After a previous attempt, I wish to promote another title for our Lady: Shield of Orthodoxy.

Christianity is not a mere set of ideas, it is a relationship with a real person: Jesus Christ. For any true relationship, we must have true knowledge of the other person. This means that faith is not just my own personal conviction or yours. If Jesus Christ is a real person, then our faith is only true by believing what is true about him (John 17:3, 2 Cor 11:3-4). The name we give this “true or right belief” is orthodoxy. 

Our Blessed Mother wants nothing more for us than to have a true relationship with her Son. It is precisely because her own relationship with Jesus is so close that getting the wrong idea about the Blessed Virgin Mary can quickly lead to a wrong idea about Christ. And so the Church defends the four Marian Dogmas. These four truths, though about Mary, help us to understand Christ and our relationship with him. In the current storm of misinformation, our Lady acts as a shield to protect the orthodoxy of our faith that keeps our eyes and hearts fixed on Christ. But what exactly do the Marian Dogmas say about Jesus? I was hoping you would ask . . .

1. Mother of God — Is this just metaphorical or a title of honor? No. We really mean that Mary is the Mother of God Almighty. Jesus Christ is one Divine Person of a perfect Divine Nature as God and a perfect human nature as man. It is the same Divine Person who is begotten eternally of the Father and who was born in time of his mother. If we ask what kind of nature Mary gave birth to, it was a human nature. But if we ask the more important question of who she gave birth to, it is God the Son. We cannot believe that our Savior is true God and true man without also believing that Mary is the Mother of God. The one who came to suffer and die to save us is no one less than God himself. 

2. Ever Virgin — By the power of God, Mary conceived as a virgin, gave birth as a virgin, and retained the immaculate purity of her virginity throughout her life. Christ establishes a relationship with us by pouring something of himself into our souls: his grace. He does not destroy our nature by doing this, he perfects it. To make this clear, God went above and beyond at the Incarnation by adding the dignity of motherhood to Mary without taking away the nobility of virginity. A true relationship with Christ does not involve any denial of what makes us human. The only thing grace removes is the damage caused by sin, which brings us to . . .

3. Immaculate Conception — By a singular privilege and by her Son’s atoning merit, Mary was preserved from the stain of all sin at her conception. In our own lives, after years of struggling with the same sins, we might be tempted to believe that Christ will not fully heal us or that Christ’s humanity was perfectly whole only because he was God. But with Mary we have another human being who is not God and in whom Christ showed that his grace has the power to perfect every aspect of our nature. Christ truly heals us and actually makes us holy and righteous. Grace is not just a “holiness” label slapped on the outside, leaving us interiorly disfigured. Christ is too powerful and loves us too much. He just cultivates our humility and trust in him by healing us in his own time and his own way.

4. Assumed into Heaven — Mary was preserved from the corruption of death by being taken up soul and body into heaven. Christ perfects the whole of who we are, even our bodies. Hence, our relationship with Christ must be embodied and lived. We must worship as united with Christ’s Mystical Body, not just in sentiment privately, but by our physical presence at Mass. We must embody our love and gratitude by our actions. We must allow our faith to shape how we live. Religion is not a private conviction because Christ is real and Christ is Lord. 

We have only scratched the surface here. I invite you to spend some time in your own prayer to meditate further on the meaning of these Marian mysteries, which light the way to Christ and shield us from the confusion of errors.

Our Lady, Shield of Orthodoxy, pray for us!

✠

Photo by Fr. Lawrence Lew, O.P. (used with permission)