(with contributions from Shamgar)
*Note: The intended purpose of this paper is to challenge numerous names ascribed to Mary in St. Alphonsus Liguori’s The Glories of Mary. These names are, in my opinion, not biblically based, and they shift focus from the Triune God and onto an idolatrous view of Mary. This paper was not written with any malice for Catholics. Rather, it was written with love, as it serves as a serious challenge to Catholic doctrine and a request for parishioners to wrestle with the facts I have laid forth.*
Introduction
Jesus said, according to the Gospel of Matthew:
“Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and does them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain descended, and the rivers came, and the winds blew and fell against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock. And everyone hearing these words of Mine and not doing them, may be compared to a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain descended, and the rivers came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and it fell—and great was its fall” [Matthew 7:24 - 27, Legacy Standard Bible].1
How rooted in Scripture are Catholic names for Mary? Are the Marian dogmas, and other doctrines, built, at least in part, on sand? I argue that the many of the Catholic names for Mary have been inaccurately and dishonestly extrapolated from the word of God, opening the door to pray unto, exalt, deify, and worship Mary. Do not doubt that I understand the ‘official’ stance of the Church is that Mary is not God nor is she ever worshipped. But, one cannot have his cake and eat it too. In the book The Glories of Mary, by St. Alphonsus Liguori—a man canonized by the Roman Catholic church via Pope Gregory XVI in 1839, and who has had his work publicly praised by four popes of his time, as well as Pope Benedict XVI, Pope Pius IX (who proclaimed Liguori a Doctor of the Church), Saint Pope John Paul II, Pope Francis, and Pope Leo XIV—there are countless examples of Mary’s unbiblical and misguided exaltation, praise, and deification. Mary is given infinite powers, raised to the level of Jesus Christ Himself and God the Father, given dominion over all of God’s creation, granted half of God’s kingdom, called the only way through which Christians may receive God’s grace, and recognized as the only way to secure access to Jesus’ salvation for us. If the Church truly does not agree with or endorse the claims laid forth in The Glories of Mary, it has a responsibility to remove Liguori’s position as a Saint or a Doctor of the Church—for he has, almost undoubtedly, irreparably harmed the perception of so many through his fallacious form of support for Mary. But, the Church has chosen to allow, and oftentimes support, this book’s claims about Mary. As of writing this paper, the Church has actually reformed the use of some of the names of Mary mentioned in this paper; these have been identified in footnotes. While this is great progress from the Catholic church that I commend, I remain worried that perceptions of Mary remain inaccurate, thus leading people astray from God. Many Catholics have built vast and towering skyscrapers and monuments on the sand of Marian dogmas and doctrines—many have turned away from the firm foundations of Jesus’ word dictated in the Bible.
Mary’s Names in the Bible and The Glories of Mary
I have already briefly examined the grandiose powers granted to Mary in Liguori’s book. One simply cannot grant unto Mary such glory and power if the Bible does not dictate she deserves it. In actuality, the Bible dictates quite the opposite. Nowhere does the Bible demand this glory and power be attributed to Mary; rather, it says these things should be assigned to Jesus and/or God the Father. Mary is only mentioned by name or as Jesus’ mother in the Bible in Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and Acts. She is called:
Mary,2 virgin,3 favored one,4 blessed among women,5 the mother of [Elizabeth’s] Lord,6 His [as in, God the Father’s] slave,7 Mary the mother of Jesus,8 and Mary the mother of James and Joseph.9
These names come straight from Scripture. Further, they do not directly invite anyone to venerate Mary. Her name, “favored one,” depicts Mary as a recipient of divine grace, not a dispenser of it. Who then, dispenses to us grace? In Ephesians 1:6 the author says the glory of God’s grace “He graciously bestowed on us in the Beloved.” The Beloved, in this context, is Jesus Christ—He is the dispenser of our grace. That is what the Bible says. I will examine what Liguori says about who dispenses to us our grace later. For now, I will turn to The Glories of Mary to survey the names it attributes to Mary:
Mary,10 Holy Queen, Mother of Mercy, most gracious Advocate, Virgin Mary, the glorious Virgin, Mother of the King of Kings, Mother of the Eternal Word, Spouse of the King, Blessed Virgin, Blessed Lady, Queen of Mercy, the joy of the just and the door through which sinners come to God, Bride of the Divine Spouse [God the Father], Our Mother, the Mother of our souls, the Mother of our salvation, our spiritual Mother, the spiritual Mother of all who are members of the one Head, the handmaid of the Lord, Mother of God, Our Lady, Ravisher of hearts, Mother Mary, Mother of Repentant Sinners, Mother of Jesus, Mother of human beings, the kindest of Ladies, Queen of Angels, Our Life, the dawn, the ark which saves from eternal destruction anyone who takes shelter in it, the Sun, the Breath of Christians, the moon at night, the dawn at break of day, the sun at noon, the Immaculate, Hope of All, Our Hope, the lesser light to rule the sinners, Refuge of Sinners, city of God, a public infirmary to receive the sick, Star that rises before the Sun, the Star of the Sea, loving protectress, Queen of Heaven and all the Saints, Queen over hell and all evil spirits, the Ark of the New Testament, a cloud that shades us from the heat of the sun of Justice, a fire that protects us from the devil, Queen of the Holy Rosary, the mediatrix of our salvation, the mediatrix of grace and intercession, the ladder to paradise, the gate of heaven, the most true mediatrix between God and human beings, Health of the Sick, Help of Christians, an aqueduct filled to capacity so that others may receive her fullness, the moon, the neck through which the fullness of grace in Christ flows, Co-helper of Redemption, an Advocate with Power to Save All, omnipotent, all-powerful with her Son, Abigail the Wise, the ladder of sinners, the rainbow which St. John saw about the throne of God [in Revelation], Heavenly Agent, the protectress of the damned, Mother of our Savior, like a fair olive tree in the plain, Queen of the universe, and most beautiful of creatures.11
Liguori either wrote himself or quoted from another Catholic each of these seventy-six names for Mary. Only six12 of Liguori’s seventy-six names have been featured in the Bible.
Noticeably, many of the names given to Mary in Liguori’s book draw parallels with names and powers ascribed to Jesus or God the Father in the Bible. What’s problematic is that in Isaiah 42:8,13 God says, “I am Yahweh, that is My name; I will not give My glory to another.” Why then, would God allow another, especially an undivine human being like Mary, to share in any of the glory that should go to Him and His Son?
Holy Queen, Queen of Angels, Queen of Heaven and all the Saints, Queen over Hell and all Evil Spirits, Queen of the Universe, Spouse of the King, Bride of the Divine Spouse
When Mary is called the Holy Queen, Queen of Angels, Queen of Heaven and all the Saints, Queen over hell and all evil spirits, Queen of the universe, Spouse of the King, and Bride of the Divine Spouse, Liguori’s intentions are clear. He takes all things which are under God’s dominion and places them under Mary’s dominion as well.14 He asserts that there are as many creatures serving Mary as there are serving God, and that she possesses, by right, the whole Kingdom of her Son, Jesus.15 Finally, Liguori affirms the claim of St. Thomas Aquinas that, “When the Blessed Virgin conceived the Eternal Word in her womb and gave Him birth, she obtained half of the Kingdom of God.”16 This statement specifically refers to the ‘mercy’ half of the kingdom of God—apparently, the ‘justice’ half was given to Jesus Christ. These comments ought to immediately stand out as problematic for two reasons: first, they appear to be entirely inappropriate for a mere creature, for no creature could obtain the Kingdom of God for his or her own possession. Second, no clear statement is made in Scripture that can overturn the confusion caused by this sort of language; these ascriptions are definitionally unbiblical, both in their appearance and their substance. The Bible does not say Mary has dominion over earth or heaven. Nowhere in the Bible is ‘Mary’s kingdom’ mentioned. Rather, Yahweh is called the God of heaven,17 the God of heaven and earth,18 and the Ruler over all the kingdoms of the nations.19 These names are attributed to Him countless times throughout Scripture. If Mary possesses the whole of the kingdom of her Son, or half, why don’t the biblical authors proclaim such? According to 2nd Chronicles 6:14, “There is no god like [Yahweh] in heaven or on earth.” This would include Mary, who Liguori clearly gives, bountifully, the powers of God—namely omnipotence.20 But, Jesus said, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth” [Matthew 28:18]. This verse, along with the countless verses that proclaim the power and authority of God over heaven and earth, negate the possibility of Mary sitting alongside Him in heaven and ruling. Mary has no dominion over heaven or earth. She is not omnipotent. She does not possess the whole or half of the kingdom of her Son.
The mistaken declaration that there is an exalted ‘Queen of Heaven’ is neither new nor unique to the Roman Catholic church. In reality, we see that the Old Testament Jews had constructed a blasphemous ‘Queen of Heaven’ for themselves. Consider Jeremiah chapter 7: in this passage, Yahweh continues His charge of judgment against the people of Israel. He says to the prophet Jeremiah,
“The children gather wood, and the fathers make the fire burn, and the women knead dough to make cakes for the queen of heaven; and they pour out drink offerings to other gods in order to provoke Me… Therefore thus says Lord Yahweh, ‘Behold, My anger and My wrath will be poured out on this place’” [Jeremiah 7:18, 20].
