As Marge Fenelon notes, “For centuries, the Catholic Church has set aside the entire month of May to honor Mary, Mother of God. Not just a day in May, mind you, but the entire month.” You can read her article for more information about the history of that fact. In this piece, I would simply like to offer some biblical and patristic foundations of Catholic Marian belief and devotion in honor of Mary during this month of May.
I will start with some of the low-hanging fruit. I have heard some non-Catholics argue that Luke 11:27–28 shows Jesus rejecting the notion that his mother is blessed. That would be very odd, considering the first chapter of Luke indicates exactly the opposite, at least twice.
In the Annunciation scene, the angel Gabriel famously calls Mary “full of grace” or “highly favored” (Luke 1:28). The Greek word here is kecharitomene, the root word being that of “grace” or “to give grace.” As Fr. Charles Grondin explains, “The word is the past perfect tense, meaning that the action of giving grace has already occurred. It was not something that was about to happen to her but something that has already been accomplished. The word was also used as a title. The angel did not say, ‘Hail Mary, you are kecharitomene’ but rather, ‘Hail kecharitomene.’ Therefore the word is not simply an action but an identity.”
In the very next scene, when Mary visits her cousin Elizabeth, Luke tells us that “Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and exclaimed with a loud cry, ‘Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb’” (Luke 1:41–42).
Unless one wants to assert that Jesus and the Holy Spirit (through inspiring Elizabeth) were contradicting one another, we must read Luke 1 and Luke 11 in a way that holds them together. When the woman in Luke 11 says, “Blessed is the womb that bore you” (Luke 11:27), and Jesus replies, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it!” (Luke 11:28), we must recall what Luke 1 already says about Mary.
Catholics are anything but “unbiblical” when it comes to recognizing Mary’s blessedness.
Notice, the woman of Luke 11 only called Mary’s womb blessed. But Jesus says that the one who hears God’s word and obeys it is blessed, moving the blessedness from mere bodily conception and birthing to spiritual communion with God. In Luke 1, Mary is shown precisely to be someone who heard God’s Word (through Gabriel) and assented to it obediently: “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word” (Luke 1:38). And again, through the influence of the Holy Spirit, Elizabeth says to Mary, “Blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord” (Luke 1:45). It is helpful to note that the most famous Marian prayer is the Hail Mary, which consists mostly of quotes from the angel Gabriel and Elizabeth as found in the Gospel of Luke.
Mary’s response to Elizabeth also testifies to her own blessedness: “Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed” (Luke 1:48). Ratzinger wrote that these words about “all generations” constitute a prophecy and thus also a command. He writes, “The Church neglects one of the duties enjoined upon her when she does not praise Mary. She deviates from the word of the Bible when her Marian devotion falls silent.”
Such devotion is amply attested to in the time of the early Church Fathers. Several patristic sources from the East and West alike perceive in the Scriptures an allusion to Mary being the New Eve. Such examples come from St. Justin Martyr (Dialogue with Trypho), St. Irenaeus (Against Heresies), St. Gregory of Nyssa (Homily on the Canticle of Canticles), St. Ambrose (Expositio in Lucam), and St. Jerome (Epistulae 22, 21).
Two quotes from St. Irenaeus exemplify this common stream of biblical interpretation. First, he says, “The knot of Eve’s disobedience was untied by Mary’s obedience: what the virgin Eve bound through her disbelief, Mary loosened by her faith.” Similarly, he states, “Eve was the mother of the living in the order of nature; Mary is our mother in the order of grace.”
Mary is not only seen as the New Eve, but also as the New Ark or Ark of the New Covenant. This is at least partly based on obvious parallels between the Visitation scenes in Luke 1 and 2 Samuel 6. As Dr. Andrew Swafford explains, “Such a parallel would be enormously significant since the Ark was the holiest object in all of Israel. It is holy because it bore the very presence of God. The Ark . . . held the Ten Commandments, a jar that held the manna, and Aaron’s high priestly rod (Hebrews 9:4). Likewise, Mary bears Jesus who is the Word of God Incarnate, the bread of life, and eternal high priest.”
What are these parallels? First, there is very similar language in 2 Sam. 6:9 and Luke 1:43, respectively: “How can the ark of the Lord come to me?” and “How does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” If this were a one-off, then perhaps it could be chalked up to a coincidence. But the parallels persist. Compare “As the ark of the Lord was entering . . . King David leaping and dancing before the Lord” (2 Sam. 6:16) and “For at that moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy” (Luke 1:44). Yet another parallel is found between 2 Sam. 6:11 and Luke 1:56: “The ark of the Lord remained in the house of Obed-edom the Gittite for three months” and “Mary remained with her about three months.”
Additionally, there appears to be another parallel between Mary and the Ark when comparing Luke 1:35 and Exodus 40:34–38. In the former, Mary is “overshadowed” by the power of the Most High. In the latter, the glory of the Lord (shekinah) overshadowed the Ark of the Covenant.
Much more could be said about the firm foundation of Marian doctrine and piety in Sacred Scripture and patristic sources, but this should suffice to show that Catholics are anything but “unbiblical” when it comes to recognizing Mary’s blessedness. Nevertheless, let me just add an additional observation. To be united spiritually means something specific that is often overlooked. While people tend to think of “spiritual” as something ethereal or intangible and unspecified, we ought to recall that we are spiritual beings because spirits possess an intellect and a will. Thus, spiritual union is found in shared knowledge and shared love.
One thing is for certain: Jesus loves his blessed Mother Mary deeply. In union with his Sacred Heart, we, too, must love her deeply.