What Does Jesus Really Think of the Exultation Given to His Mother?

(A Refutation of “Jesus’ Response to the Exultation of His Mother” by Jason Hauer)

By Harold T. Gomes

This is a thoughtful response to a criticism, by a writer named Jason Hauer, that the Catholic
honor and veneration of Mary is opposed to the words of Jesus himself. Hauser views the high
veneration (exaltation, honor, etc.) of Mary as idolatrous, un-biblical, heretical, and against the
wishes of Jesus. These are serious accusations. As someone who believes that the exultation of
Mary is at heart the exaltation of Jesus, it seems good to me to refute his errors with Scripture
and common sense, in a way that goes beyond mere apologetics.

Peace Jason. We don’t know one another but I would like to address your thoughts on the
question, "What does Jesus think about the way that Roman Catholics act towards Mary?” I
believe that Jesus wishes us to love his mother as he loves her (can anyone love Mary more than
Jesus?). It is also my sincere belief – – because I've experienced it myself – – that in coming to
know and love Mary, we come to know and love Jesus even more. I am a Catholic Christian who
has come to love God, and is still growing and being transformed, through Our Divine Lord and
Savior Jesus Christ by the grace of the Holy Spirit which he won for us. I know how this may
sound to you, but it was Mary who helped me come to the knowledge of Christ. Knowledge of
Mary cannot do anything other than to lead one to Jesus.

If the Catholic Church is known for its exaltation and honor of Mary it is because Our Head,
Jesus Christ has first exalted and honored Mary. The Members of Body follow the Head. We
strive to imitate and identify with, Christ, because that’s what a Christian does. So, the question
then arises, how did/does Jesus Christ exalt and honor his mother, Mary?

First, Jesus being a perfect son of Israel, personifying Israel itself, would have kept the
commandments perfectly. In the Gospel of Matthew, we read that Jesus tells the rich young man
to keep the commandments including “honor thy father and thy mother.” (Matthew 19:16-21).
Jesus kept this commandment and did honor Joseph and Mary.

Before this, from all eternity, Jesus Christ, the Word of God, Second Person of the Most Holy
Trinity exalted his mother. He created her to be his own mother and thus would have also
uniquely and especially prepared her for it by giving her grace upon grace. This is why in Luke
1, the angel Gabriel addresses her as “full of Grace,” (in Greek, kecharitomene). In obedience,
recognizing herself to be the handmaiden or slave (as you rightly point out), Mary gives her free
consent to be the mother of Jesus, the Word made Flesh. When Mary goes to visit her cousin,
Elizabeth greets her as the Mother of her Lord (the Divinely anointed king of Israel, heir of
David). She recognizes, through the Holy Spirit, who Mary carries in her womb and therefore
recognizes Mary’s blessedness. And so too does John, in Elizabeth's womb, recognize Jesus as
his Lord. There is no other way that this could have been known to them except by the Holy
Spirit. It is through the Holy Spirit that Elizabeth exclaims, "Blessed are you among women and
blessed is the fruit of your womb!” Mary then responds by giving praise to God who exalts the
humble. She says that all generations will call her blessed because the Lord has done great things
for her. Note that all generations will call her blessed precisely because God has done great
things for her. If God has done great things for her, it follows that God is responsible for all
generations calling her blessed. If he is responsible for doing great things in Mary and for her, he
then is also responsible for all generations calling her blessed. Therefore, God has himself
exulted her (as he does to the lowly and to those who humble themselves in his sight).

Now, in light of this, how can we understand Jesus’ response to the woman in Luke 11 who cries
out, “Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts that you sucked!”? At first glance,
Jesus’ response seems to be a correction: “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God
and keep it!” (Lk 11:28). But he does not say, “no, she's not blessed, don't consider her blessed”
or anything like that. Jesus certainly knows and rejoices that his mother is blessed because he is
responsible for it! As for us, can it be said that anything that had any contact whatsoever with
Jesus is not blessed? Therefore, we can say that, indeed Mary is blessed by virtue of caring for
and nursing Jesus. The Son of God has become her own son after all. So, what is Jesus saying
here? He is actually redirecting the praise---again, he is not negating it because he doesn't deny
Mary's blessedness according to the physical order. Instead, Jesus is pointing out the root cause
of her blessedness, abiding faith.

Mary is blessed because she believed and did the will of God (“Blessed is she who believed that
there would be a fulfilment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.” Luke 1:45). Because she
believed and did the will of God, Mary bore fruit one hundredfold, and this fruit is Jesus Christ
himself (Matthew 13:22). Mary’s first or primary relationship to Jesus is through her obedience,
in faith, and it is this obedience that brought about her second relationship to Jesus, the physical
bond. Another way of putting this would be in the words of St. Augustine who said that Mary
conceived the Word by faith in her heart before she conceived him in her womb (Sermon 215).
Jesus tells the woman who praises his mother that she too can be blessed if she does the will of
God as Mary did. We have here the words of Jesus himself indirectly saying that you too can
bear him and bring him into the world, spiritually, through faith. In fact, this essentially what
Jesus is saying in Matthew 12:50. When I read these passages prayerfully, I hear Jesus telling
me, “be like my mother Mary!”

