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.
The phrase *mother of Jesus* DOES show up in Scripture, however.
At the time it was used, it was thought of as a sound interrogation technique. We would not use it today.
the Crusades all over again
I see nothing wrong with the Holy Crusades as a whole, except maybe that some of them did not succeed, and Constantinople shouldn't have been sacked. One day, we'll do it right.
OK. So then you're saying that salvation is NOT by works?
Then it doesn't matter if one is baptized, goes to confession, takes communion, gets confirmed, feeds the hungry, clothes the naked, helps the poor, gets last rites, goes to mass every Sunday....
Right?
Salvation by faith. WITHOUT works.
Uh oh. Looks like the RCC has a problem.
CCC 460 The Word became flesh to make us "partakers of the divine nature":78 "For this is why the Word became man, and the Son of God became the Son of man: so that man, by entering into communion with the Word and thus receiving divine sonship, might become a son of God."79 "For the Son of God became man so that we might become God."80 "The only-begotten Son of God, wanting to make us sharers in his divinity, assumed our nature, so that he, made man, might make men gods."81
>> In Matthew 17, the Apostles saw Elijah and Moses, along with Jesus after His crucifixion<<
Did you also notice in that Chapter that the deciples tried to “venerate” Moses and Elias but the Father immediately intervened and put the focus back on Jesus?
And notice this.
Matthew 17: 5 While he yet spake, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them: and behold a voice out of the cloud, which said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him.
A little lesson there from the Father on who to “hear”.
>>Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon. And the dragon and his angels fought back”.
I didn’t notice that there were any saints in that battle. Or did you comment “those in heaven” serve only as an illusion that you meant saints?
Well, y’all need to work on that little problem of killing your own Crusaders yourselves, first, lol.
When I have a post on hand, yours or anyone's, I point out what specifically contradict scripture in it and post relevant scripture. If the post contradicts something else -- logic or history, for example, -- I explain that, aslo specifically. If you see an instance where you posted something specific, I responded critically, and did not explain specifically why I objected, please point that exchange out.
Perhaps. Since I did not use the term "omnipresent" in the context of angels, and Cynical Bear introduced it to bait me, argue with him.
Certainly! It's Saint Roch also know as Saint Rocco
In 1414, during the Council of Constance, the plague having broken out in that city, the Fathers of the Council ordered public prayers and processions in honour of the saint, and immediately the plague ceased. His relics, according to Wadding, were carried furtively to Venice in 1485, where they are still venerated. He is also a patron Saint for dogs
Prayer to Saint Roch
Dear medicant Pilgrim, you once took care of sufferers from the plague and were always ready to help other by kind service and fervent prayers. You yourself had no home and you died in a dungeon. No wonder countless invalids have confidently invoked your help. Please grant a cure to our friend "FourtySeven", and help us all become spiritually healthy.
Song of Solomon 1:13
“He shall lie all night betwixt my breasts.”
You got it, Brother!!
 'When I use a word,' Humpty Dumpty said, in a rather scornful tone, ' it means just what I choose it to mean, neither more nor less.'
'The question is,' said Alice, 'whether you can make words mean so many different things.' 'The question is,' said Humpty Dumpty, 'which is to be master - that's all.' |
Close but then the RCC adds some stuff to it right?
What MUST we do...
...plus a whole lot more!
The Holy Inquisition operated legally everywhere it did, in accordance with the understanding of political power in, for example, Romans 13. It did not practice charity sufficiently enough to expect to be condoned by Christ in all its specific acts. It was a system of justice operated by fallible men fallibly, but it was no more at fault than any other system of justice operating at the time, and it was doing the will of Christ in preserving the faith in purity. The Holy Inquisition must not cease its work using modern judicial methodology; the Catholic Church in America is in dire need for its attention. When a seminary is cleansed from homosexuals, or an order is disciplined, it is God's work being done, and may we have more of it.
Then I guess Rome is all for Capital Punishment?
Or Rehabilitation?
Looks like the wisdom of man to me.
See a couple of my recent posts on that topic.
I guess that is why Jesus asked the possessed Gadarene if he were a JEW before He sent the demons into the pigs.
While He was standing there with ANOTHER 'body' that He inherited from Mary.
Interesting...
So; the 'church' was wrong.
Ineresting...
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