Mary is the Spark for Protestants

 

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[THEME MUSIC]

[NARRATOR]

“No one can serve two masters. He will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. Therefore, I tell you, do not worry about your life– what you shall eat or drink– or about your body– what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?

 

“Look at the birds in the sky. They do not sow or reap. They gather nothing into barns, yet your Heavenly Father feeds them. Are not you more important than they? Can any of you, by worrying, add a single moment to your life span?

 

“Why are you anxious about clothes? Learn from the way the wildflowers grow. They do not work or spin. But I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was clothed like one of them. If God so clothes the grass of the field, which grows today and is thrown into the oven tomorrow, will He not much more provide for you, oh you of little faith?

 

“So do not worry and say, what are we to eat? Or what shall we drink? Or what are we to wear? All these things the pagans seek. Your Heavenly Father knows that you need them all.

 

“But seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be given you besides. Do not worry about tomorrow. Tomorrow will take care of itself. Sufficient for a day is its own evil.”

 

[THEME MUSIC]

[ANNOUNCER]

This is Mejanomics with a Friend of Medjugorje.

 

[FRIEND OF MEDJUGORJE]

It’s been a long year. And the light is diminishing. What is there to hang on? It seems Christmas has lost much of its magic.

 

For those of you who were kids in the 50s, everything was so magical. Everything was going our way. World War II was over. So many advances. It was an exciting time. All the little towns across the United States and villages across the world.

 

Year by year, decade by decade, the light has diminished. Where do we find it now? We’re seeking for Christmas because it’s become commercialized.

 

In a few days, it’s going to be January 1^st. Christmas is thrown away. You’re going to see all the stores bringing everything out for Spring! They’ve already done it! You’ve got Valentine’s coming up.

 

Christmas is gone! We’ve lost it.

 

Can you find it, just in the next few more days? No way! It’s not going to happen.

 

We’ve already heard at the clerks say, “Happy New Year,” already!

 

“Let’s throw away Bethlehem,” the sparkle, the hope. There is no hope.

 

Christmas is a time of reflection. So much has turned dark, and so little light. How can we push the dark away? It surrounds us.

 

At Christmas, Whose mantle protects Baby Jesus?

 

Just as much Christmas is about Jesus, Christmas is also about Our Lady.

 

When you minus out Mary, you diminish what is happening today in Our Lady’s apparitions. She is the spark, and Jesus is the fire. They both are enshrined as one.

 

[SONG]

Been a long year, been a long year just kinda hangin’ on. Been a long year, been a long year thinkin’ the spark was gone.

 

There it is, in the light. There it is, in the falling white it finds me.

 

Been a long time, been a long time since I felt like this old town is home. I was startin’ to feel like magic was something I’d outgrown.

 

There it is, in the light. There it is, in the falling white it finds me.

 

There it is, where it’s been all along, the forgotten gift in a heavy heart, hoping I would open it. There it is.

 

A-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la

 

Been a long time since I really looked in someone’s eyes and held that sparkle of hope I know has been missing in mine.

 

There it is, in the light. There it is, here on Christmas night it finds me. Yeah, there it is, in the light. There it is, in the falling white it finds me. There it is, where it’s been all along, the forgotten gift in a heavy heart, hoping I would open it. There it is.

 

There it is.

 

A-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la

 

Been a long year, been a long year thinkin’ the spark was gone.

 

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[FRIEND OF MEDJUGORJE]

And it’s so sad that the Protestants don’t accept Our Lady. She gave birth…that’s it!

 

A few days ago, it was like ten o’clock, and I turned the radio on. Somehow, it went to the station that I don’t listen to. It’s not on the button on the radio. It’s a station for Protestant preachers. And this preacher came on. He talked about Mary.

 

We all have heard how people downplay that the Catholics make it too big deal.

 

This guy was saying that us Protestants are missing the boat.

 

It was amazing. He starts off, talks about Mary, and he talks about the Catholics and what we believe and what the Protestants don’t believe.

 

I’m going to play the whole broadcast. It is amazing. What you’re going to hear, he’s telling the Protestants, “You better get on the boat with Mary.” And he explains it in a beautiful, incredible way. And I’m telling you, you’re going to take this broadcast, your friends, your Protestants, to listen to this. It’s delightful to see a Protestant say what you’re going to hear.

 

This is a Christmas gift, because people are listening across the world. This has to be spread everywhere.

 

The preacher is R.C. Sproul, and it’s title is “Mary.”

