Catholic Questions: In Defense of the Blessed Virgin Mary

By Fr. Manny Duetao

Why Did Jesus Call His Mother "Woman"?

Objection:The honor given by Catholics to Mary is too much. Jesus Himself just called her “woman.”

Answer: There are two occasions where we find Jesus addressing His mother “woman”: at Cana in Galilee (Jn 2:4) and at Calvary during the crucifixion (Jn 19:26). The word “woman” was not a word of disrespect for the woman He loved so much, she being His own mother.

The word “woman” has its own prophetic meaning. In the two occasions when Jesus addressed His mother “woman”, He was pointing us to “the woman” of Genesis 3:15: “God said to the serpent: … ‘I will put enmity between you and the woman, your offspring and her offspring.’”

And so whenever Jesus addressed His mother as “woman”, He meant, “she is the woman of Genesis and I am her ‘firstborn’ offspring”, and both (Jesus and Mary) are the mortal enemies of “the serpent of Paradise” – Satan.

Mediatrix of All Grace?

Objection:  The Roman Catholic Church teaches that Mary is the “Mediatrix of All Grace.” This teaching is contrary to the explicit teaching of Scripture. We read in I Timothy 2:5: “There is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.”

Answer: When our non-Catholic brethren “pray over” with each other, is that not an act of mediation? Is that not being “in between God and somebody” doing the work of mediation? Did St. Paul forget what he wrote to Timothy when he wrote in I Thessalonians, “Brethren, pray for us”? Or to the Corinthians, when he said: “Now I pray to God that you do no evil…” (II Corinthians 13:7).

Paul asked the Colossians to pray for him and to the Corinthians, he prayed for them (to pray for somebody is to mediate for somebody).

The title “Mediatrix” dates back to the 16th century in the East, and in the 9th in the West. Since the 17th century, it has been widely used by Catholics everywhere. The Blessed Mother is called “Mediatrix” for the following reasons:

1. As mother of the Savior she occupies a middle position between God and His creatures. God could have just incarnated Himself straight without choosing this woman to mother Him. For this reason, if Mary is “Mediatrix”, it is God’s own making.
2. Because together with Christ and under Him, she co-operated in the reconciliation of God and humankind when she accepted her role of being Mother of God. She could have refused the role of being the mother of the Savior with all its heavy responsibilities and its painful implications. And for this, she is also called “Co-redemptrix”.
3. Because God has made Mary a conduit (channel, aqueduct, treasurer) of His love and graces for mankind. It is important to remember that Mary’s mediation must always be understood as being secondary to, and dependent on, Christ’s primary and self-sufficient mediatorial role. As the Second Vatican Council stressed, the title of Mediatrix is “to be understood that it neither takes away nor adds anything to the dignity and efficacy of Christ the one Mediator.”

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