We see here that the Jews were making cakes for the so-called queen of heaven. In this instance, the queen of heaven refers to Ishtar, otherwise known as Ashtoreth or Astarte. This provoked God’s wrath. Their assertion that there was a ‘queen of heaven’ was actually equated to worshipping another god. God found it entirely unacceptable that they would give alms to this ‘queen of heaven,’ and, despite what we might expect if Mary is the Queen of Heaven, God did not redirect their attention to her, nor did He give them any hint of expectation that she would come. The consequences of Jerusalem’s godlessness was the destruction of the city and the temple, as well as the exile of the people. God does not share His throne with anyone, nor is anyone His queen—not even Mary.
Mother of Mercy, Queen of Mercy
Liguori also calls Mary the Mother of Mercy and the Queen of Mercy. These names are specifically damaging to Jesus’ identity as the means of mercy for humanity and God the Father’s capacity as the One who bestowed Jesus as a gift of mercy unto us. Liguori claims Mary is “eager to help us in our miseries. So much so that the Church wants us to call her in [the prayer Hail, Holy Queen] a Queen of Mercy” (Liguori, 18-19). She is “full of compassion and pardon for sinners” (Liguori, 19). Of course, to ensure his work doesn’t completely disregard God the Father as the source of mercy, Liguori says that God “arranged that all mercies dispensed to human beings should pass through [Mary’s] hands and be disposed just as she pleases” (Liguori, 20). Note, Liguori says just as she pleases. He says “every prayer of [Mary’s] is like an established law for our Lord, obliging Him to be merciful to everyone for whom she intercedes” (Liguori, 20). From this point of view, Mary is the middle-man between us and God. God has mercy on us, and because Mary birthed Jesus, He gave her (by grace) the complete right to dispense His mercy as she pleases. Liguori gives Mary power over Jesus, and He is obliged to obey her when she dictates to whom His mercy should flow. The Bible does not affirm this teaching. Rather, God says to Moses “I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will show compassion on whom I show compassion” [Exodus 33:19 - emphasis added]. God’s declaration to Moses in this instance is quoted by Paul in Romans, though Paul makes it clear that God said “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy” [Romans 9:15]. These passages clearly point to one distributor of mercy: God. God decides on whom to have mercy by Himself, and He distributes His mercy as He pleases. After all, God is the One who dwelt over the Ark of the Covenant’s mercy seat.21 Throughout the Bible, when divine mercy is gifted to people, it is God who is merciful.22 In the Gospels, people beg for Jesus to have mercy on them.23 Mary herself says in Luke “the Mighty One has done great things for me” [Luke 1:49]. Just as God has done great things for Mary, Mary says that through the birth of Christ “His mercy is upon generation after generation toward those who fear Him” [Luke 1:50].24 Mary’s Magnificat in Luke is meant to praise God for the fulfillment of His covenant promises. She rejoices that she gets to be the one who births the Son of “God [her] Savior” [Luke 1:47]. If this is the true purpose of Mary’s praise in this section of Luke, then I must point out that Mary never once claims the mercy of the Almighty flows through herself. She thanks God for distributing His mercy to her and generations to come. God gifted this mercy through the birth of Christ, who sacrificed Himself for the atonement of our sins—for Jesus is God’s mercy manifest.25 Paul calls God the “Father of mercies” [2 Corinthians 1:3]. In Paul’s first and second letters to Timothy, he wishes for Timothy mercy from God the Father and Christ Jesus.26 Noticeably, Paul does not wish for Timothy the mercy of God through Mary, ‘Queen of Mercy’ and ‘Queen of Heaven.’ Surely, if Mary being the sole distributor of mercy is as important as Liguori makes it out, at least one biblical author would have mentioned her role in dispensing God's mercy. The truth is, the biblical authors have no need to do this, for God alone distributes His mercy unto humanity.
Mother of our Salvation, Mother of our Souls, Our Spiritual Mother
Three more names Liguori grants to Mary in his book are the Mother of our salvation, the Mother of our souls, and our spiritual mother. The reasoning that Liguori employed to arrive at these names is subpar. He claims that by reconciling humanity with God, Jesus made Himself the Father of our souls in the new law of grace.27 Then, he reasons that “if Jesus is the Father, Mary is the Mother of our souls. She gave us Jesus and, with that gift, gave us supernatural life” (Liguori, 25-26). He also says “Mary merited to conceive the Son of God in her virginal womb,” that she “asked with all her heart [and obtained] the salvation of all the elect,” and “she gave herself so completely to the matter of the salvation of all human beings that there and then she began to carry us all in her womb” (Liguori, 26). Further, Liguori claimed “Mary exposed her own soul to death to save many other souls. That is to say, to save us she sacrificed the life of her Son—because Jesus was the soul of Mary; He was her life and her love” (Liguori, 27-28). To begin, I will point out that nowhere in the Bible does an author say Mary merited to birth Jesus. If she called God her “Savior” in Luke 1:47, she clearly didn’t think of herself as immaculate. Rather, she used language typical of one who needs divine grace for salvation. Next, the Bible does not mention Mary ‘asking for the salvation of the elect.’ Liguori offered no proof of this claim besides the fact that St. Bernardine of Siena said it. The same goes for Liguori’s claim ‘she gave herself so completely to the matter of the salvation of all human beings that there and then she began to carry us all in her womb.’ I would like to see exegetical evidence for that claim. Moreover, I must note that the point of Jesus’ death as expressed in the Bible is that He subjected Himself to death on the cross for our salvation28—He did this because God gave Him to us for this purpose.29 Perhaps the strongest evidence of this can be found in John, where Jesus says,
“For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life so that I may take it again. No one takes it away from Me, but from Myself, I lay it down. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father” [John 10:17 - 18].
Jesus’ language in this passage is straightforward—He says that He is the only one who has authority to lay down His life. Further, He says He will lay it down because His Father commands Him to do so. Mary is not an active participant in this process. The beauty of Jesus’ sacrifice for humanity does not lie in Mary’s motherhood of Jesus. Jesus is not Mary’s soul. Mary never commanded Jesus to lay down His life for the salvation of humanity. Allow me to make my point clear—Jesus sacrificed Himself on the cross by the command of His Father for the salvation of the elect. Jesus and God the Father are the only two listed active participants in willing the Lamb’s death for the atonement of our sins. Mary simply was not involved in this capacity.
Moving on, the claim ‘if Jesus is the Father, Mary is the Mother of our souls’ gives no clear, logical, line of reasoning. The largest issue in this statement is that Jesus is not the Father of our souls. The Bible clearly points to God the Father being the Father of our souls. Yahweh declares in Ezekiel, “Behold, all souls are Mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is Mine” [Ezekiel 18:4]. With perfect clarity, God declares everyone’s soul is His. He makes no mention of Mary in this statement. Every soul ever created belongs to God, our Father. When showing us images of death, Ecclesiastes points out that “dust will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it” [Ecclesiastes 12:7]. Here, the origin of the soul, or spirit, is attributed to God. Thus, if God created our souls, He is the Father of our souls. He acts like a father with respect to our souls as well. The author of Hebrews says, “We had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them. Shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live?” [Hebrews 12:9]. Just as our earthly fathers challenge us through punishment to become better, so too does God, the Father of our souls.30 The Bible is clear—God is in a paternal position of power to discipline us. Now that I’ve established that God the Father is the Father of our souls, not Jesus, I will turn to Liguori’s next incorrect statement. He says that because Mary gave us Jesus, she gave us supernatural life. The active language in Liguori’s claim surrounding Mary attributes to her too much participation in Christ’s sacrifice. But John 3:16, arguably one of the most famous passages in the Bible, says: “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life” (emphasis added). In one of the most important passages of the Bible, John (or rather, the Lord Himself whom John is quoting) does not mention Mary’s contribution to the gift of Jesus. The explanation for this silence is simple—God alone chose to give us His Son because He loved us; He is the ultimate cause of this plan coming to fruition. Though it is true that He chose to use human beings in the bringing about of His Son (see the genealogies of Jesus in Matthew and Luke), Mary was simply a vessel—a participating, but certainly not active, agent. By giving us Jesus, God the Father gave us eternal life—for He is divine and has the power to do so, not Mary. Thus, according to the arguments I have laid forth, we cannot call Mary the Mother of our salvation, the Mother of our souls, nor our spiritual mother, for this would be diminishing the divine power and authority of God, as well as the strength of meaning of Jesus’ consent to His own sacrifice.31
Ravisher of Hearts
Liguori ventures to call Mary the Ravisher of hearts. He does so with little explanation. In The Glories of Mary Liguori quotes St. Bonaventure who called Mary “My Lady, my Mother—or rather, my heart and my soul!” (Liguori, 41). Liguori goes on to note that “St. Bernard, that giant among lovers of our Lady, hailed her with the daring words, ‘Ravisher of hearts!’” (Liguori, 41). First, St. Bonaventure’s comment on Mary being his heart and soul is extremely misguided. For one, “the heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick,” meaning that St. Bonaventure is accidentally conflating Mary with something to which the Bible attributes negative qualities [Jeremiah 17:9]. If St. Bonaventure is referring to his heart that has been indwelt by the Holy Spirit,32 then he should credit that ‘ravishing,’ or indwelling, to God the Father, who bestows the Holy Spirit upon hearts of believers.33 As for St. Bonaventure’s likening Mary to his soul, I have already proven that our souls belong to God.34 The word ‘ravisher’ signifies the forceful seizure of another. Of course, there is no evidence in the Scripture that Mary seized the heart of anyone. What we do find in Scripture are multiple instances where God the Father searches our hearts,35 knows the secrets of our hearts,36 and, in certain instances, can control our hearts.37 Romans 5:5 says “hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, whom He has given us.” If any One should be called the Ravisher of hearts, surely it should be our God, who searches our hearts, knows the secrets of our hearts, and Who graciously fills our hearts with love through the Holy Spirit. Let us not attribute these divine powers to Mary, but to the One who asserts control over them, God our Father.
