Hi, I'm Matthew Leonard,
Executive Director of the St. Paul Center
for Biblical Theology. Welcome to The Bible
and The Virgin Mary, part of the St. Paul Center's
dynamic scripture study program called
Journey Through Scripture. We're about to embark on
an exploration of what Scripture and Catholic teaching
have to say about the most amazing woman
who ever lived. It's quite appropriate that
we'll undertake our study in the beautiful Chapel of the
Lady of the Most Holy Trinity here on the campus
of Thomas Aquinas College. But before we dive
into our study, here's Dr. Scott Hahn, Founder and President
of the St. Paul Center and author of Hail, Holy Queen, the book upon which
this study is based. Hi, I'm Dr. Scott Hahn. The St. Paul Center
exists for one purpose- to help Catholics
fall in love with our Lord through sacred Scripture. And we do that
by reading Scripture from the heart of the Church. This means not only
showing the connections between the Old
Testament and the New, but also between
the Bible and the liturgy. And one of the primary ways
we fulfill this mission is through the Journey
Through Scripture program. More than just a Bible study,
it's designed to help Catholics to find their place
in the eternal story. It's designed to help you
make sense out of everyday life. Because the Bible isn't just
a book, it's the Word of God. And that Word
is also a person: Jesus Christ. That's why St. Jerome
famously declared, "ignorance of Scripture
is ignorance of Christ." But ignorance
of Scripture is also ignorance of his Blessed Mother. I've been studying sacred
Scripture for over 40 years. I took college courses,
graduate classes. I learned Greek and Hebrew. But if I could
pinpoint one thing that has made
the biggest difference of all, it is the Blessed Virgin Mary. Looking at the story
through her eyes. Looking at Jesus
through her maternal heart. This is what has made
the Bible come alive for me, like nothing else. My prayer is that
The Bible and The Virgin Mary makes it come
alive for you as well. Enjoy the study! Thousands of books,
songs, and poems have been written about Mary, and almost every great,
and not so great artist has painted, drawn,
or sculpted her image. Likewise, the name of Mary
has been invoked by soldiers as they go into battle, by kings and presidents
as they've led their people, and by the simplest
and humblest of souls as they've gone
about the business of their everyday lives. Don't tell me
you've never rolled into a full Mass
parking lot and said, "Hail Mary full of grace,
help me find a parking place?" You know,
the first time that I taught The Bible and The Virgin Mary, it was at Franciscan University
of Steubenville. And parking was at a premium because they had
construction going on. I was running late,
and so I decided, I'm going to give
this prayer a try. And wouldn't you know it, I got the second-best parking
spot in the entire campus. Right in front of the building
in which I was going to teach. So I grabbed my briefcase,
and I ran upstairs, and I told the story
to my students of how it is
I got this parking spot. There were these two
little nuns in the front row, and one of them
raised her hand and said, Matt, you took
our parking space. And I said, Sister, it's because
you didn't pray the prayer. Now maybe that's not an
official prayer of the Church, but I still use it, just like many others who
have sought out Mary's help in so many situations
over the centuries. But for all that, it's interesting to note
that the New Testament only records about
fifteen different episodes involving the
Blessed Virgin Mary. There are a couple
possible conclusions we can draw from that. First, we could conclude
that Mary actually isn't an important part
of Salvation History, that all the stories
and songs and artwork are just an afterthought, an add-on to the true
message of the Gospel. Or we could conclude that there
is more to those few passages than meets the eye. And that their meaning
isn't hard to see if you know how to read
Scripture the right way. It's not hard to see if you
know how to read Scripture with the mind and heart
of the Church. And that's why we're here. We're going to learn
how to read Scripture from the heart of the Church so that we can
unpack all that the New, and the Old Testament
has to say about Mary. We're going to learn that
Mary is not an afterthought, she's no add-on to the Gospel. Rather,
she is at the very center of the story
of Salvation History. She is at the very center
of God's plan to bring life, eternal life,
to you and to me. Before we really
get into the study, let's quickly review those
New Testament episodes that refer to Mary,
either directly or indirectly. Again,
there aren't that many. Basically, this is what
we're told about her. In addition
to Matthew's genealogy which mentions her
as the mother of Jesus, we learn in the Gospel of Luke
that an angel announced to Mary, "a virgin betrothed to a man
whose name was Joseph," that she would
bear a son, Jesus, through the power
of the Holy Spirit. While pregnant with this son, Mary pays a long visit
to her cousin Elizabeth. In the Gospel of Matthew, we learn that
she bears this son in the city of Bethlehem. And was present as shepherds
and magi paid him homage. When the evil King Herod
orders the death of all male children
under the age of two in the horrible slaughter
of the innocents, Mary and her husband Joseph
flee with the child to Egypt. Scripture also tells us
that Mary presented Jesus in the temple
when he was a small baby. And that later,
when he was 12, Mary found Jesus
teaching in that same temple. Mary was also present
at a wedding in Cana, where she watched
Jesus perform his first public miracle,
in John 2. She came looking for him when
he was teaching in Matthew 12, and was mentioned
later in Nazareth when he was rejected
by his own people. Later, of course, Mary watched her Son
die on the cross. And was among those gathered
with the Apostles in Jerusalem awaiting the promised
Holy Spirit. More indirect references
to Mary come in Luke 11, where an anonymous
woman cries out to Jesus: "Blessed is the womb
that bore you." Paul mentions her, but not
by name, in Galatians 4:4: "But when the time had fully