 

This is going to be a joy for you.

 

[CLIP]

[MUSIC PLAYS]

[NARRATOR]

To bring up Mary among Protestants can easily stir up suspicion, questions and controversy. In reaction to the errors of the Roman Catholic Church, we often prefer not to speak of Mary at all, that is, unless it’s Christmas. Perhaps more often than any other time of year, during Christmas, the Advent season, we hear sermons and maybe even sing songs that mention Mary. But outside of Christmas, She’s generally avoided.

 

So, what is the controversy with Mary? And do we lose anything if we ignore a study of Mary?

 

Well, here’s Dr. R.C. Sproul to introduce us to the topic of Mary.

 

[DR. R.C. SPROUL]

When I was a boy, I used to work in a shoeshine shop with a very dear friend whose name was Ned Barbarich, and all the boys referred to Ned as “Uncle Ned” because he had such a wonderful influence in looking out for us in our youth. And Ned belonged to the local Roman Catholic Church, and every evening, when I was shining shoes in his shop, he would have the radio on next to my shoeshine stand, and devoutly and religiously, it was Ned’s custom to listen to the broadcast of the Rosary. And so, I would shine shoes, actually, in tempo with the recitation of the Rosary, which, as a Protestant, I didn’t know before I had this job. And I would listen to this every night, as the program would come on, and the person on the air would say the Rosary, and would begin with the words,

 

“Hail Mary, full of grace…Blessed art Thou among women, and blessed is the Fruit of Thy womb, Jesus…”

 

Which words, I trust, we will recognize come directly from the pages of the New Testament itself. That portion of the Rosary reflects the words that Elizabeth used when Mary visited Her during both of their pregnancies.

 

The second portion of the Rosary goes something like this:

 

“…Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now, and at the hour of our death, amen.”

 

Now that portion of the Rosary does not come directly from the pages of the New Testament and has been a point of dispute and controversy between Roman Catholics and Protestants for centuries. And I think we’re all aware of that. And I think that it’s strange that, when I hear Protestants object to it, the statement they object to more than any portion of it is the form of address in the Rosary in which it is said of Mary, “Holy Mary, Mother of God…” It’s that phrase, “Mother of God,” that often grates upon Protestant people. And it’s a strange thing to me that there is that resistance because, though the term or the title, “Mother of God,” is not given directly to Mary in the New Testament, it is a well-attested and accepted descriptive term for Mary in historic Christianity. The title, “Mother of God,” is expressed in the Greek by the word, theotokos. And it is integral to the ecumenical creeds of the early Church, dating back as far as the fourth century. And historic Protestantism, in its theology, has always embraced the propriety of the use of this term, theotokos, or the phrase, “Mother of God,” as applying to Mary, not in the sense, of course, that Jesus derived His Divine Nature from His Mother. Protestants have never believed that nor has the Roman Catholic Church ever taught the deity of Mary and that Jesus received His Divine Nature from Her. Rather, the phrase, “Mother of God,” and the term, theotokos, in the Greek, refers to this simple affirmation, that the Child that Mary bore was, indeed, God incarnate, that the Child Mary nurtured and reared in Nazareth was, indeed, God incarnate. And Jesus had a Mother. Even though Jesus was God incarnate, He had an earthly Mother, and His Mother’s name was Mary. And She was, in this sense and in this relationship, genuinely the Mother of God.

 

And I have to say, parenthetically here, that the main purpose of the affirmation, credally in Church history, of Mary’s being the Mother of God, was motivated by the Church’s desire to say something more about Jesus than they were about Mary, you know, to make clear the assertion and confession of the deity of this One Who was born of Mary.

 

And so, I would say to my fellow Protestants, that we ought not to be in opposition to this use of the phrase, “Mother of God.”

 

Now, the rest of the verse, of course, does have considerable controversy in it—the appeal to Mary to be an intercessor for us, to pray for us now, to pray for us at the hour of our death. That’s linked to the broader controversy of the intercession of the saints and so on that has been an ongoing debate between historic Roman Catholicism and Protestantism. But it is not our view today to get into that question. Rather, we’re focusing our attention, today and in the days to come, on the Biblical role of Mary and Mary as an exemplar for Christian imitation, that Mary gives us an example of Godliness as a woman, as a mother, and as a human being that transcends even the distinctions between man and woman and mother and father, but as a person, as a human person, She is a marvelous model of Godliness for our consideration.

