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Á¦¸ñ How to Explain Maria to a Protestant?
ÀÛ¼ºÀÚ °ü¸®ÀÚ ÀÛ¼ºÀÏ 2016-04-15


How to Explain Maria to a Protestant?

Q ¡°Father, did Mary always know Jesus was God? If yes, how to explain that to a Protestant?¡±


A  The Angel has said to Mary ¡°He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the most High;¡± (Lk. 1:32). She certainly believed the holy Angel (thus making reparation for the first woman, Eve, who did not believe God but rather the devil), and so she has no doubt that Jesus was the Son of God, and knew it from the very moment of the Incarnation.


 Moreover she had already faith in the divinity of the messiah to come, since it was already announced in the Old Testament that the Messiah would be true God (see the first chapter of the epistle of St Paul to the Hebrews with the many proofs of the Divinity of Christ which St Paul brings forward from the Old Testament).


 When the Archangel Gabriel came to her and announced her the birth of Jesus through the operation of the Holy Ghost – and it is evident that our Lady always had the ¡°sign¡± of the miracle of the conception and of the birth in her miraculously kept virginity! – thus she knew she was the Virgin announced by Isaiah (Is. 7:14) and that Jesus was ¡°Emmanuel = God with us¡±.

 

 Now the protestant twist the Scriptures, and put down our Lady as much as they can: for instance, some of them reject Isaiah 7:14, saying that Isaiah only used the word ¡°ha alma = the maid¡±: they do not understand that Isaiah used that word in the same sense as in English people speak of ¡°the Maid of Orleans¡± while in French we speak of ¡°la Pucelle d¡¯Orléans¡±: if the word maid has any ambiguity for those who do not know the context, the French word is very explicit about her virginity. Similarly the Greek translation of Isaiah gives us the understanding which the Jews themselves had of that prophecy, and it uses the word ¡°partenon¡± which is the technical word for virgin – AND this is the word that St Matthew uses when he quotes this prophecy: this is a proof that it was not only the understanding of all the Jews at the time of the translation of the Septuagint (220 years before Christ), but it was the understanding of the Apostles themselves. It has ever been the understanding of the Catholic Church – and those protestants who refuse it simply refuse the meaning of the Scriptures.


 Those who are honest with the Scriptures must acknowledge that our Lady is that Virgin prophecised by Isaiah – and she knew it – and her very virginity was always for her the proof of the miracle of Jesus¡¯ birth and of the truth of the Angel¡¯s words: she believed without any hesitation in the Angel¡¯s words. The very fact that she believed is itself in the Scriptures, told to her by St Elisabeth: ¡°blessed art thou that hast believed, because those things shall be accomplished that were spoken to thee by the Lord¡± (Lk. 1:45).


 Now if God gave us Jesus ¡°through Mary¡±, gave Jesus FIRST to Mary, and through her to us, it is evident that she has a very special place not only in the life of Jesus but in the life of every true Christian: no one can claim to be a ¡°member of Jesus¡± without being a child of Mary, taking Mary for his mother! Since all grace come with Jesus, it becomes evident that we receive all graces through Mary (not that she would be the source of it, but she is the one who distributes the graces that our Lord Jesus Christ has merited – and which she too merited with him at the foot of the Cross, being fully united with Him in the Mystery of Redemption).


 He who does not love Mary does not obey the Scriptures which bid us: ¡°let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:¡± (Phil. 2:5). Now it is evident that Jesus loved his mother and obeyed her, since He fulfilled the Law that bids to ¡°honour thy father and mother¡± and his obedience to Mary is explicitly recorded in the Scriptures: ¡°he ¡¦ was subject to them¡± (Lk. 2:51).