As I said; Mary is not to be worshiped.
The image of Mary given to us in Rev 12:1 is the source of the "Queen of heaven" view. (And a great portent appeared in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars; RSV) The woman is later identified as Mary the mother of Jesus (12:5) and of all who "bear testimony to Jesus." (12:17) So, it's not something make up by those blakety-blank KATH-licks. It's directly out of scripture.
When Christ addressed his MOTHER as "woman" it was the same as some red-neck in a wife-beater T-shirt, watching NASCAR and hollering, "Hey woman! Git me anutha BEER!" It is more properly understood as "dear woman" because Jesus perfectly kept all the Law including the one that says, "Thou shalt honor thy mother and father." Depicting Jesus as addressing his mother as "woman", as if she were some dog, as you have done, ascribes sin to Jesus Christ for DIShonering his mother.
Has it been you habit to call your own mother "woman" in the disrespectful manner that you ascribe to Jesus? I seriously doubt it.
But you, and a multitude of others, would ascribe such disrespectful behavior to Jesus in order to denigrate the mother of God made flesh. Why is that? It is because you have been taught to hate anything that sounds too Catholic and in you hatred of the body of Christ in the Roman church, you are eagerly willing to ascribe sin even to Jesus Christ your Savior by portraying your LORD as addressing His mother in a disrespectful manner.
This "woman" thing has always intrigued me.
There's a poster who constantly says that we must use hermeneutics and biblical exegesis for everything Jesus said and by carrying this to an extreme practically says that nothing He said is of any value because we're not living in that time. I don't agree with this. If Jesus said Don't Hate Your Neighbor, I do believe He meant we are NOT to hate our neighbor (in fact we are to love him).
In this case, that poster would be 100% correct. Language evolves and changes. New expressions are thought up, words take on different meanings. Remember when "gay" meant you were happy? Try saying "I'm feeling gay" today!
The NIV puts the word "dear" before "woman" in John 2:4 Jesus changes wine to water. This still doesn't explain it, does it?
How to put yourself in the head of people living 2,000 years ago. Jesus also called His mother "woman" when she was at the foot of the cross. He also called the Samartian woman at the well "woman". John 4:21
Also, Peter calls someone "woman" in Luke 22:57 when negating knowing Jesus for the first time after Jesus' arrest.
So, of course, Jesus didn't mean "Hey, woman, get me a beer." (I think this is grounds for divorce, BTW! LOL)
But what DID He mean?
This is totally my idea. I think He was separating Mary from the role of Mother. In the sense that in some circumstances He (or anyone of that time) recognized her as a mother. For example: Mother, come, let me take you to Jerusalem. There is the intimacy of son/mother. He wishes to do something for his MOTHER in the capacity of a SON.
At the wedding in Cana, He is separating Hmself from Mary as his mother. He puts her into a different catagory - one more general and not as personal. One not having to do with son/mother but man/woman. He as a man at the wedding, separate from his mother - two separate beings. Each one with a different mission.
Same at the cross. He was giving her away to John. Jesus calls Mary, Woman, but He refers to her as Mother to John since she will now become John's MOTHER. Again, he separated the Mother aspect of Mary from her Woman aspect.
As for the rest of what you say, I agree. Catholics go overboard and Protestants can't quite let go and give Mary the honor she is due. I'll often hear that Mary is not mentioned in scripture and I've thought about this. The N.T. is about Jesus and Luke wasn't written yet when the disciples were growing in number after Jesus' ascension. Only after some investigating was Luke able to write Luke 1:43-55. I doubt the original apostles thought of Mary in any other way than as Jesus' mother. They were feeling their own loss and pain - it's not easy to feel the other person's "life." They might have had a very high regard for her, and they might have gone their own ways and not considered her too much. But we have hindsight now and, indeed, what other woman can say she raised Jesus, the Son of God?
Wondering
I thought part of saying the rosary contained something like forgiveness of sin. :blush
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