A year and a half ago, I tried to bridge the gap between Protestants and Catholics a bit by explaining Purgatory in a way more acceptable to Protestants. This week, I'm going to try to bridge that gap a little more on a couple of other issues.
Catholics have a title for the mother of Jesus that most Protestants take offence to: the Mother of God. The reason they take offence to this title is because they don't understand it. This title takes nothing away from the fact that God is God, and that He created Mary, the mother of Jesus. This title simply states that Jesus is God, and Mary is His mother.
The first heretical sect that rejected this title was the Nestorians in the fifth century. They overemphasised the two natures of Christ, humanity and divinity, and denied the complete unity of these two natures. This disunity of the two natures of Christ denied that Mary could be called Mother of God, but only the Mother of the human Jesus.
Protestants believe in the two natures of Christ and in the complete unity of these two natures; therefore, the title Mother of God should not be the least bit offensive.
A similar title used in the Greek Church is Theotokos, which literally means God Bearer. Jesus was fully Man, and at the same time, fully God, when Mary bore Him in her womb for nine months. This means that, like all mothers, Mary was the mother of man, but unlike all mothers, Mary was the mother of God.
This brings me to the next issue: praying to the Mother of God, as well as praying to the angels and to all the other saints in Heaven. Usually Protestant have the misconception that Catholics worship Mary and the canonised saints in the way that should only be due God. This is completely untrue. Catholics ask the saints in Heaven to pray for them the same way any Christian would ask a saint on Earth to pray for him. The only difference is that a saint in Heaven is in perfect union with God, and therefore his prayer would also be perfect.
The question is: can the saints in Heaven hear these petitions for prayer?
We know that everyone has a guardian angel, and that these angels are always in the presence of God in Heaven (cf. Matthew 18:10). The job of the guardian angels is to pray for the souls that have been entrusted to them. It would be ridiculous to think that these angels cannot see and hear everything that the person entrusted to them does and says. So it makes perfect sense to ask your guardian angel to pray for you.
It is true that our angels can pray for us, but what about the other saints in Heaven?
Matthew 25:31 says that "When the Son of man comes in his glory, and all the angels with Him..." 1 Thessalonians 3:13 says that "...at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all His saints." Together, these two verses imply that all of the saints in Heaven have the same awareness as these angels. So it makes perfect sense to ask any saint to pray for you; whether he be on Earth, or in Heaven.
By the way, a canonised saint is a saint that the Church has determined is in Heaven, as opposed to a saint in Purgatory (who may not even be able to pray for himself, which is why we must pray for the souls in Purgatory). To determine if a saint is in Heaven, the Church must look at the evidence. The main piece of evidence needed is either martyrdom, or miracles through his intercessions after his death. In addition to this, there must be evidence of a good and Christian way of life before death.
P.S. I will not be sending out an e-mail for the next two weeks. Have a very blessed Christ Mass!
