There is something about Mary that many non-Catholics have a hard time understanding. They will insist that Mary does not bother them, it is how Catholics worship Mary that bothers them. You can read in the most extreme anti-Catholic literature that Catholics have effectively promoted Mary to the fourth person of the Trinity. If Catholics do not worship Mary, they argue, why do they have so many statues of her, pray the Rosary to her and call her the “Mother of God”? Don’t Catholics understand that God has no mother? How ridiculous!
It is hard to overstate the reactionary stance that many fundamentalists have toward any positive teaching about Mary. A close relative once described the Blessed Mother as “a mere biological vessel” used by God. That sort of remark that would be rightly considered insulting if directed toward any other mother, let alone Mary. And a close friend, upon learning that I was Catholic, asked, “Why? Don’t Catholics worship Mary?”
What exists, then, is a double-pronged problem: Fundamentalists hold to a very lacking, even insulting, view of Mary because they have a deeply distorted understanding of what the Catholic Church teaches and believes about Mary. Their doctrine is almost completely negative in character, shaped in reactionary fear rather than in receptive faith.
If that sounds unduly harsh, consider that fundamentalists are loathe to admit that Mary is the Mother of God. This is an essential point in addressing the accusation that Catholics “worship” Mary. Simply put, if a person refuses to admit the truth about Mary being Theotokos (“God bearer,” or Mother of God), he will not understand authentic Catholic devotion to Mary. James McCarthy, a former Catholic who operates a ministry meant to “save” Catholics, writes in The Gospel According to Rome (Harvest House, 1995) that, “the Bible . . . never calls Mary the Mother of God for a very simple reason: God has no mother. As someone has rightly said, just as Christ’s human nature had no human father, so His divine nature had no mother. This Bible, therefore, rightly calls Mary the ‘mother of Jesus’ (John 2:1; Acts 1:14) but never the Mother of God.” Like Nestorius (d. 451), who made the same basic error in the fifth century, McCarthy’s error lies in him not understanding that mothers do not give birth to “natures”, they give birth to persons. Jesus Christ has two natures, but he is one Person. While Jesus’ human nature comes from Mary and His divine nature from the Father (see Catechism of the Catholic Church, No. 503), he is not partially divine and partially human, as McCarthy’s statement implies.
Fundamentalists may claim that they believe that Jesus is one person, true God and true man. But they fail to reach the logical conclusions derived from that foundational fact. Prior to the Incarnation, God not only didn’t have a mother, He also never wore clothing, never ate food, never took naps, or never went fishing! But the Incarnation, the central event in salvation history, radically changed the relationship between God and man precisely because God became man — and He did so by being born of the Virgin Mary.
Every devotion shown to Mary by Catholics (and the Eastern Orthodox) is based in the belief she is the Mother of God. But this devotion is not worship; that is for God alone. Besides, if Jesus loves His mother — and we know He does — shouldn’t we also express the same sort of familial love?
An antiphon from the Liturgy of the Hours for the solemnity of Mary’s Immaculate Conception refers to her as the “fairest honor of our race.” Or in the Second Vatican Council’s terms, Mary “far surpasses all creatures, both in heaven and on earth” (Lumen Gentium, No. 53). It’s fitting and appropriate, then, to echo St. Bernard of Clairvaux’s claim that when speaking about Christ’s mother: “De Maria numquam satis” (“About Mary, never is enough”). This maxim has proven true for theologians over the 2,000-year history of Christianity. As the first believer, she is the model of Gospel living par excellence. As St. John Paul II put it: “Among creatures no one knows Christ better than Mary; no one can introduce us to a profound knowledge of his mystery better than his Mother” (Rosarium Virginis Mariae, No. 14).
That brings us to today’s Solemnity of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Scripture references Mary’s heart twice, both in the second chapter of Luke’s Gospel (verses 19 and 51). We learn that Mary “reflects” and “keeps” in her heart the mysterious events surrounding the Incarnation. Intertwined with her core identity is the identity of her Son and that of his mission as redeemer and savior. Mary’s fiat (“yes”) was the portal through which God chose to allow himself to begin his saving work. Mary’s fiat remedied Adam and Eve’s “no,” showing us the way to her Son, who is the remedy for all sin. The Virgin Mother is the channel through which God brings healing balm to humanity’s sinfulness, through whom we experience the fullness of grace. She who is “full of grace” leads us to and presents us to her Son.
It is the condition of Mary’s heart, then, that serves as a model for Christians in our quest to follow her Son. It is within her heart that God chose to come and find his initial dwelling among us. This is integral to the message of Fatima, the message that ultimately brings the peace for which humanity yearns. When we live like Mary, when we commit our whole selves to Christ and invite his word to dwell within our hearts, we prepare ourselves to be agents of peace. Mary is our guide, presenting and leading the baptized to her Son. As St. Paul VI said in his 1974 Marian encyclical Marialis Cultus: “In the Virgin Mary everything is relative to Christ and dependent upon him” (No. 25).
This is what defines Mary’s holy, immaculate heart. The identity of her heart is what forms the themes of Fatima’s message: humble holiness, charity, and undying obedience to and faith in God’s will. These qualities are what each of us must appropriate within our own hearts. This enables us to reflect upon and keep Christ in our hearts like we are told in Scripture Mary did. These qualities are, indeed, the legend on the map directing us to God, as Mary identified her Immaculate Heart at Fatima. Each of us is called to make the defining characteristics of Mary’s heart the defining characteristics of our own hearts. The transformation to which each of us is called is accomplished in Mary.
For this reason, devotion to Mary’s heart, her Immaculate Heart, has been proposed for emulation by saints and theologians for centuries. From the earliest Christian times, believers turned to Mary and sought to imitate her in making their lives an act of worship of God and making their worship a commitment of their lives, just as Mary did. Devotion to Mary’s Immaculate Heart received universal support from Venerable Pope Pius XII 25 years after the apparitions at Fatima. To him, it seemed providential, since he was ordained bishop on May 13, 1917, the very day Mary first appeared at Fatima. Pope Pius XII established the feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary on August 22, 1942. Pope Paul VI elevated the feast to a Solemnity in 1969 and moved the date to the Saturday following the Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus (19 days after Pentecost).
May God Bless You and Grant You His Peace!