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.
Correction
Should say ....OK, Do you and metmom believe that Scripture teaches Jesus is God in the flesh?
726 was - the “reply to” - both were changing the direction of the thread.
Discuss the issues all you want, but do not make it personal.
If He could do that for her and according to you guys DID do that for her, then why not the rest of humanity and save the world a lot of grief and heartache.
He could do it for everyone who He knew would be a believer.
You'd think that with all those perfect people running around, it would make a noticeable difference in history.
Instead, here this planet sees a religion run by some of the most corrupt men mankind has seen in its popes.
God could also have done the same thing for Jesus with Mary being a sinful vessel, just like Catholicism claims He did for Mary and her mother.
I also believe what scripture teaches.
Oh so she was the one that gave birth to Jesus. Silly me, my Bible says it was Mary that actually gave birth to the Son of God. /Sarc
No one said anything about who gave birth to Jesus. Catholics like to point to the verse that says Mary was “blessed among women” and hold that as proof that she was sinless. Clearly there are other passages in scripture that would refute that interpretation of that verse.
Just FYI, what you are arguing against is NL’s quoting of a post by me.
John 8:58 Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.
John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 The same was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men.
John 8:12: Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, "I AM the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life." When Jesus said, "I am the Aleph and the Tav," He was saying I am the Word, (or logos, written Word) that was in the beginning. In the first line of the Torah, in the first line of the first verse in Genesis, He was there with God! He was in the beginning and all things were created through Him.
1 John 5:7 For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.
John 10:30 I and my Father are one.
John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
John 1:14 And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.
God made Adam and Eve as sinless perfect human beings. Yet both of them sinned. They were able to sin because they had free will. God does not force anyone. Right from the start He offered the covenants, and we would follow them and then reject them.
Every Christian I have ever met, Protestant or Catholic, absolutely agrees on one thing: Jesus is our last chance. If you don't accept Him, judgment day comes, you will be seated in the smoking section.
But it has to be our free choice.
I prefer to point to "filled with grace"
Luk 1:28 και εισελθων TSBο TSBαγγελος προς αυτην ειπεν χαιρε κεχαριτωμενη ο κυριος μετα σου TSBευλογημενη TSBσυ TSBεν TSBγυναιξιν
In the Latin
Luk 1:28 et ingressus angelus ad eam dixit have gratia plena Dominus tecum benedicta tu in mulieribus
When you are "filled with grace", there is no room for sin.
Usually?
I 'attack' when I see error and lack of understanding.
I place statements like "A non answer means you doubt your faith.” in the same category as an e-mail trying to goad me into forwarding it with "If you don't forward this you are a ___________________." (fill in the blank).
The FACTS of your popes that were WAY worse than Luther seems to affect you the same.
Do you believe Jesus is God and do you believe in the Trinity based in Scripture?
Yes or NO
You STILL don’t want to say that Satan can retract his own caused cancer; do you!
Well, it worked to clarify, and it was sharp to catch the ping to Momof7 instead of RnMomof7 (not the same as metmom), and the former must exist as it was allowed.
Thanks
Say what? Could you show scripture proof of that?
“”I ‘attack’ when I see error and lack of understanding.””
That’s a personal opinion and nothing more.
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