Mary, the centre of attention? (3)

Today we return to the my series of articles about Our Lady. In this post I’d like to look at a reader’s concerns regarding the level of attention which is given to Mary within the Catholic Church.

The concerns expressed by Monica are common among many Protestants. Are they valid? Do we lose Christ when we give attention to His mother?

(It’s always) something about Mary

As a consequence of Mary’s importance in salvation history, the majority of Christians (those in the Coptic, Orthodox and Catholic Churches) place significant focus on Jesus’ mother. However, Monica asserts that this is done to the exclusion of Christ:

If you notice most catholic churches today are named after Mary. Everything in the catholic church is about Mary. Most times when I see Catholics praying, it is all to Mary. When the Pope died, he entrusted his soul and the church to Mary. So where is Christ?

There was a time when I would have agreed with Monica on this point. In fact, there was a time when I would have agreed with her on every point she’s made thus far. However, clearly my understanding has changed. Christ and His mother are not in competition! He is no more threatened by her than Solomon was by Bathsheba. As I wrote elsewhere, when you honour the artwork, you honour the Artist. In contrast, when you scorn, ignore or diminish the artwork, you risk grave insult to the Artist who brought that beauty into existence.

Monica says that “Most times when I see Catholics praying, it is all to Mary”. I would suggest that her perception here is unfortunately skewed. I think she is probably under this false impression because the physical presence of rosary in someone’s hands is rather noticeable. However, at all the other times when Catholics are praying in silence, there’s no possible way for Monica to know to know the content of those prayers. I can assure her that Catholics do also pray to the Triune God too 🙂

It’s also probably worth pointing out that, although rosaries are typically used in Marian devotions, this is not always the case. A popular devotion which uses the rosary is the Divine Mercy Chaplet which some Protestants are willing to pray. I’ve also written before about my own Kingdom Rosary which, although it utilizes rosary beads, includes no prayers to Mary at all.

Christ and the Saints

So is it really true that “Everything in the catholic church is about Mary”? Well, I guess, in some respects, kinda, but not really. After all, what is the central prayer of the Church? Is it the Hail Mary? No, that prayer is not even said at the Sunday liturgy.

Rather, the central prayer of the Catholic Church is the Eucharistic Prayer. This is the prayer where the Holy Spirit is invoked and, through the merits of the Son, a perfect offering is made to the Father. Therefore the central prayer of the Catholic Church is a Trinitarian prayer, a prayer focused on Jesus and the New Covenant won for us by His blood.

We’ll be looking at the witness of the Early Church at the end of this series, but I thought I’d conclude this post with an extract from a Second Century account of the martyrdom of St. Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna. It explains rather beautifully how Catholics regard Christ, His mother and the Saints:

…we could never abandon Christ, He who suffered for our salvation – the blameless one for sinners! – or worship any other. Him we worship as being the Son of God, the martyrs we love as being disciples and imitators of the Lord; and deservedly so, because of their unsurpassable devotion to their King and Teacher. May it be our good fortune, too, to be their companions and fellow disciples! 
– Martyrdom of Polycarp (c. AD 155)

Introduction | Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6