I know I’m going to make a lot of Catholics mad: however, I am an equal opportunity offender. Protestants are the main focus of my attention though. The thrust of this web site after all is to question those things that really make no sense- according to me of course; however, I hardly stand alone on any of these modern-day “95 Theses“. In fact, I stand with the majority in most of them, but I live in the midst of the minority. Did you follow that?
I find it somewhat amusing that an all-male, Roman Catholic church hierarchy, who love to wear dresses, have done as much as they have to elevate at least ONE woman, but in so doing have created such bad theology.
Was Mary a virgin or was that a needed story to compete with the two dozen other religions that had “virgin birth stories” as well? Why did it take until the ninth decade to come up with the premise? And why did only two sources, Matthew & Luke reference it? Why didn’t Mark, the earliest gospel mention it? Why didn’t the latest gospel, John, mention it?
And why didn’t the earliest works (Paul) refer to a virgin story?
And then there’s the “progressive edification” of the story of this virgin Mary.
1-She goes from virgin to perpetual virgin. Out of nowhere, the brothers and sisters of Jesus as mentioned in Gal. 1:19, and Mark 6:3 for example, are now written off as half-siblings, cousins, or something other than brothers and sisters. Create the theology to fit the premise and prejudice! So, Mary is now a virgin impartu, and postpartum.
2-Stories abounded to find Biblical confirmation that her womb had closed after Jesus arrived. Ezekiel 44:2 was the most often quoted. I can’t imagine how Ezekiel must laugh.
3-But if we’re going to ascribe to the principle of “original sin” (I don’t, but they did), then Jesus came through a sin laden womb- Mary! Therefore to not allowed the Blessed Mary to be tainted by the sins of Adam, the Catholic church on December 8, 1854 issued a proclamation by Pope Pius IX, that Mary had an extraordinary birth! Well, how convenient! Voila- the Immaculate Conception!
4-Now that we’re on a roll (we are aren’t we?), let’s further edify and deify Mary. So, on November 1, 1950, the church issued yet another proclamation (by Pope Pius XII) on bodily assumption. Guess what! Mary never died! Listen, they’re covering all the bases. If death was the punishment for sin (Adam and Eve), and since Mary was SINLESS, then she couldn’t die.
I’m sorry, but for the life of me I simply cannot believe any of that. While I embrace and love so many of the traditions of Catholicism, and am thankful for so many rich mystical men and women who have helped enlighten my path, this Mary thing is just too much for me to swallow.
All the ridiculous myths surrounding Mary rob us of the real courageous woman that she was. Sanitizing her memory until all the ‘original sin’ is gone (when have you seen an original one?) only means she is no longer a role model for the rest of us. The real story is that she was brave enough to encounter God in the midst of an unwanted pregnancy and rise to become the mother of our Master Teacher. I could have ‘prayer-conversations’ with a woman like that, who is still alive in Spirit as are all who have gone before. Why, I could say “Hail, Mary, full of grace. God is with you! Blessed are you among women!” It reminds me that I, too, am full of grace and that God is with me. That makes me love the Mary of the Bible all the more.
Thanks for your sharp pen!
Thanks for the comment. How shamelessly we have tried to “help God” with our stories about what happened- as though God needed help! You’re right on! Keep on pushing on!