Mary: God’s Masterpiece 

by Christopher Cuddy 

Most of the Protestant objections to the Catholic doctrines concerning the Blessed Virgin Mary are not motivated by ill-feelings towards Mary.  More often than not they are motivated by feelings of deep love for our Heavenly Father.  This is something that we Catholics need to remember when we discuss Mary with our Protestant brethren.  Their deep passion for our Lord is something we admire and share.  God is supreme; He alone is God.  Period.  Only He is worthy of our worship and adoration.  Mary is not.  We honor and venerate Mary; we do not worship or adore her.  While the Saints are evidence of God’s love, the Catholic Church does not teach that Mary (or any other saint) is holy apart from – or independent of – almighty God.   

We must take the Protestant concerns very seriously.  We must not forget that Mary is not an end in herself.  While she is the person through whom we can get closest to Jesus, she herself is not our final destination.  In fact, nothing grieves Mary’s heart more than “Mariolatry” (the worship of Mary rather than God).  What Mary wants more than anything else is for us to grow closer to her Son.  This is something very important for us to remember and to explain to those who are concerned about our Marian beliefs. 

The common Protestant objections to the Marian doctrines do not stem from a belief that Mary is intrinsically evil or malicious.  Quite the contrary: many Protestants will admit that Mary is extremely blessed and loved by our Lord.  After all, what greater privilege could be given to a creature than that of bearing, nursing, and rearing the very Son of God?  Obviously, Mary is very special in the history of salvation.  What causes Protestants concern and even anger is the apparent contradiction that exists between giving honor to Mary and worshiping God.  To many Protestants it seems that we are cheating God out of His due praise if we worship God and honor Mary rather than simply worship God alone.   

This apparent tension is what caused me to despise the Church’s teachings about Mary when I was an evangelical Protestant.  As a Calvinist, I was ardently committed to the Reformation slogan “soli Deo Gloria” which in Latin means “to God alone be the glory!”  The “alone” part was crucial.  Anything – or anyone! – who sought to place themselves on equal footing with God was of the devil.  I viewed the scale as being properly “balanced” when it had God infinitely high on one side and everything else (human beings especially) infinitely low on the other.  The Catholic Church was wrong, I argued, because not only did it honor “saints,” but it also elevated Mary to an almost God-like level; placing her on what appeared to be equal footing with God Himself. 

It is important for us as Catholics to feel the force of what our Protestant friends are saying.  They have a point: God alone is God; and anything that seeks to take away from His infinite glory is not of Him.   

However, the key to the Catholic position is this: not only does Mary not detract from God’s glory; she is the most supreme manifestation of His glory in all of creation.

It was really through coming to see Mary as God’s Masterpiece that I changed my position from one of anti-Marian bias to that of a deep love and devotion to her and to her Immaculate Heart.  I had already worked my way through the Catholic views of Scripture, salvation, sacraments, purgatory, and the papacy; all the while becoming more convinced by the Church’s beliefs, but at the same time dreading – and consciously avoiding – the Church’s teachings about Mary.  By avoiding Mary I was trying to save what I thought was the “worst” of the Catholic doctrines for last. 

Finally, there was no “running” from her any longer.  I had been prayerfully persuaded by the Church’s teachings on all of the other doctrines I had studied, and the only major issue left was Mary.  It was time to take a look at what the Catholic Church really taught about Mary. 

I was surprised by what I discovered. 

I came to see that the Catholic Church views Mary as God’s Masterpiece.  She is the most prized portrait of the master Painter.  There is no tug-of-war between them.  There is perfect loving harmony.  She does not diminish or degrade God’s awesome splendor – she is one of the most radiant manifestations of His glory.  God does not take offense at our veneration of Mary.  He delights in our delight in the beauty of His handiwork.   

No artist standing next to one of his paintings in a museum takes offense when people stop and stare in awe at his work.  No artist would run over to the admirers screaming: “Don’t look at my work that way!  Look at me!  Don’t you know that this picture is ultimately meaningless in comparison to me--the creator?  I’m the one you should be admiring here, not my picture!”  No.  This is so ridiculous it’s almost humorous to imagine.  All artists are honored when people honor their work.  God – as the Supreme Artist – is no exception.  Through our veneration/honoring of Mary, God receives honor and praise.  Mary is nothing other than a visible manifestation of the beauty of His infinite Love.  Mary did not create herself.  She is the beautiful work of God’s loving hands.  Thus, through the veneration of Mary we honor God because only a sovereign, majestic, and infinite Creator like God could create someone as beautiful as the Blessed Virgin. 

This is what I failed to see when I was a Protestant.  I used to think that all of the Marian doctrines – things like her Immaculate Conception and Bodily Assumption – were efforts on the part of Catholics to rob God of His splendor and majesty.  It was only later as I was converting to Catholicism that I came to realize that the exact opposite is actually the case.   

It is only because God is so great that Mary is so beautiful.  And Mary’s spiritual beauty ultimately gives glory to God.