come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman,
born under the law..." And lastly,
she appears in Revelation, the woman clothed with the sun
who brought forth the male child "who is to rule
all the nations." And that is the last word the
Bible has to say about Mary. Again, depending
on how you count it, Mary is mentioned
about 15 times in the New Testament. That's less than
most of the Apostles and far less than Peter, who gets 155
different mentions. But it's Mary, not Peter, who makes it into
the Apostle's Creed. In fact, she's one of only
two people, besides Jesus, who are mentioned
in the creeds. Now how did that happen? How did a woman who Scripture
names barely a dozen times come to inspire some of the Church's earliest
liturgies and prayers, as well as some of its most controversial and
misunderstood beliefs? Those are good questions. And, not surprisingly, they've been sticking points
for many non-Catholics who struggle to find
a scriptural basis for what Catholics
believe about Mary and how we honor her. At best, those non-Catholics look upon
our Marian beliefs and devotions as products of a pious
but misguided imagination. At worst, they call it
"Mariolatry"- a false worship that undermines the perfect
saving work of Christ and robs him of his glory. That's a pretty serious charge. And it deserves
a serious answer. Over the next twelve sessions, we're going
to find that answer. We'll see how prayers
such as the "Hail Mary" are composed
largely of biblical words. And we'll see how the Church's
teachings about Mary are definitive interpretations of Scripture passages
pertaining to Mary. In fact, through
a close study of the Bible, we're going to find the seeds for nearly all
Catholic devotions to Mary. To help you have an idea
of where we'll be going over the next twelve sessions,
here's a roadmap of sorts. We're going to start by talking
about how to read Scripture, and specifically, how we need
to read the passages about Mary. Once we've done that, we'll start putting
those reading skills to use and see how Mary,
as the New Eve, fits into God's plan
to save us. After that, we'll explore Mary's relationship
to the Ark of the Covenant and see what
that has to tell us about Mary's
Perpetual Virginity. Later, Mary's motherhood, including her title
as Mother of God, will be front and center
in our discussion. In Lessons 9 and 10, we'll unpack
the Scriptures that give us the doctrine of Mary's
Immaculate Conception and her title, "All Holy." Finally,
in our last couple of sessions, we'll see how the Church's
belief in Mary's Assumption and her Coronation
as Queen of Heaven and Earth is rooted in the Bible. Throughout the study, we'll look not only at what
the Bible says about Mary, but also at what the earliest
Christians believed about her. We'll address some
of the most common objections against Marian devotions
and doctrines, and talk about
the biblical justification for the devotions themselves. By the end of the study, you'll understand why
Catholic devotion to Mary, rooted in the biblical witness
of Christ's first followers, is far from blasphemy. In fact, you'll probably
be thinking that it's wrong not to honor Mary
as the human person who most perfectly conforms
to the image of God. We have a lot
of ground to cover, but before we can appreciate the connections between
the Mary of Scripture and the Mary of doctrine
and devotion, we first need to learn
how to read the Scriptures. More specifically,
we need to learn how to read what the Scriptures
have to say about Mary. Once we've learned that lesson, we'll see that while
the direct biblical references might seem
scant on the surface, they are quite profound
and rich with meaning. We'll also see that
Mary is deeply woven into the fabric
of the inspired text. Now, it's important
to understand, that when we talk about "learning to read"
the Scriptures, we're not talking about some secret Catholic method
of decoding the Bible. This part of the Bible study is not "The Da Vinci Code
for Catholics." Rather,
the goal of this lesson is to give you
the time-tested tools that Catholics have always used
to read and interpret the Bible. These are the methods
the popes use when they
write about Scripture. They're the methods the Church
Fathers and Doctors used when they
wrote about Scripture in the first centuries
after Christ. They are, in fact, the same methods the Apostles
and Evangelists used when they penned
the actual pages of Scripture. Only by understanding
how the Bible's authors intended us
to read what they wrote, can we actually understand
what they wrote. We're going to begin this
"reading lesson" simply by taking a look
at the literal- or "literary"- sense of the texts. In other words, what do the words on the page
tell us about Mary? Mary's first appearance
in the New Testament comes in its
very first chapter, at the end
of the long genealogy that opens
the Gospel of Matthew. There, she is introduced as
"Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ." To understand what Matthew
tells us with these words, we have to read them in context. They conclude a genealogy that Matthew has primarily
presented to demonstrate that Jesus Christ
is "the son of David, the son of Abraham." Now, why does
demonstrating that fact matter so much to Matthew? Why does he have to bring
David and Abraham- Old Testament guys- into the opening
verse of his Gospel? The reason Abraham and David make it into the very beginning
of Matthew's Gospel is because of God's
covenants with Israel, the covenants
of Salvation History. The story of Jesus, and therefore,
the story of Mary, cannot be understood
apart from the story of Israel. And their story
is a story of covenants. For those of you
not familiar with the term, a covenant may seem like
it's similar to a contract, but it's actually
quite different. To start with, a covenant
is more binding than a contract. The punishment for
violating a covenant is death, not a mere fine or penalty. Covenants are also
far more powerful. Contracts form temporary
business partnerships. They involve the exchange
of goods and services- I've got money. You've got a car
I want to buy. So, "This is mine.