 

Now, I will spend some time today looking at some of the other areas of great controversy, however, about Mary, which I believe, sadly, have caused a woeful neglect among Protestants of the value of Mary as a model for our behavior. So often this happens in controversies, that we literally throw out the baby with the bathwater. Because we disagree with the Roman Catholic Church’s view of one aspect of Mariology, that therefore, we tend to react to the other extreme and almost have a negative view of Mary, which is totally inconsistent with the Biblical paradigm.

 

Now, in the 16^th century, at the time of the Reformation, one of the chief issues focusing on the role of Mary, was the question of the propriety of the so-called “veneration” of Mary. And Protestant theologians were very jealously concerned to bring reform to worship in the Church. And understanding that one of the greatest threats to pure worship that is rooted in Old Testament history and is seen as one of the primary and fundamental sins of human nature is the distortion of worship that involves any kind of idolatry. And idolatry has to do with the ascribing of worship to anyone or anything that is less than the only true God.

 

And often, Protestants accuse the Roman Catholic Church of committing idolatry with respect to the veneration of Mary, and often, in derogatory terms, use such language to describe this as “Mariolatry.”

 

Now, listen carefully to that word: “Mariolatry.” The term, “Mariolatry,” would describe the practice of an idolatrous worship of Mary.

 

The Roman Catholic Church has never embraced “Mariolatry,” you know, in any formal or official way. They do have, “Mariology,” and there’s a big difference between the “-try” and the “-gy” here. Mariology simple refers to the study of Mary, Her identity, Her role in the life of the Church. “Mariolatry” is the charge that She is venerated to the point of idolatry.

 

Now, the Roman Catholic Church made the distinction very clear in her history between worship and service, appealing to two different Greek words that are very important, and I want to take the time to go over those words.

 

There is, first of all, the word, latria. L-A-T-R-I-A. And latria is the Greek word for “worship.” And the word, “idolatry,” comes from the Greek, idola latria, or the giving of worship to idols.

 

Now, the term, dulia, comes from the Greek word for “service.” The noun, dulas, refers to a servant, a bond servant, or to a slave.

 

Now, what the Roman Catholic Church has taught, historically, is that Mary is not to be venerated in the sense that She is to receive latria. Latria is to be given to the Triune God alone.

 

But Mary is to receive dulia, a kind of service from the people of God. And in terms of the Church’s explaining the function of the saints, they have maintained that dulia is to be ascribed to all of the saints, but not latria, that is, the Church does not sanction the worship of saints or the worship of Mary, but that there is a certain honor that is to be given to the saints, an honor that rises above normal levels of respect, a special honor that is to be given to the great saints of the ages, who have contributed merit to the treasury of merits and can participate in intercession for us, all of which was controversial in the 16^th century and still is.

 

But the point is, this function is determined or defined by the Roman Catholic Church in terms of being a kind of service or dulia before the saints.

 

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Now, with respect to Mary, She’s not only a saint, but She is, in a sense, a super saint, and the service that is to be given to Mary is a kind of super service that we owe to Her.

 

And so, the Roman Catholic Church has a third distinction here, in addition to the distinction between latria—which is worship—and dulia—which is service—there is also the concept of what is called by Rome, hyperdulia.

 

I think you all know what the prefix hyper means. It’s a matter of intensity. It’s a matter of emphasis, of speciality, so that the point of the Church’s view is that Mary is to be honored, not only by receiving the dulia of the people, but She is to receive hyperdulia, which is more than dulia, but less than latria. I mean, sometimes people get annoyed with these fine distinctions that are made in theology, but this is an important distinction that we need to be aware of.

 

Now, the magisterial reformers of the 16^th century were not satisfied with this. Calvin, for example, argued that the distinction, for practical purposes, between hyperdulia and latria is basically a distinction without a difference, that for the rank and file person in the Church, this distinction is so subtle that the practice of people, will inevitably manifest a kind of actual worship of the Virgin Mary, or the Mother of God. And that was the concern that the reformers had, that the people, by giving homage to the statues and having shrines to Mary and even backyard grottos in Her memory, will easily step over the line between hyperdulia, if such a line really exists, and latria.

 

And so, they resisted the elevation of Mary to such an exalted place in the life of the Church.

 

Now, this question is an ongoing question of controversy, not only between Protestants and Roman Catholics, but also within the structure of the Roman Catholic communion itself.