Mother of Repentant Sinners, Refuge of Sinners, Protectress of the Damned
In the subsequent section of The Glories of Mary, Liguori presents Mary as the Mother of Repentant Sinners. To assert and defend this claim, he quotes St. Bridget, the book of Sirach, and St. Brigid. According to St. Bridget, Mary was “the Mother of more than just the saintly and the innocent. She was the mother of sinners too, if they really wanted to repent” (Liguori, 43). He reasons that those who would like to be Mary’s children must give up sin; one cannot be a child of Mary if he lives in mortal sin.38 “Mary is humble, and [sinners] are proud. Mary is pure, and they are defiled. Mary is full of love, and they hate their fellow human beings,” Liguori claims (Liguori, 43). Further, Liguori argues that Sirach 3:16, “Those who neglect their father are like blasphemers; those who provoke their mother are accursed by their Creator,”39 indicates that “God curses those who afflict this tender Mother [Mary] by their wicked life—or more particularly, by their obstinacy in sin” (Liguori, 44). According to Liguori, if sinners make efforts to rid themselves of their sin by calling on the name of Mary, she “will not neglect to help them recover the grace of God” (Liguori, 44). In reference to St. Brigid, Liguori notes that she heard Christ speaking to Mary, and He said, “You help anyone who makes an effort to return to Me, and your constellations are never wanting to anyone” (Liguori, 44).
Simply put, Liguori argues as follows: Mary is the Mother of Repentant Sinners. Sinners cannot be Mary’s children if they are not repentant. Sinners, if they are obstinate in sin, cannot be loved by Mary. In fact, if they are obstinate in sin, sinners afflict Mary and become accursed by God. “However, when [sinners] find themselves in the chains of some passion that keeps them slaves of hell, they should recommend themselves to the Blessed Virgin, and with confidence and perseverance beg her to lift them out of the state of sin. Then there can be no doubt about it. This good Mother will reach out her strong hand to them, break loose their chains, and lead them to salvation” (Liguori, 45).
There are numerous flaws in Liguori’s assertion that Mary is the Mother of Repentant Sinners. First, Liguori listed that Mary is humble, pure, and full of love, while sinners are proud, full of hatred for their fellow human beings, and defiled. Liguori was absolutely correct in attributing these attributes to man, who has fallen and been tainted by Adam’s original sin. However, Liguori should have used the ultimate example of who is humble, pure, and full of love: Jesus Christ.
We should find Jesus Christ to be the paramount contrast to prideful sinners, as He, “although existing in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, by taking the form of a slave, by being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” [Philippians 2:6-8]. This passage states that Jesus, in His eternal essence, is God. Although Jesus is fully equal to God, He did not cling to privileges of deity. Rather, He gave them up to take the form of a human being—and, as a human, Christ was poor (which was His own decision). Perhaps the most powerful example of Christ’s humility is that He did not demand release from persecution or the crucifixion. Rather, He accepted unfair persecution and His brutal crucifixion for the sake of humanity according to God’s will. If Liguori is going to compare the pride of sinners to the humility of someone, let it be Jesus Christ, not Mary. Alongside His perfect humility, Christ was also completely pure. After all, Jesus was without sin.40 Further, 1st John 3:3 says, “Everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.” By placing our hope in and following Christ, He who did not sin and was pure, we are purified. If Christ lived His life in perfect obedience to God, remaining perfectly pure, then why did Liguori use Mary, a woman who was not pure, as his example of purity? As I aforementioned, if Mary called God her “Savior” in Luke 1:47, then she indicated that she, like every other human aside from Jesus, was tainted by original sin and in need of God’s divine grace for her salvation. If Mary relied on God’s divine grace for her salvation, and we know that our salvation is given to us by grace for our faith in Jesus Christ, then we should look to Christ, who lived His life in total purity for us, as our example of someone who is pure. In his final comparison, Liguori said Mary is full of love. While it is true that Mary did indeed love and obeyed God, we must acknowledge where this love truly comes from. Mary was tainted by original sin and saved by God. Because God saved her, we know that she received the love of God—the same love given to all believers, just as Paul mentioned in Romans 5:5, when he said “the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.” This love is mentioned in Ephesians, when Paul wrote to the saints in Ephesus that he prays they will be able “to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that [they] may be filled up to all the fullness of God” [Ephesians 3:19]. The unique and indescribable love of God is given to all believers by the Holy Spirit. Christ demonstrated this love when He died on the cross for our transgressions.41 Mary’s love for God is no doubt present in the Scripture, but that love comes from God Himself; it was a gift of the Holy Spirit. Thus, Liguori should have mentioned Christ as full of love instead of Mary, as God is the ultimate source of the unique and powerful love that flows out to all who believe.
Liguori’s argument that Sirach 3:16 applies to Mary, and thus proves that those who are obstinate in sin are afflicting Mary and accursed by God, is also flawed, as it misquotes the verse. Verses 1-16 in the Book of Sirach are about obeying one’s father and mother. In context, the father and the mother are clearly one’s earthly father and mother. We know this because, in Sirach 3:6-7, it says, “those who obey the Lord honor their mother. Those who fear the Lord honor their father.” Because Ben Sira said that those who fear the Lord (meaning God the Father) honor their father, we know that the father mentioned is one’s earthly father, as the God the Father is already mentioned by a different name in the sentence. Similarly, obeying the Lord is mentioned before honoring one’s mother. If we apply the same standard that is used about the Lord and one’s earthly father, we may conclude that the other earthly parent (the mother) is mentioned after the Lord as well. Also, Ben Sira lived before Jesus Christ and before Mary, and he did not prophesy of Mary—thus, he was clearly speaking about earthly mothers in chapter 3. If this is the case, then Sirach 3:16, “Those who neglect their father are like blasphemers; those who provoke their mother are accursed by their Creator,” is making a similar claim to that of Proverbs 19:26 and 30:11, which say, “He who assaults his father and causes his mother to flee is a son who brings shame and humiliation,” and “there is a generation that curses its father and does not bless its mother.” All three of these passages are simply referencing unwise, sinful behavior.42 Of course, God does not tolerate sin43 and He hates all evildoers.44 Mary is not the mother of human beings, (as I will mention in the next section), thus, Sirach 3:16 is not about her, and Liguori has misinterpreted the book.
The most central claim in Liguori’s section about Mary being the Mother of Repentant Sinners is that once a sinner is afflicted by sin, but decides to turn away from it, he may call on Mary and she will help them recover God’s grace and lead them to salvation. The Bible is clear, however, that the Holy Spirit convicts one of sin and leads one toward repentance. John 16:8 - 9 says “And [the Spirit], when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment; concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me.” This verse clearly states that the Holy Spirit is responsible for the spiritual conviction that leads one to repentance. Further, let’s examine Acts 11:15 - 18.
“‘And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them just as He did upon us at the beginning. And I remembered the word of the Lord, how He used to say, ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ Therefore if God gave to them the same gift as He gave to us also after believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could prevent God’s way?’ And when they heard this, they quieted down and glorified God, saying, ‘Well then, God has granted to the Gentiles also the repentance that leads to life.’”
The speaker in this passage is the Apostle Peter. He was speaking about how, when he began preaching in Joppa, he knew the Holy Spirit descended upon those listening, just as He does upon all believers when He regenerates them. In verse 18, the people say that “God has granted to the Gentiles also the repentance that leads to life.” This repentance, in context, is one that is gifted to believers by the Holy Spirit. Thus, the Holy Spirit leads believers to repentance. A similar point is made in Romans 2:4, when Paul says “Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?” God’s kindness is found in the gift of regeneration by the Spirit so that one may turn from sin toward Christ. The Bible makes it clear—one who asks for repentance has been regenerated by the Holy Spirit and convicted to turn away from lives of sin. Liguori and I both agree that God grants forgiveness, but Mary plays no part in this process. Mary does not lead people to repentance and salvation, the Holy Spirit does. And, when we turn to God in repentance, we do it because the Holy Spirit dwells in us and convicts us to do so.
One more claim that Liguori made about Mary and her relationship with repentant sinners is troublesome to me. Liguori said that if repentant sinners “seek the help of Mary, this good Mother will not neglect to help them and make them recover the grace of God” (Liguori, 44). He also said repentant sinners should “beg [Mary] to lift them out of the state of sin” (Liguori, 45). These quotes are extremely similar to Luke 18:7, when Jesus says, “Now, will God not bring about justice for His elect who cry to Him day and night, and will He delay long over them? I tell you that He will bring about justice for them quickly.” This passage clearly shows that God is the one who should be cried out to, not Mary. And, when one does cry out to Him, His justice will be brought about swiftly if He deems it is the right time. Clearly, God can hear the cries of His elect and act accordingly in response to them.