That is yours." Instead of exchanging
goods and services, covenants involve
an exchange of persons. So rather than "This is mine
and that is yours," a covenant says "I am yours.
And you are mine." In other words,
covenants make families. Accordingly,
throughout Salvation History, God has used covenants to bring men and women
into his family- the family of God. That's what we're all made for. Getting back into the family
of God is what it's all about. For those of you
not familiar with the term, "Salvation History," it simply refers to history
from God's perspective. It's the story of how,
in time, he has made men and women
part of his family. God himself
tells us that story in the pages of the Bible. And God,
as the Catechism tells us, is "the Principle Author
of Scripture." 2 Timothy 3:16-17 tells us that
all Scripture is "inspired." All Scripture
is inspired by God and profitable for teaching,
for reproof, for correction, and for training
in righteousness, that the man of God
may be complete, equipped for every good work. The Greek word Paul uses
for "inspired" in that passage is theopneustos, which literally
means "God-breathed." So when we talk about
the Bible being inspired, we mean the words of Scripture
are the very words of God. That doesn't, of course, mean the words of Scripture
weren't also the words of men. The authors of the various
books in the Bible weren't automatons or robots mechanically taking down
dictation from God. In the beginning...
In the beginning... no. 2 Peter 1:20-21 tells us that
the human authors of Scripture were moved to write
by the Holy Spirit. They wrote down exactly what
God wanted and nothing more. Nevertheless,
the sacred books still bear their own
personal style, their own
individual perspectives. How did this happen? It's a mystery
similar to the Incarnation. Just as the Word made flesh
is both human and divine, so is the Word of God
brought to us in Scripture both human and divine. Now that we've
got all our terms like "salvation history"
and "inspired" straight, we need to take a quick
look at the covenants God used to bring
men and women into his divine family. God made his first
covenant with humanity in the Garden of Eden,
with Adam and Eve. He made his family
a little bit bigger with the second covenant
of Salvation History- his covenant with Noah. This time, he didn't just make a covenant
with one married couple, but rather with
Noah's entire household. Then that family
got even bigger when God made his
covenant with Abraham, welcoming Abraham's tribe
into his family. God then made his fourth
covenant with Moses and the entire
nation of Israel... And his fifth covenant with
David and David's kingdom, which included people from
many tribes and many nations. All of those
Old Testament covenants foreshadowed
the New Covenant of Christ, the covenant through which God would bring all humanity
into his Divine Family. Even though all those covenants
foreshadowed the New Covenant, God's covenants
with Abraham and David have special significance. Abraham was the founding father
of God's chosen people, Israel. And when God made
his covenant with him, he promised Abraham
that through his descendants all the nations of the earth
would be blessed, in Genesis 22:18, God also promised Abraham that kings would
stem from his line. Later, God swore an oath to one
of those kings, King David, that his kingdom
would have no end... He also swore that David's son
would be God's own son... And that he would
reign forever over Israel and all the nations
of the world. The problem was that
less than 500 years later, the Davidic Kingdom collapsed and its people
were sent into exile. And that was an exile from
which many never returned. From a human perspective, it seemed like God hadn't
held up his end of the bargain. And yet,
despite how things seemed, Israel's prophets
still spoke about a "Christ" or a "Messiah." This Christ, they promised, would liberate
Israel's scattered tribes and reunite them in a new
and everlasting kingdom. And that kingdom, they said, would be a light
to the nations. They also said
that the "Christ" would be the son God promised
to Abraham and David. Read in context then, the few words that Matthew
gives us about Mary at the beginning of his Gospel are no trifling matter.
