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.
I was reading an article in Scientific American about Chimerian cells. These cells pass through the placenta from mother to child and from child to mother. These cells already do what scientists hoped stem cells will do. They speculate that women with multiple pregnancies have less Alzheimer’s because the cells are involved in healing. The father’s Chimerian cells are not passed to the child. It makes the creed that we say come alive. “Of one substance with the Father, wholly God and wholly man...”
Scientists Discover Children’s Cells Living in Mothers’ Brains
The connection between mother and child is ever deeper than thought
By Robert Martone
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=scientists-discover-childrens-cells-living-in-mothers-brain
Because...."Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more." (Romans 5:20)
The countries which are freest and most prosperous in this world through out history are those with the strongest Protestant influence, and history bears that out.
Because Catholicism is into poverty for it's subjects while Rome slithers around the halls of art and marble built on their subject's back.
Man-made teachings are all about their own interpretation. The hypocritical liars with a seared conscience are not to be believed because God's Word ALONE is the Final Authority as IT always was and IT always will be.
Maybe that you ever thought. Love conquers all and that applies even for the adopted child. Science can't measure that.
The connection between God and man is the strongest connection because He created a void in ALL mankind that ONLY HE can fill and He died for mankind because HE LOVED... That's the connection that is important and can have everlasting results.
BTW, those with the desire to eat or kill their children didn't get 'the science' memo. They show what 'mankind' is capable of no matter what supposed connection they have. Trust God, never man.
Thanks for the link. I posted a thread on it a few weeks ago. Recognizing this interaction between mother and child lends new insight into the spiritual connection between Christ and His mother.
I guess to YOU, the Counter Reformation never happened; eh?
There are NO Christian troops advancing on Rome!
Well....
THERE are two jobs you'll never have!
Don't be afraid,Dear Elsie
Perhaps if you think about this in a different way you might realize how much you need to have Our Blessed Mother in your life as well.
Here is a couple of beautiful quotes that might help you see this?
”Let those who think that the Church pays too much attention to Mary give heed to the fact that Our Blessed Lord Himself gave ten times as much of His life to her as He gave to His Apostles.”- Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen
"Let us not imagine that we obscure the glory of the Son by the great praise we lavish on the Mother; for the more she is honored, the greater is the glory of her Son. There can be no doubt that whatever we say in praise of the Mother gives equal praise to the Son." -Saint Bernard of Clairvaux
“Think of what the Saints have done for their neighbor because they loved God. But what Saint's love for God can match Mary's? She loved Him more in the first moment of her existence than all the Saints and angels ever loved Him or will love Him. Our Lady herself revealed to Sister Mary Crucified that the fire of her love was most extreme. If Heaven and earth were placed in it, they would be instantly consumed. And the ardors of the seraphim, compared with it, are like cool breezes. Just as there is not one among all the Blessed who loves God as Mary does, so there is no one, after God, who loves us as much as this most loving Mother does. Furthermore, if we heaped together all the love that mothers have for their children, all the love of husbands and wives, all the love of all the angels and Saints for their clients, it could never equal Mary's love for even a single soul.”--Saint Alphonsus Ligouri
And, according to MORMON geneological sources; his bloodline continued on down to George Bush; thus HIS responsibilty for ALL bad things happening now!
Now THERE is a publication that has slithered from the Right to the Left in the last few decades!
Other than 3 sycophant quotations; what OTHER evidence do you have that I 'need' her?
LOL Catholics don’t so why should I? From what I see Catholics contemplate the teachings of the RCC and twist scripture to fit. I would suggest that you put off the blinders of the RCC and study scripture. The cult of the RCC blinds to the truth of scripture.
LOL I hadn’t even caught that but you’re right. The double speak is amazing.
Catholicism may dominate the last seven years I’m thinking.
Getting a little personal there annalex? I sense frustration. Are you seeing truth and fear it?
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