neweyes:
As a non-Catholic, this one always puzzled me.
Even though Catholics say they do not worship Mary, I see with my own eyes that many do.
In Scripture, we read an account in Numbers 21. God orders a bronzed serpent to be erected in the desert so that whoever would stand before it and look upon it would be healed from snake bites.
Can you imagine what this looked like? People, especially pagans, who saw this with their “own eyes” must have been pretty confused. Here are the Israelites, telling them not to make idols of worship and here are these same Israelites erecting a bronzed serpent and expecting to look at it and be healed! What hypocricy! I’m sure to any onlooking pagans or any pagans who heard about this certainly looked like worship to their own eyes. That’s almost exactly what their worship looked like—standing before an image and expecting healing.
But, we know that wasn’t at all what the Israelites were doing. Looks can be deceiving. You have to understand WHY people are doing what they are doing before you can determine if your perception of their conduct is correct.
You may have observed certain behaviors in Catholics towards the Blessed Mother that to your “own eyes” looks like worship, but it is not.
Why kneel down and kiss her statue? This seems so wrong to me. Isn’t this idolotry?
First you must understand why we kneel at all. We kneel in prayer, in general, because it is a posture that puts our bodies in a place that is different from our regular posture. Kneeling itself isn’t worship.
When Jesus kneeled before the Apostles at the last supper to wash their feet, he was not worshipping them.
When we kneel beside our children’s beds at night to kiss them goodnight or just look at them while they sleep, we are not worshipping them.
When we kneel before a statue of Mary or a saint, that is not worship. We kneel in reverence. We kneel to focus. We kneel to bring ourselves out of our everyday postures and into a physical state which allows our souls to seek quiet and communion. And it should never go without saying that when we pray to and with the saints and angels, we are in fellowship with them. We are in communion with them through Jesus Christ. He is there. Together we worship God alone. The saints are our older brothers and sisters in Christ who teach us and bring us closer to the One we worship as our God.
Why did the Pope have a Mary symbol on his casket? This too, seems very strange.
Have you ever been to a funeral where a table is set up with pictures of the deceased with his or her family?
Or what about putting some symbol of their life in the casket with them? Have you ever seen someone put something in the hand of someone in a casket?
Do you think that person worshipped his family? Do you think that person worshipped the hankerchief or the prayer book that is placed with them inside the casket? OF COURSE NOT!
Pope John Paul II had a deep devotion to the Blessed Mother. He loved her and presumably he wanted us to remember that about him.
Now brothers and sisters, don’t jump on me for asking these questions, I am asking with respect and honesty.
I do hope these questions are posed in the manner in which I recieved them! I hope you are truly looking for the answers. I hope that you truly consider what is being said here.
God alone is the source and summit of the grace which saves us! He alone is to worshipped. Yet, in His infinite love and mercy, he gives us an amazing fellowship with his Mother, all the angels, and the saints and through them we are drawn closer to our One God.
