“…the Greek word here translated ‘rather’ (menoun) does not have
anything like the adversive force in Greek that ‘rather’ does in
English. It is simply an emphatic particle normally rendered ‘and.’
Thus, if Bibles had italics for emphasis, the passage would be better
translated: ‘He said, *And* blessed are those who hear the word of
God and keep it!’ He is not denying what she said, he is emphatically
adding something to what she said.”
6
Fifth objection: “Isn’t the belief that Mary is the ‘mother of the
Church’ a gross exaggeration?”
St. John would not agree. In his book of Revelation, he refers to those who
obey God and believe in Jesus as children of “the woman”: “the dragon
was angry with the woman, and went off to make war on the rest of her
children, those who keep the commandments of God and hold the testimony
of Jesus” (Rev. 12:17). The woman St. John saw is undoubtedly the Virgin
Mary, for the she is the mother of “a male child who is to rule all the
nations” (12:5)––an obvious reference to Jesus.
Likewise, even the founder of Protestantism, Martin Luther, would not
agree:
“Mary is the Mother of Jesus and the Mother of all of us
… If he is ours, we ought to be in his situation; there
where he is, we ought also to be and all that he has ought
to be ours, and his mother is also our mother.”
7
Eve is the natural and biological mother of humanity, but due to her
disobedience and sin she contributed to the spiritual destruction of her
children. The Virgin Mary, through her obedience opened the way for the
coming of Christ into the world and the subsequent spiritual restoration of
humanity. How very true then is the ancient motto, “Death through Eve,
life through Mary.”
6
Internet Question Box, 4/26/99.
7
Sermon, Christmas 1529.
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