|
|
Frequently
Asked Questions about the Catholic Faith
You may have heard it said, "the Catholic
Church worships Mary."
"The Catholic Church worships
statues, so they have all these idols?"
Why do Catholics confess their sins to a priest?
Why is there a Pope anyway?
You may have heard it said, "The
Catholic Church worships Mary."
The Catholic Church does not worship Mary. In antiquity the
Greeks did draw distinctions. The Greek word for adoration
or worship is something like latria, they said that those who
are with God, the saints should not be worshipped, but should
be respected. The word they used to talk about this kind of
respect was dulia, since Mary was the first disciple of Jesus
and a preeminent follower, a special respect is due, but certainly
not worship, the word they used to describe this type of respect
is hyper-dulia. This is not worship.
A story that may help understand why special respect for Mary is seen as imitated the Master, Jesus Christ. Jesus was a good Jew and obeyed the Jewish Law. Part of this law is the ten commandments, also known as the
Decologue. The fourth commandment states that One must Honor thy Father and Mother. Jesus being a follower of the law would have given special respect to His mother. (This is illustrated in the story of the Wedding at Cana in John's Gospel [2:1-12]) So Christians are to imitate Christ, so therefore it is not unreasonable to respect Mary the same way Jesus Himself respected her. This is not meant to be a proof, it is merely intended to suggest that there is indeed something special about the person who was the mother of God, Jesus Christ.
Catholics believe as part of the deposit of faith that Mary
was immaculately conceived. St. Thomas Aquinas himself seemed
to believe that this doctrine was not a logical necessity,
however there certainly is a fittingness to the teaching. The
fittingness stems from Mary's relationship to Jesus and God's
ability to create as perfectly as He desires.
"The
Catholic Church worships statues, so they have all these
idols?"
Old Testament God was adamant about not having anything that
represented Him or any other God. The God as God revealed himself
in the Old Testament was: YAHWEH, the God who is with His people.
The Israelites after being delivered from Egypt wanted an image
of the God who delivered them, so they cast a golden calf.
In other parts of there history they wanted something they
could touch and see, instead of putting their trust in the
God who is. Any image in the old testament times was inadequate
to reveal the nature of God. Jesus Christ is God, now we can
have some insight in our own experience of who God is. God
revealed Himself in His Son, Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ is
revealed in His followers. In John's gospel Jesus prays, "Father, may they (my followers) be one in me as I am one in
you."
[Jn 17:20-26] This is wild, mind blowing stuff! As we become
conformed to the mind and heart of Jesus Christ, we reveal
to the whole world who Jesus is. The Church is the Mystical
Body of Christ. Christ gave His Church outward signs that manifest
his power and confer grace to His People. In other words Christ
gives us real concrete things that we can touch, feel and smell,
and sense in our human experience. Unlike the way God revealed
Himself in the old testament as being radically and totally
other, in a way being outside our experience, Jesus Christ
in His human nature gives us the ability to know God in an
intimate way, in our real concrete experience. Since statues
reflect humans who have followed Jesus closely, they
help us to see the true nature of God as He has revealed Himself
in His Mystical Body. Since Christ's divine nature was able
to abide in His human nature, it reflects an awesomeness regarding
how wonderful and beautiful human nature is, if we imitate
Christ. To be truly human is to be truly like Jesus Christ,
the Son of the Living God.
Why do Catholics confess their sins to a priest?
I often suggest that a better way to put it may be, Why do Catholics get to confess their sins to a priest? Looking to the Scriptures we see in John 20:19 cf., that Jesus on the evening of the first day of the week appeared to the disciples and told them to receive the Holy Spirit and the sins that they would forgive, would be forgiven, and the sins that they would hold bound would be held bound.
What a great gift God has given to us to know that our sins are forgiven and we hear with human ears that our sins our forgiven.
Why is there a Pope anyway?
Catholics believe that Jesus gave us a guide to help the Church when there
is some dispute among her members. In Matthew 16:13-19 we hear how Jesus
said to Peter, "You are Rock and on this rock I will build my Church!" Since
that time almost 2000 years ago, there have been over 260 popes. Even in
the Acts of the Apostles we see the dispute that arose over circumcision.
The elders of the Church gathered, this is seen as the first ecumenical
council of sorts, and they resolved the issue, and even then it was Peter
who affirmed the final resolution of the problem.
|
|
|
|
