Do I, as a Catholic, worship Mary?

In the last couple of weeks, I've engaged two friends separately on this and other topics related to my somewhat recent reversion to Catholicism.  Both are Protestants and solidly comfortable with their Protestantism.  With one friend, the exchange never got heated.  Not so much with the other though I'd like to think things were patched up after the initial fires were put out.

I'd like to think.

Nevertheless, this particular issue, the alleged worship of Mary, is a huge stumbling block for many and so when I stumbled across this Matthew Warner post at a blog called Fallible Blogma (love that name), I thought it'd be worthy of excerpting here:

Surely it is a good thing to give respect where respect is due. It is good to honor our parents and heroes. It is good to admire those that inspire us to be better people. It is good to remember those great examples that have gone before us. That is a part of building up the Body of Christ.

And certainly many people cherish and honor that old pocket watch passed down from their grandfather, the string of pearls from their great-great aunt, or the book of hymns their mother sung from every morning when they were growing up.

Are they worshiping these things though?

Are we worshiping our heroes when we honor and respect them as they return home from war? Or when we place flowers and kneel at the grave of a loved one?  Or when we light a candle in honor of something important to us?  Or when we look to the sky and ask our deceased grandmother to help us out in a hard time? Or when we give someone an award or title to recognize their accomplishment?

Again, that depends on how you define the word “worship.”

The traditional Catholic understanding of worship would be more like: homage paid to God, to Jesus Christ, to His saints, to the beings or even to the objects which have a special relation to God (New Advent).

So in this sense, it’s not a bad thing when worship includes all of these other people and things. It’s a good thing. It’s a natural and human thing.

Some say, “but that’s idolatry!”

Not at all. It’s no more idolatry than cherishing your grandfather’s old pocket watch, admiring an uncle, or keeping a picture in your wallet of someone you care about.

There’s an important distinction that must be made, though.  If we honor a watch simply because it is a watch, it’s ours, and it does things for us – that’s idolatry. When our end goal in life is to possess a huge house, nice car, and fashionable clothes – that’s idolatry.

But when we are thankful for these things because we see God’s hand in them, because they remind us of the love of someone special, because they build us up – that is worship. And it’s actually, indirectly, worship of God.

When we love our neighbor, we love God. When we respect and admire all things that are good, we respect and admire God. It is all a form of worship, but only because of their relation to God. That’s the key.

To further clarify this, Catholics differentiate between a few “levels” of worship.

There is supreme, sovereign worship and adoration of God alone. This is known as latria. If this is given to any creature or thing aside from God, it is idolatry. All other forms of worship serve this in some way.

Then there is worship that honors and venerates martyrs, angels, saints, and things associated with them. This is known as dulia. This is simply the honor and respect that we owe to those that have served God in great ways. Its purpose is to honor God by honoring what He’s done through His creation.

Further, because Mary is the first among the saints, playing a unique role in the history of salvation, the veneration and honoring of Mary is known as hyperdulia. This is to recognize her as above other saints, while she is still infinitely small next to God. But because God chose to use her in such a special way and she – full of Grace – responded, Catholics recognize that.

The key is to see it all for what it is and to not get caught up in the semantics and prejudices. All of these forms of worship bring honor to God when done appropriately. They are connected, just as creation is connected to its Creator.  The real sin is in separating those things.  And that happens at both extremes.

On one extreme you have those who worship creation alone without recognizing God’s part in it.  And on the other extreme you have those that wish to worship God, but think they can separate that worship from the very Creation from within which they do so.

Shouldn’t we want to worship the creator in every way that we can?  A big part of that is properly respecting and honoring His creation – especially where His grace has worked the most and served Him greatest.

Any admiration, honor, or devotion to any holy thing or person can point us to God ever more strongly.  It is in the beauty of God’s creation that He reveals Himself to us so that we can worship him that much more intimately.  His creation has been given the power to illuminate His Love and does so most intensely in his greatest creation, made in His own likeness – human beings.  Mary does this above all other human beings.

And certainly if the angel Gabriel greets Mary, “Hail, full of grace,” (Luke 1:28) then we should recognize her with the same reverence and respect – call it worship or not.

A year ago I wrote about my commitment to pray the Rosary daily, a commitment that continues (enthusiastically) and that some would say is an indication I'm worshipping Mary. 

Mr. Warner has more than adequately pointed out that my devotion to seeking Mary's intercessions; for me, my family and loved ones, my friends and coworkers, is less about worship of her as equal to God and much more about recognizing how God in His infinite wisdom chose her to bring us He who should be our all in all and how that choosing is something to be reverenced and recognized as beautiful and honoring of God's purpose for us all.

So do I worship Mary?  Yes... but not as divinity...  I worship her as the Mother of He whom I need for sustenance and subsistence.

She points me to Christ daily.

How can that be a bad thing?

Comments

[Leslie]

I love this topic. What many Protestants don't realize is the parts of the Hail Mary that seem most un-Protestant are actually from the Bible. "The Lord is with thee, **blessed art thou among women** and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus." is right from Luke 1:42

The last phrase, "...pray for us sinners now and in the hour of our death". A key point that's often missed is that asking the saints to pray for us is very different than praying "to" the saints expecting an answer.