 

For example, much attention was given to the role and function of Mary at Vatican Council II. And at the beginning of the Council, John XXIII, who was the residing pope at that time that the council was called, was careful to approach these issues within the Roman Catholic communion about the role of Mary in this manner. He insisted that though the council would address the proper role of Mary in the life of the Church, that Her role would be addressed under the heading of ecclesiology rather than under the rubric of theology.

 

Now, again, that’s a distinction that may be lost on a lot of folks, but it was very important to the pope in the convening of Vatican II, because by that designation, and by that restriction, he was saying, “We want to make it clear the role of Mary in the life of the Church is connected to our doctrine of the Church and not to our doctrine of God.” Because Mary is not God! That’s the point that the pope was stressing there, and I think we need to say that very clearly.

 

Now, a second point that I want to make before we finish today is this: that the dispute over the role of Mary in Church history and in Church thinking and theological thought as well as ecclesiastical thought, has been intensified since the 16^th century. I think we need to be aware that the vast majority of official definitions of the Roman Catholic Church with respect to the person and work of Mary have been codified, that is, they have been declared de fide through papal encyclicals in the last 150 years, including such doctrines as the perpetual virginity of Mary, the sinlessness of Mary, the Immaculate Conception of Mary, the bodily assumption of Mary into Heaven, and the coronation of Mary as the Queen of Heaven. These were issues that had not been decisively defined by the 16^th century.

 

Now, another parentheses and a little caveat here. When the Catholic Church, in recent times, defined, for example, the bodily assumption of Mary, the Church wasn’t saying that now, for the first time, we’re creating a doctrine of faith regarding the bodily assumption of Mary or the perpetual virginity of Mary or the sinlessness of Mary or any of these other controversial matters. But the Church was now making clear and defining that body of faith, which they believed has been historically the tradition of the Church. So, they weren’t creating new doctrines, but were simply confirming that which has been part of the fabric of the life of the Church for centuries. In other words, the idea of the bodily assumption of Mary into Heaven is not a brand-new concept to recent Roman Catholic thought, but it’s been around for quite some time. But the decision to make it de fide, that is, a matter of the faith of the Church, was ratified in more recent time.

 

Now, it’s not our purpose in this series to examine all of these theological issues. In the brief time that I have left, let me just explain a couple of things about them.

 

The idea, for example, of the Immaculate Conception of Mary is often misunderstood by Protestants to refer to the virgin birth of Christ. The Immaculate Conception does not refer to the virgin birth of Christ, nor does it refer to an extraordinary reception of a pass in a NFL football game, in a playoff game in the 70s between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Oakland Raiders, when, in the last seconds of the game, this astonishing catch of a deflected pass was made by Franco Harris, who then scored the winning touchdown, and has since been called the “Immaculate Reception,” not the Immaculate Conception.

 

Rather, the Immaculate Conception refers to the conception of Mary in the womb of Her mother, St. Anne. And this was part of the Roman Catholic theological understanding of what needed to take place in order to ensure that Jesus-Child would be born without the taint of original sin.

 

The generator of the human nature of Jesus, the father, if you will, in crass terms, was the Holy Spirit, Who is sinless. But in order to ensure that Jesus be born sinless, it was viewed, by many, that His Mother would also have to be born without original sin, and in order to ensure that, they have the doctrine of Her Immaculate Conception.

 

So, just to clarify that. These are some of the issues. And what we will be looking at—and I’m really addressing Protestants here—is that, in spite of these controversies that are serious, we need to get beyond them to look and see what the Biblical portrait of Mary is from which we can surely be instructed and edified.

 

It’s human nature to look to heroes and heroines as encouraging models and examples for us, to give us added strength in the struggle that we have as Christians. We remember the author of Hebrews, who gives us the role call of the heroes of the Old Testament and then says to us,

 

“Seeing that we are surrounded by such a huge cloud of witnesses, then we are exhorted to strive even to the point of shedding our own blood to be faithful in our Christian life.”

 

And I think that the Church has been greatly enriched by one of those witnesses, Who stands out among women. Even as Elizabeth declared Biblically, “Hail Mary, full of grace,” because here is a Woman Who had an extraordinary measure of grace. “Blessed art thou among women.” No woman has ever been more supremely blessed than Mary, the Mother of Christ. “Blessed art thou among women.” As the New Testament declares that Mary would be called blessed by all generations. And it is important for us, as we grope and grasp for heroes and heroines in our own day, that we look to those people that God has raised up for us to be examples of Godliness, chief among women who have ever walked this planet, in my judgment, is Mary.

