By Brandon Tan & Joshua Lowe
In the gospel, God sent the angel Gabriel to tell Mary, ‘Hail, Mary, full of grace! The Lord is with you. Do not be afraid Mary, for you have found favor with God. Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus.’ Mary responded by saying, ‘Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.’ Of all the women in the world, God chose her to bear our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Thus, we look up to Mary as the greatest of all saints.
We pray to Mother Mary because Jesus gives us His Mother as our spiritual mother who intercedes for us. In the same spirit that we ask our friends to pray for us, there is no harm in asking the Mother of Jesus to pray for us! In addition, scripture depicts the saints bringing our prayers to Jesus the Lamb as golden bowls of incense (Rev 5:8). As the saints are perfect in Jesus, so are they perfect in love and charity towards those of us who are living on this earth. Hence, the prayers that we offer to God through the saints are interceded for with perfect love. For this reason, we pray to Mother Mary – arguably the greatest saint and someone who is one of the closest people to Jesus.
In short, we do not worship Mary, but we honour her because God Himself honoured her! Of all the women in the world, God chose her to bear His Son. Most importantly, she said yes despite the many factors that could have pushed her to say no. Surely, she would have felt the human emotions of fear and anxiety when the angel Gabriel appeared to her with the news. As a virgin, she knew the ramifications of saying yes to bearing Jesus. She knew how the townspeople and her husband Joseph would react to her pregnancy. Yet, she still said yes in faith. For that, we honour her as a spiritual hero and our spiritual mother whose actions of faith we desire to emulate. Just as Mary loves her son, may we also come to love Jesus deeply as well.