a moment ago, Vatican I, where papal infallibility was decreed. [00:04:20]

But the doctrines of the perpetual virginity of Mary, the sinlessness of Mary, the bodily assumption of Mary into heaven, the coronation of Mary as the Queen of Heaven, are all of much more recent vintage. In the 1950s, three critical encyclicals took place with respect to Mary. Munificentissimus Deus which has spermed the bodily assumptions, fulcoms corona and Ad Caeli Reginam, affirming the coronation of Mary as the Queen of Heaven. [00:06:02]

Beloved, theology can hardly sink lower than to obscure the uniqueness of our Lord’s saving work as the mediator between man and God, and as the Apostle Paul wrote in his pastoral epistles, ‘there is one mediator between God and man, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ.’ Now this stuff didn’t start overnight. It was already an issue in the sixteenth century and the Protestant leaders were concerned that the veneration of Mary, even then, transgressed the Biblical laws against idolatry — the elevation of creatures to such veneration. [00:07:44]

Calvin responded to this distinction between hyperdulia and idolatry as a distinction without a difference. When you kneel down before the likeness of a mortal person, pray to this likeness, and pray to the person, and invoke the power of that person to improve your life and to mediate your prayers to God, how does that differ in any other way from worship? [00:09:33]

Now, happily, the church did not embrace the maximalist position in its fullness, but there remains a strong current in favor of maximalism within the Roman communion to this day. Now I’ve said all of that to say this. Where does this all come from? Well, one of the pivotal texts upon which the debate of Vatican 2 focused upon was the last verse of the section of Chapter 1 that I read last week: Mary’s response to the announcement of the angel Gabriel that she was going to conceive and have a child by the power of the Holy Ghost. [00:13:04]

Mary’s response to Gabriel, known as her "fiat," is a profound expression of humility and submission to God's will. Her declaration as the "handmaiden of the Lord" emphasizes her role as a servant, not a co-redeemer. [00:15:30]

I am a handmaiden. I am not the owner of the house. I don’t have any authority in this matter, but I am your servant, and if the Lord wants me to have this baby, so be it.’ Now that’s a long way from ‘let it be’ to ‘if the Lord wants me to have this baby, whatever the Lord wants I will do because I am His servant.’ [00:20:00]

Mary is not the queen of the universe. The church is the queen of the universe. The church is the bride of Christ and Christ is the King and His only queen is His bride, not His mother. But again, we need to understand what a singularly blessed woman this lady was. And not only did she acquiesce to the announcement, but as the early creeds call Mary, Theotocus, the mother of God, not in the sense historically, that Jesus derived His divine nature from Mary. [00:24:47]

We don’t pray to Mary. I’ve had my Catholic friends say, ‘Hey, why not pray to Mary? If she asks her Son for something He’s not going to refuse her.’ We’re not told to pray to Mary. We’re told to pray to the One who is the Mediator. We have our Great High Priest. We don’t have a great high priestess. We have our Great High Priest who intercedes for us. Is that not enough? [00:25:40]