What power does she have that God doesn’t have?
No one has anything that God hasn’t given them. That’s just the nature of being a creature.
But that shouldn’t imply that God has given the same role to each part of His creation, and some are clearly given far more graces than others, and they use them to accomplish far more good.
A good example is St. Thomas Aquinas. What intellectual power did he have that God doesn’t? Absolutely none. But yet God gave him a vast intellect and an amazingly precise memory. God also gave him the patience to sift through hundreds of books, distilling from them the good; and He gave the Saint the will to compile it all into an incredible lifetime of work.
All of that was an amazing grace which God gave to St. Thomas, not because He wanted him to be able to enjoy academic life and impress his peers, but because God wanted St. Thomas to be an influence on Christ’s Church.
Well why use St. Thomas? Why not just give those gifts to everybody in the whole world all at once by direct revelation? Because God wants us to participate in each other’s salvation.
That’s why He wants you to ask Catholics these questions, rather than simply infusing this knowledge into you like some massive data download. That’s why He wants me to try to answer you, as ignorant as I may be.
The Virgin Mary was given a special role in the order of grace: through her, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity came into the world. Likewise, through her, God wills that his adopted children should come to Christ. Furthermore, her role is to be a sort of mold for us, forming us into other Christs. She is our mother.
Why? Why not just go directly to Jesus? Because, frankly, we stink. We don’t know how to ask, we don’t know how to love, and we don’t know how to adore. God wills that we can be assisted by Mary, that she can purify our prayers and make them more efficacious. He wills that Mary can acquire graces for us that we would never even think of asking for. Through Mary, we can be a lot more holy than we ever could be on our own.
Why?? Because He thinks it’s a good idea. The Virgin Mary is the absolutely most perfect creature He ever created, and frankly, He loves her far more than anyone else. She has a relationship with God which no one else will ever have, or can ever have. No one loves Him as much as she, neither does anyone ask as perfectly as she.
He hasn’t given her such beauty simply because He wanted her to enjoy the Beatific Vision more than anyone else, although that’s a part of it. He did it because He wanted her to have THE most preeminent place amongst mere creatures in the role of salvation. And just as He wants Joe Schmoe on the internet to explain things to other Catholics, He wants the Virgin Mary to assist them as well.
God saves us in bunches, like grapes. He doesn’t save us as individuals.
Now, the problem most have with the above, is that it’s a Catholic teaching that’s built off of Catholic assumptions on how we know and understand divine revelation. THAT is a different question, and it’s one that revolves around authority, like all of this ultimately does.
But if you want to learn more, I would suggest you listen to some lectures.
There’s an awesome philosopher and theologian named. Dr. Lawrence Feingold. Amongst other things, he’s given talks to the student Brothers at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C. I know a priest who has heard him speak, and his recommendation alone should suffice.
Dr. Feingold has tons of free lectures available on the internet,
including a whole series on Mary.
Spend a couple of weeks listening to these lectures, and I assure you that you will have a far, far better understanding of Mariology that the vast majority of Catholics do. It’s almost like an under-graduate course on the subject, so please, do yourself a favor and get a good education in this.