 

[END CLIP]

 

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[FRIEND OF MEDJUGORJE]

Wow.

 

Do you think it’s a chance that I get out of my truck, ten o’clock at night, walk in the kitchen, turn the radio on, on a station that I don’t listen to! And nobody’s been in my house to put it on there. And then the other thing happened, it was beginning the show.

 

I immediately called prepress. “Get this now.” I was only three minutes into it.

 

These broadcasts, Our Lady gives us the material. She wanted me to hear this from this Protestant pastor. He died five years ago.

 

This broadcast, you need to order these CDs, a hundred of them, give them out. I’ve never heard this anywhere, any place. He ends, says,

 

“We have to look at the heroes…”

 

That’s what the Protestants are missing. I was just mystified that I would ever hear a Protestant would be teaching like this, that you better get on the boat with Jesus’ Mother.

 

To spread this and introduce Our Lady of Medjugorje, for those who listen to this, after the music, and I sign this off, we’re going to add to this the empirical that I wrote about the scientists studying the six visionaries. I’ve been with the scientists all across France and other countries, scientifically prove that they are seeing a supernatural Being. It’s infallible that Our Lady is appearing.

 

This will be your door that you can give to everybody you know, not just Protestants. Catholics need to hear this.

 

We won’t have the scientific statements. It’s not boring. It’s not going to be on this broadcast you listen to tonight. We’ll put it on tomorrow.

 

What I want to end with this miracle of crossing this, it gives us hope spreading Our Lady into other denominations. The Muslims are already there.

 

Many people are depressed at Christmas time. The weight of the whole world. People are looking for the right road. The world is in the darkest hour that has ever happened. That’s why Our Lady said, “I’m giving you messages as never from the beginning of the world.” (April 4, 1985) We have never had what we have now.

 

Evil’s concepts, twenty years ago, we could not even dream of this. We could never think of what is happening now.

 

Our Lady is here, knows the weight that is on us, and She would tell you, “Give Me the weight of your world. Just lay it on Me.”

 

Our Lady said,

 

June 29, 1992

“…Give me all your problems and difficulties…”

 

She will carry the weight of the world in the darkest hour.

 

Our Lady has told us, “Just give Me a call, and I’ll be here.” She said that in a message. When you have difficulties, “call me. And I will come immediately in helping you to resolve it.” (March 4, 1982)

 

Those bars, the chains that shackle you, She will set you free. Just lay everything on Her.

 

This song is Our Lady’s words to you. She wrote this.

 

[SONG]

I want you to know wherever your road wants to go

I’ll never be far, I’ll always be right where you are

If you lose your way, if your hope is gone

I’ll be the light that leads you home

 

Give me your darkest hour

Give me your deepest fear

Just give me a call and I’ll be here

Give me the bars and chains that won’t set you free

Give me the weight of your world

And lay it on me

 

There will come a time

When all the words don’t seem to rhyme

Please lean on me until you find the harmony

When it’s hard to breathe

When the right seems wrong

I’ll be the hand that helps you along

 

Give me your darkest hour

Give me your deepest fear

Just give me a call and I’ll be here

Give me the bars and chains that won’t set you free

Give me the weight of your world

And lay it on me

 

Wherever you go, wherever you’ve been

Anytime you need a friend

 

Give me your darkest hour

Give me your deepest fear

Just give me a call and I’ll be here

Give me the bars and chains that won’t set you free

Give me the weight of your world

And lay it on me

 

Oh, lay it on me

Oh, lay it on me (give me the weight of your world)

Just lay it on me

 

[FRIEND OF MEDJUGORJE]

She, the Queen, the Mother, is your best Friend.

 

You just heard something that’s miraculous, all the circumstances to bring it to you, how it was come to me for you. I would say, it’s a miracle, easy.

 

Spread this broadcast, not just a week, for the next whole year. Nobody can refute this. After the music, we’ll add, in the next day or so, the infallible truth that the Virgin Mary is appearing on the world now.

 

This is your January 1^st, New Year’s resolution. Keep it in your car, wherever you go. Call for this. Order a hundred of them.

 

We wish you Our Lady. We love you. Good night.

 

[ANNOUNCER]

This ends the Mejanomics broadcast with a Friend of Medjugorje. These broadcasts are available as CDs which are sent directly to your doorstep on a monthly subscription. For information, contact Caritas in the U.S. at 205-672-2000.

 

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