Should we honor Mary? A conversation that I had on social media
I was in a conversation with a person on one of Taylor Marshall's videos. This person had a problem with what Catholics believe about Mary. Or, what they think Catholics believe about Mary. Not sure if this person rightly knows Catholic teaching but I did my best to answer using scripture. When the conversation started I knew I was dealing with probably a KJV bible alone-er. Not saying anything bad, it's just good to differ the context of the conversation. I could be wrong.
What is for sure; is that this person is mistaken on what Catholics believe, and what the Church has always taught about Mary. I have talked with a lot of people online over the years about Catholic teaching and Mary is largely a misunderstood topic among non catholic Christians. There is more to this conversation than what is posted here but my hope is that perhaps others can learn from it. When this conversation started this person accused Catholic teaching as being unbiblical in a response to my comment on Taylor's video.
This person was also under the impression that Catholics believe that Mary was sinless of her own power and not saved by Grace. This of course is a common misconception. The conversation went on to this person being confused that Jesus would honor His own Mother. Or that some how Jesus would not be pleased with us if we honored her.
This person then went on a rant about how many times certain people were mentioned in the bible and pointing out that Mary is only mentioned a couple times and that this some how makes her less significant, or not significant at all! Imagine that? The woman who gave birth to our Savior following God's Will is not significant in Christ's plan of redemption. Anyway I argued that Jesus loved and honored His mother and so should we. And that He gave her to us too be loved and honored by us in His name! I am posting it here for those who may read it and develop a better understanding of what the church teaches.
My prayer is that this person can see that we worship Christ our God and honor His mother as He did. May God bless this person and all who love Christ and desire to follow Him and His Word. May we all come together as brothers and sisters in Christ.
Amen!
I can certainly do my best to answer these. Using the KJV for you :)
1) Jesus gave His mother to John. Jesus said to John "behold thy mother" and to Mary "behold thy son" (John 19:26-27) Jesus loved John (John 13:23) and we are called to be disciples of Jesus and to make disciples and to teach the way of Christ to others (Matt 28:19) John is not only the beloved disciple but a prototype of all who answer the call to be beloved followers of Christ.
The woman of (Revelation 12) is the mother of Christ. If you read in context and to the end "the woman" is the mother of the remnant, KJV. Here and in other translations including the Greek, the word "remnant" means children or offspring. Who are the woman's children? This "which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ." (Revelation 12:17)
Not coincidentally this brings us to Jesus and His words about who belongs to His family in (Matt 12:50) "For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother" Jesus Himself says that His faithful disciples, those who do the will of His Father are His own family. We are brothers and sisters with Christ! So His mother is our spiritual mother and His Father God for that matter is our Father.
Obviously Mary is not our biological mother as she is with Jesus and not our Mother in the same way God is our Father. But she is our spiritual mother since she gave birth to our redeemer Christ who saves us from our sin.
2) in (Hebrews 4:15), (1 Peter 2:22) Jesus is like us in every way but without committing any sin. He is sinless, The Christ who saves us!
(Dueteronemy 5:16) "Honour thy father and thy mother, as the LORD thy God hath commanded thee;..."
In (Matt 19:19) Jesus Himself talks about following the ten commandments, one of them being honouring your mother. "Honour thy father and thy mother, as the LORD thy God hath commanded thee;"
Did Jesus break the commandment and not follow His own teaching?
Jesus says in His Word "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil." (Matt 5:17)
Don't you honour your mother in Jesus name, as God commanded? Do you go honour your friends mothers? If we are friends with Christ don't we honour Him more when we honour those he loved? What kind of a friend of Christ disregards the woman who gave birth to Him?
Certainly we don't worship her, she is not God. God alone is to be worshiped! We honour her as the mother of our redeemer because we love and Worship Christ our God!
And to be clear; she is only sinless because Christ redeemed her with His power. "And Mary said, My soul doth magnify the Lord, And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior." (Luke 1:46-47)
Her words continue here..."For he hath regarded the low estate of his handmaiden: for, behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed. For he that is mighty hath done to me great things; and holy is his name." (Luke 1: 48-49)
Christ is her Savior and He is ours! And we simple honor her as our spiritual mother in Christ our brother.
And I don't think it matters that she is only mentioned a few times cause when she is it matters because it has to do with Christ our Savior who has come into the world! This time of year is a good time to read Luke chapter 1.
Context and the entire Word of God is important here. Catholics look at the whole picture and not just a few verses. Although we have those too. So this probably isn't exactly what you are looking for but it is The Word of God and we believe it.
After this the person responded by saying that The church has a very different view of honor. I responded with the catechism and assured them that to Catholics honor does not mean worship but respect. The argument was also that honour in the bible means to provide food, water and shelter for your mother. The assumption was that we can't do these tjings for Mary therefore we can't honor her. But I think this is a very narrow view of honor and that respect is also a part of that. This person also was under the impression that Jesus had biological siblings and that He entrusted His mother to Johm because the "siblings" had no faith. I will leave the brothers of Christ for another post. But here is my response to all this below...
The church teaches to believe and follow Jesus Christ and love who He loves. Honor who He honores. Emulate Christ in every way. Very simple! No one is dead in Christ and He rose from the dead so that we could have eternal life!
And Jesus didn't have biological siblings just cousins this is why she was entrusted to John. The brothers mentioned are from a different Mary to make a long story short, if you study the scriptures more closely.
Yes honor means providing those things and taking care of your mother but it also has to do with respect! What good is it to provide for your mother if you don't respect her?
We respect and honor Mary as the mother of Christ and our spiritual mother. Jesus is providing for her in Heaven and John provided for her on earth. But never are we not to respect her and honor her in anyway we can. Not worship respect and honor! Why would you have a problem with that?
"All generations will call me blessed": "The Church's devotion to the Blessed Virgin is intrinsic to Christian worship." The Church rightly honors "the Blessed Virgin with special devotion. From the most ancient times the Blessed Virgin has been honored with the title of 'Mother of God,' to whose protection the faithful fly in all their dangers and needs. This very special devotion. differs essentially from the adoration which is given to the incarnate Word and equally to the Father and the Holy Spirit, and greatly fosters this adoration." The liturgical feasts dedicated to the Mother of God and Marian prayer, such as the rosary, an "epitome of the whole Gospel," express this devotion to the Virgin Mary. (Catechism of The Catholic Church, Paragraph 6. MARY - MOTHER OF CHRIST, MOTHER OF THE CHURCH, passage 971)
by Joanne Utke
For more articles like this one see my other posts about Mary.
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