Because of her faith and closeness to Jesus, which enabled her to learn firsthand from him, we
can most assuredly say that Mary was the first disciple. She was the first follower of Jesus
Christ, she is the model disciple. Indeed, we should imitate Mary's faith and do the will of God
as she did.

You raised a very interesting argument that shouldn't be overlooked: why didn't Jesus use the
opportunities that came up to explicitly teach that his mother should always be honored and
exalted? The main reason is that this is not the purpose of his teaching recorded in the Gospels.
Jesus’ audience is not ready for this at this point in time. Why should they honor the mother if
they are not fully aware of the identity of the son? In other words, if people hardly know who he
is, how can they care to know anything about his mother? This then, is the main purpose of
Jesus’ teaching to the crowds: to reveal his identity as both God and awaited Messiah, Davidic
King of Israel; to teach himself and the fulfillment of the command to "love God with your
whole heart, and love your neighbor as yourself.” Gradually, Jesus also goes on to reveal his
upcoming mission in Jerusalem: his passion, death, and resurrection. Everything else, the Holy
Spirit will reveal in time when the people will be able to better understand it (John 12:12–15).
Once the people can understand the basic truths about Jesus will they be ready to delve deeper
into the mystery. Only then can they see a more complete picture and will be able to love Jesus
(they cannot love him if they do not know him) even more, with the help of Mary.

The anonymous woman Luke Chapter 11 recognizes something great about Jesus and thus
recognizes that his mother is certainly blessed for bringing him into the world. Notice that this is
first of all a praise directed to Jesus himself. In her praising of the blessedness of Mary, this
woman is praising Jesus. Jesus is the main end of the praise. “Blessed is the woman who bore
YOU,” the woman says. This gets to the heart of everything that Catholics believe, and about
Mary. Everything we believe about Mary praises, exalts, and glorifies Jesus. What we believe
about Jesus explains why we praise Mary. All of her titles have a crucial relationship to truths
about her Son. For example, we say that Mary is the Mother of God. We say this simply because
Jesus is God, and Mary is the mother of Jesus. In the fullness of time, a human woman gave birth
to her Creator! To deny this is to deny that Jesus is God.

What incredible faith that Mary exhibited throughout her life! She believed in something
impossible (but certainly not illogical because God doesn’t do anything contrary to reason),
trusting that with God nothing is impossible. She believed in the promise delivered to her by the
Archangel Gabriel that her son would reign forever, even though she saw him die, “marred
beyond all human semblance,” on an instrument of torture reserved for the worst of criminals
(Isaiah 52). The Gospel of John, chapter 19, tells us that “Mary stood at the foot of the Cross,”
while the sword that we read about in Luke 2 passed through her heart at the thrust of the lance.
She was there participating in the pain of her son so that “the thoughts of many would be
revealed.” (Luke 2:34-35).

At the foot of the Cross, Jesus gives Mary to be the mother of the faithful disciple, John. There
are at least two things to note here: 1. If Mary and Joseph had other children, according to the
flesh, then it would not make sense for Jesus to give Mary into John's care. He would have left
her in the care of one of his own blood siblings. There are other places in the New Testament
where it can be shown that Mary was a perpetual virgin contrary to the claims that she was not.
It's simplistic for us English speakers to suggest that “the brothers and sisters of Jesus” were
simply flesh and blood brothers and sisters when the usage of brother and sister often refers to
cousin in Middle Eastern cultures, and in other cultures, even today. The word that is used,
sometimes translated as “brethren,” in Greek “adelphoi,” does not always refer to blood siblings.
2. Jesus gives Mary to John, to be his mother. But this is not just some kind of legal arrangement.
There is a spiritual sense to this. John is the faithful disciple, but as such, he represents all
faithful disciples. Because we are to be faithful disciples, Jesus gave us all---every Christian---
Mary to be our mother. If Jesus is our brother, if we are to identify ourselves with Jesus himself--
- that is really what a Christian is, a little Christ, then it would follow that Mary is our Mother.
The mother of the Head of the Body is also the mother of the Body.

Even if there is a basis for honoring and exalting Mary, do Catholics fall into excess? Why is she
wearing a crown in so many depictions of art? And why do we present petitions to her? Doesn't
it seem a bit much, like it doesn't square with what we read about this humble woman, this
faithful, simple servant of the Lord? These are valid questions. In fact, these are questions that I
had once. But I eventually came to understand the answers to these questions through the grace
of the Holy Spirit.

