So Jesus was His Own Granpa?? I don’t like to be facetitious, but basically this is what it seems like to me.
I will agree that Mary is the Mother of the human aspect of Jesus, not of the God aspect. I don’t have the proper theological vocabulary at hand.
As for prayer, I ask living friends and family to pray for me, nor do I pray (much) for those who are dead. Their eternal fate is already sealed.
Asking Mary and the saints to do so looks like worship, feels like worship, and I think I hear a quack.
Besides, regardless of official Church doctrine, I lived in a 3rd world country. Many Catholics there DO pray to, and DO worship, Mary.
Further, nowhere is the NT is this practice mentioned or implied.
But, I could be wrong. I don’t think so; I doubt you can convince me, but one day we’ll know for sure. As brothers is Christ, we can thrash it out there.
***So Jesus was His Own Granpa?? I don’t like to be facetitious, but basically this is what it seems like to me.
I will agree that Mary is the Mother of the human aspect of Jesus, not of the God aspect. I don’t have the proper theological vocabulary at hand.***
The 5th century heresy of Nestorianism is about the nature of Jesus. Catholic.com says that: This heresy about the person of Christ was initiated by Nestorius, bishop of Constantinople, who denied Mary the title of Theotokos (Greek: “God-bearer” or, less literally, “Mother of God”). Nestorius claimed that she only bore Christ’s human nature in her womb, and proposed the alternative title Christotokos (”Christ-bearer” or “Mother of Christ”).
Orthodox Catholic theologians recognized that Nestorius’s theory would fracture Christ into two separate persons (one human and one divine, joined in a sort of loose unity), only one of whom was in her womb. The Church reacted in 431 with the Council of Ephesus, defining that Mary can be properly referred to as the Mother of God, not in the sense that she is older than God or the source of God, but in the sense that the person she carried in her womb was, in fact, God incarnate (”in the flesh”).
*** As for prayer, I ask living friends and family to pray for me, nor do I pray (much) for those who are dead. Their eternal fate is already sealed.
Asking Mary and the saints to do so looks like worship, feels like worship, and I think I hear a quack.***
However, we also have Scripture telling us about praying for the dead. 2 Maccabees 12:44-45:
For if he were not expecting that those who had fallen would rise again, it would have been superfluous and foolish to pray for the dead. But if he was looking to the splendid reward that is laid up for those who fall asleep in godliness, it was a holy and pious thought. Therefore he made atonement for the dead, that they might be delivered from their sin.
2 Timothy 1:16-18:
May the Lord grant mercy to the household of Onesiphorus, for he often refreshed me; he was not ashamed of my chains, but when he arrived in Rome he searched for me eagerly and found me – may the Lord grant him to find mercy from the Lord on that Day – and you well know all the service he rendered at Ephesus.
The point here is that Onesiphorus was already dead. And St. Paul clearly prays, “may the Lord grant him to find mercy.” St. Paul was praying that a dead man receive mercy.
1 Corinthians 3:11-15:
For no other foundation can any one lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any one builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble – each man’s work will become manifest; for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work which any man has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.
When we pray for the dead, we pray for those who are suffering loss, who are saved, but only through fire. Pray for your loved ones as well, that they may see the face of God. As they say, “May God rest their souls.
But as for Mariology, well, it is not a core belief. Many of the more famous Protestant converts who become apologists for the Church delayed their conversion because of opposition to Mariology. After they had made the journey, though, they discovered that it is truly not Mary worship; but it is appreciation for her life and her sacrifices throughout her life. She was the only person present at the birth of Christ, the death of Christ and Pentecost. Mary is not a must do.
*** Besides, regardless of official Church doctrine, I lived in a 3rd world country. Many Catholics there DO pray to, and DO worship, Mary.***
Have you some examples you can point to?