Mariolotry

Mariolotry is the idolotrous worship of the Mother of Jesus. Mary is exalted above all other women but the superstitions of the cult of Mary foolishly exalts her as co-redemptrix and the Mother of God, who has no mother. Mary, the mother of Jesus is not to be put down, she is to be lifted up like any of those saints that have gone on. If we are to someday be like God because we know Him as He is, Mary is a good example of where we will be. She should not be exalted above anything else that is of God but at least brought to the same level, for the body of Christ includes those that have gone on as well as ourselves, espiecially more so because departed saints have been glorified in the same way Jesus has. The problem of Mary being the "Mother of God" is more a problem with semantics than anything else since Jesus is part of the Godhead, the fact is tht Mary should be blessed among women. In a very real way, Mary is representative of the church triumphant, of all the people in the world, we can know that she is presently in the presence of Jesus. The Catholic church does not teach that we are to pray to Mary but they do teach that we can ask Mary to intercede for us sinners here on earth. The division is when Mary is exalted to the level of idolotrous worship, this is the essence of Mariolotry.

Mary is of course glorified today but to have exalted her in the flesh has denigrated her memory and must grieve her terribly. The cult of the Virgin was exceedingly popular in the Middle Ages. The monasteries played a leading role in the development, but ordinary people naturally responded warmly to the appeal of Mary. Aside from her role as the Mother of God, she was rightly personified as the Christian ideal of womanhood, love and sympathy. The worship of the Virgin Mary has always been the most popular portion of the Romish liturgy and the bishops encouraged the cult as part of the general veneration of saints. In the fourteenth century, a Dominican doctor of divinity, John de Moncon, preaching on the doctrine of original sin, declared that the virgin Mary was conceived in sin and promoted the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception. The Church heartily approves in her saints the power of patronage.

The veneration of saints goes by the technical name of "dulia" (Greek: servitude); the Blessed Virgin Mary receives "hyper- dulia" (the highest form of veneration), while "latria" (adoration) is accorded only to God. For those who could understand it, a careful distinction was drawn between the adoration (latria) that was due only to God and the devotion (dulia) that could be rendered unto the saints. The irrationalist St. Bernard played the leading role in the development of the virgin cult. It was only with the rise of emotional Christianity in the 11th century that she became the prime intercessor for humanity with the deity. She was held to be the loving mother of all, whose infinite mercy offers the possibility of salvation to all who seek her assistance with a loving and contrite heart. Unfortunately, Mary would be co-saviour with Jesus, lessening the devotion that should have been accorded to Christ throught the sacrifice on the cross. Then, whether this is admitted or not, she is actually taken into the divinity itself and put into a position of a false god.

Further attempts to glorify Mary may be seen in the Roman Catholic doctrine of the perpetual virginity, not taught until about 300 years after the ascension of Jesus. It was at the Council of Chalcedon in 451 that this fabulous quality gained the official recognition of Rome. The idea that Joseph kept Mary as a virgin all her life is clearly unscriptural for Jesus was Mary's first-born and had brothers and sisters. The veneration that Mary rightly deserved was thus degenerated into idolatrous superstition and foolish ignorance.

It was not until 1951 that Pope Pius proclaimed that Mary's body saw no corruption, but was taken to heaven. There is no "co-redemptrix", Jesus paid the price, not Mary and there is only one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. Thus we should go back to the Father with Jesus, through Mary, in the Holy Spirit. Saint Thomas Aquinas writes that "the Blessed Virgin exceeds the Angels in purity. She is not only pure, but she obtains purity for others. She is purity itself, wholly lacking in every guilt of sin, for she never incurred either mortal or venial sin. So, too, she was free from the penalties of sin." If that is true, then it is true for every child of God in the universe. Mary must indeed grieve even now in heaven for the attention given her to the hurt of the attention rightly deserving to her Son

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