Bible vs. Glories of Mary

[ialsop]

1. I am not challenging the Holy Faith, heck, I am not even anywhere NEAR doubting it. I just have a question for my Catholic brothers and sisters.
2. I LOVE reading anti-catholic websites. And refuting every single point they bring up in my head. This is fun and good practice for talking to nonCatholics.
3. ANYWAYS, to the question. So I was reading this article, Catholicism vs the Bible, on jesus is savior website. I’d post it but it doesn’t matter much to the question and I hate spreading heresy. In an attack on Marian devotion, he cited Isaiah 42:8, which says “I am the LORD: that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images.”
   Now I already know how to answer the “Graven images” bit, but what caught me was the “My glory I will not give to another”. Yet we teach that God freely made Mary Queen to Heaven and Earth to transfer salvation and grace to us, out of His own pleasure. So, how is that Catholic Dogma and that Scripture verse(KJV by the way) compatible?

Thanks!!
Isaac

 

[bmullins]

This is part of the problem that many of our protestant brothers (and some Catholics as well) seem to have is that they like to cherry pick their scriptures in their arguments, while not regarding the rest of the entire body of knowledge. Just recently this very verse came up at Mass(and by recently I mean that it was for today’s Mass for the chair of Saint Peter):

And when the chief Shepherd is revealed, you will receive the unfading crown of glory.
(1 Peter 5:4)

The thing is that with many of those people who are involved on those websites, they tend to only understand one level of honor: worship. Their view does not consider the three levels that we experience as Catholics: dulia, hyper-dulia, and latria. Latria is worship for God alone. It is that glory which is his and his alone. Dulia, the veneration of saints, is a type of glory though. It’s an honor. It’s a light that shines from that person, but they are like the moon… their glory is a reflection of God’s own. It doesn’t take away from it. It doesn’t diminish God’s glory. Rather it shows the immense mercy and love that God has for us to share not only his eternal life with us, but to allow those who have finished the race well, to be remember with honor and dignity. Then we have hyper-dulia, veneration for Mary above the rest of the Saints for her vital role in salvation history.

That is truly what this boils down to. Being able to see that what is at stake here is not that no one else will ever receive any glory whatsoever, but rather that God’s glory is the source of any other glory in the universe. That worship is for him alone. That we will never partake of a glory so high and grand that we will deserve worship, only God will. Yet, that God loves us enough and is confident enough in and of himself to not be threatened by anyone else receiving some recognition too. That recognition should act like a sign post to the faithful Christian to say “Look how God worked in their lives, man I want to be like that. I want to point to God too.”

 

[Karen107]

1. I am not challenging the Holy Faith, heck, I am not even anywhere NEAR doubting it. I just have a question for my Catholic brothers and sisters.
2. I LOVE reading anti-catholic websites. And refuting every single point they bring up in my head. This is fun and good practice for talking to nonCatholics.
3. ANYWAYS, to the question. So I was reading this article, Catholicism vs the Bible, on jesus is savior website. I’d post it but it doesn’t matter much to the question and I hate spreading heresy. In an attack on Marian devotion, he cited Isaiah 42:8, which says “I am the LORD: that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images.”
   Now I already know how to answer the “Graven images” bit, but what caught me was the “My glory I will not give to another”. Yet we teach that God freely made Mary Queen to Heaven and Earth to transfer salvation and grace to us, out of His own pleasure. So, how is that Catholic Dogma and that Scripture verse(KJV by the way) compatible?

Thanks!!
Isaac

Hi there Isaac, Here’s more on this. St. Paul wrote:

Romans 8:17…Now if we are children, then we are heirs–heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also** share in his glory**.

So God is not giving up His glory, God is sharing His life with us so that we too will rise in Glory as the “body of Christ” on the last day, Mary being Our Spiritual Mother in heaven, so we are part of her life as well… We are One in Christ with Mary…

St. Paul explains it in :

Philippians 3: 17 Brothers and sisters, join in imitating me, and observe those who live according to the example you have in us. 18 For many live as enemies of the cross of Christ; I have often told you of them, and now I tell you even with tears. 19 Their end is destruction; their god is the belly; and their glory is in their shame; their minds are set on earthly things. 20 But our citizenship is in heaven, and it is from there that we are expecting a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. 21 He will transform the body of our humiliation that it may be conformed to the body of his glory, by the power that also enables him to make all things subject to himself.

Mary is in heaven so God has already glorified her. Read Luke to know that God favored her among women as well… Read the book of Revelation 12:6 and 12:14, the Woman, to see how God protected her…

We, as the church, will be glorified as well as we are One with the Body of Christ because we join in Holy Communion with Jesus… Again, read the Revelation 12:1 to see that Mary is already crowned in glory… Glory isn’t something that is taken, Glory is something that is given or shared by another in this case God… Of Course we glorify God, and with God are those He glorifies…And God glorified Mary to ‘share in His glory’, by lifting her up to be who she is, the Mother of Our Lord… !

 

[littlestsouls2]

‘And Mary said: My soul doth magnify the Lord.’ (Lk. 1:46)

God is glorified in and by His Saints. The honour given to them redounds to God, Who is the First Cause of all goodness.

When we praise Mary, we honour her in God and God in her (as St. Francis de Sales says).

 

[ialsop]

Hahaha as always, it’s a simple issue of the protestants not reading the whole Bible.

Thanks guys! I learn new stuff every day.

 

[Eliza10]

Good question, and great answers!



The heavens declare
the glory of GOD;
and the firmament sheweth his
handiwork.

 

[Della]

1. I am not challenging the Holy Faith, heck, I am not even anywhere NEAR doubting it. I just have a question for my Catholic brothers and sisters.
2. I LOVE reading anti-catholic websites. And refuting every single point they bring up in my head. This is fun and good practice for talking to nonCatholics.
3. ANYWAYS, to the question. So I was reading this article, Catholicism vs the Bible, on jesus is savior website. I’d post it but it doesn’t matter much to the question and I hate spreading heresy. In an attack on Marian devotion, he cited Isaiah 42:8, which says “I am the LORD: that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images.”
   Now I already know how to answer the “Graven images” bit, but what caught me was the “My glory I will not give to another”. Yet we teach that God freely made Mary Queen to Heaven and Earth to transfer salvation and grace to us, out of His own pleasure. So, how is that Catholic Dogma and that Scripture verse(KJV by the way) compatible?

Thanks!!
Isaac

The answer to the “I will not give my glory to another…” question is in the second part of the verse. God will not share his glory with pagan idols. That’s all it means. It has absolutely nothing to do with Mary, the Saints, their statues, or anything else. You see, people who make these kinds of claims know nothing about proper biblical exegesis. They simply search out verses that “appear” to support their contentions and throw them out there as “proof”. As if a cold reading of one verse says what they want it to say. Easily refuted by anyone who understands basic grammar, let alone the proper way to interpret Scripture.