Mother and Child reading the Word—Michael D. O’brien
WHY do “Catholics” say they need Mary?
One can only answer this by posing another question: why did Jesus need Mary? Couldn’t Christ have materialized in the flesh, emerging from the desert, proclaiming the good news? Certainly. But God chose to come through a human creature, a virgin, a teenage girl.
But this was not the end of her role. Not only did Jesus receive his hair color and wonderful Jewish nose from His mother, but He also received His training, discipline, and instruction from her (and Joseph). Upon finding Jesus in the temple after three days missing, Scripture says:
He went down with [Mary and Joseph] and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them; and his mother kept all these things in her heart. And Jesus advanced in wisdom and age and favor before God and man. (Luke 2:51-52)
If Christ found her worthy to mother Him, is she not worthy then to mother us? It would seem so, for beneath the cross, Jesus said to Mary,
“Woman, behold, your son.” Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother.” (John 19:26-27)
We know, from the earliest of Christian teachings, that Jesus was giving Mary to be the mother of the Church. Is not the Church the body of Christ? Is not Christ the head of the Church? So is Mary the mother of a head only, or of the whole body?
Listen Christian: you have a Father in heaven; you have a brother, Jesus; and you also have a mother. Her name is Mary. If you let her, she will raise you as well as she raised her Son.
Mary is the Mother of Jesus and the Mother of all of us even though it was Christ alone who reposed on her knees… If he is ours, we ought to be in his situation; there where he is, we ought also to be and all that he has ought to be ours, and his mother is also our mother. —Martin Luther, Sermon, Christmas, 1529.
