Incorrect catecheses abound these days about Catholicism even among those who pride themselves on being hard-identity Catholics who try to teach the Faith to others.
Below are three statements that have been made publicly about Jesus Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary during ‘evangelization’ efforts. These statements are quite misleading, if not outright distorting, in terms of the One True Faith. For the sake of accuracy, the fullness of the Catholic Faith and the faith of the people, they are addressed herewith:
1) Statement: “She [the Virgin Mary] remains human . . . she is now a saint sitting at the feet of her Son praising His glory for all eternity.”
The above statement contains two errors: (1) that Mary “remains human,” and that (2) she is “sitting at the feet of her Son.”
Fact in relation to the first error: Mary, as she is in heaven, is human, but not a ‘common’ human. She is a deified human (as are all human persons in heaven) with the level of her deification being the highest attained by all those who have been created from both the angelic and human realms.
Fact in relation to the second error: Mary praises her Son for eternity, but she does not sit at His feet. That is just a romanticized idealization. The Virgin Mary is at the right hand of Christ, namely, At your right hand stands the queen clothed in the gold of Ophir (Ps 45:9).
2) Statement: “Only through the will of her Son . . . only by His will is it granted” [that Mary can hear intercessions].
The above statement contains three errors: two blatant, one hidden.
Fact in relation to the first error: It is not “through the will of her Son” or “only by His will is it granted” that the Virgin Mary can hear people on earth asking for her intercession. It is through the will of the Almighty Father, whose will is supreme. The will of the Unbegotten Father is paramount. Thus it is also the will of both the begotten Son and their Holy Spirit.
Fact in relation to the second error: Mary hears our intercessions in heaven in and through the Holy Spirit – who is nowhere mentioned in the above statement.
Fact in relation to the third error: The ability in heaven to hear the intercessions of people on earth is not restricted to Mary. Everyone in heaven other than God, high status or low status, knows what is happening on earth. This because every creature who is in heaven, whether angelic or human, is living in the overt fullness of the Holy Trinity.
3) Statement: “There can be no greater friend, after Christ, than His mother.”
Fact in relation to the error: The greatest of friends is the Almighty Father because Christ Himself said, The Father is greater than I (Jn 14:28). Further, Christ became incarnate and died on the Cross not so that we could know Him, but so that we could once more regain intimacy with God the Eternal Father through the Way Who is not the end in Himself.
