Posted on 12/08/2012 2:24:39 PM PST by NYer
Do Catholics worship Mary? This question is as old as the Protestant Reformation itself, and it rests, like other disputed doctrinal points, on a false premise that has been turned into a wedge: the veneration of Mary detracts from the worship of Christ.
This seeming opposition between Mary and Christ is symptomatic of the Protestant tendency, begun by Luther, to view the entirety of Christian life through a dialectical lens – a lens of conflict and division. With the Reformation the integrity of Christianity is broken and its formerly coherent elements are now set in opposition. The Gospel versus the Law. Faith versus Works. Scripture versus Tradition. Authority versus Individuality. Faith versus Reason. Christ versus Mary.
The Catholic tradition rightly sees the mutual complementarity of these elements of the faith, as they all contribute to our ultimate end – living with God now and in eternity. To choose any one of these is to choose them all.
By contrast, to assert that Catholics worship Mary along with or in place of Christ, or that praying to Mary somehow impedes Christ’s role as “the one mediator between God and men” (1 Tim 2:5) is to create a false dichotomy between the Word made flesh and the woman who gave the Word his flesh. No such opposition exists. The one Mediator entrusted his mediation to the will and womb of Mary. She does not impede his mediation – she helps to make it possible.
Within this context we see the ancillary role that the ancilla Domini plays in her divine Son’s mission. Mary’s is not a surrogate womb rented and then forgotten in God’s plan. She is physically connected to Christ and his life, and because of this she is even more deeply connected to him in the order of grace. She is, in fact, “full of grace,” as only one who is redeemed by Christ could be.
The feast of Mary’s Immaculate Conception celebrates the very first act of salvation by Christ in the world. Redemption is made possible for all by his precious blood shed on the cross. Yet Mary’s role in the Savior’s life and mission is so critical and so unique that God saw it necessary to wash her in the blood of the Lamb in advance, at the first moment of her conception.
This reality could not be more Biblical: the angel greets Mary as “full of grace” (Luke 1:28), which is literally rendered as “already graced” (kecharitōmenē). Following Mary, the Church has “pondered what sort of greeting this might be” for centuries. The dogma of the Immaculate Conception, ultimately defined in 1854, is nothing other than a rational expression of the angel’s greeting contained in Scripture: Mary is “already graced” with Christ’s redemption at the very moment of her creation.
Because God called Mary to the unique vocation of serving as the Mother of God, it is not just her soul that is graced, as is the case for us when we receive the sacraments. Mary’s entire being, body and soul, is full of grace so that she may be a worthy ark for the New Covenant. And just as the ark of the old covenant was adorned with gold to be a worthy house for God’s word, Mary is conceived without original sin to be the living and holy house for God’s Word.
Thus Mary is not only conceived immaculately, that is, without stain of sin. She also is the Immaculate Conception. Her entire being was specifically created by God with unique privilege so that she could fulfill her role in God’s plan of salvation. “Free from sin,” both original and personal, is the necessary consequence of being “full of grace.”
Protestants claim that veneration of Mary as it is practiced by Catholics is not biblical. St. Paul encouraged the Corinthians to “be imitators of me, as I am of Christ” (1 Cor 11:1). Paul is not holding himself up as the end goal, but as a means to Christ, the true end. And if a person is imitated, he is simultaneously venerated.
If we should imitate Paul, how much more should we imitate Mary, who fulfilled God’s will to the greatest degree a human being could. Throughout her life she humbled herself so that God could be exalted, and because of this, Christ has fulfilled his promise by exalting his lowly mother to the seat closest to him in God’s kingdom.
Mary is the model of humility, charity, and openness to the will of God. She allows a sword to pierce her heart for the sake of the world’s salvation. She shows us the greatness to which we are called: a life free from sin and filled with God’s grace that leads to union with God in Heaven. She is the model disciple, and therefore worthy of imitation and veneration, not as an end in herself, but as the means to the very purpose of her – and our – existence: Christ himself.
God’s lowly handmaiden would not want it any other way.
We are no longer under the Old Covenant..We are under the "new and everlasting Covenant" instituted by Christ
The old Testament and its laws and practices were pointing us to Christ, they are ALL fulfilled in Christ.. they ALL point to Christ... not his mother
Wrong.He was not including Mary in those writings. Here is what Blessed Ambrose said when he was speaking of Mary
"Mary, a Virgin not only undefiled but a Virgin whom grace has made inviolate, free of every stain of sin." (Commentary on Psalm 118, 22, 30; Jurgens, II, 166)
"What is greater than the Mother of God? What more glorious than she whom Glory Itself chose? What more chaste than she who bore a body without contact with another body?" (Virginity, II, 6; NPNF 2, Vol. X, 374)
Augustine himself did not hold to a "sinless" Mary....
Wrong again. Here is what Blessed Augustine says when he is actually writing about Mary...
"We must except the holy Virgin Mary, concerning whom I wish to raise no question when it touches the subject of sins, out of honour to the Lord; for from Him we know what abundance of grace for overcoming sin in every particular was conferred upon her who had the merit to conceive and bear Him who undoubtedly had no sin'.-Augustine (A Treatise on Nature and Grace, chapter 42 [XXXVI]; NPNF 1, Vol. V)
We have been through these debates before with the same claims that are proven to be untrue when one looks deeper
I wish you a Blessed day!
