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| JESUS - THE WAY, THE TRUTH AND THE LIFE. Image from splendorofthetruth.com.ph via google.com |
"I am the Way, the Truth and the Life.
No one comes to the Father
except through me."
except through me."
- John 14:6
The Apostle Paul wrote, "For there is just one mediator between God and man, Jesus Christ our Lord" [1 Timothy 2:5] while the Beloved Apostle stated, "... we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the Righteous One" [1 John 2:1].
The passage from the Apostle Paul has been used by anti-Catholics to discredit the Church for making the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Saints as other mediators to God. They continually charge us with the crime of idolatry, idol-worship, of violating the Second Commandment in their own counting, "You shall not make any graven image of anything in the heavens or on the earth, nor shall you bow down to them" [see Exodus 20: 4-5]. The Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, in paragraph 50, explains the Catholic veneration of Saints in this manner,
"The Church has always believed that the apostles and Christ's martyrs who had given the supreme witness of faith and charity by the shedding of their blood, are closely joined with us in Christ, and she has always venerated them with special devotion, together with the Blessed Virgin Mary and the holy angels. The Church has piously implored the aid of their intercession. To these were soon added also those who had more closely imitated Christ's virginity and poverty, and finally others whom the outstanding practice of the Christian virtues and the divine charisms recommended to the pious devotion and imitation of the faithful."
The Catholic Church does not worship the Blessed Virgin Mary or the Saints. We merely acknowledge the special grace that God has endowed upon them for having lived their lives in fulfillment of God's will [see Psalm 40:8; Luke 1:38; and in a special manner, also 22:42] and in accordance with the Lord's requirement to be His disciple: to deny one's self, carry one's cross and to follow Him [see Matthew 16:24; Mark 8:34; Luke 9:23] and His command to love one another as He loved us [see John 15: 12-17]. The Catholic does not worship images or icons, we simply use them to remind us of the Lord and the Saints. To worship the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Saints and their images would be heretical.
One of the ways by which Catholics are charged guilty of Mariolatry is the recitation of the Holy Rosary. The praying of the Hail Mary's are considered by anti-Catholics as our way of calling upon the Blessed Virgin Mary as if she is divine. But they fail to mention that the greeting, Hail Mary, can be found in the Bible and it was the Archangel Gabriel who used it even calling Mary as full of grace further saying that the Lord is with her [see Luke 1:28]. The other half of the Hail Mary comes from the Bible too and was spoken by someone who was also favored to bear a child even in her old age, Mary's cousin Elizabeth [see Luke 1:42]. Now, the phrase, full of grace, is highly contested by non-Catholics being a direct translation from the Latin while the original passage was in Greek and more appropriately meaning highly favored. Still, Catholic Church believe that the Blessed Virgin Mary is really full of grace and she has reason to do so. But do Catholics take some of God's glory and place them upon her? Are Catholics Mariolaters? Of course not. A good article about our proper treatment of the Blessed Virgin's role in our lives as Catholics can be read here.
We, Catholics, also believe that the Lord Jesus Christ is the only mediator between God and man. But God allows that someone may intercede for another. If it is not so,
[1] St Stephen would have not prayed that God may forgive the people who persecuted and eventually killed him [see Acts 7:60].
[2] St Paul would have been directly healed by the Lord Jesus Christ and doesn't have to be touched by Ananias [see Acts 9: 10-12].
[3] St Peter would have not been able to heal people [see Acts 3: 1-10; 5: 14-16] and would never be able to call someone back from the dead [see Acts 9: 36-41].
[4] St Peter would have corrected Simon Magus and told him to directly pray to God when he requested St Peter to pray for him after he was rebuked by the Apostle when he tried to purchase the power to make the Holy Spirit descend on people through the laying of the Apostles's hands [see Acts 8: 18-24].
[5] The Church would not have prayed for the safety of St Peter when he was arrested by orders of King Herod after ordering the killing of St James, the brother of St John [see Acts 12:5].
[6] St Paul would have not been able to perform miracles and healed the sick even through mere handkerchiefs and apron which touched him were brought to them [see Acts 19: 11-12] including the father of Publius and other sick people of the island where they were stranded on their way to Rome [see Acts 28: 7-9].
There are other passages in the New Testament which clearly show that men may intercede for other men especially the one which says, the prayer of holy people is effective [see James 5:16; see also John 9:31]. In the Old Testament, the Patriarchs, Prophets, Judges, and other holy men and women interceded for others one of the most significant and classic examples is the way Abraham interceded with God, who decided to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah who have attained extreme sinfulness, for the sake of his nephew Lot and his family who lived in Sodom [see Genesis 18: 17-33; refer also to 19:29].
Moreover, if a man cannot intercede for a fellow man, how can we fully express our obedience to the Lord's command to love one another? Wouldn't it be against charity to disregard others when they need help and we can do anything concrete but just pray? Refer back to Acts 3: 1-10 where St Peter tells the lame man who asked for alms, "Silver or gold I have not but what I have I'll give to you ..." and St Peter was able to perform a miracle and make the lame man walk.
