Welcome to the forums!
Hopefully we can help you out, but I highly recommend checking out Catholic Answer’s tracts here on their website, since they can go deeper.
- ** Bowing and statues.** Yes it’s true, that the first commandment says not to bow down and worship any idol. But it’s not the physical posture of bowing down that is sinful, but the intention behind it. We can know this because there are several places in the Bible where people bow down to someone other than God, and they are not considered idolatrous. For example, Jacob in Genesis 33:3 bows down before Esau, and Bathsheba in 1 Kings 1:16 bows down to King David. They are not worshipping them in these situations, but they are showing honor. And finally, look what Jesus himself says in Revelation:
Behold, I will make those of the synagogue of Satan, who say they are Jews and are not, but lie-behold I will make them come and bow down before your feet and learn that I have loved you. (Rev 3:9)
Jesus here says he will make unbelievers bow at believers feet! If bowing was inherently sinful, then Jesus would never do that, otherwise he would be causing people to sin! Rather, it’s the intention behind the action that makes it right or wrong. When Catholics bow to a statue or anything, they are not worshipping it, they are showing respect to the person that the image represents. That’s it.
With regards to statues, it’s the same principle. It’s not the making of statues themselves that is the issue, but the worship of them. If statues were indiscriminately condemned, then God contradicts himself because He commands Moses to make a brazen serpent in Num 21, and to make to enormous statues of angels on the Ark of the Covenant in Ex 25. Those are both “graven images” yet God commands them to be made. So again, the statues aren’t bad in and of themselves, they serve as visual reminders. It’s when someone worships them that the issue comes. But I can confidently say I’ve yet to meet a Catholic who worships a statue.
- Jesus is the one mediator, and yet why do we we pray to Mary? Here’s the simple answer. If I asked you to pray for me, would that take away from Christ’s unique mediation?? No, of course not. But that is literally all we are doing when we pray to Mary or the saints.
The reason we can intercede for each other is because we are all part of the body of Christ. And Christ works through his members, by answering the prayers one member makes on behalf of another, among other ways.
Catholics absolutely believe that Christ is our only mediator. But by praying to Mary or the saints, we are simply asking them to take our petitions to God, to intercede for us. Interestingly, right before St. Paul says that Jesus is our one mediator, he says this,
First of all, I urge that prayers, supplications, intercessions and thanksgivings be made for all men.(1 Tim 2:1)
We’re supposed to pray for one another. And that doesn’t end after death. In fact, the righteous in heaven will WANT to pray for us more, because their love is perfected in heaven, they won’t forget about us. Check out Rev 5:8, here we see the twenty four elders, who are human beings, in heaven. And they are holding bowls of incense, which the bible says are “the prayers of the saints.” This incense is going up to the throne of God. That’s a perfect visual description of the intercession of the saints. We see the angels doing the same thing in Rev 8:3-5 as well.
But back to the image of the body of Christ. We are all united to each other in Christ. As St. Paul says
As it is, there are many parts, yet one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you”. On the contrary, the parts of the body which seem to be weaker are indispensable. (1 Cor 12:20-22)
We need ALL the members of the body of Christ, not just some, according to Paul, and that includes the saints in heaven. Remember, there is only one body of Christ. There aren’t two bodies, one on earth and one in heaven.
However, this interceding is not done apart from Christ, as a separate mediation, but in him, with him, and through him. And since James says, “the prayer of a righteous man has great power in its effect” (Jam 5:16) and since the saints in heaven are the most righteous of all, because they see God face to face, for as the bible says again, when we see God we “will be like him, for we will see him as he is.” (1 Jn 3:2) With all this in mind, we should take advantage of their intercession! Again this doesn’t take away from Christ, because it’s only by his power that we can do that at all. But it is something He wants, He wants all the members of His body helping each other.:yup:
Continued…
