It was very nice seeing a good Belfast Protestant, Wallace Thompson, standing up to defend the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God, in Jesus Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit – “Godless fools don’t deserve to be called Protestants” (September 19).
Wallace was responding to my letter, “Why the silence from Catholic and Protestant Churches over vile chant?” (September 12), regarding the Irish News report on the horrible alleged chants at Coleraine FC social club, “F… the Virgin Mary” – Loyalists’ sectarian chants at Irish League soccer club (August 13).
It breaks my heart and wounds my soul any time I see the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of Our Most Holy Redeemer, insulted and blasphemed against. And one can be sure that it deeply offends Jesus Christ Himself. It is such an awful assault on the foundation of the Christian faith – the Blessed Trinity and the incarnation – that I feel the only word for it can be “satanic”. Because how can anyone, especially Christians, utter such depraved and diabolical language against God’s revealed plan of salvation: that the second person of the Blessed Trinity/God’s Son/God’s Word had to become human – had to be incarnated – and the only way, in God’s plan of salvation, that could happen was for His Word to be born of a human woman by the power of the Holy Spirit… And of all the wonderful women in the world, God chose the Virgin Mary to be the mother of His Son – giving Mary a unique and indispensable relationship with Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Mary was the first Christian, the first follower of Jesus (even though it was Jesus who ‘followed her around’ for nine months in her womb, and later as a toddler and young boy)…How could anyone hate the Blessed Virgin Mary? Only Satan can because Satan hates Jesus Christ, Son of God and son of Mary.
If you reject Mary – remove her from the picture, so to speak – you reject God’s plan of salvation, as the Gospel beautifully and plainly reveals.
It is obvious from everything I’ve said that Mary was human, which dismisses the big lie that Catholics worship Mary as if she were God. Nothing could be more outrageously, ridiculously false. If Mary were not human, the incarnation could not have happened – the Word would not have been “made flesh”.
Finally, I should mention it is also important to realise that the Blessed Virgin Mary was not some weak, timid, servile person (as some Christian art can imply) but a strong, fearless woman of great faith, justice and solidarity.
Her famous Magnificat powerfully proclaims God as a God of social justice. The Catholic Dictionary of Fundamental Theology says it is the strongest canticle/song in the entire New Testament and describes it as the first song of liberation in the New Testament. This same dictionary declares: “Our age needs a theology of freedom and liberation that will faithfully echo Mary’s Magnificat as preserved in the memory of the Church.”
Again, who could hate the Blessed Virgin Mary?
Fr Sean McManus
Washington, DC