And do we not also believe that Jesus Christ is God? The Second Person of the Holy Trinity? Now, who's going to mediate for us with the Lord?
Now if I say before closing this article that I am going to pray for all of you and ask you to pray for me: would you say "THAT'S NONSENSE"?
May God bless us all at all times.
The passage from the Apostle Paul has been used by anti-Catholics to discredit the Church for making the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Saints as other mediators to God. They continually charge us with the crime of idolatry, idol-worship, of violating the Second Commandment in their own counting, "You shall not make any graven image of anything in the heavens or on the earth, nor shall you bow down to them" [see Exodus 20: 4-5]. The Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, in paragraph 50, explains the Catholic veneration of Saints in this manner,
"The Church has always believed that the apostles and Christ's martyrs who had given the supreme witness of faith and charity by the shedding of their blood, are closely joined with us in Christ, and she has always venerated them with special devotion, together with the Blessed Virgin Mary and the holy angels. The Church has piously implored the aid of their intercession. To these were soon added also those who had more closely imitated Christ's virginity and poverty, and finally others whom the outstanding practice of the Christian virtues and the divine charisms recommended to the pious devotion and imitation of the faithful."
The Catholic Church does not worship the Blessed Virgin Mary or the Saints. We merely acknowledge the special grace that God has endowed upon them for having lived their lives in fulfillment of God's will [see Psalm 40:8; Luke 1:38; and in a special manner, also 22:42] and in accordance with the Lord's requirement to be His disciple: to deny one's self, carry one's cross and to follow Him [see Matthew 16:24; Mark 8:34; Luke 9:23] and His command to love one another as He loved us [see John 15: 12-17]. The Catholic does not worship images or icons, we simply use them to remind us of the Lord and the Saints. To worship the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Saints and their images would be heretical.
One of the ways by which Catholics are charged guilty of Mariolatry is the recitation of the Holy Rosary. The praying of the Hail Mary's are considered by anti-Catholics as our way of calling upon the Blessed Virgin Mary as if she is divine. But they fail to mention that the greeting, Hail Mary, can be found in the Bible and it was the Archangel Gabriel who used it even calling Mary as full of grace further saying that the Lord is with her [see Luke 1:28]. The other half of the Hail Mary comes from the Bible too and was spoken by someone who was also favored to bear a child even in her old age, Mary's cousin Elizabeth [see Luke 1:42]. Now, the phrase, full of grace, is highly contested by non-Catholics being a direct translation from the Latin while the original passage was in Greek and more appropriately meaning highly favored. Still, Catholic Church believe that the Blessed Virgin Mary is really full of grace and she has reason to do so. But do Catholics take some of God's glory and place them upon her? Are Catholics Mariolaters? Of course not. A good article about our proper treatment of the Blessed Virgin's role in our lives as Catholics can be read here.
We, Catholics, also believe that the Lord Jesus Christ is the only mediator between God and man. But God allows that someone may intercede for another. If it is not so,
[1] St Stephen would have not prayed that God may forgive the people who persecuted and eventually killed him [see Acts 7:60].
[2] St Paul would have been directly healed by the Lord Jesus Christ and doesn't have to be touched by Ananias [see Acts 9: 10-12].
[3] St Peter would have not been able to heal people [see Acts 3: 1-10; 5: 14-16] and would never be able to call someone back from the dead [see Acts 9: 36-41].
[4] St Peter would have corrected Simon Magus and told him to directly pray to God when he requested St Peter to pray for him after he was rebuked by the Apostle when he tried to purchase the power to make the Holy Spirit descend on people through the laying of the Apostles's hands [see Acts 8: 18-24].
[5] The Church would not have prayed for the safety of St Peter when he was arrested by orders of King Herod after ordering the killing of St James, the brother of St John [see Acts 12:5].
[6] St Paul would have not been able to perform miracles and healed the sick even through mere handkerchiefs and apron which touched him were brought to them [see Acts 19: 11-12] including the father of Publius and other sick people of the island where they were stranded on their way to Rome [see Acts 28: 7-9].
There are other passages in the New Testament which clearly show that men may intercede for other men especially the one which says, the prayer of holy people is effective [see James 5:16; see also John 9:31]. In the Old Testament, the Patriarchs, Prophets, Judges, and other holy men and women interceded for others one of the most significant and classic examples is the way Abraham interceded with God, who decided to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah who have attained extreme sinfulness, for the sake of his nephew Lot and his family who lived in Sodom [see Genesis 18: 17-33; refer also to 19:29].
Moreover, if a man cannot intercede for a fellow man, how can we fully express our obedience to the Lord's command to love one another? Wouldn't it be against charity to disregard others when they need help and we can do anything concrete but just pray? Refer back to Acts 3: 1-10 where St Peter tells the lame man who asked for alms, "Silver or gold I have not but what I have I'll give to you ..." and St Peter was able to perform a miracle and make the lame man walk.
And do we not also believe that Jesus Christ is God? The Second Person of the Holy Trinity? Now, who's going to mediate for us with the Lord?
Now if I say before closing this article that I am going to pray for all of you and ask you to pray for me: would you say "THAT'S NONSENSE"?
May God bless us all at all times.
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