I’m not saying that I could say a hail mary or a rosary or anything like that but I was reading some questions from an RCIA online forum and I think I can see a an interesting connection.
When you are a Christian, you are a part of the body of Christ, right? So if, you are a part of the body of Christ and Mary is the mother of Christ then she could be the mother of Christians and since the Ten Commandments say Honor Thy Father and Mother then that could mean honoring Mary…is this the way Catholics see it?
Malia,
Protestants these days have a fascination with having “a personal relationship with Jesus Christ”. This is certainly a good thing. Many have questioned me about whether I had a personal relationship with Jesus. For them that was the criteria for “getting saved” and hoping for my well being that is what they wished for me. So do I wish this, for myself and them.
At first when I asked them what they meant, that seemed to prove to them that I did not have this relationship. If I did not know what that meant I needed to find Jesus and did not know Him as my lord and savior. I had not been “saved” and they would pester me about my need for salvation. They wanted me to say a sinner’s prayer and be saved.
Finally I came up with an answer that made them leave me alone. I said I do have a personal relationship with Jesus. I am Catholic and I eat His Body and drink His blood. This is very personal.
I also have other relationships. I am married and have a wife. I have children and grandchildren and other relations. You can see the word there, relatio. I also have friends at work, church, neighbors and I have a personal relationship with all of these people as well. At one level or another the most fundamental bond that allows all of our relationships to exist is love.
God is love and He loves you.
Mary is indeed the mother of Christ as you say. Christ is God. She is the mother of God.
Surely Jesus loves His mother. Catholics do also. They seek her assistance and prayers and do not despise and reject her help.
When a person close to you with whom you have a relationship dies, maybe a parent or sibling or someone you really love, do you stop loving the person? Or, does love survive?
In the very early days of the Church the leaders of the Church realized they needed to create a list of essential things Christians believed. The list was called the Apostles Creed. The tenth or eleventh article of the Creed says, “We believe in the Communion of Saints”.
Lovers of God are in a communion. In any communion something is shared. There is a bond that holds it together. The saints love one another. God is love and is the bond that holds them all in relationship with one another and Him.
This love is more powerful than death. So as you can have a relationship with Jesus, and your parents, and others, you can also have a relationship with those who are alive in God in heaven. We do not stop loving them when they depart this life and they do not stop loving us.
You can have a relationship with Mary the Mother of Jesus. Jesus loves you and so does Mary and so do all the saints in heaven. They are sons and daughters of God, like you. They are your brothers and sisters in Christ. The love we have for one another does not end with the grave.
The way you have a relationship with Mary is the same as having one with Jesus, simply by wanting it, asking for it. The thought of this is repulsive to most Protestants. Catholics say she is a treasure that Protestants reject. Imagine rejecting the love of the Mother of God.
Protestants say God is jealous and He alone wants to be the object of our love. We love God above all else, but surely He wants us to also love the things He loves. In fact He commands us to love one another. Jesus is like us in all ways, but sin. He loves His mother, but what about her love for Him?
God the Father loves His Son with an infinite love. We finite creatures are limited, but we see that we love some people more than others. The most important person to a mother is her child. She love her child more than the next door neighbor loves her child. A mother’s love is greater than others.
Mary is not jealous. She wants her Son to be loved by others and helps others to love Him more perfectly. That is the testimony of all the saints of all the ages.
Wow, That dear friend is Wisdom GRANTED from God