Liguori also calls Mary the Refuge of Sinners and the Protectress of the Damned. Using Psalm 87:3, which says, “Glorious things are spoken of you, O city of God,” to support his claim that Mary is the “Refuge of Sinners” (Liguori, 73). Liguori argues that it is Mary “of whom the psalmist sings,” and that in “Judea in ancient times there were cities of refuge where criminals fled to escape punishment;” “under Mary’s mantle all sinners without exception find refuge for every sin they have committed, if only they go there to see this protection” (Liguori, 73). Earlier in Psalm 87, however, it says, “Yahweh loves the gates of Zion” [Psalm 87:2]. This is the city of God referred to in verse 3. Zion is a poetic description of Jerusalem;45 God chose it as His worship center. This Psalm was written about Jerusalem, God’s beloved city and center of worship. Thus, Liguori is mistaken in attributing the Psalm to Mary. If this is so, then he is unable to scripturally call Mary the Refuge of Sinners. Liguori calls Mary the Protectress of the Damned as well. Of the reasoning Liguori employs to justify the names he gives Mary throughout his work, this reasoning is possibly the most astonishing. He claims that:
“When Sarah saw Isaac playing with Ishmael, who was teaching him evil ways, she asked Abraham to banish both Ishmael and his mother Hagar: Send this slave and her son away (Gen 21:10). She was not satisfied with having the son driven out of the house without also driving out the mother, because she feared the boy would keep returning to the house as long as his mother was there. In the same way, the devil is not content with a soul banishing Jesus Christ, unless it banishes His mother too. He fears that the Mother will bring back the Son by her intercession. And he has good reason to fear, because those who continue their devotion to the Mother of God will soon get back to God Himself” (Liguori, 140).
He uses this argument to say later that “St. Ephrem was right in calling devotion to our Blessed Lady…the protectress of the damned” (Liguori, 140). To begin, there is no evidence whatsoever that this passage is meant as a type for Mary and Jesus. Nowhere else in the Bible when Hagar or Ishmael are mentioned does it imply that they may be types for Mary and Jesus. If Liguori is making his argument on the basis that they were not types, but rather just an example that relates to Mary and Jesus’ relationship, then it is still flawed. This is because Mary only receives her Catholic veneration for being the Mother of God. But, if one rejects Jesus, God Himself, then he would be rejecting His mother as well, seeing as His mother would be reduced to a normal woman after Jesus’ rejection. If one is astray from and in rejection of God, then they simply cannot believe in the Mother of God with the same veneration. Thus, the Mother of God cannot pull him closer to Jesus. Further, under the heading “The Mediatrix of Grace and Intercession, The Most True Mediatrix Between God and Human Beings, Hope of All, Our Hope,” I will address the fact that Mary has no ability to pull anyone toward God, because she has no dominion on Earth, because she’s dead.
Mother of Human Beings
When Liguori refers to Mary as the Mother of Human Beings throughout The Glories of Mary, he is often conflating the name with Mary, Mother of our Souls, or Our Spiritual Mother. Of course, Liguori’s argument for why Mary is the mother of human beings has nothing to do with biological heritage. Rather, he makes the same argument that he did for Mary, Our Spiritual Mother. He says “Mary had no other child than Jesus.46 But she did have other children—spiritual ones; and we are those children” (Liguori, 27). He argues that Mary “joined her own heart to this excessive love of Father and Son for the human race. With all her will she offered, and submitted to, the Death of her Son for our salvation” (Liguori, 28). When Jesus “saw Mary’s burning desire to help in human redemption, He so arranged matters that she should cooperate in our redemption by the offering and sacrifice of her Son’s life, and in this way become the Mother of our souls.” Liguori justifies this argument for Mary’s role in our redemption by heavily extrapolating a passage of Scripture. He claims that John 19:26 - 27—“When Jesus then saw His mother, and the disciple whom He loved standing nearby, He said to His mother, ‘Woman, behold, your son!’ Then He said to the disciple, ‘Behold, your mother!’ From that hour the disciple took her into his home.”—amounted to saying “Behold, the whole human race, which right now is being born to the life of grace because you are offering My life for the salvation of all” (Liguori, 29). With Jesus’ words in John 19:27, “Behold, your mother,” Liguori says Mary became the Mother of all human beings.47 There is an abundance of flaws behind Liguori’s argument that Mary is the Mother of Human Beings. First, as I’ve already demonstrated, Mary is not the spiritual mother of Christians.48 Second, he misunderstands human will. We’ve already established that Mary was not sinless and that, in fact, she had the same human nature as all humans before and after her life, barring Jesus.49 The human will, according to the Bible, is one that deviates explicitly from God’s prescriptive will.50 No doubt did Mary, with all her will, submit to the birth and death of Jesus Christ. This will, however, came from her spiritual rebirth by the Spirit. Mary did not act alone in her submission to God’s decreed will51—nor could she have. Rather, the Holy Spirit gave her the strength to participate in this will. If this is the case, Mary was aligned to God’s will by the Spirit. She was not asked or invited to take part in humanity’s redemption outside of being chosen to birth the Son of God. The Son of God is the sole redeemer of human beings and the sole being that offered His own life as a sacrifice and offering. To put it quite simply, Mary didn’t offer His life as a sacrifice or offering; she didn’t have the ability to. Third, Liguori’s entire scriptural defense of the idea that Mary is the Mother of Human Beings is reliant on a gross extrapolation and misinterpretation of Scripture. Fourth and lastly, the Bible contains numerous passages that proclaim God the Father is the Father of Human Beings—it never once mentions a mother.52
To begin, I will elaborate on why Mary’s submission to God’s plan isn’t a result of her own, human will. Human beings, since Adam, have inherited his original sin. “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned” [Romans 5:12]. Humans are naturally predisposed to sin. Worse, humans naturally seek out sinful behavior.
“‘There is none righteous, not even one; there is none who understands, there is none who seeks for God; All have turned aside, together they have become worthless; there is none who does good, there is not even one.’ ‘Their throat is an open tomb, with their tongues they keep deceiving,’ ‘the poison of asps is under their lips’; Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness;’ ‘their feet are swift to shed blood, destruction and misery are in their paths, and the path of peace they have not known.’ ‘There is no fear of God before their eyes’” [Romans 3:10 - 18].
Not only are we as humans vulnerable to sin, but we are in active pursuit of sin. In other words, it is human nature and our will to sin against God. Such was Mary’s will before she was regenerated by the Spirit. Christians, in order to better align themselves with God’s will, must abandon their own; they must be born again. This is what Jesus tells us in John chapter 3. “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God… unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God” [John 3:3, 5]. In order for us to believe in Christ, place our faith in Him, align ourselves with His will, and enter the kingdom of God, we must first be given new life by the Holy Spirit. Paul reaffirms this in Romans chapter 12, saying:
“Therefore I exhort you, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a sacrifice—living, holy, and pleasing to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may approve what the will of God is, that which is good and pleasing and perfect” [Romans 12:1-2].
The point of this passage is to require that we as Christians give Jesus ourselves as an ultimate form of sacrifice; that we forgo the evil, sinful will that inhabits us so that we may align ourselves with God’s perfect will. Our minds must be renewed through Scripture and the Holy Spirit. This process is a beautiful testament to God’s greatness and love for us, that we may be transformed and reborn with desires to draw nearer to God in obedience, rather than run from Him in disobedience. Mary underwent this process. She called Yahweh her “Savior.” Once Mary was reborn, she aligned herself with the will of God. Of course, Mary should be respected and commended for this; but, make no mistake, this was God’s will. God’s expectation of Christians is that we align ourselves with His will. It does not logically follow that, when Mary aligned herself with God’s will, Christ was so moved that He allowed her to cooperate in our redemption through the offering of her Son’s life. For the will of God was that her Son offered His own life for humanity. His will for her was that she be the vessel through which Jesus entered the earth. She was to be His mother. Jesus’ sacrifice was His own. Once Mary was saved, what does logically follow is that she tried to do everything for the glory of God.53 Jesus would not have allowed her to play a direct role in our redemption because that would not have been for His glory.
Now, we will turn to the passage Liguori uses to justify Mary’s motherhood of all human beings: John 19:26 - 27. The two verses, in full, are below:
“When Jesus then saw His mother, and the disciple whom He loved standing nearby, He said to His mother, ‘Woman, behold, your son!’ Then He said to the disciple, ‘Behold, your mother!’ From that hour the disciple took her into his home.”
Liguori’s claim is that the disciple to whom Jesus turns (John) is really all of humans, and that by saying, “Behold, your mother!” Christ is saying that Mary is the Mother of Human Beings. The context of this verse says otherwise. Jesus was the firstborn of Mary. His brothers54 did not believe in Him or accept His ministry. This is evident in John 7:5, “For not even His brothers were believing in Him.” Because of these circumstances, Jesus gave responsibility for Mary’s care to John, the disciple whom He loved. It makes perfect sense that Jesus, out of love, respect, and honor for His mother, would have ensured she was taken care of by someone who believes in Him and participates in His ministry—this could not have been Joseph, as he was likely deceased by the time that Jesus’s ministry began. Thus, Liguori’s interpretation of these verses is incorrect. So then, is his scriptural argument for why Mary is the Mother of Human Beings.
Our Life, the Breath of Christians
Liguori’s argument as for why Mary is Our Life and the Breath of Christians is as follows: “Just as the soul gives life to the body, so grace gives life to the soul. And so our Lady, obtaining grace for sinners through her intercession, brings back life to their souls” (Liguori, 51). Liguori points out that “breathing is not only the sign but even the cause of life, so the name of Mary, continually on the lips of her clients, not only proves the presence of supernatural life, but also causes and preserves it, and gives them strength for everything” (Liguori, 56). Thus, he calls her the Breath of Christians. Liguori’s main scriptural backing for his claims is Proverbs 8:35, which states “For he who finds me finds life and obtains favor from Yahweh.” Liguori applies this verse to Mary. The reality is that this verse was clearly written about Wisdom, and the Bible tells us wisdom comes from God. It is inappropriate to find Bible verses and appropriate them outside of their context to apply to something else which one believes. Proverbs chapter 8 is about the blessing of wisdom. Within the chapter, this is said of Wisdom: “Yahweh possessed me at the beginning of His way, before His deeds of old. From everlasting I was installed, from the beginning, from the earliest times of the earth… When He established the heavens, I was there… Then I was beside Him, as a master workman; And I was a daily delight, rejoicing always before Him” [Proverbs 8:23, 27, 30]. This language is strikingly similar to John 1:1 - 5, which reads:
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. And the Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overtake it.”
