I’m one of two teachers for a non-denominational, weekly Bible study at an all-girls high school. I’m a Catholic, and the other teacher is a Baptist. Our first six-week session had three students, one Catholic and two Protestant, and it went well. We decided to run the program again, this time with a new set of students. Four girls signed up, all Protestant.
For the first class of the new session, the Baptist teacher and I asked the girls, “What do you want to know?” They asked about Adam and Eve, what difference Jesus made in the world, how many religions there were, and who wrote the Bible. All pretty reasonable stuff; the questions lent themselves to team-teaching. We wrote down the questions so we could base the next five classes on them. But then one of the students asked, “Why did God choose Mary to be Jesus’ mother? I mean, did he just go ‘eenie, meenie, minie, moe’ or something?”
I looked at the Baptist teacher, and she looked at me. Blessedly, we both laughed. “Well,” I said, “you’ve just run into one of the areas where Catholics and Protestants sort of disagree. We’ll write down your question and talk about it in two weeks.” After class was over, the other teacher and I talked about Mary, and, of course, we disagreed about some important points. We decided to give our presentations one after the other, instead of team-teaching as we usually do. She would go first, and I would follow.
When the time came, I listened to her lesson with great interest. She read from her King James Version’s reference section about Mary, then read Luke 1:26-56 (the Annunciation and the Visitation) aloud, focusing on the faith Mary showed in the angel and his message. She concluded by saying that God had chosen Mary because she was “A good woman and would be a good mother for Jesus.”
Then it was my turn. “Holy Spirit, I can’t do this without you,” I breathed silently, then began.
We looked again at Luke 1, this time focusing on verse 28, the angel’s greeting. I used a translation that gives the sense of the Greek as “Hail, one who has been favored.” We then looked at why Mary might have been favored, and for that we went to Proverbs. The word “favor” is used in Proverbs 11:27, “He who seeks the good commands favor.” Since Mary has favor, we decided, she must be one who seeks the good. Proverbs 13:15 led us further: “Good sense brings favor.” So Mary had good sense and would make a good mother for Jesus. So far, we had only gone as far as the Baptist teacher, but with solid scriptural evidence.
Then I took the students further. We all agreed that God was not limited by time and was in fact the master of time. I pointed out to them, “God had all of history to pick from in order to find the woman who would be the mother of his Son. He didn’t want his Son polluted by sin. As Catholics, we believe that God chose the best possible woman from all history to be his mother. Since she was the best woman in all of history, it’s not really a stretch to understand why Catholics believe that Mary never chose to sin but was completely free from sin.”
Immediately I got the question, “But what about original sin?” (We had studied that topic the prior week.) I explained our beliefs about the Immaculate Conception. Mary, who never chose to sin, was picked by God the Father to be Jesus mother. God knew outside of time that he would choose her. So, years earlier, he gave Mary a special grace; she was conceived within her mother’s womb without the stain of Adam’s sin, so that Jesus could be honored by his mother’s purity.
Surprisingly, all of the kids nodded. The Baptist teacher wasn’t too sure about all of this and said, “And that’s something Catholics and Protestants disagree on.” I acknowledged as much, but I still had more to say. Christ, I pointed out, is our brother. Galatians 4:4-5 and Romans 8:15, 23 deal with our adoption by God through baptism. If we’re children of God, and if Jesus is the Son of God, then Jesus must be our brother. “In fact,” I pointed out, “Hebrews 2:11, 17 refer to Jesus as our ‘brother.'” That convinced them, as I could hear by the chorus of “Oooh!”
“So if Jesus is our brother,” I asked everyone in general, “then who’s the rest of our family?” All four of the girls responded immediately, “God is our Father,” and then a perplexed silence fell upon the room. One of the girls looked up at me and said, “And Mary is our mother.” All of the girls nodded their heads. So did the Baptist teacher. “Yes!” I thought to God and to myself, as I mentally prepared for the final part of the lesson.
“If Mary is our mother, with Jesus as our brother, that might not seem to mean too much to you, until you consider the fifth commandment: ‘Honor your father and your mother’ (Ex. 20:12).” Again, the sound of “Oooh!” filled the room. “Now, the Catholic Church draws a sharp line between ‘honoring’ somebody and ‘worshiping’ him. In fact, we have specific words for the differences.” I pulled out a piece of paper with the words “dulia,” “hyperdulia,” and “latria” written in bold magic marker. I asked the students if they had ever heard of St. Nicholas; they all nodded yes. St. Patrick? St. Valentine? Yes, yes.
“These people are called ‘saints’ because the Catholic Church believes these people are in heaven. We believe that they lived holy lives and that we should imitate them in some way, because obviously they did something right. Not only should we imitate them, but we should be careful to respect them, just as you might respect your pastor or your minister. This respect, or honor, we call ” ‘dulia.'” I got nods and eye contact, so I went on “The saints did God’s will, and we believe Mary is a saint. We believe Mary, since she never chose to sin, did God’s will better than any other saint.”
Suddenly, I changed the subject. “What’s the difference between being active and hyperactive?” I asked. One of the girls volunteered that they kind of meant the same thing, but being hyperactive was more intense than just being active. “Right,” I responded, “so what we give Mary is hyperdulia. It’s just what we give the saints — honor and respect — but more intense.
The last word, latria, is completely different. It means ‘worship.’ Catholics use this word to describe how we act toward God, and we don’t use it for anything else. If anyone ever tells you that Catholics worship Mary, that’s not true. We give her hyperdulia, or ‘great respect and honor,’ but we give latria only to God. If you ever run into a Catholic who says we worship Mary, that Catholic doesn’t understand his faith. That person is not living within Catholic teaching but is outside the mind of the Church. We worship God, and we honor the saints.”
After a few seconds of stillness, the Baptist teacher, talking slowly, said, “I never knew that. I always thought Catholics worshiped God and Mary, but now I see the difference.” More silence. “So you worship only God?”
“Absolutely,” I answered. “Prayers to saints are just asking them to pray to God for us, like you might ask your friend or your pastor to pray for you.”
I took two deep breaths. “Any questions?”
One student wanted to make sure she had it all down right, so I let her summarize for us. “God chose Mary to be Jesus’ mother because she never sinned, and, since Jesus is our Brother, Mary is our mother. We honor and respect her because she’s our mother, but we save worship for God.”
I smiled and thanked the Holy Spirit. Then I turned to the Baptist teacher. “Is that about right?” I asked. She was silent for several moments. “Yeah, I think so. I guess that’s right. I never thought of it that way, but . . . that’s got to be right.”
“I think so too,” I concluded. “She got it just right.”