In Defense of Mary: Responding to Objections

Objection 9: Objection Against Consecration to Jesus Through Mary

Objection: The act of Marian consecration involves a) giving oneself entirely to Mary, and this constitutes an act of adoration; now a Christian is only permitted to give himself entirely to God and never to a creature; and b) giving all our merits and good works to Jesus through Mary will make us spiritually incapable of helping the souls of our parents, relatives and friends.

Response: a) Here again a distinction must be made between acts of "latria" and "dulia." Consecration to God, for example, to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, is an act in the order of latria, which is the worship paid exclusively to God, and in which a person is given directly and completely to God.

Consecration to Mary (for example, to her Immaculate Heart) is an analogous act in the order of hyperdulia, that exalted devotion which the Mother of God properly deserves. Here a person gives himself entirely to Mary as a means of union with Jesus Christ. Giving oneself entirely to Mary does not mean that Mary is the goal or final recipient of the self-gift; but rather, that it is a Christ-designated means of consecrating oneself to Jesus and renewing one's baptismal vows. One's gift of self to Mary in the order of hyperdulia, or exalted veneration, is the best means to a complete and total gift of self to Christ in the order of adoration, which is proper only for Our Lord.

b) To the objection that through Marian consecration we lose our spiritual ability to aid the souls of our parents, relatives, and friends, St. Louis Marie de Montfort offers the following clear and succinct answer:

De Montfort's response reflects the spiritual humility all Christians should have in regards to their limited ability to dispense properly their own spiritual benefits, in contrast to the best and perfect distribution of graces made by Jesus and Mary. Further, we must remain assured that total consecration to Jesus through Mary will result only in a greater obedience to the commandments of God, including the Fourth Commandment to "honor your father and mother" and the Gospel command to "love your neighbor."

Objection 10: Objection Against Marian Private Revelation

Objection: How can any human being, including Mary, appear after death in a way only possible by God Himself?

Response: Again, we return to the distinction between "being God" and "participating in the power of God." Mary, especially since she is not bound by the limits of time and space, as she is in Heaven, can participate in God's power to become visible to a person on earth, to communicate, and even to be present in her assumed body in a type of three dimensional apparition. Scripture attests to a vision or apparition by persons who have died and have risen in Christ; this is recorded in Matthew 27:52-53: "...and the graves were opened and many bodies arose out of them, bodies of holy men gone to their rest; who, after his rising again, left their graves and went into the holy city, where they were seen by many." If the dead who rise in Christ can appear in bodily form to others, certainly the Mother of Jesus, whose body is gloriously assumed into Heaven, can appear to her earthly children with Gospel messages encouraging greater faith, prayer, penance, conversion and peace.

Conclusion

It is our hope that the explanations provided in this article have provided some theological and reasonable grounds for a full acceptance and appreciation of Mary's role in God's drama of human salvation, a maternal role that hopefully will evoke a sincere filial Christian love on the part of her earthly children.

We end with the words that ended the Second Vatican Council's profound treatment on Mary. It is a prayer of petition that beseeches the most powerful intercession of the Mother of God for the unity of all her earthly children into the one Church of Christ:

This article was excerpted from Introduction to Mary: The Heart of Marian Doctrine and Devotion, Queenship, 1993.

Notes

(1) Henry Cardinal Newman, Inspiration in its Relation to Revelation, 1884; cf. Karl Keating, Catholicism and Fundamentalism, (San Francisco: Ignatius Press) Ch. 10.

(2) Fr. H. M. Manteau-Bonamy, O.P., Immaculate Conception and the Holy Spirit: The Marian Teachings of Fr. Kolbe, (Kenosha, WI: Franciscan Marytown Press, 1977). Letter to Father Mikolajczyk, July 28, 1935, p. 99.

(3) William Most, Mary in Our Life, (New York: Kenedy and Sons, 1954) p. 38.

(4) De Montfort, True Devotion, I. art. 2, No. 132.