Expert: Sal - 12/5/2006

Question
Jesus! Only Son of the Eternal Father! Divine Redeemer of our souls! By choosing the august Mary from all eternity to be Thy Mother, Thou hast exalted her far above the Angels, and she has thus become the cause of our hope. Word of God, Who hast loved men to excess, to Whom, if not to Thy Divine Heart, can I worthily present the offering of The Divine Life of the Blessed Virgin Mary? This book has been the source of great blessings to the humble translator; for this reason I dare, although unworthy, supplicate Thee to bless it anew, so that it may bear abundant fruits of benediction in the souls of its readers. Master of Eternal Wisdom! make it, as it has already been, a source of grace in the houses which it shall enter: by it may the sinner be converted and the just become more holy. Thus Thou wilt show how pleasing to Thee are the perfect love and fidelity ever entertained by the Queen of Heaven, for Thee her perfect Model. O Mother of the Divine Jesus! Immaculate Virgin and Reparatrix! In thy merciful designs on men, thou hast deigned to communicate to us, by means of thy loving daughter and servant, Mary of Jesus of Agreda, The Mystical City, of which I offer thee this faithful abridgment; then, O Queen of Heaven, refuse not to bless it. Thou knowest that, overwhelmed by the infirmities and miseries of my soul, I have turned towards thee by the impulse of grace. Obtain that the trials which the publication of this book has caused me may, by thy powerful intercession, be changed into sources of great benedictions. I saw in my dream a vision of the blessed Mother Mary. I heard her say "Before His glorious Ascension, the Divine Jesus spoke to the one hundred and twenty persons assembled by Divine Providence to be witnesses of that sacred mystery.  Then the son hast said "They were, in one sense, the entire Church, to whom the Divine Master left His last instructions regarding His Blessed Mother." She told me "My dear daughter,” said Mary, Jesus said,“I return to My Father, from whom I came to save and redeem men. In My stead, I leave you My Mother, who will be your protectress, your advocate, your consoler and your mother. Listen to her counsels, and obey her. As I have already told you, whoever will see Me will also see My Father, and whoever will know Me will also know Him. In the same manner I assure you that he who will know My Mother will also know Me; he who will hear her will hear Me; he who will obey her will obey Me; he who will offend her will offend Me, and he that will honor her will honor Me. You and all those who will come after you shall acknowledge her for your Mother, and when you seek Me, you shall find Me in her.” says the lord Jesus. Mary looked at me and showed me her Immaculate heart. she said this is my heart which is linked with my Son. The Holy Mother and revealed to me that He was about to command all those there assembled to honor her by the worship due to her as Mother of God, and even to make it a precept of the Church! I told her when I was kneeling down and I said "The solemn definition of the Immaculate Conception as a dogma of Faith, has, besides, answered every pretext that could be alleged against the Divine Life. Why how hast picked me to proclaim your faith? she replied,Among the holy souls of past centuries who have been loaded with signal favors and privileges by the Queen of Heaven she said, we must, without doubt, place in the first rank Mary of Jesus, often styled of Agreda, placed in those children. So sal therefore There are divine and supernatural gifts so marvelous that, were it not for the authority of the Church and the holy Doctors, we would be tempted to doubt them. But doubt can only be the effect of ignorance or bad faith, and neither the one nor the other can justify man at the tribunal of his conscience, any more than at that of God. The God of mercy grants to some souls those privileges known under the name of “clear, distinct and precise words, or supernatural expressions”; that is, He deigns to speak to them either directly and immediately from Himself, or by the ministry of Angels, as is more generally the case. Sometimes it is God the Father, at others Our Lord, or the august Mother of God, or, as more rarely happens, some of the Saints, who consent to speak to souls raised to a particular degree of contemplation. So does this mean that I am called to religions life by the blessed Mother and if so Am I called to become a saint by her. Do you think that she was a true vision? Thanks An I was offened by what harold camping on family radio of 94.7 FM said this Mary was conceived by the holy ghost but she is not the Mother of God. God didnt have a Mother said mr.camping and he also said she had other sons and jesus had half brothers and sisters. Why did he say that he is also lutheren. An he also proclaim that we catholics are making her a Goddess? So Sal why did he say such a thing I was hurt by it. An he called our catholic religon false and that we are Idol worshipping. Can you shed some light for me on this topic.

Thanks again
and many blessings
Merry Christmas Sal


Answer
Hello Jacqueline:

The attacks on our Blessed Mother and our Holy Faith will always hurt and they will not stop until Jesus returns. Below I will paste on 2 answers that I have given to Protestants who attacked our beliefs. The first answer was to those that claim that "Brothers of the Lord" means that Mary had other natural children. The second answer was to those that think that having pictures and statues in church is idol worship.

The term for brother in Greek is “adelphos”. It has a wide range of meanings as used in the Bible. The same holds true for sister (Gk: adelphe). Protestants try to restrict the use to only blood brothers and sisters. Such a restriction is unknown in the Bible. Old Testament examples of the usage of brothers are: David said of his friend, “I grieve for you, Jonathan my brother!” (2 Samuel 1:26). The king of Tyre said of his ally, “What are these cities you have given me, my brother?” (1 Kings 9:13; cf. Amos 1:9). Abraham’s nephew is referred to as his brother (Genesis 14:14). Likewise, Laban says of his nephew, “Should you serve me for nothing just because you are a brother of mine?” (Genesis 29:15). When the daughters of Eleazer married their cousins we read, “their brothers married them” (1 Chronicles 23:22). Even distant relatives were referred to as brothers (Deuteronomy 23:8; 2 Kings 10:13; Nehemiah 5:7; Jeremiah 34:9). Also non-relatives were called brothers (Numbers 8:26; 1 Samuel 30:23; 2 Chronicles 29:34). These examples should alert one to the wide differences in the meaning of brother as used in the Old Testament. The main reason for this kind of usage is that neither Hebrew nor Aramaic (the language of the common man in the time of Jesus) has a word for cousin. Therefore, brother was used for all types of relations.

