Something About Mary

Day Two: Rome

Those who travel a lot know that adjusting to the time difference traveling East is a pain (especially compared to traveling West). But, besides being wide awake at 4:24 AM and figuring out how to get back to sleep, it was a full day of museums, picture taking, waiting in lines, eating gelatos and walking!

Deb taking a picture of a fountain within the Vatican museum courtyard. It was a feat to get pictures without people from tours getting in the way.

Unfortunately, some people are oblivious that they are standing in other people's photo shots. This made Deb upset (jokingly of course).

A lot of the more impressive artwork was on the ceilings. I can't imagine being a painter/sculptor on his back for days, weeks and months on end to do a painting or sculpture.

The Pantheon was my favourite site we visited that day. It was simply an amazing work of art and architecture. Right on top of the dome is an open hole that lets in the sole source of light (and also the rain). The structure is now used as a Catholic church and I caught several inscriptions making mention that the church is used to honour martyrs of the faith.

Ruins near the Memorial for the Unknown Italian Soldier and the Colosseum.

The Colosseum is also one of my favourite sites. From afar it was already magnificent.

Once inside, it was surreal. It was one part eerie as some say many Christians died here as martyrs and another part fascinating as we stepped on ground that had so much history.

Near the end of the day, we went back to the Vatican to visit St. Peter's Basilica (in the morning, there had been a flood of people outside waiting to get in). "Wow" was the word that kept popping to my mind as we moved throughout the church. It was extravagant, marvelous, and almost over-the-top beautiful.

A thing about Mary...

One thing that stood out during our visits to the various museums and artwork throughout Italy was the emphasis the Catholic church put on Mary. I always wondered why this was so I did a little research on this during one of the days we were resting from all the walking. I came across this article "Why Catholics Honor Mary". Although it wasn't a thorough explanation, I appreciate the author's attempt to defend why Catholics have this very high view of Mary. Here are a couple of my thoughts on the issue (there are more, but I'll touch on two):

1. The author clarifies that Catholics don't worship Mary and that Jesus is the only Mediator between man and God the Father. However, he states that Catholics pray to Mary to intercede on their behalf to Jesus. I disagree with this - there is no biblical basis for this practice although the author tries to give examples from the Bible. The first is of Moses and Joshua praying to God for victories as Israel fights her enemies. He writes, "If Moses and [Joshua] could have such intercession before God, how much more powerful are the prayers of the Blessed Virgin Mary!" But this doesn't support his point and actually undermines it because Moses and Joshua prayed directly to God and not through anyone else. The second is that Jesus listened to Mary at his first miracle (turning water into wine). The author writes, "Does not this narrative of the wedding feast manifest the intercessory power of Mary with Jesus Christ, her Divine Son?" No, it doesn't. It does show that Jesus listened to his mother but it does not give an example of Mary's intercessory power or the fact that Christians should do the same. There are no examples or teachings by Christ on this. On the other hand, Jesus did teach a lot about prayer and demonstrated prayer to his disciples (Matthew 6:1-18; 9:35-38; John 17) that they should pray to God directly.
   
2. I do not know the significance of the Catholic view that Mary remained a virgin after giving birth to Jesus. Regardless of its significance, it is a view that is not supported by the Bible. In Luke 8:19-21 (parallel verses in Mark 3:31-35 and Matthew 12:46-50), Luke records that his mother and brothers were there to see him. The way the Greek was written is like this in English, "Arrived but to him the mother and the brothers of him and not they were able to meet together to him through the crowd." The word brothers, adelphos in Greek or ah in Hebrew, means a full male sibling with the same mother and father or a half-brother. Although it can also mean fellow countryman and the other meanings as listed by the author in the article, the way it was written in Greek clearly states the first meaning, his brothers of the same mother. As well, Matthew 1:25 states that Joseph did not know Mary (sexually) until Jesus was born and in Matthew 13:55, we have four of Jesus' brothers named. The view the author proposes can be correct, but not likely in light of these verses. Unless Catholics have other reasons why Joseph did not consummate the marriage after the birth of Christ, I think Joseph did take Mary to be mother of his children.
   

From what I saw in terms of art and the emphasis put on Mary, Mary is elevated to be on par with Jesus or, in some cases, higher than Jesus. I wonder if you asked the total population of Catholics who they pray to more often, if Mary would outpoll Jesus? Anyway, I'm sure there is a lot more information that I need to know before I can say I understand the basis behind why Catholics pray and, in some cases, worship Mary and do a proper critique, but at least this is a start.