In this passage, the Word is eternal, the Word is with God during creation, and the Word was God’s agent in creating everything in the universe. Of course, the Word is the preincarnate Christ. Christ is God’s master workman. God Father and God the Son were co-existing in eternity. With this in mind, if we are to say the Wisdom Proverbs chapter 8 is about any particular person, we are best to say that it is about Jesus Christ.55 56 Even if it weren’t about Christ, it would be about wisdom conceptually. It would not be about Mary. Mary is not eternal, for nothing and no one is eternal but God. If Proverbs chapter 8 isn’t about Mary, then the verses within mustn’t be applied to her.
As for the aspect of Mary being Our Life because she obtains grace for sinners through intercession, I will cover that under the heading “The Mediatrix of Grace and Intercession, The Most True Mediatrix Between God and Human Beings, Hope of All, Our Hope.”
Let’s examine what the Bible says about the true life of Christians. We are told that grace will “reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” in Romans 5:21. Further, we are told in Romans 6:23 that “the gracious gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” 2nd Timothy 1:10 says that our Savior Jesus Christ “abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.” All of these verses demonstrate that the life of Christians—an eternal life—is a gift given to us by our gracious God. This life was bought for us by Jesus Christ. Perhaps the most important passage about Christ offering us our life as Christians is Colossians 3:1 - 4—it states:
“Therefore, if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you died and your life has been hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, is manifested, then you also will be manifested with Him in glory.”
This passage is extremely rich in content. Verse 1, when it says “you have been raised up with Christ,” means that we, Christians, have been spiritually resurrected with Him. The moment we began believing in Him, we entered spiritually into His death and resurrected. And, because He is risen, we are spiritually awakened and alive in Him. We now seek “the things above,” or the privileges of the heavenly kingdom we are to enter. We are told in verse 2 to focus on thoughts of the things of heaven. The only way to do this is through a deeper understanding of them through Scripture. As a Christian, “you died and your life has been hidden with Christ in God.” We are united with Christ in His death. He paid the penalty for our sins and rose again; so, we have new life in Him. When Christ returns, we will be with Him in glory. This is because Christ is our life. He gifted our lives to us through His resurrection. Clearly, if anyone is meant to be the life of Christians, it is Jesus Christ.
Now, let’s examine what the Bible says about the breath of Christians. God “formed man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and so the man became a living being” [Genesis 2:7]. In Yahweh’s hand “is the life of every living thing, and the breath of the flesh of man” [Job 12:10]. Isaiah 42:5 says that Yahweh “gives breath to the people on [earth].” God “gives to all people life and breath and all things” [Acts 17:25]. These verses make it clear that God gives us our breath—He gives us our breath of life. What are we to do with this breath? Psalm 150:6 says, “Let everything that has breath praise Yah. Praise Yah!”
The Bible makes it clear. Christ has given us new life—a life He paid for with His death. God has given us the breath of life. We are commanded to praise Him endlessly with this breath. Christ is our life and our breath is God’s.
Health of the Sick, Help of Christians
Liguori calls Mary the “Health of the Sick” and the “Help of Christians” in passing. His argument is that, if Mary is the true Mediatrix of All Graces (a name I will refute in the coming sections), then it’s perfectly normal to attribute graces, such as health and help, to her.57 Liguori confirms that these graces are prayed for in the name of Christ, yet “whatever graces we receive, they come to us through her intercession” (Liguori, 99). If this is the case, it follows that even graces we pray for directly to Christ are only gifted to us through Mary’s intercession. Because I will refute the title of Mediatrix in a later section, in this one I will focus on all the times the Bible mentions that God gives us health and help. Interestingly enough, the Bible does not mention Mary as a distributor of any of these graces of God. Psalm 41:3 says that for one who considers the poor, “Yahweh will sustain him upon his sickbed. In his illness, [Yahweh] restore[s] him to health.” In Jeremiah 30:17, Yahweh says He will restore Israel to health—“For I will restore you to health, And I will heal you of your wounds.” When a lame beggar is healed in Acts chapter 3, Peter says “it is the name of Jesus which has strengthened this man whom you see and know; and the faith which is through Him has given him this perfect health in the presence of you all” [Acts 3:16]. Notice, in this passage, the man’s belief in Christ and faith in the name of Jesus is what gave him perfect health. It seems as though the lame beggar had faith in Christ to heal him, and that he did not ask for the intercession of Mary for his healing. For then, the beggar would have been placing faith in Mary to grant him intercession and relying on Mary’s faith in and relationship with Christ to deliver his healing. Peter and John double down on this man being healed in the name of Jesus in Acts chapter 4, when they say,
“As to how this man has been saved from his sickness, let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead—by this name this man stands here before you in good health” [Acts 4:9-10].
Surely, if this man was healed in the name of Jesus Christ, and Israel was restored to health through Christ’s fulfillment of the Old Testament covenants, then Christ is the Health of the Sick, granted to us by Yahweh Himself.
Multiple verses prove that the help of Christians should be attributed to Yahweh. “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble” [Psalm 46:1]. “Behold, God is my helper; the Lord is among those who sustain my soul. He will return the evil to my foes; destroy them in Your truth” [Psalm 54:4 - 5]. Hebrews 13:6 says “The Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid. What will man do to me?” Clearly, Christians should seek help from and refuge in God. He is our helper, our refuge and strength—Yahweh is the Help of Christians.
The Star of the Sea, the Ladder to Paradise, the Gate of Heaven
There are a few names scattered throughout The Glories of Mary that are symbols said to be synonymous with Mary. Such include “the Star of the Sea,”58 “the Ladder to Paradise,”59 and “the Gate of Heaven.”60 Liguori paints the following picture regarding Mary as the Star of the Sea:
“Sinners have fallen into [a storm at sea] from the ship of God’s grace. They are tossed about by remorse and the dread of God’s judgements. They have no light, no mark to guide them, and are on the point of despair. Then our Lord, pointing out Mary to them, the Star of the Sea, raises His voice and says: ‘Poor lost sinners, do not despair. Lift your eyes to this star of beauty. Breathe freely again, for this Star will save you out of the storm and bring you at last to the harbor of salvation’” (Liguori, 74-75).
This metaphor Liguori paints is quite similar to the account in Matthew in which Jesus walks on the sea. Only, in this account, it seems that Peter, the man whom Jesus told to walk on the water to Him, needed to have his eyes fixed on Christ, not Mary.
The disciples’ boat was “being battered by the waves; for the wind was against them” [Matthew 14:24]. Jesus came to them, walking on the sea. Peter said, “Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water” [Matthew 14:28]. “And [Jesus] said, ‘Come!’ And getting out of the boat, Peter walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But seeing the wind, he became frightened, and beginning to sink, he cried out, saying, ‘Lord, save me!’ And immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and took hold of him, and said to him, ‘You of little faith why did you doubt?’” [Matthew 14:29 - 31 - emphasis added].
In this account, in the storm, Peter was walking toward Jesus. It logically follows, then, that he had his eyes fixed on Him. Then, once Peter looked away and saw the waves, he began to sink. Notice how, in this story, there is no Star of the Sea except Christ, for Christ wanted the disciples to have faith in Him. Mary simply doesn’t fit in the picture. It seems the purpose of this passage was to prove that Jesus was the Son of Man, and to convince the disciples that He is who He says He is. Other than this passage in Matthew, stars are only mentioned as people, or guiding one towards a person, in three ways. First, stars have often been compared to the offspring of major biblical figures.61 Second, a star was mentioned that led to Jesus Christ. This occurred in Matthew 2:2 and 2:9, when it says “For we [the wisemen] saw His star in the east and have come to worship Him,” and “behold, the star, which they had seen in the east, was going on before them until it came and stood over the place where the Child was.” Third, Jesus Christ Himself was likened to a star. In Numbers 24:17, it states, “I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near; A star shall come forth from Jacob, a scepter shall rise from Israel, and shall crush through the forehead of Moab.” This is clearly an Old Testament prophecy about Jesus, the Messiah. Thus, having examined Liguori’s metaphor for Mary as the Star of the Sea and having referenced biblical instances of stars being likened to people—or rather, people being likened to stars—I conclude that Mary is not the Star of the Sea, and that the title Star of the Sea is most appropriately given to Jesus, the one on whom we should focus in times of peril.
Liguori also called Mary the Ladder to Paradise and the Gate of Heaven. These names he gave Mary in reference to her role as Mediatrix. He asks, “how can she be otherwise than full of grace? She has been made the ladder to paradise, the gate of heaven, the most true mediatrix between God and human beings” (Liguori, 97). As I’ve aforementioned, I will address the title of Mediatrix in a later section. However, it is curious that the ladder to heaven and the gate of heaven have both been mentioned in the Bible, and that both of these mentions were referencing Jesus Christ. In Genesis 28:12, Jacob has a dream. In his dream he saw “a ladder stood on the earth with its top touching heaven; and behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.” In the Gospel of John, Jesus references this dream, although this time He replaces the ladder with the self-designation, “Son of Man.” “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see the heavens opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man” [John 1:51]. Jesus is clearly calling Himself the ladder to heaven—the vessel by which men can enter God’s kingdom. This self-designation was made true when Jesus was crucified on the cross. Because this occurred, if we have faith in Him, we may achieve everlasting life. He bridged the gap between earth and heaven with His sacrifice. Jesus is also called the gate of heaven in John. Jesus said, “I am the door of the sheep… I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture” [John 10:7, 9]. Later, He says, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but through Me” [John 14:6]. These are the words of Christ Himself. He makes it unmistakable for us—He is the ladder to heaven and the gate through which we enter paradise. To suggest that Mary is these things is to subtract from Jesus sole redemptive role in our salvation.
