Just how far can we go?

De Maria, numquam satis.


I am not sure about you but when I first started blogging (that is not even a week ago), I was a bit uncertain as to how far I could go with Mariology. We have all been, at least once in our lifetime, asked by our Protestant brothers, a question with regards to the Catholic devotion to Our Lady. "Why do Catholics pray to Mary?!!!" as though Mary was this girl living down the street. She is Theotokos, have some respect!!


All of us know why we pray to Our Lady. To be exact, we do not quite pray "to" Her in that we consider Her as some sort of Deity but rather, we invoke Her help frequently when we pray to the Blessed Trinity that through her intercessions and elaborate polishing, our prayers may deserve to reach the Throne of Mercy. Our Lady's intercessions are indeed strong, Scriptures show us that. ("They have no wine." John 2:3)


Whilst the Death of Our Lord was entirely His decision to offer His life for Our liberty from Sin, I think it may also be interesting to think about the Passion from Our Lady's perspectives. There is not much we hear of her during the Passion. What we do observe from St John's Gospel though, is that Our Lady stood by Her dying Son and was given St John as Her son. (John Ch 19) But nowhere in the scriptures do we ever see Our Lady trying to defend Her Son. Perhaps, She realised that Simeon's prophesy (that Her heart will be pierced by a sword, Luke 2:35) were to be fulfilled at that precise moment. As the Lamb of God was dying, the Mystical Rose was withering, too, of sorrow beyond compare. Indeed it is insignificant to Our Lord's Passion in that Our Lord's Passion was, by its own merit, the Perfect Sacrifice. But Our Lady sacrificing Her Motherhood in total unity with Her Son's Passion was nonetheless heroic; She wished nothing else but what God wished. It was Eternal Word of God She conceived and the Death of the same She embraced, as She freely chose to.


Therefore, rather than asking ourselves "How far can we go?" with regards to Mariology, it seems much more appropriate to ask ourselves "What more can we do?". Our Lady is prepared to go that far for us and truly "Of Mary, nothing is enough." 
Going that extra mile for Our Lady cannot be that difficult in the end. We get a glimpse of Our Lady's inextinguishable love for us from our own mothers. Those faithful students of Our Lady show us what the true Mother-Child relationship must look like, although they may wake us up too early sometimes. Our Lady who offered Her dearest Motherhood to the Divine Will remains as the best Model of Motherhood.


To conclude, my take on Mariology and its proper limits is this; if one truly and properly devotes oneself to Our Lady, that She may remain as one's strong Advocate and Intercessor, Our Lady will not let that soul cross the "Mary line". Whilst one's devotion to Our Lady may be great, we always experience God Himself in a much more intimate manner; the Holy Eucharist. We also intuitively know that She is what Corona is to the Sun; that all Her Sanctity comes from God, not by Her own merits but through Her willful, total dedication of Herself to the Blessed Trinity. Corona is indeed beautiful but the beauty is given by the Sun itself. 


But you see, without the Corona, Solar eclipse would be that much less interesting to watch!