Catholic Exchange,
I received your Palm Sunday encouragement from a friend. I was raised Catholic and now attend a Non Denominational church. As I watched the short clip it was beautiful until you put Mary up to be venerated instead of the Holy Spirit. It is Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. The Bible says to Have no other Gods before me and to Worship the Lord our God and Him alone. I too believe that Mary was a special person or God would not have chosen her, but we are not to worship or to pray to her or to anyone but God through the Son Jesus. The Bible says we as teacher will be held accountable to a higher standard. Teach the word, not man’s interpretation or traditions set up by dogma. I would love to hear back from you.
In His Service,
Muggy Hanson
Muggy:
Let's try a thought experiment. Suppose I logged on to an Evangelical site like, say, www.biblebelievers.com (I don't know anything about them. I just picked them at random). Now, suppose I wrote them and said, “I very much like your pictures of the lamb, and Christ crucified, and the Lion, but I am very shocked. Both the Lion and the Lamb are symbols of Christ! That can only mean you put up the two Bibles in place of the Father and the Holy Ghost! The Bible says to Have no other Gods before me and to Worship the Lord our God and Him alone. I too believe that Scripture is inspired, but we are not to worship the Bible. The Bible is not equal to God the Father and the Holy Spirit!”
The poor owners of that site would have to laboriously write back and explain that, just because they put a picture of the Bible on their site to indicate they hold it in high honor does not mean that they worship it. The only difference is that I would never write such a note, because I don't think Evangelicals are that stupid, while I frequently have to answer such notes because so many Evangelicals do think Catholics are that stupid, and never bother to check and find out that Catholics don't worship Mary before they tell us to stop worshiping Mary.
Just to recap: when Catholics pray, they make the sign of the cross “In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” Note that Mary is not included in the Trinity. When they worship God at Mass they sing to the Trinity “You alone are the Holy One. You alone are the Lord. You alone are the Most High.” Note that they again do not include Mary in that. That's because they do not think Mary is equal to God. They just honor her, according to the command “Honor your father and your mother.” And for doing so, they inevitably get notes accusing them of “worshipping” her from people who can't be troubled to find out what Catholics believe before spouting off.
As to prayer to Mary or the saints, I'm not sure what you mean. You warn that we are not to pray to her. But do you understand that “prayer” here simply means “talk” not “worship”? You say we are to “teach the word.” But the word tells us that the blessed in heaven are aware of us (remember the very dead Moses appearing on the Mount of Transfiguration with Jesus and talking with him?). It also says we are “members of one another” (Romans 12:5). It also says that we are to pray for one another and that we are to be like Christ and do his works. One of Christ's works is intercession for us. We are also to intercede for one another. So what is wrong with asking the blessed in heaven to intercede for us too? They aren't replacing Christ anymore than you are when you pray for me. So what's wrong with it?
Finally, why do you believe the manmade tradition that the Bible alone is the only source of revelation? The Bible itself teaches the opposite. Paul says that we are to hold fast to apostolic tradition whether it comes to us in unwritten form or written form (i.e., Scripture). Read it yourself in 2 Thessalonians 2:15.
Actually, you do hold to Sacred Tradition. That's how you know what books belong in your Bible: you accept the tradition of the Catholic Church which has percolated down to you through Protestantism. And you accept a number of other aspects of Sacred Tradition as well (see excerpt from By What Authority, “The Lens in My Eye”). So the reality is not that Catholics rely on Sacred Tradition and you rely on the Bible alone. Rather, it is that Catholics rely on Sacred Tradition and know they do, while you rely on Sacred Tradition and don't know you do. We simply think you should rely on all of apostolic tradition, not just the parts you like.
In closing, let me suggest that next time you write that you ask questions rather than telling people what they believe and then berating them for believing it. You might learn something.
Mark Shea
Senior Content Editor
Catholic Exchange
Mark Shea is Senior Content Editor for Catholic Exchange. You may visit his website at www.mark-shea.com check out his blog, Catholic and Enjoying It!, or purchase his books and tapes here.