Thanks!
And thanks to the holy fathers for QUOTING from the NT so many times!
It is WRITTEN indeed!!!
Too bad it could not keep it's OWN 'tradition' in line!
Salvation, you are very RIGHT on this. Since Protestantism is predicated upon an appeal to reason rather than Faith, lets look at this in a reasoned manner. All of those present at the first Pentecost, and those converted and baptized by them were adamant about a priesthood, an episcopacy and a diaconate. The Early Church Fathers and the churches they established all held to a visible Church, under the Bishop of Rome, served by a dedicated priesthood. No reasonable person would believe that the Holy Spirit would remain silent and let the infant Church remain in error for the 350 years from the Death and Resurrection until the setting of Canon and then for another 1,200+ years until it was discovered within the Canonized writings by those openly hostile to the Church and its priesthood.
The human capacity for self deceit is boundless, especially when it serves ones ego. That was certainly true of the "Reformers" and their modern day followers. Hold to the truth because God Himself is Truth.
Peace be with you.
SURE he was!
But; as a Pharisee of Pharisees....
"A learned mamzer takes precedence over an ignorant High Priest."
Bless you for your diligent scholarship. Too many, seeking to prove themselves right rather than finding the truth, follow the pattern of stopping their research the moment they find what they think supports their position. Unfortunately, their "Googlesterium" only helps to serve their vanities, not the truth.
Peace be with you.
Tell me where scripture says Mary was sinless
This statement, standing alone, is incomplete.
Paul had VAST knowledge - just not of the Savior and His plans.
Remember that he studied at the feet of Gamiel?
Remember what Festus said to him?
WHAT???
PAIR-bonding???
What do you silly Gentiles know???
Big deal!!
It ain't as NEW and as EVERLASTING as OURS!!!!
58 Now, as touching the law of the apriesthood, there are many things pertaining thereunto.
59 Verily, if a man be called of my Father, as was aAaron, by mine own voice, and by the voice of him that bsent me, and I have endowed him with the ckeys of the power of this priesthood, if he do anything in my name, and according to my law and by my word, he will not commit dsin, and I will justify him.
60 Let no one, therefore, set on my servant Joseph; for I will justify him; for he shall do the sacrifice which I require at his hands for his transgressions, saith the Lord your God.
61 And again, as pertaining to the law of the priesthood—if any man espouse a virgin, and desire to espouse aanother, and the first give her consent, and if he espouse the second, and they are virgins, and have vowed to no other man, then is he justified; he cannot commit adultery for they are given unto him; for he cannot commit adultery with that that belongeth unto him and to no one else.
62 And if he have aten virgins given unto him by this law, he cannot commit adultery, for they belong to him, and they are given unto him; therefore is he justified.
63 But if one or either of the ten virgins, after she is espoused, shall be with another man, she has committed adultery, and shall be destroyed; for they are given unto him to amultiply and replenish the earth, according to my commandment, and to fulfil the promise which was given by my Father before the foundation of the world, and for their exaltation in the eternal worlds, that they may bear the souls of men; for herein is the work of my Father continued, that he may be bglorified.
64 And again, verily, verily, I say unto you, if any man have a wife, who holds the keys of this power, and he teaches unto her the law of my priesthood, as pertaining to these things, then shall she believe and administer unto him, or she shall be destroyed, saith the Lord your God; for I will destroy her; for I will magnify my name upon all those who receive and abide in my law.
65 Therefore, it shall be lawful in me, if she receive not this law, for him to receive all things whatsoever I, the Lord his God, will give unto him, because she did not believe and administer unto him according to my word; and she then becomes the transgressor; and he is exempt from the law of Sarah, who administered unto Abraham according to the law when I commanded Abraham to take aHagar to wife.
66 And now, as pertaining to this law, verily, verily, I say unto you, I will reveal more unto you, hereafter; therefore, let this suffice for the present. Behold, I am Alpha and Omega. Amen.
Circular logic will always keep on rolling down the road...
HMMmm...
I have doubts...
Damned BIBLE!!!!
ALL have sinned and come short of the Glory of GOD.
If you hold your bible upside down;
look at it in a mirror;
then read it backwards;
you’ll find that Romans 3:23 says so.
They WERE??
ALL of them?
Rasmussen & Zogby could learn a few things!
Come; let us reason together.
Isaiah 1:18
...and Paul, as his custom was, went in unto them, and for three sabbath days reasoned with them from the Scriptures
Acts 17:2
If you read the rest of Acts 17 you will see just how ineffective all of that reasoning actually was.
Peace be with you.
Relying upon theologians from the 4th century and onwards?
When we "look deeper" what do we see but imputed grace to exist there, before the later infused grace?
What is sin, but a falling short of the Law (Torah). What is Torah but the letter? But the letter is not the fulfillment of the law, nor either is it's origin.
...speaking of "thinking deeper" [ahem].
So?
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