The New Testament was written in Greek which does have a word for cousin. However, the New Testament writers continued the Old Testament usage of brother to express all types of relations. They probably did this because that is what everyone was used to reading in the Scriptures. Some New Testament examples of the continued use of brothers to mean more than blood brothers are: After the Resurrection, Jesus told Mary Magdalene to “go to my brothers and tell them” (John 20:17). Yet Mary went immediately to tell his disciples (v. 18). Jesus gives us the clearest meaning of brothers as used in the Bible. “Whosoever does the will of God is brother and sister and mother to me” (Mark 3:35). St. Paul also used brother to refer to other Christians. “…after that he was seen by 500 brothers…” (1 Corinthians 15:6; also see 1 Corinthians 5:11). St. Luke referred to other Christians as brother. “At one point during those days, Peter stood up in the center of the brothers; there must have been 120 gathered together” (Acts 1:15). Peter likewise recognized brothers to refer to more than just blood brothers. “After much discussion, Peter took the floor and said to them: ‘Brothers…’” (Acts 15:7; also see Acts 1:16). St. James also was aware of this usage (Acts 15:13).

As any honest Bible student can plainly see the word brother has a wide range of meanings in the Bible. Unfortunately, anti-Catholics still use brothers as if it exclusively means blood brothers whenever it refers to “brothers” of Jesus. It is the context of a passage that determines what meaning a word has not one’s prejudices. Also the fact that there is no evidence in the early church that anyone believed Mary had any other children besides our Lord is strong, though not definitive, evidence that the “brothers” of Jesus were not blood brothers.

In the early church there was a belief that the brothers and sisters of the Lord were half-brothers and half-sisters. It was believed that St. Joseph had been married previously and had children from his first marriage. This would help explain why supposedly younger brothers told Jesus what to do in John 7:3-4. This was never done in Jewish society. We know that Jesus was the first born of Mary & Joseph (Luke 2:7). However, if he had older half-brothers they could legitimately tell him what he should do and it would not be a scandal.

Protestants sometimes accuse Catholics of being idolaters because they do not understand the Catholic use of statues. They mistakenly think that the statue is being worshipped because they see a Catholic praying before it. No Catholic praying before a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary is worshipping her as a goddess. The statue merely helps the person focus in his prayer.


Some Protestants claim that even the act of bowing down before a statue is a sin. They claim that the intentions of the individual do not matter. They base this on Exodus 21:5. “…you shall not bow down before them.” The reason God said this to the Israelites was that the Israelites were prone to commit idolatry because of their years of captivity in Egypt (see Exodus 32:1-8). Therefore, God did not want them to even bow down before an image. Since Catholics are not in captivity and are extremely unlikely to worship the saint’s image, the prohibition against “bowing down” would not apply.

It may be informative for the Protestant to realize that his position against all bowing down does not conform to the Bible. When we search the Bible we find that Lot is not condemned for bowing down before two strangers (actually angels) in an act of courtesy (Genesis 19:1). We find that Jacob is not condemned for bowing down seven times before Esau in an act of respect for his elder brother (Genesis 33:3). We find that Bathsheba and Nathan are not condemned for bowing down before David in an act of respect for the office of king (1 Kings 1:16, 23, 31). And we find that Solomon is not condemned for bowing down before Bathsheba in an act of love for his mother (1 Kings 2:19).

If the Protestant view against images was the biblically correct view then we should expect God to condemn the Israelites for fashioning and believing that a bronze idol could heal them. However, not only do we not find God condemning the Israelites we find that He actually authorized the practice (Numbers 21:4-9)!

So we see that the Bible clearly does not consider “bowing down” to be a sin in all cases. The Bible shows that the intentions of the individual are of great importance in determining if an act is sin or not. The true intentions of the heart are known to God alone (Psalms 44:22; 139:1-2; Hebrews 4:13).

One final thing I would like to briefly consider is the Protestant view that images have no place in the right worship of God. Firstly, let us realize that the Bible shows us that images were never completely forbidden. In fact we read in Exodus 25:18 that God commanded their creation. “Make two cherubim of beaten gold” (see also Exodus 37:7). Secondly, the Bible contains many references to the proper use of statues and other images in worship. For example, in the center of God’s holy temple stood two 15-foot statues!  “In the sanctuary were two cherubim, each ten cubits high, made of olive wood” (1 Kings 6:23). This holy place of God was further decorated with images of angels, palm trees, flowers, and lions (1 Kings 6, 7). Unlike Protestants, the wise Solomon had no problem with the use of images in worship. “He (Solomon) made a veil of violet, purple, crimson and fine linen, and had cherubim embroidered upon it” (2 Chronicles 3:14). Thus the Bible is clear that the Catholic position is correct—Statues and images do have a proper place in the worship of God.

One final point: No early Christian ever condemned the proper use of statues, other images, and relics. Don’t forget that it was these same early Christians who collected the bones, ashes, and clothing of the departed saints. They did these things as an acceptable way to honor them.

St. Michael the archangel, Defender of the Faith, pray for us,
Sal