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<\/a><\/div>\nWhen Protestants hear that I went to Bob Jones University, but am now a Catholic (after they pick up their jaw from the floor) they ask me whether I \u201creally<\/b> believe all that Catholic stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n
What they mean is that they think maybe I became a Catholic because I like stained glass windows and organ music and lighting candles and all that stuff. Or maybe I became a Catholic because I\u2019m rebelling against BJU (wot at my age?) or that I had some sort of weird fizz pop in my brain that made me do something crazy, and that they hope it is nothing more than an eccentricity like if I had taken an interest in Native American folklore and started attending pow wows with a full feather head dress.<\/p>\n
They could probably accept all that with a shake of the head and, \u201cWell, he did go off and live in England for twenty five years, and that was sort of dumb to start with\u2026I mean they don\u2019t even have good dentists in England!\u201d But what really rocks the boat is when they ask in a conspiratorial whisper (as they look over their shoulders to see if anyone might over hear them) \u201cDo you really pray to Mary?\u201d<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve stopped beating around the bush and say, \u201cWhy sure I pray to Mary!\u201d Then I explain that by \u2018pray\u2019 I mean I ask her for something. I don\u2019t worship Mary or adore Mary. But I ask her to pray with me and for me. I pray to Mary because in my experience she really is close to Jesus. There\u2019s a bond between them which is just as close and real and intimate as the bond between any mother and her child.<\/p>\n
If it is a female I\u2019m talking to and I know they are a mother I say, \u201cYou know you have a bond with your children that nobody else can really understand. Isn\u2019t that true?\u201d They almost always nod knowingly. \u201cWell, it\u2019s the same between Mary and Jesus, but even more so because she was a perfect mother and he was a perfect son.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhaddya mean perfect<\/b>??\u201d The Bible says \u201cAll have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.\u201d Mary was a sinner too. \u201cWell, technically that\u2019s right. But she was a redeemed sinner. By virtue of her son\u2019s death on the cross, we believe God saved her from original sin, and preserved her from sin ever after that. That\u2019s why we think she\u2019s perfect\u2013not perfect like Jesus is perfect\u2013because he is the Son of God\u2013but perfect like we will be perfect one day\u2013perfectly restored, healed and forgiven.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSo you really pray to Mary? But she\u2019s not God.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s right, and we don\u2019t believe she\u2019s God either. That would be a blasphemy. We do believe that she is the highest of all created beings though. See, she was the Mother of God.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cLooky here. God does not have a Mother.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re right again. That\u2019s what we believe too. God the Father does not have a Mother, but God the Son does, doesn\u2019t he? You do believe that Jesus is God in human form don\u2019t you?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI guess.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, Mary was his mother right?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cUh huh.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSo that makes Mary the Mother of God. Not the Mother of God the Father. The mother of God the Son.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re just being tricky.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNot really. I\u2019m just explaining what we really believe. So if she is so close to Jesus, then we ask her to pray for us. See, when you think about it, you wouldn\u2019t have Jesus without Mary would you?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWell\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSo if you can\u2019t have Jesus without Mary, then you can\u2019t have Jesus without Mary.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re talking in riddles.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNot really. I just mean that historically you never could have had Jesus without Mary, so why do you Protestants think you can have Jesus without Mary now? We Catholics wonder why you all get so hung up on this. Jesus said, \u201cBehold your Mother.\u201d Why are you so hard hearted? Don\u2019t you love your Mother? See, praying to Mary is also just a way to spend time with my Mother.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re kidding me right?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cListen, do you want a piece of pie? Let me get you a piece of this cherry pie right here that Aunt Sally made. It is so good\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When Protestants hear that I went to Bob Jones University, but am now a Catholic (after they pick up their jaw from the floor) they ask me whether I \u201creally believe all that Catholic stuff.\u201d What they mean is that they think maybe I became a Catholic because I like stained glass windows and organ […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":557,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-451","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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<\/a><\/div>\n