Today, February 1st, is a day dedicated in the Catholic Church to Mary, Jesus's mother.
Now, there’s something for a convert from Protestantism to muse on...
I came into the Catholic Church full of joy, but with a few big question marks still lurking in my head. And devotion to Mary was one of them. But in the years that I’ve been Catholic, my understanding of her importance to the Church has grown - delightfully and powerfully. Mary’s role in the Church and for the Church is a most beautiful thing.
For me, it started with falling in love with the rosary (a whole other story). In the rosary prayers, we ask Mary to “Pray for us sinners now, and at the hour of our death”. Just the possibility that she, being who she is, would do those two things, leads to solemn and hopeful contemplation. And it continued in the very real comfort it brought me a few years ago when my brother-in-law died and I found out that as a child, with a child’s faith-filled heart, he used to love to pray these words... I was beginning to be quite open to the possibility that I was missing something because of my attitude toward Mary. 
There was actually one huge moment when all doubt left me, and I most willingly opened my heart to whatever I could receive from this new (to me!) idea that I had much to learn from Mary. The moment occurred when I suddenly realized that as a perfect man and as perfect Son, Jesus himself was delightfully bound under the injunction to honor his father and mother... my heart leapt when I realized the importance of this. If He was to honor her, how much more should I honor her! And I was sorry that I hadn’t up til then, and I found myself apologizing to Jesus. 
Then my own wonderful son, my only son, joined the Marines. I was filled with terror at the idea of losing him - both to the Marine Corps for at least four whole years and perhaps to death in the war - and suddenly my relationship with Mary became quite a bit more real, and intensely relevant. Because here was a woman who knew what it was like to carry a beloved son in her heart, to have him taken from her, to see him suffer, and to watch him die. And she had to let him.
My son has since come home, safe. But what I learned sitting with Mary and walking through those parts of her life with her has never left me. Having just a hint of the depth of a mother’s anguish, having just a hint of the intensity of a mother’s love, being familiar with the truth that a mother would willingly give up her own life to save her son and take away his suffering: using these insights to go deeper in my thinking, to put myself in her position, thinking about what must have been going through her head, how completely unique her experience was, how lonely she must have felt knowing what she knew, carrying what she carried, loving Jesus as much or more than we can because he was her Lord and Saviour, and loving him intensely in a way we never will be able to – as his mother... I saw something.
Jesus was born a baby on this earth, literally born, in a barn. He was raised walking on the dirt, and eating the food of this world, breathing its air. He learned to walk, to talk, to feed himself, to take care of his own hygienic needs – under the watchful eyes of his loving mother. They had a relationship and that relationship continues. To deny this is to deny the truth of the humanity of Jesus.
Jesus will never cease to be his mother’s son. Their
mother-son relationship is eternal. How any one can contemplate that,
and then deny that Mary deserves honor, I don’t know. Jesus will honor
Mary in heaven. He will expect us to honor her. She is his mother. He loves her with a love far, far more profound than we can even begin to imagine.
Yes, I honor Mary, and the more I think about her, the more I talk to her and gently ‘imagine’ how she might respond to me, the more that through this contemplation I come to understand how much she loves Jesus, the more I learn to love him, too. Until I could burst with love. And I love her, for loving Him, whom I love so much. And he loves me for loving her, whom he loves so much. And I'm pretty sure we’re describing family, here. And I'm part of it, increasingly so, every day.
So, yes, I honor and adore Mary. And I thank God for bringing me beyond my doubt, and the fear of being wrong, and for helping me to enter into this most beautiful facet of life in the Catholic Church.
And I am grateful to the Church for setting aside days when I can be reminded of the wonderful gift she is to us all. And especially to Jesus.
