Session 1: What Mary was, we are called to be

The Theme

The theme of this study is:

What Mary was, we are called to be.

What Mary did, we are called to do.

When we say, “What Mary was, we are called to be” we mean that we are called to be the kind of person Mary was.  She is an example of what the character of a person of faith looks like.

When we say, “What Mary did, we are called to do,” we mean that we are called to put our faith into action the way she did.  She is a role model for how to live the kind of life where our faith permeates everything we do.

Who is this study for?

This study is intended for anyone who is interested in exploring how to live a life of faith.  It can be used by Catholics and Protestants, evangelicals and Orthodox believers.

While the study acknowledges that Catholics and Protestants have a long history of disagreement about some Catholic teachings about Mary, the study keeps its focus on what the Bible says and does not address Catholic doctrines that developed later.  Where there are disagreements about how to interpret the Scriptures, the differences are noted and explored.  For this reason, Catholics and Protestants can all be comfortable with this study – and could even use it to study together.

It is also worth noting that many Protestants find much to admire in Mary – see, for example, Timothy Keller’s “God’s Call to Mary and to Us” (published by Focus on the Family) and Jacob Prahlow’s “A Protestant Thinks about the Blessed Virgin Mary”.  Everyone who values the Word of God will find this study useful.

IF YOU ARE STUDYING WITH A SMALL GROUP

This study material can be very enriching either for small-group Bible Study or for individual study and growth.  If you are studying with a small group, please take some time to build community, beginning with ensuring that everyone knows everyone else’s name.

Here are some questions you could invite everyone in the group to answer:

What is your name?

What is your connection to this church/parish/group?

Why were you attracted to be part of this study of Mary?

From what you already know about the mother of Jesus, what stands out to you?

What questions do you have?  What would you like to know more about, with regard to Mary?

Where you see a Scripture passage in bold and underlined (like Luke 1: 5-25 below), it means you should read that passage before proceeding.  Let’s dive in.

Luke 1: 5-25 What happens before Mary appears in Luke’s Gospel

Some helpful background

Mary’s story in the Bible begins when she was probably a teenager, possibly as young as 14 years old although we are not told what her age was.  She was suddenly catapulted from living a normal, obscure teenage life to living an heroic though still obscure life.  But before that happened, some extraordinary things were already happening in her extended family.

Before mentioning Mary, Luke tells us about what leads to the birth of John the Baptist, who was born into Mary’s extended family.  Mary’s relative Elizabeth (Luke 1:36) was childless (1:7) and advanced in years (1:18), but now she has become pregnant.  Before she becomes pregnant, Elizabeth’s husband, a priest (1:5), has a vision of an angel while he is serving alone in the holiest inner sanctuary of the Temple.  The angel tells him that Elizabeth will have a son, who is to be named John (1:10-14).  The angel informs him that this son will be filled with the Holy Spirit like Elijah and will turn people to God to prepare them for the Lord (1:15-17).  When Zechariah questions this message because he and Elizabeth are fairly old, he is rendered unable to speak (1:18-20), and when he comes out of the sanctuary, everyone knows that he has seen a vision.  Mary is likely to have heard about this event.

Note: Although some older translations such as the King James Version and some simplified translations call Elizabeth Mary’s “cousin,” the Greek word is a more generic word used for relatives of all kinds, close and distant, so most modern translations say “relative,” not “cousin.”  We do not know if Elizabeth was an aunt, a cousin, or a more distant relative.  We also do not know if Mary came from the lineage of priests as Zechariah did.

Similarly, we do not know if Mary was descended from the line of David.  Matthew presents Joseph’s genealogy (Matt. 1:1-17), which shows that Joseph was from the line of David, i.e., a direct descendant of David.  Luke also tells us that Joseph was a descendant of David (Luke 1:27 and 2:4).  Some scholars through the centuries have suggested that Luke presents Mary’s genealogy, but many other scholars have rejected that idea because Luke 4:23.  For Jews of Jesus’s time, the father’s lineage was all that mattered.  Joseph was not Jesus’s biological father, as Matthew tells us in his account of the virgin birth (Matt. 1:18-25), but Joseph essentially adopted Jesus as his own son by raising him.  So, Joseph’s ancestry is Jesus’s ancestry for Jewish legal purposes even though Jesus was the Son of God.

Does Mary’s relative obscurity trouble you, or draw you to her, or not matter to you?  Why?

What do you think of a God who chooses to enter the human race by being born of an obscure woman whose pedigree is unclear?  What does this tell you about God?

What does Mary’s obscure background tell you about Mary?

Does this tell you anything about yourself?  Can you be from obscure roots and still fulfill God’s purposes for you?  How does Mary’s background speak to you?

Elizabeth conceives, and roughly 6 months later, Mary enters Luke’s story.

Luke 1:26-38 An angel tells Mary she will have a son from God (the “Annunciation”)

Let’s start by walking through the conversation between Mary and the angel.

In verses 26-27, what does Luke tell us about Mary (what kind of person is she, where is she, what is her marital status, etc.)?

