ASK AUGUSTINE
Tomorrow on March 25 Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches will celebrate Annunciation Day. Why don’t Protestant churches also celebrate this event?
Yours is an excellent question and, as you’ll read I do believe the day should be celebrated by Protestants; especially by those of us in the Reformed tradition of faith in accordance with the doctrine of election.
It is true that Mary has and has had a much greater role in Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox theology than in Protestant theology. In Protestantism, Mary has been the victim of silence: theologically, liturgically and devotionally.
But, Mary was not always a lightening rod. In 431 the Council of Ephesus affirmed her to be the Theotokos, or Mother of God. Admittedly, the affirmation was more about Jesus than about Mary as it refuted the specific heresy that Mary’s son and the Messiah we two different beings. God taking on human flesh became far less abstract when one discussed His human mother and the fact of His birth.
Unfortunately, in time Mary’s Mother of God role merged with several other potent personas like a super co-sufferer and collected other titles: Queen of Heaven, Bride of Christ, Mother of Mercy, etc. The church’s growing emphasis on Christ as the stern judge left a kind of vacancy, and believers came to view Mary as a special pleader to Christ in our name. In 1568, Pope Pius V officially added to the Hail Mary prayer the line, “pray for us sinners now and in the hour of our death.”
The Reformers reacted in what they viewed as an impending trend that Mary would replace Christ – as Catholics definitely boosted Mary to even greater heights by eventually promulgating two addition doctrines: in 1854, Mary’s Immaculate Conception, and as late as 1950, Mary’s bodily Assumption into heaven. Even today, Marian maximalists continue to call for her to be officially deemed a Co-redemptrix.
Protestantism’s unfortunate reaction, even as late as 1991 may be seen in the Presbyterian Church (USA) “Brief Statement of Faith” which praised the prophets, the Apostles the Hebrew patriarch Sarah, but oddly omits Mary.
Protestants falsely accuse Roman Catholics of worshiping Mary; falsely because Roman Catholic theology guards the worship of God with Latin words used to describe religious worship. In Roman Catholic theology the worship due to God alone is called latria. That worship is never given to Mary or the saints. Instead there is another kind of religious attitude of veneration or honor which is described by the word dulia. This according to Roman Catholic theology is not worship, which is due to God alone, but is a much lesser form of honor, given to Mary and the saints; with Mary receiving hyper-dulia, the highest form of such veneration and honor, but which falls far short of latria.
Mary appears in the New Testament far more times than most Protestants realize. Although her appearances are often brief and devoid of anecdote, there isn’t a person comparable to her. She is present at Jesus’ birth, at His dedication in the Temple, at His first miracle, at the cross and in the upper room after His resurrection.
Protestants may be surprised to learn that both Martin Luther and John Calvin referred to Mary as the “Mother of God” and taught that she was to be highly respected; that appropriate honor was accorded to her merely by emulating her simple obedience and praise of God’s grace. Luther and Calvin were fond of Mary as the perfect example of God visiting His grace (which is always unearned) upon the most humble.
In 553, the Council of Constantinople affirmed her perpetual virginity, again not to emphasize her but to reinforce the uniqueness of Christ. Although Calvin did not think it was necessary to hold to the perpetual virginity of Mary, Luther and Zwingli insisted that Mary remained a virgin even after the birth of Jesus. This view is also endorsed and inscribed in the Second Helvetic Confession of 1566; a Calvinistic confession that is still accepted by many Reformed denominations, including the Presbyterian Church (USA).
I personally believe this day of Annunciation (March 25), which celebrates Mary learning from the angel Gabriel that she will give birth to the Messiah, provides Protestants an excellent opportunity to emphasize the doctrine of election. Strictly speaking, the story of the Annunciation is told not in praise of Mary, but in praise of the unmerited electing grace of God.
Mary is favored and chosen by God. Had Mary not believed, she would not have conceived. Mary elects God’s election of her. So Mary’s election is the means by which the eternal election of the Son of God is historically realized. Mary is the daughter of the elect people of Israel, and is herself elected and called to a special vocation.
Mary made a response caused by the initiative of God. It was the announcement that confronted her in the first place and contained the promise, which was the presupposition of her response. The content and realization of her role in salvation history was not unlike that of the Church, of which Christ was the sole head and only Mediator, and was effected by the work of the Holy Spirit.
So let us remember the words of Mary in Luke 1:38, “Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.”