THE DIFFERENT FACES OF THE VIRGIN MARY
Christianity has always held that Jesus was really God in the body of a man--the Son of God the Father. But if the Father and the Son are both considered divine, what about the mother?
Join us on today's Insight as we look at the different faces of the Virgin Mary in the Catholic Church.
According to Christian tradition, Mary was a virgin at the time of Jesus' birth, and the Catholic doctrine of Immaculate Conception declares her to be born without sin. As the mother of the Son of God, Mary is a powerful figure, but as a mother and a human, many Catholics have found her more approachable than God the Father or God the Son.
The official presentation of Mary has emphasizd her power and distance from everyday life--a majestic queen seated on a throne by the side of Jesus. But millions of Catholics have found in Mary a more motherly, caring figure, an alternative to both the majestic queen and to the more intimidating Father God.
For centuries, Catholic officials have tried to control the worship of Mary. The Second Vatican Council in the 1960s directed attention away from Mary and toward Jesus. But her uncertain position as the human mother of the Son of God has made the Virgin Mary a difficult image to control in the popular mind.
Next time on Insight we'll see how a fourteen-year-old girl's report of having met the Virgin Mary began a movement that set thousands of Roman Catholics in conflict with the Church hierarchy.
This script was prepared as part of a pilot series for the radio program, "Insight: The World's Religions," produced by Indiana University, Department of Religious Studies and written by Don Ulin
