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.
Re:”theological infection of Sola Fide and Sola Scriptura:”
Before you engage in the fantasy that holding Scripture as supreme as the wholly inspired word of God fosters moral laxity, you had better seen to thine own house: http://peacebyjesus.tripod.com/rc-stats_vs._evang.html
Even RCs who hold Scripture more akin to evangelicals are more conservative. And the recent declension of superior holiness in Protestant faith is a result of failing to take Scripture in the literal sense as the wholly inspired God, not because of it.
And contrary to the fantasy that Sola fide means a faith that does not effect obedience is salvific, see what Luther and other Reformers actually formally taught: http://peacebyjesus.tripod.com/reformation_faith_works.html
And rather than your trajectory, the history of evangelical faith has been toward holiness, even to what some consider extremes. As described in an account of Purtians during the early American period that notes,
“...the New England pastors set the level high. Nathaniel Ward, who was step-son to Richard Rogers and a distinguished Puritan preacher himself, is recorded as responding to Thomas Hooker’s sermons on preparation for receiving Christ in conversion with, ‘Mr. Hooker, you make as good Christians before men are in Christ as ever they are after’, and wishing, ‘Would I were but as good a Christian now as you make men while they are preparing for Christ.’” - http://www.the-highway.com/Early_American_Bauckham.html
But which you have been shown before, yet you continually evidence that you have no interest in objective analysis, for nothing that impugns Rome can be allowed, and thus the hope for the Inquisition to return is no suprise, but the actual church you defend treats the Ted Kennedy Catholics as members in life and in death.
Isn’t it interesting that when God blessed people in the Old Testament they became wealthy. Look at Job for instance. Begs the question of why would God put a stumbling block by blessing with great wealth unless many are misunderstanding that passage doesn’t it?
Isn’t it amazing the amount of double speak we have to deal with from Catholics?
Here is the beginning words from his book, "Ever Increasing Faith"...
Chapter One
Have Faith in God
"For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith. Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them" (Mark 11:23,24).
These are days when we need to have our faith strengthened, when we need to know God. God has designed that the just shall live by faith. Any man can be changed by faith, no matter how he may be fettered. I know that God's word is sufficient. One word from Him can change a nation. His word is from everlasting to everlasting. It is through the entrance of this everlasting Word, this incorruptible seed, that we are born again, and come into this wonderful salvation. Man cannot live by bread alone, but must live by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. This is the food of faith. "Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God."... -Read the entire PDF book FREE by clicking here:
Still don't know the difference between God's HS inspired Word speaking and man speaking?
Here let me introduce you to Jesus, the WORD. The Catholic Mary obviously failed in doing that.
Matt 12:36 "And I tell you this, you must give an account on judgment day for every idle word you speak."
Matthew 12:37 "For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned."
Romans 14:12 "So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God".
James 3:6 "The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell".
Wigglesworth was a great man of God! And truly a man who can speak about faith as his life was a walk of faith! He wouldn’t even allow a newspaper in his house. Nothing but The Truth!
Proverbs 4:23 “Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life”.
Discuss the issues all you want, but do not make it personal.
The RC 'church' are like the evolutionists. God's Church is rooted in Jesus, The Truth and TRUTH never changes, always was and always will be.
You are certainly free to espouse what ever you want about your particular flavor of Protestantism and your personal beliefs, but I would highly recommend that if you want to persist in telling Catholics what we believe you put in the effort to be correct.
Peace be with you.
To attribute to Satan that which was done by God IS one of the sins against the Holy Spirit. We all know the ultimate source of the emnity towards Mary displayed by many. Pray for them.
Peace be with you.
I've noticed that...
Matthew 23:9 And do not call anyone on earth 'father,'
I can see WHY!!!
Some are doing as well as Resty and Sandy do with advancing MORMONism!
Once more: Does Satan CAUSE cancer?
"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…"
Scripture is full of accounts of physical illnesses and maladies being attributed to evil spirits. The more important issue in the discussion is with those who claim that Satan would cure cancer.
“Then they brought him a demon-possessed man who was blind and mute, and Jesus healed him, so that he could both talk and see. All the people were astonished and said, "Could this be the Son of David?" But when the Pharisees heard this, they said, "It is only by Beelzebub, the prince of demons, that this fellow drives out demons." Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them, "Every kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and every city or household divided against itself will not stand. If Satan drives out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then can his kingdom stand? And if I drive out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your people drive them out? So then, they will be your judges. But if I drive out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.” - Matt 12:22-28
Peace be with you.
"And the low morals of so many of your popes and priests..."The issue is about the leadership, which was not addressed at all."If we still seek medical care despite bad doctors, if we still seek to learn despite bad teachers, if we still shop despite rude clerks, we should still belong to the Church despite the bad members of the Church. After all, if the Church were to admit to her ranks only perfect and sinless members, we ourselves would not be allowed to join. The Church is a hospital for sinners, people just like us and even worse, with faults and foibles, who are called, with the help of God, to love God and neighbor better." — Dr. Christopher Kaczor
Bad doctors, clerks, and teachers would be fired, not moved to another hospital/store/school to continue their bad behavior, as is done with preists in many cases. At at least as long as the accusations don't show up.
A pope whose "celibate" father was a pope should never have been a pope. Or his father.
The Bible has very strict guidelined of leaders so that when the sinners come to church they can have good examples to follow.
Nice way to avoid stating that whatever Stan starts; he can surely end.
I don’t think you would say there are no bad leaders in Protestant churches. So I’m not sure what in Protestantism prevents a bad leader from moving to another Protestant church or starting their own - and repeating the process ad infinitum.
Yet the very same Bible says all fall short and that we are all sinners.
I do, however, appreciate those who hold Catholic clergy to a higher standard than those of any other religious or secular institution as I do.
"Every one to whom much is given, of him will much be required; and of him to whom men commit much they will demand the more." - Luke 12:48
Peace be with you.
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