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Ave Maria?

14th July, 2011 - Posted by Wolf Paul - 1 Comment

In a recent blog post entitled “Three Questions About Worship You’ve Not Asked“, retired New Orleans pastor Dr. Joe McKeever writes,

As a Southern Baptist living in New Orleans, I find myself wondering about people who pray so many “Hail Marys” every day. Bumper stickers urge worshipers to “Pray the Rosary.” What, I wonder, does this kind of mindless repetition say about God in the minds of those reciting such prayers?

And in the conservative Anglican group blog, “The Continuum“, Fr. Robert Hart discusses the “Invocation of Saints” as exemplified by the practice of many Christians (not only in the Roman Catholic church) of reciting the angel’s greeting to the mother of Jesus recorded in Luke’s Gospel, followed by the words, “Holy Mary, pray for us sinners now and in the hour of our death.” — the Ave Maria.

I took issue with Pastor Joe over his blanket characterization of the Rosary (which involves repeated recitation of the Ave Maria) as “mindless repetition”, since those who promote such traditional Roman Catholic devotions today tend to be very intentional about their religious observance and probably anything but mindless in their repeated recital of these words from the Gospel.

At the same time it makes me very uneasy when Fr. Robert Hart writes in his post,

What then of invocation? Did any Ecumenical Council establish a doctrinal and authoritative dogma about it? No. A dogma about invocation does not exist. What does exist is very old practice, practice that is mostly devotional. The questions that arise generally are about whether or not the practice is dangerous, or whether or not it contradicts the Gospel. Does it amount to idolatry when Christians ask those who have departed, but who surround them in the great cloud of witnesses, to pray as intercessors? Does it make those departed saintly spirits into extra mediators, as if we needed more than the One Mediator Himself?

The answer to these questions is no; no more than my asking you to pray for me, or you asking me to pray for you. It would not be idolatry, obviously, nor is it logical to treat simple intercession as if it were equal to Divine-human Mediation, which only one Man, Jesus Christ, may do (I Tim. 2:5). I do ask you to pray for me. St. Paul, in his Epistles, both said he prayed for his children in the Faith and asked them to pray for him. No one can suggest, with any plausibility, that this amounts to anything that diminishes the unique role of our Lord and Savior.

I recall a very well known theologian, possibly the only real theologian in the Charismatic Movement during the 1970s, named W.J. Ern Baxter. He told a story about how his grandmother always prayed for him in the early days of his preaching ministry, and that when she died he felt a great loss because she could pray for him no longer. His story would end by telling how other people volunteered to pray in her place, and everyone would feel good inside. With all due respect for the man, a very learned man, why did he assume that his grandmother could no longer pray for him? Is death such a boundary as all that? The Lord Jesus told us, “For he is not a God of the dead, but of the living: for all live unto him.” (Luke 20:38)

I cannot promise, however, that specific saints hear specific requests, for though the Church has long practiced calling on departed saints by name, each one is still a limited, finite being who waits to be clothed again in the resurrection. We must not imagine that they have become omniscient, omnipotent or omnipresent. Like the angel who spoke to John on Patmos, they are our fellow servants. Nor can I recommend endless learning about specific saints, as if that constituted necessary religious instruction, in place of learning the Bible and the substance of our Faith. Nor can I accept the judgments of the Church of Rome about every person they recognize in the manner in which they use the word “saint.”

Yet, knowing that the cloud of witnesses surrounds us, I can say as a devotion the words from the Gospel of Luke that constitute the Hail Mary (Luke 1:28, 42,43) and follow them with Holy Mary Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. I cannot promise anyone that she herself hears all those requests for prayer, having no chapter and verse to point to. After all, she is only human. But, I cannot doubt that she, along with St. Paul and so many others, pray for those of us who have yet more to endure in this battle, before we too may rest a while.

My uneasiness grows out of my own experience (probably not too dissimilar from Pastor Joe’s) of living in a predominantly Roman Catholic country, where very intentional Christians from the Catholic tradition tell me things like “I am a child of Mary”, or explain why they would rather bring their requests to the mother of Jesus rather than to Jesus Himself, because they somehow expect a more sympathetic hearing from her, the gentle mother, than from Him, the stern Lord.

I have come to the conclusion that the biggest problem with most of the distinctly Roman Catholic teachings and practices is not primarily the pristine teaching or practice as explained by the Church’s theologians, but rather the way these teachings and practices are manifested in the popular piety evidenced by the majority of her members: members who do not distinguish between prayer (rightly offered to God alone) and invocation (which can also be directed to fellow believers), between worship (which is due to God alone) and veneration (which can also be directed at fellow believers seen as particularly worthy); members who do not see the mother of Jesus as a fellow believer who has preceded us to heaven but who consider here a quasi-godess: they pray to her in the belief that she is more likely than God himself to hear them, and with the expectation that she will twist her Son’s arm to grant things He would not otherwise grant; members whose approach to religious observance is all too often “What is the minimum I must do to not run afoul of God?”

And the big problem is that even though Church leaders are aware of these problems, far too little is done to prevent and remedy these aberrations of popular piety.

Werner

July 14th, 2011 at 15:31    


Currently, I do believe that praying to the Saints and particularly Mary (for she is considered to be a Co-redemtrix) is idolatry.. Imagine the characteristics that departed saints must have to hear all the prayers ascending to them from around the globe.

Omnipresence is a divine quality, and when we attribute divine attributes to anyone but God, I believe we slip into idolatry, knowing or unknowing.

I am also aware that the RC catechism holds that there are three different levels of worship I will not use the Greek terms here, but they roughly correspond to respect, honor and worship, and the Roman Catholic says that the highest form of worship is reserved for God alone. However, the world over, Catholics do not know or understand this distinction, and thus when they pray to Mary, they offer the same type of worship as they do to God.

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