Mary, the interfering mother? (4)

Continuing my response to Monica’s comments concerning Mary, today I would like to continue providing a Catholic response to her objections, which today will chiefly focus around the subject of mediation.

There’s only one Mediator

Monica objected to the notion of Mary being any kind of “mediator”:

Why do we need Mary as mediator when Jesus Christ already paid the price for our sins so that we could approach God directly? Saying that we need Mary as mediator is like saying that what Christ did in the cross is worthless or meaningless

This objection is one about which I’ve written before. Here Monica is alluding to 1 Timothy 2:5 where Paul speaks of the unique mediation of Jesus Christ. However, when I wrote about this passage before, I pointed out that Christ’s mediation does not exclude all other kinds of mediation and mediators, as the passage’s surrounding context demonstrates.

Ironically, despite her objections to mediation, I would hazard a guess that Monica has had many mediators in her life. Perhaps she had parents who raised her in the Faith? Or maybe she was converted through the preaching of an evangelist? I’m certain she has friends who pray for her. All these things are simply different forms of mediation. They have been different avenues through which God has communicated His grace to her. We are all part of one Body, after all (Colossians 1:17-18). Doesn’t it make sense that the Head would use the different members to communicate divine life to other parts of the Body?

She says that having Mary as a mediator makes “what Christ did in the cross…worthless or meaningless”. This statement is asserted, but unfortunately not substantiated.  As I pointed out above, Monica has certainly had many mediators in her life, yet those who supported her and prayed for her have in no way rendered the cross void. In fact, those mediators could only intercede for her and communicate grace to her by virtue of Christ and through the power of His cross! What right do I have to petition the Father, if not by the blood of Christ?

Tearing the curtain

When speaking about mediation, Monica invited me to read Luke’s account of the Passion:

Read Luke 23:45 which says that the curtain in the temple was broken apart in two, this symbolizing that the use of mediators (like in the old testament where only the priests could enter the most holy of the holy places and approach God to intercede for people) was terminated.

The problem here is that what Monica presents is her personal interpretation of this event in Scripture. I would suggest that there are several other possible interpretations and implications for this event. Here are a few I can think of:

1. Foreshadowing
It could be a foreshadowing of the destruction of the Temple in AD 70 which was foretold by Christ (Matthew 24).

2. Reflection
It could be seen as a cosmic sign of mourning, much in the same way a Jew would rip his clothes upon encountering some kind of sacrilege (Matthew 26:65). The Jerusalem Temple is reflecting the assault upon the true temple, Christ’s body on the cross.

3. Revelation
The veils could be torn so that the Temple could be shown to be spiritually bankrupt. The ripping of the veils would have revealed the Holy of Holies. This would have exposed the Temple as being devoid of the Ark and, as a consequence, without the presence and glory of the God.

4. Association
The event in the Temple could be a sign pointing to Jesus’ high priestly act which began in the Upper Room and is now completed on the cross. The tearing of the veil points us to the new avenue to Heaven. This path is not opened by animal sacrifice, but by the life-giving sacrifice of the Son. In the Temple, the veils separated sinners from the presence of God, but now by faith that path is opened wide through Christ’s atoning blood of the New Covenant (Hebrews 10:19-22).

These different interpretations are not mutually exclusive, but personally I would give priority to the final explanation. Either way though, I’ve already demonstrated that there are different kinds of mediation and Mary’s mediation is different from that of her Son, by virtue of who He is and His role in salvation. Therefore the ripping of the veil isn’t especially relevant to this discussion.

Use of language

During her comments, Monica explained that she stumbles over the language Catholics sometimes use:

People call her our hope, our salvation, etc. Acts 4:12 says that salvation is found in Christ alone.

Hopefully a clarification is all that’s needed here. This is simply a consequence of the limitation of language. When we refer to Mary as “our hope” etc, we do not mean that she is our hope to the exclusion of Christ. We ask her to save, but it is only and ever always will be through Jesus.

We use this kind of language with each other all the time. At work I would tell someone on my team “I’m really relying on you to finish that piece of code”. I have yet to have one of my developers come to me and say “You should trust in God alone”  🙂

God’s attributes?

A little later, Monica made what seemed to me to be a rather odd statement:

Yes people are taking focus away from Christ by giving her attributes that only belong to Christ, such as being sinless, holy, mediator, being taken to heaven alive, doing miracles… etc.

I’m not quite sure why she thinks these attributes can only belong to Christ, since Scripture is replete with examples of humans having these attributes:

1. “…sinless…”
Adam and Eve were both created sinless, yet that didn’t require them to be divine.

2. “…holy…”
Many, many people in the Bible are referred to as “holy”. In fact, that word is used to describe all the followers of Jesus (Colossians 1:2).

3. “…mediator…”
As well as the covenant mediators of the Old Testament (Abraham, Moses etc), Christians are constantly exhorted in the New Testament to pray for others and thereby mediate God’s grace (1 Timothy 2:1).

4. “…being taken into heaven alive…”
There are at least two bodily assumptions in the Old Testament: Enoch (Genesis 5:24) and Elisha (2 Kings 2:11-12).

5. “…miracles…”
And as for doing miracles, well, that’s hardly uncommon for those special friends whom God chooses… (Acts 4:29-30; 2 Maccabees 15:12-16)

This ends my reply on Monica’s commentary concerning Mary. In my next post on Tuesday I’ll look at what she had to say about the origin of the Catholic Church.

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