In conversations with non-Catholics about our faith, one of the most common questions we are asked is this: “Do you worship Mary?” Our immediate response should be, “No, we do not worship Mary; we only worship God.”

If we were to worship Mary or any other of God’s creatures, we would be guilty of idolatry, and idolatry is a sin in violation of the First Commandment. We do not worship Mary. We give her great love, respect, and devotion, but we must not worship her.

Mary is the mother of God.
This title was officially declared in the Ecumenical Council of Ephesus in A.D. 431. The council clarified that Jesus Christ is one person, both human and divine, and Mary is the mother of this one person (Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 495). Since Jesus Christ is God, Mary is the mother of God.

When we say that Mary is the mother of God, are we putting her on the level of God? No, Mary is not God, and she is not the mother of God in the sense of existing before God. Christ the Son of God existed from all eternity. Mary did not exist at all until she was conceived in the womb of her mother Anne in about 14 B.C.

Christ existed before Mary, but at a certain point in human history he became incarnate in the womb of Mary. Since she gave birth to him, and raised him, she is his mother. That is what it means to say that Mary is the mother of God.

Mary is who she is because of Jesus.
If it were not for her son Jesus, Mary would have been totally forgotten in history. She would have been just another poor Jewish country girl in a remote village of Galilee. In fact, everything that the Bible says about Mary has to do with her relationship with Jesus.

All Marian devotion ought to flow out of our love for Jesus and lead us to a deeper love for Jesus. Marian devotion isolated from Jesus Christ would not make any sense. Mary directs our attention to her son Jesus. Nothing would make her happier than for people to love her son.

The last recorded words of Mary in the Bible are found in the Gospel of John, at the wedding feast of Cana, just before Jesus turns water into wine. Mary says to the helpers, “Do whatever he tells you” (Jn 2:5). We need to do the same – whatever is the will of Jesus. In our prayer, we should regularly be asking, “Jesus, what do you want me to do?” That is the kind of attitude that Mary encourages us to have.

Love for Mary is not just a Catholic thing.
It’s not just Catholics who have great respect and devotion for Mary. Orthodox Christians and Anglican Christians have a great love for her. In fact, even Muslims honor her as the mother of Jesus, because they respect Jesus as a prophet. The Muslim Quran makes several references to Mary with great respect. For example, it says, “O Mary, God has chosen you … above the women of all nations” (Quran 3.42).

Given the centrality of Jesus in the lives of Christians, I cannot comprehend why any Christian would have hostility toward Mary, his mother. If you truly love someone, you will respect their mother. If I were to treat your parents with disrespect, that would be an insult to you. I once met an Evangelical Protestant minister who realized the logic of this, so he prayed the Rosary every day.

Mary is not divine.
She is not a goddess or deity. We believe that there is one redeemer, Jesus Christ. Mary, who is human, is always subordinate to Jesus Christ her divine Son. Throughout our history, when members of the Church have grown excessive in their exaltation of Mary, the hierarchy of the Church has acted to correct those exaggerations.

The 1964 Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium, reminds us of the words of St. Paul in 1 Timothy 2:5-6, that “there is but one God and one Mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as redemption for all” (see Lumen Gentium, no. 60). It goes on to say that the role of Mary in our life “neither takes away anything from nor adds anything to the dignity and efficacy of Jesus Christ the one Mediator” (Lumen Gentium, no. 62). It says that Mary’s role is subordinate to that of Jesus Christ. Her role in salvation history comes from her cooperating with the grace of Christ. Her role depends entirely on the mediation of Christ.

Pope Paul VI wrote in Marialis Cultus in 1974 that all devotion to Mary can be judged by certain basic theological principles:
The Catechism of the Catholic Church, published in 1994, offers the following clarifications regarding the role of Mary at numbers 2674-2675:
In his weekly Wednesday audience talks from 1995 to 1997, St. John Paul II taught that, in Marian doctrine and devotion, the Church strongly urges us “to be careful to refrain from all false exaggeration.” “It is always necessary in Marian doctrine to safeguard the infinite difference existing between the human person of Mary and the divine person of Jesus.” “The church’s teaching makes a clear distinction between the Mother and the Son in the work of salvation, explaining the Blessed Virgin’s subordination – as cooperator – to the one Redeemer.”

Why not go straight to God?
We Catholics do go straight to God in most of our prayer. For example, the preeminent prayers that we do as Catholics are the Mass and the other sacraments (Directory on Popular Piety and the Liturgy, no. 11). Those prayers are directed to God the Father, through Jesus Christ his Son, in the unity of the Holy Spirit. The Mass and the sacraments are not directed to Mary or to any other saint.

God is infinitely powerful. He can choose to act however he wants. He could, of course, act alone, but he chooses not to. He chooses to utilize helpers. What history shows us is that, out of his love for humanity, God chooses to give human beings the privilege of sharing in his activity in the world.

God could get things done much more efficiently without involving us weak and imperfect human beings in the action, but in his kindness, God chooses to allow us to collaborate with him in his work of salvation. St. Paul captures this truth when he says in 1 Corinthians 3:9, “We are God’s coworkers.” In this light, Mary is a subordinate co-worker with the Lord. He allows her the privilege of sharing in his work. Since Scripture shows that God chose Mary and other human beings to be his collaborators, our asking for prayer support from Mary and others is simply an affirmation of God’s choice.

Why do we have pictures, icons, and statues of Mary?
Our statues, pictures, and icons of Mary and other saints have no supernatural power in themselves. They are not idols. They are reminders of fellow Christians who are very important to us. For example, if you go to the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, DC, you will see lots of statues of important heroes of our nation. Also, in the classrooms of our public schools we have pictures of heroes like George Washington. Finally, in our homes we have photographs of loved ones – some living, some deceased. So why do we have all these statues and pictures of Mary? Because they are reminders of a person who is very important to us. We want to remember her and follow her good example.

Conclusion
In summary, Mary is never to be worshipped. As Catholic Christians, we affirm that Mary is our spiritual mother and our friend, while Jesus Christ is our Lord and our God.