Mary as our Queen:

In the Gospel of Luke, the Archangel Gabriel announces to Mary that she has been chosen to
bear a son who “will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God
will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob for ever;
and of his kingdom there will be no end.” Mary knowing her Old Testament Scripture would
have immediately had her thoughts turn to the prophecy to David recorded in 2 Samuel 7:13–14:
“
He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will
be his father, and he shall be my son.” The son who Mary is to bear is the long-awaited
Messianic King, whose kingdom will have no end (because he is also the Eternal God who has
returned to be with his people). If her son is royalty, then she too is royal by virtue of becoming
his mother. Jesus shares this great dignity with his mother. God has exalted her by the high
calling he has called her to, namely, to be the mother of the long-awaited King.

We can see in the books of Kings and Chronicles, that whenever a king of Judah (that is, the king
of the line of David) is named, his mother is also named. In the ancient near East, the King’s
mother was Queen. Since the King had many wives, and only one mother of course, it was quite
practical for the title of Queen to have been bestowed on the mother of the King. This is not
simply an honorific title that we are talking about. The office of Queen Mother was a position of
authority in the kingdom with certain duties and privileges associated with it. In Jeremiah 13 we
read, “Say to the king and the queen mother: ‘Take a lowly seat, for your beautiful crown has
come down from your head... Lift up your eyes and see those who come from the north. Where is
the flock that was given you, your beautiful flock?’” (Jer. 13:18, 20). These words are addressed
to the king and his mother together. Why the mother as well? Because she evidently shared in the
governance of the people. Along with this, the people of the kingdom brought their petitions to
the Queen mother. We can see this at work in 1 Kings 2:19 – 20:

“So Bathsheba went to King Solomon, to speak to him on behalf of Adonijah. And the king rose
to meet her, and bowed down to her; then he sat on his throne a seat brought for the king’s
mother; and she sat on his right. Then she said, ‘I have one small request to make of you; do not
refuse me.’ And the king said to her, ‘Make your request, my mother; for I will not refuse you’”
(1 Kgs. 2:19–20). Not only that, we actually see it at work in the New Testament, in John chapter
2, at the wedding feast of Cana. The servants brought their request to Mary who in turn brought
it to her Son.

A couple of things to notice: Adonijah presented a petition to the Queen Mother, Bathsheba,
knowing that she could in turn present the petition to the King, her Son, in the hope that it would
be granted. Also, we see that the king, Solomon, rose to meet his mother, bowed to her, and had
a throne brought out for her to be seated upon, at his right side. Fast forward to Revelation
chapter 12. While it is true that the woman clothed with the sun is corporately, individually she is
understood to be Mary as the child she bears is obviously her son. The child is clearly a king and
therefore his mother is a queen. This woman is crowned with 12 stars, she is portrayed as the
queen of Israel, that is, the people of God. We go to her as the people of the kingdom of Judah
went to her.

Is it really so surprising for Mary to be exalted as she is? Remember the words of Jesus who said
that everyone who make sacrifices for his sake will receive back a hundredfold, and that those
who are persecuted for his sake should rejoice for their reward will be great in heaven. Also, he
said that the last shall be first and the humble shall be exalted. St. Paul writes that “if we have
died with him, we shall also live with him; if we endure, we shall also reign with him,” (2
Timothy 2:1-12) and he tells us that we are fellow heirs with him, “provided that we suffer with
him in order that we may also glorified with him.” (Romans 8:17). And finally, in Revelation
3:21, we read him say: “He who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I
myself conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne.” Does this not apply to Mary, and
to a greater degree because of who she was and how she lived?

The exaltation of Mary glorifies us the great generosity of God. He is never outdone in
generosity. If you give him an inch, he will give you miles. God has done great things in and
through Mary for his greater glory. God has exalted Mary because God is All Good. Thinking
anything less about Mary is doing an extreme disservice to God because it seems to suggest that
God is somehow unwilling to share his glory with his creatures. Nothing could be further from
the truth. The honor and veneration that we give Mary is a recognition of the great things that
God has done in and through Mary. Everything about Mary proclaims the greatness of the Lord!
(There is much more that can be said of her beyond these five pages!)

In closing, Jesus wants us to identify with him, to the point of carrying our cross and loving as he
did. If we are in Christ, if we are to become him, his mother is our mother. He loved her so we
are to love her, in grace and truth. As St. Therese of the Child Jesus said, “Do not be afraid of
loving the Blessed Virgin too much. You can never love her enough. And Jesus will be happy.”
My challenge to those who still may question devotion and honor given to Mary: please ask
yourself if you would like to love Jesus as much as possible. If so, consider that Mary loves Jesus
as only a mother can, she loved and knew him to the greatest degree of any creature. Wouldn't
you want to love Jesus with her heart, and to learn Jesus from her? She is a gift from God so we
can do precisely that.