Many Catholics have been challenged by members of other denominations who claim that Catholics worship Mary and that such devotion is in error and has no basis in Scripture. Anyone wishing to be better prepared to answer such questions would do well to read “Mary in the Bible and in Our Lives” by Father Wilfrid Stinissen, O.C.D.
Father Stinissen’s beautiful book is also for anyone who wishes to grow in faith and to foster a deeper love of Our Lady. Father has been a Carmelite since 1944, and the many years he has devoted to prayer and study have borne fruit in his profoundly moving explanations and commentaries.
He follows Mary’s life through the many references to her in the Gospels, so the book is well based. He also refers to Mater Ecclesiae (Mother of the Church), the encyclical of Pope Paul VI, and to the documents of the Second Vatican Council. He notes that in 431 AD, the Council at Ephesus declared Mary to be the Theotokos, the Mother of God. Lastly, he quotes the many great saints who were devoted to Our Lady: Ignatius of Loyola, Maximillian Kolbe, Bernard of Clairvaux, Theresa of Lisieux and John of the Cross.
Father Stinissen starts by straightening the confusion that sometimes takes place over the dogma of the Immaculate Conception. This is sometimes thought to mean the virgin birth, but it, in fact, means that “Mary was free from original sin from the first moment of her existence.”
Father asks a theologically important question: “How could Mary be without sin before Jesus saved the world?” Father’s work shines in its ability to deal easily and simply with profound issues, and so he explains that it was “by virtue of Christ’s death” that God preserved Mary “from all stain of guilt.”
Father continues to explain that Mary’s sinlessness, her uniqueness, does not separate her from us; it is sin that separates, that divides and alienates. Mary’s sinlessness draws us to her and works to unite us to God. Her Immaculate Conception “makes total solidarity possible.”
Examining the Annunciation, Father observes that the conversation between Mary and the Angel Gabriel “is a prototype of every conversation between heaven and earth.” When Mary visits Elizabeth, it is “not primarily Mary’s visit to Elizabeth but, rather, Christ’s visit to John,” he writes. When Marry prays the Magnificat, she is praying in the Holy Spirit, and she proclaims that “henceforth all generations will call me blessed.”
“Why is it,” Father asks, “that a large part of Christianity is so afraid to praise Mary when she herself foretold in the Holy Spirit that the whole world would exalt her?”
In his chapter on Mary and Joseph, Father Stinissen tackles the issue of Mary ever virgin. Did she or did she not have children other than Jesus? Regarding references in Scripture to Christ’s “brothers,” Father writes that “Everyone knows that Hebrew uses the same word for both brothers and cousins.” Also, virginity, as Mary knew it, is more than a physical state. It means, as explained in I Corinthians 7:34, to be “anxious about the affairs of the Lord, how to be holy in body and spirit.” Virginity cannot be “only for a time,” Father explains. “God does not take back his gifts; he completes what he has begun.”
Interestingly, even the leaders of the Protestant Reformation believed in Mary’s virginity. Stinissen quotes Martin Luther as saying, “A virgin before conception and birth, she remained a virgin also at the birth and after it.” Stinissen also notes that “Calvin condemned those who claimed that Mary had other children besides Jesus.”
Father continues to look carefully at Mary at the wedding at Cana and at Mary at the foot of the cross. He explains and expounds, providing new insights and inspiring new love of Our Lady.
In his chapter on Mary and the Church, Father Stinissen regrets that we “no longer feel a part of something greater and all encompassing.” We have lost a “sense of belonging,” and here Father repeats Hans Urs von Balthasar’s observation that “The Church since the (Second Vatican) Council” has become “all too masculine” and has stepped away from the deep femininity of the Marian character of the Church.”
Nevertheless, Stinissen says, “Many of the Church Fathers have pointed out that Mary and the Church are reflected in each other. When we wish to know how the Church should be, we need only look at Mary.”
“Mary in the Bible and in Our Lives” is a wonderful book that can be read, re-read, studied and meditated upon. In the end, it will, as the author no doubt intended, lead us to Mary who is ultimately and completely the way to Jesus.
J.E. Helm is a freelance writer for the Sooner Catholic.