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“It’s Not What You Think”

  It’s possible that the biggest myth about Catholics is that we worship the Virgin Mary.  Maybe I can put this myth to rest or at least put a dent in it.  Have you ever asked someone to pray for you on a certain day at a certain time because you were having a medical procedure?  𠇌ould you remember me in your prayers on Wednesday at 10am, because I’m getting the biopsy results back.”  That sort of thing. 

  People do it all the time. They’ll ask someone else to pray for them. In religious language, they’re asking someone to intercede for them with God.  They’re worried about the test results and maybe cancer runs in their family, so they ask someone else to pray to God for them.  Some churches even have prayer chains so that dozens of people can intercede with God about the biopsy results.  That is what Catholics do with the Virgin Mary.  We believe that people in heaven can hear us when we talk to them, so when we ask the Mother of God to pray for us, we’re asking for her to intercede with God.  Her relationship with God is special, so we ask for her intercession. 

  Worship her? We can’t. Mary was mortal. She was a created person in need of salvation like everyone else.  So it’s not what you think. We honor her unique role in salvation history and ask her to intercede for us. But worship and adoration are reserved for the three Persons of the Trinity.  We may place flowers at a statue of her but that’s not worship; people routinely place flowers next to a deceased person’s picture or on the grave itself. That’s not worship, either. It’s to honor their memory.  That God chose Mary to be the mother of his Son is quite a memory to honor.  A child placing a homemade crown on the head of a statue is another way to honor her, but it’s not worship. Mary is still alive and intercedes for us with God.  In return, we honor her willingness to bear God’s Son, even though it meant having her heart pierced with a sword, as Simeon predicted.

  Looks can be deceiving.  What appears to be worship is intercession, and what appears to be adoration is giving honor. We do today what Elizabeth did when Mary came to her home: honor the woman who was full of grace and bearing the Savior of the world.  We may honor her with special titles: Mother of the Condemned, Mother of the Poor, Our Lady of Peace, etc.  But we reserve our worship to God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.  I’m quite sure that Mary wouldn’t have it any other way.