The Ark of the New Testament
Perhaps the most egregious example of Mary being conflated with a symbol in the Bible is her being called the Ark of the New Testament. Liguori’s explanation for Mary being the new Ark is as follows:
“In Judea victories were won by means of the Ark. Thus it was that Moses conquered his enemies; thus too Jericho was conquered, and the Philistines were overthrown. It is well known that the Ark was a figure of Mary. Cornelius à Lapide says, ‘In time of danger, Christians should turn to the Most Blessed Virgin, who contained Christ in her womb as the Ark contained manna, and who brought Him forth to be the saving food of the world’” (Liguori, 89).
This argument seems to be intentionally leaving out other essential details about the Ark of the Covenant, so as to avoid saying that Jesus Christ is the Ark of the New Testament. However, let us examine Hebrews chapter 9, which clearly points out that Christ is the Ark of the New Testament:
THE OLD COVENANT
“Now even the first covenant had requirements of divine worship and the earthly sanctuary. For there was a tabernacle prepared: the first part, in which were the lampstand and the table and the sacred bread, which is called the holy place. And behind the second veil there was a tabernacle which is called the Holy of Holies, having a golden altar of incense and the ark of the covenant covered on all sides with gold, in which was a golden jar holding the manna, and Aaron’s rod which budded, and the tablets of the covenant. And above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat. Of these things we cannot now speak in detail. Now when these things have been so prepared, the priests are continually entering the first part of the tabernacle performing the divine worship, but into the second, only the high priest enters once a year, not without taking blood, which he offers for himself and for the sins of the people committed in ignorance. The Holy Spirit is indicating this, that the way into the holy places has not yet been manifested while that first part of the tabernacle is still standing, which is a symbol for the present time. Accordingly both gifts and sacrifices are offered which cannot make the worshiper perfect in conscience, since they relate only to food and drink and various washings, requirements for the body imposed until a time of reformation” [Hebrews 9:1 - 10 - emphasis added].
THE NEW COVENANT
“But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation, and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy places once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? And for this reason He is the mediator of a new covenant, so that, since a death has taken place for the redemption of the trespasses that were committed under the first covenant, those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance. For where a covenant is, there must of necessity be the death of the one who made it. For a covenant is valid only when men are dead, for it is never in force while the one who made it lives. Therefore not even the first covenant was inaugurated without blood. For when every commandment had been spoken by Moses to all the people according to the Law, he took the blood of the calves and the goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, saying, ‘This is the blood of the covenant which God commanded you.’ And in the same way, both the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry he sprinkled with the blood. And according to the Law, one may almost say, all things are cleansed with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. Therefore it was necessary for the copies of the things in the heavens to be cleansed with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ did not enter holy places made with hands, mere copies of the true ones, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us; nor was it that He would offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the holy places year by year with blood that is not his own. Otherwise, He would have needed to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now once at the consummation of the ages He has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. And in as much as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment, so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await Him” [Hebrews 9:11 - 28 - emphasis added].
I apologize for the long quote, but this chapter is essential for understanding that Jesus is the New Ark. To begin, inside the old Ark there was a golden jar holding manna. Jesus says in John 6:32 - 33, “Truly, truly, I say to you, Moses has not given you the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” Of course, Jesus is the gift of the Father that brings life to the world; He is the bread of life.62 On this I believe Roman Catholics and I agree. However, let’s dive deeper into the text. Another item found inside the Ark was the old covenant, or the 10 commandments. Jesus tells us in Matthew 5:17 - 20, “I did not come to abolish but to fulfill” the law. We are told that Christ is the fulfillment of the old covenant. In Him was made the new covenant. Hebrews chapter 9 says “He is the mediator of the new covenant.” The text also mentions Aaron’s golden rod that budded. Aaron was given this rod in Numbers 17 and 18, and it confirmed that Aaron was gifted authority from God as high priest. In Hebrews chapters 9, and throughout the whole book, we are told Jesus is the high priest. Jesus, the bread of life, the fulfillment of the new covenant, and the high priest, entered through a “more perfect tabernacle.” Notice how the text doesn’t say He entered through a more perfect Ark. That is because Jesus entered through the more perfect tabernacle as the New Ark. Jesus is the New Ark. Everything inside the Ark is fulfilled by Jesus—He is the bread of life, He is the fulfillment of the covenant, He is the high priest.
Finally, at the point of Jesus’ death, “the veil of the sanctuary was torn in two from top to bottom” [Mark 15:38]. According to Hebrews 10:19 - 20, “we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is His flesh.” As we know according to Hebrews chapter 9, the Ark sat behind the veil. Jesus’ death, having torn the veil, gave us access to God through His sacrifice. The veil between us and God was torn, and Jesus is the Ark through which we gain access to God’s kingdom in heaven.
With all of these facts in mind, the Bible clearly paints Jesus as the New Ark, not Mary.
Interjection
So far, I have addressed a number of names St. Alphonsus Liguori attributes to Mary throughout his book, The Glories of Mary. And, while my assertion is these names were misapplied or misguided at best—or at worst, the blatant ignorance of God’s glory and power—the names to follow have far worse connotations. These names are downright heretical, in the sense that they deny Jesus’ exclusivity in the accomplishment of our salvation, His nature and role as mediator of God’s grace to us, and they attribute to Mary omnipotence. The usage of these names, specifically, is what I find to be a deeply troubling issue that has taken a gripping hold within Church doctrine. Further, it could be argued that the attribution of the names I’ve mentioned earlier to Mary is simply an outgrowth from any of these names. We must remember that Christ alone is the sole mediator between us and God, that He is our intercessor, our hope, the sole redeemer, and that only the Triune God is all-powerful.
The Mediatrix of Grace and Intercession, The Most True Mediatrix Between God and Human Beings, Hope of All, Our Hope 63 64
It’s no surprise that, in his work, Liguori attributes to Mary the role of Mediatrix. This name is, perhaps, one of the most commonly used names for Mary within Catholicism. Liguori’s general understanding of Mary’s role as Mediatrix is seemingly simple. God “had decreed that all the graces He gives human beings should pass through Mary’s hands” (Liguori, 97). He makes the distinction that Jesus is the mediator of justice, but Mary is the mediatrix of grace and intercession (Liguori, 97-98). God’s motivation for allowing His graces to pass through Mary’s hands is, He “wishes to exalt this great creature [Mary], who loved Him and honored Him during her life more than all others have ever done, and whom He chose to be the Mother of His Son, our common Redeemer” (Liguori, 98). He says by Christ’s merits He obtained for us grace and salvation, but Mary is the dispenser who gives us this grace. Thus, “whatever graces we receive, they come to us through her intercession” (Liguori, 99). To prove that Mary is Mediatrix of all graces, Liguori turns to Proverbs 8:35, Jeremiah 31:22, and John 6:44. Respectively, they say: “For he who finds me finds life and obtains favor from Yahweh,” “How long will you go here and there, O faithless daughter? For Yahweh has created a new thing in the earth—a woman will encompass a man,” and “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day.”
To begin, Proverbs chapter 8, as I mentioned in the “Mother of Human Beings” section and footnote 55, refers most likely to Jesus Christ. Even if it did not, it would much more likely refer to Christ’s wisdom personified, not Mary. This is because the language of the passage includes statements about Wisdom’s role in eternal creation. “Yahweh possessed me at the beginning of His way… From everlasting I was installed” [Proverbs 8:22 - 23]. Mary is, as Liguori mentions throughout his book, a human creature. Thus, her presence in eternity is completely implausible. Proverbs 8 simply cannot be written about or referring to her.
Next, Liguori mentions Jeremiah 31:22, claiming “no line can be drawn from the center of a circle without passing through the circumference. Similarly, no grace proceeds from Jesus, the center of every good thing, without passing through Mary, who encompassed Him when she received Him into her womb” (Liguori, 103). However, I would claim Jeremiah 31:22 is not referring to Mary at all. I will elaborate, nevertheless, that if the passage was about Mary, it would simply be a prophecy about her and the birth of Christ. Nowhere does the passage suggest that Mary would be a dispenser of graces. Rather, Jeremiah 31:22 is about the nation of Israel. Israel is referred to in Jeremiah 31:21 as “O virgin of Israel.” In Jeremiah, we may understand that Israel was first a virgin, but she turned away to faithlessness—hence Jeremiah 3:8, in which Jeremiah mentions the “adulteries of faithless Israel.” This development would explain how Israel would change from a “virgin” in verse 21 to simply a “woman” and “faithless daughter” in verse 22. When the “woman will encompass a man,” Israel will embrace Yahweh again, and “a new thing in the earth” will be created (their union).
Finally, after Liguori’s mention of John 6:44, he says (in reference to the passage), “In similar words, says Richard of St. Lawrence, Jesus speaks of His Mother: “No one comes to Me unless My Mother draws that person by her prayers” (Liguori, 106). This quotation makes no sense. Of course, the correct interpretation of John 6:44 is that, using the Holy Spirit, the Father draws someone toward faith in His Son, who is the only point of access to Him.65 Thus, this quotation of Scripture does not apply to Mary either.