To be “betrothed” was far more than what we call being “engaged.”  After betrothal, the couple was considered married even though it would be months before the marriage was consummated.  If a person was betrothed and had sex with someone other than their intended, it was considered adultery (see New American Bible, Luke 1:18 fn.).

In verse 28, how does the angel greet Mary?

In verse 29, how does Mary respond?

In verses 30-33, what does the angel prophesy to Mary about what is to come?

In verse 34, Mary questions the angel.  What is her question?

When the angel had appeared to Zechariah, Zechariah had asked, “How will I know this, for I’m an old man and my wife is old too?”  His question was, in essence, a demand for proof.  How is Mary’s question different?  How is her question appropriate, whereas Zechariah’s was not?

Mary is not challenging what will happen or asking for proof; she is merely asking the process by which it will happen.  Her question is, literally, in the Greek, “How will this be, since I do not know a man?” – i.e., How will this be since I do not have sex?

In verses 35-37, how does the angel explain to Mary how she will become pregnant?

In verse 38, how does Mary respond to this announcement?

Look over the passage and focus on the things the angel says.  What do the angel’s words tell us about Mary?

What do the angel’s words tell us about God?

Look over the passage again, focusing on the things Mary says.  What do Mary’s words tell us about Mary?

What does this passage tell us about Mary’s attitude or approach toward her faith?

One of our themes for this study is: What Mary was (the kind of person Mary was), we are called to be.  What can we learn from Mary?

All of us can, like Mary, say, “I am the servant of the Lord.”  How can you take that approach to your own faith more consistently?

What does this passage tell us about Mary’s use of her whole being: her mind, her will, and her spirit/faith?

What Mary did, we are called to do.  Mary accepted the coming of the Holy Spirit to her to enable her to fulfill her God-given role in God’s plan of salvation.  How can you welcome or say yes to the Holy Spirit to fulfill your particular God-given role in your life?

Mary is now the second woman in her extended family to have an unusual pregnancy after an unusual encounter with God.  Mary decides to go visit her relative Elizabeth.  In the next scene of our story, we see two women, both chosen by God for something special, having a chance to have some woman-to-woman time together.

Luke 1:39-45 Mary visits Elizabeth (the “Visitation”)

What happens?

Elizabeth is filled with the Holy Spirit as a result of her encounter with Mary and the response of the child in her womb.  How can we become more open to the promptings of the Holy Spirit as Elizabeth was?

When Elizabeth has this special, spirit-filled moment, her response is praise.  How can we become more confident in giving praise to God when we are touched by his Spirit?

Luke 1:46-56 Mary sings God’s praises (the “Magnificat” or “Canticle of Mary”)

What Mary says here is called the “Magnificat” because in Latin, the first word of Mary’s prayer is the word Magnificat, which means “praises,” as in “my soul praises.”

What is your overall impression of Mary’s “song”?

What is your favorite line or phrase or word from Mary’s song, and why?

What does this song tell us about God?

What does this song tell us about Mary?

Mary could have praised God in many different ways.  We can learn a lot about her from the subjects she chooses to focus on and what she says about them.  What does Mary’s choice of topics about God tell us about her and what kind of person she is?

Notice that one of the themes Mary focuses on is that some people are rich and mighty, and some people are poor and lowly, and God has here taken decisive action on behalf of the poor and lowly.

One of the themes for this study is: What Mary did, we are called to do.  Mary praises God energetically and expansively.  What can we learn from this for ourselves, regarding our prayer life or interactions with others?

The other theme for our study is: The kind of person Mary was, we are called to be.  What does this prayer tell you about what kind of person Mary was, and what does it encourage you to be?

Here is a brief summary of how Elizabeth’s story ends, so that you are not left hanging:

(Luke 1:57-80 John is born and Zechariah’s mouth is opened to sing God’s praise)

Elizabeth gives birth to a son (1:57), and when Elizabeth says he will be named “John” (1:60), the neighbors and relatives object, thinking that he should be named for Zechariah or some other relative.  Zechariah indicates that the child is to be named “John” (1:63), and at that moment his tongue is freed so that he can speak (1:64).  He responds with his own canticle of praise to God (1:67-80).

Take a step back and consider this:

One of the things we see in Mary’s prayer is that she sees the world from the perspective of the lowly, not from the top of the social ladder.  In the Gospels we see that Jesus has a similar perspective.  I have summarized how both the New Testament and the Old Testament present God’s downside-up view of the world here: God Takes a Downside-Up View of the World.  Some examples are: blessed are the poor, God cares for the one as much as the 99, wealth is an impediment to salvation rather than a sign of God’s favor, what you did to the least of these you did to me, the Lord hears the cry of the poor, etc.

Do you think Jesus learned to see through the eyes of the have-nots from his mother Mary, who proclaimed God’s concern for the lowly and hungry, as well as learning it from his heavenly Father?  What might this suggest about how Mary raised her child?

How are we called to imitate Jesus and Mary in viewing things from the perspective of the lowly?