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.
She’s dead; Jim.Appropriate that you use the Godless Star Trek TV quote to demonstrate your denial of Holy Scripture.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0yXqU-w9U0
Honestly narses,it almost looks like "hallelujah we've found something to take offense at" You can't believe Elsie is actually attacking Mary.He aint that crazy.
Well yep that's a good point as far as my thinking out loud goes.I suppose Elsie will give his own answer.
That doesn’t; have you read the post you are responding to?
The Catholic faithful decides, at times with the instructions he receives from his bishop, at other times by his own informed conscience; a Catholic has an obligation to work on properly forming his conscience at all times.
ALL of mainstream Christendom today and for 2,000 years have believed that the Saints are alive in Heaven. A few scattered sects and cults disagree, but many of them also consider Church on Sunday to be pagan, celebrating Easter and Christmas as pagan and some even call venerating the Cross idolatry. They are few but vocal.
Scripture teaches otherwise for believers....
Galatians 4:22-31 22 For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman and one by a free woman. 23 But the son of the slave was born according to the flesh, while the son of the free woman was born through promise. 24 Now this may be interpreted allegorically: these women are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery; she is Hagar.
25 Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia; she corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. 26 But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother. 27 For it is written,
“Rejoice, O barren one who does not bear; break forth and cry aloud, you who are not in labor! For the children of the desolate one will be more than those of the one who has a husband.”
28 Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise. 29 But just as at that time he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, so also it is now. 30 But what does the Scripture say? “Cast out the slave woman and her son, for the son of the slave woman shall not inherit with the son of the free woman.” 31 So, brothers, we are not children of the slave but of the free woman.
The work of Incarnate Christ was finished on the Cross, and the Jewish Law was accomplished in Him. Our lives are not finished and the Holy Eucharist nourishes them:
Amen, amen I say unto you: Except you eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, you shall not have life in you. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath everlasting life: and I will raise him up in the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed: and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, abideth in me, and I in him (John 6:54-57; your numbering may differ)
These words were obviously not said to fool anyone ("amen, amen I say to you" and not said figuratively ("food indeed").
Right. Here it is:
I explained that referring to Luke 22:19 in the post you are responding to. If you don't understand the explanation, ask a question. Don't like the explanation, provide your own and I'll see how that stands to scrutiny. Insulting me is not the same as arguing intelligently.
Actually, those verses in no way state that heaven's inhabitants hear us.
Psalm 103:20-21 “Bless the Lord, O you his angels, you mighty ones who do His word, hearkening to the voice of His word! .Bless the Lord, all His hosts, His ministers that do His will!”
Psalm 148:1-2
“Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord from the heavens, praise Him in the heights! Praise him, all his angels, praise him, all his host!”
These verses would make no sense if those in heaven could not hear us.
Of course they would because all they are doing is telling us what the angels are doing. The second one, out of Psalm 148, doesn't say a thing about angels being able to hear us, only that they are praising God.
What they state is that the angels are doing GOD'S bidding, hearkening to the voice of HIS word.
None of the other verses you posted say that those in heaven have the power to either hear us or answer our prayers.
God has promised in Scripture that HE will hear and answer our prayers HIMSELF. If that's the case, at the very least, there's simply no need to pray to saints for anything. Not to mention that time dedicated to praying to saints is time taken away from praying to God.
Yes we are. The Eucharist is that once and for all offering.
every priest [ιερευς] standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices
That word, "ιερευς" is referring to a Jewish priest making animal sacrifices, over and over again.
I said, in the post you partly quoted: "It worked for the first priests BEFORE He died and rose". "It" in the English language cannot refer to "priests". In context, that was obviously referring to the Eucharist. That, -- the Eucharist -- was offered for the first time by Christ at the Last Supper. That Eucharist was offered by Christ Himself. However, his instruction afterwards: "do this" (Luke 22:19) has made them priest and they began offering the Eucharist following His death; see for example 1 Cor 11:20-30).
annalex:The Catholic faithful decides, at times with the instructions he receives from his bishop, at other times by his own informed conscience; a Catholic has an obligation to work on properly forming his conscience at all times.
Jeremiah 17:9 9 The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?
John 16:7-8 7 But I tell you the truth: It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. 8 When he comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment:
John 2:24-25 24 But Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all men. 25 He did not need man’s testimony about man, for he knew what was in a man.
Man's heart is corrupt and deceitful and is not to be trusted in matters of conscience. It's up to the Holy Spirit to take care of matters like that.
Craftsmen made the altar and built the church. But he, the craftsman worked the wood; Christ makes it His throne when he comes to "abide with us" (John 6:57; your number is probably off by one).
Also, the purported irony about "back of the Church" is only funny for someone ignorant of basic architecture of temples and palaces, and especially the Solomon's temple. Yes, people enter any palace or temple and walk their way to the throne, or the sanctuary, erected at the opposite side.
Still hanging there. No victory over the grave by rising, eh?
I regret that the poster to whom I addressed my post did not realize it was in reference to Protestantism as a whole. I am sorry to give you trouble over that, as well.
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