WHAT THE SCRIPTURE SAYS:-
1. Mary's Genealogy:
The genealogies in Matthew 1 and Luke 3 are both ostensibly of Joseph, not of Mary. But whereas Matthew 1:16 gives Jacob as the father of Joseph, Luke 3:23 states that Joseph was the son of Heli. How do we explain this? We know that Mary had a sister (John 19:25), but nowhere is a brother mentioned. So if Heli had no son, his inheritance would pass to his nearest male relative, in this case his son-in-law (Numbers 27:1-11), provided he was of the same tribe (Numbers 36:1-9). Therefore, we should read in Luke 3:23 that Joseph was son- in-law of Heli. So Heli was Mary's father, and Mary was descended from David. Gabriel's words to Mary "the Lord God shall give unto Him the throne of His father David" (Luke 1:32) confirm this.
2. The "Hail Mary" (Ave Maria):
The angel Gabriel greeted Mary with the words "Hail.... Mary" (Luke 1:28,30). Her cousin Elizabeth, inspired by the Holy Spirit, called her "the mother of my Lord" (Luke 1:43) and told her "Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb" (Luke 1:42); adding "Blessed is she that believed" (Luke 1:45). Mary acknowledged "Behold from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed" (Luke 1:48).
3. The Holy Family:
Joseph was understandably put out to discover that his betrothed fiancee was already pregnant before their wedding day, and he was going to break off the engagement (Matthew 1:18). But he believed the angel's explanation from Isaiah 7:14 (the virgin prophecy of Immanuel), "and took unto him his wife: and knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn son: and he called his name JESUS" (Matthew 1:24-25). So Joseph did consummate the marriage and there were other children. Matthew even names some of them: "Is not this the carpenter's son? is not his mother called Mary? and his brethren James, and Joses, and Simon, and Judas? And his sisters, are they not all with us?" (13:55-56). St Paul calls James "the Lord's brother" (Galatians 1:19); the James who wrote the epistle which bears his name. Jude also wrote an epistle, styling himself "Jude the servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James" (Jude 1). The family disapproved at first of Jesus' public ministry (Mark 3:31); indeed "neither did His brethren believe in Him" (John 7:5)˜ until the resurrection. Jesus' mother (and her sister) were the only relatives, and St John the only disciple, who remained at the Cross: Jesus commended Mary and John to each other (John 19:25-27). Unlike the others', Mary's faith never failed.
4. The Death of Mary:
This is not recorded in Scripture at all. The last we hear of her is in Acts 1:14, waiting with the others in the Upper Room before the Day of Pentecost.
WHAT TRADITION SAYS:-
1. The Miraculous Birth of Mary:
As we have seen above, Heli was most probably the father of Mary. But according to the uncanonical apocryphal gospels, St Anne or Hannah was the mother of Mary, and St Joachim of Nazareth her father. In later life an angel appeared to this childless couple and promised them a baby who would be blessed throughout the world; Anne vowed to dedicate this child to the Lord. This legend is obviously derived from the birth stories of Samuel and John the Baptist. Whereas the cult of St Anne was widespread in Europe in the Middle Ages, that of St Joachim only became popular in Western Catholicism after the Protestant Reformation.
2. Mary as Theotokos (Pope Celestine in 433):
To preserve the doctrine of the full deity of Jesus against the Arian and Nestorian heresies, Pope Celestine proposed that Mary was theotokos, that is, "bearer of God". This taken with Elizabeth's phrase "the mother of my Lord" (Luke 1:43) led to Mary being described as "The Mother of God" in popular parlance.
3. The Perpetual Virginity of Mary:
To preserve Mary's status as the Blessed Virgin, and because of the high premium on virginity and celibacy in the early Christian centuries, it was taught that Mary never consummated her marriage with Joseph. Jesus' "brethren" and "sisters" in Scripture were regarded as part of the extended family of His disciples and supporters, and not blood relatives. Did not Jesus say, "Whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is my brother, and my sister, and mother" (Mark 3:35)?
4. The Immaculate Conception of Mary (Ineffabilis Deus, 1854):
To preserve the doctrine of the sinlessness of Jesus, and to remove from Him all taint of Original Sin, it was proposed that His mother Mary was herself miraculously conceived without sin, and that she never committed actual sins in her lifetime. Against this we must weigh Mary's own confession in her Magnificat, "My spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour" (Luke 1:47). If she needed a Saviour, it was because she was tainted with sin as we all are from Adam. St Bernard of Clairvaux and St Thomas Aquinas both argued that Mary was tainted by original sin, and did commit sins; Pius IX in Ineffabilis Deus disagreed.
5. Mary as Mediatrix:
Mary accompanied Jesus and the disciples to the wedding at Cana of Galilee, where the wine ran out (John 2:1-11). Although Jesus apparently rejected Mary's intervention, as if He were not aware of the need (verse 4), He did accede to her request. So Mary is the most prayed to of all the saints. Her intercessions are sought because "the best way to a man's heart is through his mother"; so we get lyrics like Mater ora Filium, ut post hoc exilium, nobis donet gaudium beatorum omnium (Mother, pray the Son, that after this banishment [in Purgatory] He may grant us the joy of all the saints). But Jesus taught us to say when we pray "Our Father, who art in heaven...": so we address God the Father directly "through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen". We have access to the Father through the Son, who "ever lives to make intercession" (Hebrews 7:25). All Christians agree on this; but popular piety leads some people to think they are too unworthy to approach God themselves: perhaps they could come to the Father through the Son via Mary and/or the saints. Who is to say that the message won't get through?
6. The Assumption of Mary (Munificentissimus Deus, 1950):
This is the most recently defined tradition about Mary. Because of her traditional immaculate conception and sinless life, it was declared by Pius XII that she shared the privilege accorded to Enoch "who walked with God, and was not, for God took him" (Genesis 6:24) and to Elijah "who went up by a whirlwind into heaven" (2 Kings 2:11); perhaps to Moses too. Although Deuteronomy records that Moses "died" and "was buried", it adds archly "but no man knoweth of his sepulchre unto this day" (Deuteronomy 34:5-6; compare Jude 9). It was Moses, and not Enoch, who appeared with Elijah and Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration (Mark 9:4). So perhaps Mary, like Enoch and Elijah (and Moses?), never died, but was bodily assumed into heaven to be crowned Queen of Heaven. Uncritical reading of Revelation 12 adds colour to this; but the Woman there is Gune not Parthenos. This is not the Virgin Mary but Mother Israel whose manchild is not the baby Jesus, but the infant Church. Satan still fiercely persecutes the Church (verse 17). The three-and-a-half year flight is not that of the Holy Family to Egypt pending the death of Herod, nor the flight of the Jerusalem Christians to Pella pending the Jewish War in AD 66 to 70, but the Rapture of the Church pending the Great Tribulation in the End Time. According to tradition, Mary's death was not recorded in Scripture, because she simply never died. Her Assumption was not recorded either, allegedly because it was such common knowledge it did not need reporting. The traditional date of the Assumption is 15th August, AD 45. Yet until 1950, official Roman liturgies spoke of Mary's Dormition: "falling asleep", "resting after death", "passing away"; not a word about physical or metaphysical Assumption.
7. Queen of Heaven (Ad Catholici Sacerdotii, 1935):
Christ is Lord and King in his own right, therefore Mary is regarded as Queen Mother: not Queen Consort, for because of her Assumption and Maternity she is not part of his Bride the Church. She can't be both the Mother of Christ and the Bride of Christ. Rather, she is part of the Godhead and Co-redemptrix. Mariology becomes part of Christology.