Having considered each of Liguori’s three Scripture citations used to assert his claims that Mary is Mediatrix, and having refuted each of them, we can now turn toward what the Scripture says about who mediates for humans. 1st Timothy 2:5 clearly states, “For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” The word “one” that appears before “God” and “mediator” is the same in Greek, / εἷς /. Therefore, just as there is exclusively one God, a fact on which all Christians would agree, there is one mediator. The Bible could not be any more clear. Christ is the sole mediator between man and God. Not only is this scripturally based, but it is logical as well, for Christ was the God-man, who was sent down to fulfill God’s covenants with man that men could not obey. If God is divine, and humanity is simply human, then the obvious bridge between the two would be the God-man, Christ Jesus. Further, the Bible clarifies that God’s grace is dispensed to us in Christ Jesus. John 1:16 - 17 says, “For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace. For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” Romans 3:24 says justification is “a gift by [God’s] grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus.” These verses, which are crucial in understanding how God’s grace is dispensed, make no note of Mary. They don’t leave anything up for interpretation either—grace is a gift earned by and given to us through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. There is no biblical account of God giving Mary any sort of authority to act as a dispenser of grace. And, if this role is vitally important to believers, as Liguori suggests, one would hope to find at least one verse that can explain Mary in this role. But no such verse exists. Rather, what must be done to draw this conclusion is to misinterpret verses or extrapolate them beyond reason.
With this in mind, we can easily dismantle Liguori’s idea that Mary is the Hope of All, or Our Hope. He claims that, just as one hopes in the ministers of a king to grant them the king’s gifts, so too do people hope in Mary to grant them the grace of God (Liguori, 67-68). This argumentation is, indeed, correct. However, when one draws conclusions about in whom he should place his trust, he must do so from the Bible, rather than rely on an imported prior understanding to interpret the Scriptures or deny them outright. As I identified in the last paragraph, Christ is the sole mediator between humans and God. In addition to this, we learn in 1st Thessalonians 1:3 that Paul says he remembered in his prayers the Thessalonians’ “work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ before our God and Father.” This verse makes it quite clear that we should place our hope in Christ. But, a question left unanswered is ‘where does this hope come from?’ The hope that we have in Christ comes from God the Father by the work of the Holy Spirit, who He sent us. “Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit” [Romans 15:13]. “Surely wait in silence for God, O my soul, for my hope is from Him. Surely He is my rock and my salvation, my stronghold; I shall not be shaken.” [Psalm 62:5-6]. Our hope is “from” God. If we are to place our hope in Christ, and if this hope is given to us by God, where does Mary fit into the picture? The short answer is, she does not.
Of course, Mary’s role at Mediatrix is one that is completely dependent on her ability to intercede for us. According to Catholicism, all one has to do is ask for her intercession, similar to how one asks other Christians to pray for him, and she will intercede for him to Christ or God the Father. However, the Bible clearly says that one should only pray to God. If the Bible mentions to whom we should pray, it is God every single time. Verses like Psalm 50:15, Matthew 6:6, and Philippians 4:6 - 7, prove this assertion. They say:
“Call upon Me in the day of distress; I shall rescue you, and you will glorify Me” [Psalm 50:15].
“But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you” [Matthew 6:6].
“Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and petition with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” [Philippians 4:6 - 7].
When the Bible mentions someone praying for another, each verse speaks of fellow Christians alive and on earth.66 Further, the Bible specifically tells us not to contact the dead. Deuteronomy 18:10 - 11 says, “There shall not be found among you… who is an enchanter or a medium or a spiritist or one who inquires of the dead.” No one should inquire of the dead—the Bible says it quite plainly. Isaiah also asks the question, “Should not a people inquire of their God? Should they inquire of the dead on behalf of the living?" [Isaiah 8:19]. One may wonder if these verses apply to the saints and Mary, seeing as, although they are physically dead, they are spiritually alive. To this, I would argue 1st Samuel 28 gives a clear answer.
In 1st Samuel 28, Samuel is already deceased.67 Israel was about to be attacked by the Philistines, and Saul, wondering what to do, asked Yahweh, who did not answer.68 As a result, Saul turned to consult a medium at En-dor.69 He asks her to contact, or bring up, Samuel, so that he may speak to him (Saul also swears by Yahweh that she will not be punished for doing this).70 When the medium successfully contacts Samuel, Samuel rebukes Saul, saying, “Why then do you ask me, since Yahweh has turned away from you and has become your adversary? So Yahweh has done accordingly as He spoke by my hand, for Yahweh has torn the kingdom out of your hand and given it to your neighbor, David. As you did not listen to the voice of Yahweh and did not execute His burning anger on Amalek, so Yahweh has done this thing to you this day” [1st Samuel 28:16 - 18]. Samuel’s rebuke of Saul was made because Saul should have known that Samuel’s will is always in alignment with God’s, now that he is in heaven. If this is the case, then whatever Yahweh’s answer to Saul was so would be Samuel’s. This should inform how we view praying to Mary or the saints. We should be inquiring directly of Yahweh in prayer. To attempt to speak to one who has died, even if that person was/is righteous, is a waste of time. God is the ultimate authority to whom we should pray, and there is no necessity for a mediator to reach Him other than the mediator mentioned in the Bible: Jesus Christ. Thus, we can confidently say Mary does not even have the ability to intercede for us.
The Immaculate
In The Glories of Mary, Liguori mentions that Mary is immaculate at least once, when he says the phrase “Pure and immaculate Queen” in reference to her (Liguori, 106). Of course, the word ‘immaculate’ is referring to Mary’s title, The Immaculate. In Liguori’s prayers written to Mary in the back of the book, he calls her “immaculate Virgin” and “Immaculate Queen and Mother” (Liguori, 82, 84). When Liguori uses this language, he is drawing from the Immaculate Conception, a dogma of the Catholic church. The dogma of the Immaculate Conception essentially states that Mary was born without the stain of original sin, and therefore, she never sinned at all. However, anyone who seeks the honest truth in the Bible, untainted by outside bias, would discover the Immaculate Conception is not what the Bible teaches. I will address this topic, at length, in another article in this series. However, for now, I will focus on how an honest reading of the Scripture refutes the idea that Mary never sinned.
Romans 3:10 - 12, quoting numerous Old Testament passages, says “There is none righteous, not even one; there is none who seeks for God; all have turned aside, together they have become worthless; there is none who does good, there is not even one.” Romans 5:12 and 5:14 say, “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned… Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the trespass of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come.” In John 3:3, Jesus says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
These passages all have one thing in common: they are universally applicable to all of man. When the Bible tells me the rule is that there is not one person who is righteous or untainted by original sin, I will take the Bible at its word. For it says: there is not one righteous human, not one human untainted, and not one human who can see the kingdom of God without being born again. That is the rule. Does the Bible mention any explicit exceptions? Yes. Jesus Christ is the only man who the Bible mentions never sinned. And, this exception to the rule would make perfect sense. Jesus is the God-man. He fulfilled the law that we could not. He had to achieve the perfection every other human could not. We can observe Jesus being mentioned as the exception to the rule in multiple passages. Isaiah 53:9 says, prophesying about Jesus, “So His grave was assigned with wicked men, yet He was with a rich man in His death, because He had done no violence, nor was there any deceit in His mouth.” 1st Peter 2:22 says, in reference to Jesus, He “did no sin, nor was any deceit found in His mouth.” There are other passages that attest to Jesus’ sinlessness. No such statement is made of Mary. Her sinlessness is not once explicitly mentioned as an exception to the rule true to all humanity. Rather, one must extrapolate her title as “favored one” in Luke 1:28 to mean that she was sinless. Such is a misinterpretation, however, made provable by the fact that Mary calls Yahweh her “Savior” in Luke 1:47. The word ‘Savior’ used by Mary, in the Greek, has the same root as the word ‘Savior’ in the Greek used in Titus 2:13 and 2nd Peter 1:1, only different because Mary uses it with a possessive “my” preceding it—the root is / σωτήρ /. In Titus 2:13 and 2nd Peter 1:1, the word is used in reference to “God our Savior.” What this implies is that Mary, much like anyone else, is in need of God’s divine grace for its salvific effect. Nothing in the Scripture points to Mary’s sinlessness.71 Rather, the Scripture points to the fact that every human being except for Jesus Christ has sinned, and every human is in need of God’s grace.
Also, as a final mention, if one argues ‘Mary had to be sinless in order to properly conceive Jesus,’ then I would ask, why, if Mary can be born sinless of a sinner, cannot Jesus be born sinless of a sinner? If He is God incarnate in man, surely He can do anything untainted by original sin and there are no limits to His ability to be conceived of a woman who has sinned.
Co-Helper of Redemption, Mediatrix of our Salvation72
One of the most blasphemous claims in The Glories of Mary is that Mary is the “mediatrix of our salvation” (Liguori, 97). Not only this, but that “what [Liguori] intend[s] to prove here is that Mary’s intercession is not only useful but necessary for salvation: not absolutely, but morally, necessary” (Liguori, 97 - emphasis added). Liguori clarifies the distinction by saying that moral necessity implies that, in order to be saved, one needs God’s grace. But, “He will not… give graces without the intercession of Mary” (Liguori, 98). “God wishes to exalt this great creature [Mary], who loved Him and honored Him during her life more than all others have ever done” (Liguori, 98). She is “the Gate of Heaven because no one can enter that blessed Kingdom without passing through her” (Liguori, 102). “It is much more becoming that the two sexes should work together to repair the evil which the two had worked together to repair the evil which the two had worked together to bring about” (Liguori, 105). Thus, Mary is the “Co-helper of Redemption” (Liguori, 105). “The whole salvation of the human race depends on the great favour and protection of Mary. Whoever is protected by Mary will be saved; whoever is not will be lost” (Liguori, 107). “God will not save us without the intercession of Mary” (Liguori, 107).