In one short sentence- "Mary, of whom Jesus was born,
who is called Christ"- Matthew effectively places Mary at the center
of Israel's history. Of her was born the Christ through whom God would
fulfill his covenant promises to Abraham and David. But Matthew didn't
just position Mary at the center
of Israel's history with that little sentence. He also positioned her
at the center of human history. The fruit of Mary's womb is the source
of the world's salvation. Through Christ,
born of Mary, God bestows his divine blessing
upon all nations and peoples. Matthew reiterates that point a few verses later when
he writes that Mary was "found to be with child
of the Holy Spirit." Now the birth of Jesus Christ
took place in this way. When his mother Mary
had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be
with child of the Holy Spirit; and her husband Joseph,
being a just man and unwilling
to put her to shame, resolved to send
her away quietly. But as he
considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared
to him in a dream, saying, "Joseph, son of David, do not fear
to take Mary your wife, for that which is conceived
in her is of the Holy Spirit; she will bear a son, and you shall
call his name Jesus, for he will save his people
from their sins." All this took place to fulfil what the Lord had
spoken by the prophet: "Behold, a virgin shall
conceive and bear a son, and his name shall
be called Emmanuel," which means, God with us. When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel
of the Lord commanded him; he took his wife, but knew her not
until she had borne a son; and he called his name Jesus. What Matthew tells us there, is that Mary's virginal
conception of Jesus fulfills this promise
made by God through the prophet Isaiah
in the Old Testament. In fact, verse twenty-three
quotes Isaiah 7:14: "'Behold, a virgin shall
conceive and bear a son, and his name shall
be called Emmanuel' which means, God with us." Then in chapter two, Matthew repeats
a passage from Micah showing us that
the long-awaited Messiah has come through Mary. But you,
O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are little to be among
the clans of Judah, from you shall
come forth for me one who is to be
ruler in Israel, whose origin is from of old,
from ancient days. Therefore he shall
give them up until the time when she who has labor pains
has brought forth; then the rest of his brethren shall return
to the sons of Israel. And you, O Bethlehem,
in the land of Judah, are by no means least
among the rulers of Judah; for from you
shall come a ruler who will govern
my people Israel. Mary is she who has
"brought forth." And through Mary
"God is with us." Again, to grasp the full import of what Matthew tells us
about Mary in this passage, we have to understand
the Old Testament context that Matthew assumes. Matthew expects that his
readers will hear in those words one of the great promises
of Salvation History: The promise that God
will one day come again and dwell with his people
like he used to before the collapse
of the Davidic Kingdom when the presence of God
literally dwelled in the Temple. We see hints of that
promise in Isaiah 43:5: "Fear not, for I am with you..." We also see it in
Ezekiel 37:24-28: "My dwelling place
shall be with them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people." And throughout
Matthew's Gospel, Jesus himself
reinforces the notion that, in him, the fulfillment
of that promise has come: For example, Jesus describes
how he will be "with us," for all time,
especially in the Eucharist in chapters 18, 25, and 26. And his last words
to his disciples before his Ascension into heaven
resound with the promise: "I am with you always, to the close of the age." That's why Matthew's
reference to Mary as the virgin
prophesied by Isaiah places her at the center
of God's saving plan for Israel and the world. The literal meaning
of the text here is that Mary
is the divine "sign" that God long ago
promised to give his people. She is the sign
of God's eternal faithfulness to his covenant with David. She is the sign
that God has finally come to bring about the fulfillment
of his plan for all creation. In our next lesson, we'll continue our focus
on how to read what the Bible
has to say about Mary by looking at the account
of the Annunciation in the Gospel of Luke. We'll also see how Our Lady's
miraculous conception of Jesus echoes several
similar occurrences in the Old Testament. But before we
jump back into the text, we're going to do
something a little different to begin our next lesson. Part of the point
of Journey Through Scripture is to show that
what unfolds in Scripture is supposed
to unfold in our lives. The story isn't
over and done with. We're standing in the stream
of salvation history. Right now. And as we're going
to learn in the study, Mary's role isn't
over and done with. She remains
a very active participant in the salvation of the world
through Jesus Christ. In fact, she has
made herself known to us through various apparitions
over the centuries since the time of Christ. So in our next lesson, we're going
to begin with a couple of very early
apparitions of Our Lady, and then begin each subsequent
lesson by discussing one of the Vatican approved
appearances of Mary in chronological order. We'll close our discussions of the apparitions
in our final lesson by looking
at the Marian dimension of the papacy
of St. John Paul II. Starting with the apparitions is a great way
to remind us that Mary isn't just
a far off figure in the Bible. She's a loving Mother who continues to look after
her precious children- you and me. Until then, God bless you.
