Common Sense Catholicity Item #1: Mary is Not Divine

            Catholics widely celebrate and honor Mary as having a special function in human history, and specifically in salvation history. We believe she gave birth to the Son of God, who is fully human and fully divine -- Jesus.  There are some, unfortunately, who misjudge and misunderstand this wonderful Catholic faith-filled practice. Those who do misunderstand often claim that Catholics believe Mary to be a goddess or even part of the Godhead, the Trinity itself.

Woops! How far from the truth this really is! As Catholics recognize Archangel Michael’s name to mean “Who is like God?” we also recognize that no one can come close in comparison to God Almighty – Father, Son and Holy Spirit. St. Louis de Monfort, a great promoter of Marian devotion, even said that Mary is nothing without Jesus Christ, and that she is but an atom compared to God himself, who is infinite.

Common Sense Catholicity Item #1:

            The official Catholic teaching is that Mary is not divine at all, especially for one reason: Jesus is human.

            In the Nicene Creed, recited at every Sunday Mass, Catholics all over the world for more than 1600 years have been confessing the following:

I believe in one God,

the Father almighty,

maker of heaven and earth,

of all things visible and invisible.

I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ,

the Only Begotten Son of God,

born of the Father before all ages.

God from God, Light from Light,

true God from true God,

begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father;

through him all things were made.

For us men and for our salvation

he came down from heaven,

and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary,

and became man.

           

Et Homo Factus Est. “And became man.” There is no miscommunication there. Catholics have faced all sorts of heresies throughout the centuries, some very powerfully overtaking many populations of people, in efforts to defend the truth that Jesus was fully human and fully divine. For the Second Person of the Trinity to become man, he would have to be born of another human, a woman, who happened to be named Mary. There ends the story on whether Mary is believed to be divine. The strongly defended teaching on Jesus becoming man and the false teaching of Mary being divine are completely incompatible. The thought would not even last more than a few days, never mind centuries upon centuries.