As you can see, there is no shortage of quotes from Liguori that become increasingly ridiculous. One may attempt to defend what Liguori actually meant in his words, but his meaning seems to be quite clear: Mary’s intercession is absolutely necessary for our salvation. The god that Liguori portrays in these quotes is one who is merciless on his own, and who only distributes his grace and mercy unto people if Mary, who seems to be made of higher discernment than him, tells him to do so. If this is the case, why pray to this god at all? Why not just pray to Mary? After all, she is the “Gate of Heaven.” This god is not the God of the Bible. For one, the Bible never mentions Mary’s role in our salvation, other than the fact that she birthed Jesus Christ. As I’ve mentioned in this paper, Jesus was responsible for His own death, so Mary did not, in fact, offer Him up to be crucified. Thus, Mary is solely a participant in God’s prescriptive will, much like every other human being.
First, it is necessary to mention that God would not exalt Mary, for He is the only worthy recipient of divine honor and glory; “For My own sake, for My own sake, I will act… My glory I will not give to another” [Isaiah 48:11].73 And, as we know, the twenty-four elders in Revelation 4:11 say, “Worthy are You, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power, for You created all things, and because of Your will they existed, and were created.” These verses seem to suggest that all of the glory we give we give it to God, who deserves infinite praise. For He created the universe and created us. He would not exalt Mary. He exalts His Son, who acquired for us our salvation; this is what Jesus said:
“Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, that the Son may glorify You, even as You gave Him authority over all flesh, that to all whom You have given Him, He may give eternal life. And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. I glorified You on the earth, having finished the work which You have given Me to do. Now, Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was” [John 17:1 - 5].
So, we can conclude that the Father exalts the Son, and the Son the Father, in a true, reciprocal, humble, divine relationship. A relationship in which Mary has no place. As for Mary being the Gate of Heaven, this is clearly untrue, seeing as, like I aforementioned, Jesus says, “I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture” [John 10:9]. This verse demonstrates that Liguori, seemingly intentionally, replaced Jesus Christ with Mary. Further, Romans 3:24 says “being justified [is] a gift by [God’s] grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus.” Just as I mentioned before, God’s grace redeems humanity, and it is given to use through Christ Jesus Himself.
The Bible clearly shows that Jesus is the only mediator of salvation. He earned our salvation for us, and He alone distributes it. His sacrifice was a gift of God’s grace. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life” [John 3:16]. Liguori is blasphemously attempting to force Mary into the beautiful—and exclusive—relationship between the Father and the Son. Mary did not play a role in our salvation, nor does she belong in this relationship. To suggest otherwise is to deny who God is, and to deny the power of Jesus Christ. Such is unacceptable.
Before I move on, I would like to make one final note about Liguori’s claims. If Mary is so integral to the salvation of humans, why doesn’t the Bible ever mention this unique role? Why doesn’t the Bible say a word about Mary’s role as the dispenser of graces? This is not an argument from silence, it’s an argument from lack of sufficient evidence. Roman Catholics are making claims about God and Mary that need to be supported by some form of evidence in order to confirm their truth. If the Bible, God’s breathed words, cannot support these ideas, but instead actively refutes them, then one should reconsider his beliefs so that they align with the Scriptures.
Omnipotent, All-Powerful with Her Son, Advocate with Power to Save All
This section is the ultimate culmination of all that Liguori has heretofore said of Mary. He has attributed to her extensive glory and power. Still, one could (albeit poorly) argue that this power is separate from the power God is given in the Bible. The following quotes, however, attribute to Mary a power so similar to God’s that there is simply no defense, neither biblical nor logical, to defend them. Liguori says:
“At the command of Mary all obey, even God. She is omnipotent, for the queen, according to all laws, enjoys the same privileges as the king; and since the son’s power also belongs to the mother, this Mother is made omnipotent by an omnipotent Son… God has put the whole Church not only under the patronage, but even under the power and authority, of Mary” (Liguori, 114).
He also says, “Mary is omnipotent only by grace. This is proved by the fact that the Son never refuses the Mother anything she seeks” (Liguori, 115). Liguori clarifies that Mary can’t command her Son, per say, but she can ask Him for something. And, out of humble obligation to her, He accepts her wish every time (Liguori, 114). These claims are simply not present in the Bible. As I proved earlier, Mary is not the Queen of Heaven, nor does she have dominion over heaven or earth. Further, how exactly is Mary made omnipotent by the Son? Especially if God chose her to participate in His will?
Liguori’s claims in this section are absolutely idolatrous. He attributes the full power of the Son to Mary, a mortal human being. Further, he says that Mary can ask for anything she wishes (in reference to God’s grace being dispensed to humans) and she shall receive it because the Son is obliged to accept. No amount of saying she was given these powers by grace can compensate for this, for, as I mentioned before, Yahweh is a “jealous God;” He commands we “shall not worship or serve” other gods [Exodus 20:5]. We “shall have no other gods before [Him]” [Exodus 20:3]. If these verse citations seem basic, it is because Liguori has violated the basic, most well-known and widely accepted laws of the Bible. He places Mary before Jesus, saying that He is obligated to obey her. He says Mary can persuade Jesus (Ligouri, 72). He says Mary hears our prayers more quickly than Christ Himself (Liguori, 85). He attributes to her at least half of the kingdom of her Son and dominion over heaven and earth. This is absolutely worshipping, exalting, and serving Mary first, before Christ, when, in reality, she should not be served at all. The Triune God is given omnipotence in the Scripture,74 and no one else; it is a fact of His nature.
Final Note
Liguori is shameless in his proclamation of these names. And, the fact is, he does not believe he can go too far in the adoration of Mary. He says, “anything we may say in praise of Mary is little in comparison with what she deserves, because of her dignity as Mother of God” (Liguori, 100-101). This should be said, rather, of God Himself. Psalm 106:2 says, Liguori’s claim that one can never praise Mary sufficiently seems to open the door for the practice of incidental or even blatant idolatry. This is my concern, for both Liguori and members of the Roman Catholic church who do not place their full trust in God’s word, rather they place it elsewhere, like in errant men or idols.
Conclusion
The names of Mary used by St. Alphonsus Liguori share a common theme: they all draw upon powers expressly given to God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit in the Holy Scripture. God claims exclusivity to these powers; they only belong to Him—“I am Yahweh, that is My name; I will not give My glory to another,” and “Yours, O Yahweh, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, indeed everything that is in the heavens and the earth; Yours is the kingdom, O Yahweh, and You exalt Yourself as head over all” [Isaiah 42:8 and 1st Chronicles 29:11]. The Bible assures us that there is no one like God. “O Yahweh God of hosts, who is like You, O mighty Yah?” [Psalm 89:8]. By referring to Mary in such high regard and likening her to God—by giving her the powers of God, praying to her, venerating her to the extent of glorifying her, making her intercession necessary for salvation, and claiming that she will respond to prayers faster than Christ, our Lord, Roman Catholics attribute to Mary what only belongs to the Trinity. The glory and power and kingdom is His forever and ever. He does not share His power, nor His glory, nor the governance of His kingdom in heaven, with anyone except Christ, who is divine Himself. There lies beneath the attributions of power and glory to Mary little to no evidence for these assumptions. In this article, I provided countless rebuttals to each name—rebuttals founded in the Holy Bible. I provided evidence that the names, powers, and glory given to Mary should be given to the most high God.
This is not an argument from silence, it’s an argument that the Catholic Church makes false dogmatic and doctrinal claims about Mary that are founded in very little evidence that is properly derived from, or in agreement with, the Bible.This is the first article of a seven article series. In the next article, I will refute the very shaky foundation of Catholic beliefs about Mary: Sacred Tradition. Then, in the following four articles, I will address the sinlessness of Mary, her perpetual virginity, the Immaculate Conception, and the bodily assumption; four Marian dogmas of the Catholic church. Finally, in the seventh article, I will explain the proper view of Mary—one that grants her the utmost respect while giving full and complete glory to God. This explanation will be firmly rooted in the Scripture.
I hope that you, dear reader, seriously consider the arguments I’ve laid forth in this work. I also encourage you to take the time to read the rest of the works in this seven part series. I think it necessary to tell you, directly, that I created this work in good faith to our Lord Jesus Christ, our Heavenly Father, and the Holy Spirit. It is what I believe God has revealed to believers. This article expresses disagreement with Roman Catholic doctrine, but does not express any hatred or bad faith toward them. In reality, this article was written out of love and respect for the Roman Catholic Church, as I love and respect them enough to challenge logically and academically, so that we all may grow in our faith and sanctification.
With that, I wish grace, peace, and clarity to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
References
Catholic News Agency. 2012. “St. Alphonsus helps chart the way to heaven, Pope says.” Catholic News Agency. https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/25397/st-alphonsus-helps-chart-the-way-to-heaven-pope-says.
Liguori, Saint A. 2020. The Glories of Mary. N.p.: Catholic Book Publishing.
Redemptorists International. 2019. “Catechesis of the Pope Benedict XVI on St. Alphonsus Liguori | english.” Scala News. https://www.cssr.news/2019/08/catechesis-of-the-pope-benedict-xvi-on-st-alphonsus-liguori/.
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Wells, Christopher. 2025. “Pope urges moral theologians to take St Alphonsus as their model.” Vatican News. https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2025-08/pope-urges-moral-theologians-to-take-st-alphonsus-as-their-model.html.
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