Mary was Christ’s mother and, therefore, more special to Him than the average person. Mary was not a sinner:
This is so wrong as to be laughable. So now there are two perfect people? Then why wasn’t Mary crucified too? You are speaking the doctrine of Demons when you take the focus off of Christ. Mary did sin and Jesus did not hold her in any special accord. Where is this view even Biblical? Mary sinned and died, she cannot intercede for you, she is dead and she is not a saint. Her DNA had nothing to do with Christ for he was all God unless of course you believe that God pulled a Zeus and came down and slept with Mary, which would mean she is no longer a virgin, or he is half man/half god like in Greek Mythology, none of which is Biblical. Jesus never said you should honor Mary, other then saying honor thy mother and father which was presented for all believers. Which version is it?
Dmitry, thank you for your long posts explaining your position.
Mary was born without original sin. She was the new ark of the covenant carrying God’s Word made flesh. God cannot be part of sin in any form, so Mary was born without that stain. Christ is both God and human. He had to become truly human, live a completely perfect human life, and die on the cross to save us. I already cited the passages where it is obvious that the apostles, and Christ, held Mary in high regard. Christ did His first miracle at her request. She interceded for her friends. One of Christ’s last acts was to take care of His mother. And you are correct that Christ was a good Jew and would have honored His mother because of the Ten Commandments alone, much less because she had found favor with God, was blessed among women, and was called full of grace by God’s archangel. That’s all biblical too. I’m not sure what to tell you if you don’t think Jesus was the result of a virgin birth. God can do anything and it says in the scriptures that the Spirit overshadowed her and she became pregnant with the Messiah.
Peter was the first head of Christ’s church. Only the Catholic church traces its leadership in a successive line directly from Peter to Benedict XVI. You can call them Popes or leaders of Christ’s one, holy, catholic and apostolic church; no matter. Only the Catholic line of leadership is unbroken, as Christ promised it would be.
You state your beliefs very well, but you seem to be basing them on a sanitized version of the Gospels. If you go back to the oldest known versions of the Gospels, you will find writers and chapters and scriptures not in your Bible. Men have deleted parts of the Bible that have been there from the beginning: like most of what the apostle James wrote, for example. Paul was given a unique ministry but he always bowed to Peter’s authority as head of the Church.
The leaders of the early Catholic Church produced the Bible through divine inspiration and cherished it for a thousand years before men started deleting things to fit their interpretation of the scriptures. Go back to the most original version and you will see the word choices support Catholic teaching. The writings of Kreeft might help you understand this if you are willing to explore.
I have often said that people dislike Catholics because of what they think we believe, not what we really believe. I invite you to find out what it is we really believe and why we believe it. No matter what, I wish you well.