The French daily newspaper, "La Croix" asked Br. Alois to write some meditations on the Christian festivals. As the topic of Mariology has often been a point of dispute between Catholics and Protestants we took an interest in finding out which point of view the Taizé community takes on this matter. We start from the assumption that the thoughts of the Prior represent the general convictions of the community.
In bold italics we have cited literal or paraphrased statements from the text of the Taizé website. Our comments follow.
"God needed Mary in order to come to earth. Mary’s trust and courage were enough to let God enter into humanity."
She herself was conscious of the fact that it was only by God's grace that she was chosen to be the mother of the saviour. She calls God her saviour (Luke 1:47). Nowhere in scripture can we find even a hint of a statement that Mary paved the way for God to come to the people. We can confidently assume that the Almighty God would have been able to choose another way. Mary gave her free "yes" to the task that God gave her. She was also free to say "No," which would not have resulted in the failure of God's plan of salvation for humanity. We think that the statement quoted above elevates Mary to a position which she does not have and which is not supported by scripture.
"From all time she was loved by God and prepared for what God wanted from her."
… just as he loves and prepares every human being. With God there is no favoritism. He loves every one of his creatures from the very beginning and wants to lead them in his path... Or does this statement that God prepared Mary for what he wanted from her from all time have yet another meaning? Is it perhaps an allusion to her alleged immaculate conception which was made into a dogma by the Roman Catholic Church in the 19th century?
Here is a qoute from Wikipedia's article on "The Blessed Virgin Mary":
'The doctrine was finally made binding by Pope Pius IX on December 8, 1854. The official Papal Bull entitled Ineffabilis Deus states:
"We declare, pronounce, and define that the doctrine which holds that the most Blessed Virgin Mary, in the first instance of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege granted by Almighty God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the human race, was preserved free from all stain of original sin, is a doctrine revealed by God and therefore to be believed firmly and constantly by all the faithful."
This doctrine should not be confused with the miraculous conception of Jesus. The "Immaculate Conception" refers to Mary's own conception and birth – not to the famous miracle by which Jesus was conceived within her. Mary still needed a savior, since without Christ she would not have been preserved from original sin.'
Unlike the biblical teaching of the Virgin Birth of Jesus, the teaching of the Immaculate Conception lacks all scriptural backing, and is accepted neither by the Orthodox, nor Protestant nor Old-Catholic Churches.
“The icon of Mary, the Mother of God, offering us her son, shows that, as the first one to trust in the gospel, she guides us to Jesus”
We are not aware of any passage in scripture where Jesus elevates his mother in a special way. In the situation of the wedding at Cana (John 2), he showed her clearly that he himself knows what he has to do. Mary understood this and accepted it. Once, when his mother and brothers came and wanted to talk with him, because they thought he was out of his mind, he made it clear to them that he sees no difference between his mother and everyone else who listens and acts according to his word.
Then Jesus' mother and brothers arrived. Standing outside, they sent someone in to call him. A crowd was sitting around him, and they told him, "Your mother and brothers are outside looking for you."
"Who are my mother and my brothers?" he asked.
Then he looked at those seated in a circle around him and said, "Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does God's will is my brother and sister and mother." (Mark 3:31-35)
Jesus responded in a very similar way in a different situation, which is described in Luke 11:27+28:
As Jesus was saying these things, a woman in the crowd called out, "Blessed is the mother who gave you birth and nursed you."
He replied, "Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it."
Jesus' reaction here shows clearly that he did not consider his mother the ultimate "example of faith." If he had, surely his answer would have been different. The decisive thing is to hear God's word and to follow it. That's what his mother did, and that's also what his disciples did. Though in the situation described in Mark 3:31-35, it was his disciples rather than his mother who did this.
"Mary was the first one to trust in the Gospel"
It makes no difference to God who trusted in the Gospel earlier or later. The only thing that matters to God is that a person trusts in the Gospel. Of course, to do that you first have to know the Gospel. That doesn't happen by meditating on Mary, but by reading the Gospel, thinking about it, and acting according to what God enables you to understand.
"Mary guides us to Jesus"
In John 6:42-44, we can see what Jesus says about this:
They said, "Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, 'I came down from heaven'?"
"Stop grumbling among yourselves," Jesus answered. "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day."
Many Jews did not open themselves for the message of Jesus. They resisted the claim that he made to be the Bread of Life. Jesus made it clear to them that for everyone who loves and seeks God, God himself will provide the knowledge that the Father has sent Jesus, and that his words are the message of salvation for humanity. Here, as in everything that Jesus says, Mary quite obviously plays no role. The Catholic Church likes to call her “mediatrix to the mediator”. But Paul in his First Letter to Timothy 2:5 writes:
"For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus."
It comes out clearly that there is only one mediator between God and men: Jesus Christ. It seems as if Paul could sense that one day there would be people who would teach something different.
"In the communion of saints we are linked to her intimately, as to a mother."
The audacity with which this claim is made, almost leaves one lost for words. It is simply asserted without any basis at all. Nowhere does Scripture speak of "the mother of all believers."
Even the believers in the Old Testament knew that there is no possible contact between the living and the deceased believers:
Look down from heaven and see
from your lofty throne, holy and glorious.
Where are your zeal and your might?
Your tenderness and compassion are withheld from us.
But you are our Father,
though Abraham does not know us
or Israel acknowledge us;
you, O LORD, are our Father,
our Redeemer from of old is your name.
Every single person can have a relationship with God, because HE is omniscient, almighty and omnipresent. We would have to attribute these qualities to Mary, were we to believe that she is intimately linked to believer. Thus she would be declared a goddess, an idea that does not seem to be so far away from the content of another statement made by Fr. Alois:
"The veneration of Mary is part of our praise of God"
In the book of Revelation (19:10) the angel said to John, who fell at his feet to worship him:
"Do not do it! I am a fellow servant with you and with your brothers who hold to the testimony of Jesus. Worship God!"
"Mary unites all baptised persons"
At the end of the text she is attributed a unifying role, though what that actually means is left open.
In the holy Scriptures it is not Mary, but Jesus who unifies the believers:
My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. (John 17:20-23)
In this prayer of Jesus the unity of believers is a central point. This passage is the clearest expression of Jesus' thoughts on this matter, and it is conspicuous that Mary gets no mention at all. This idea is also absent from the rest of the New Testament, which explains why in the text of Br. Alois there isn't a single reference to the word of God. Isn't it the case here, as with other statements, that the wish is father to the thought? Why isn't the way to unity followed that Jesus showed us? Why, instead of his way, are suggestive statements used which obviously ignore the reality? Where is the love for truth and for the word of God?
Obviously, the Taizé community follows a completely Roman Catholic line in their views on Mary. They make no attempt to correct Roman Catholic teachings according to the Bible, which is the only way to find unity.
See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ. (Colossians 2:8)
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Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica, Inc.™
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