Catholics deeply respect Mary, the mother of Jesus, in a helpful way that many Protestants and evangelicals do not, and that is to our detriment. Mary is a wonderful example of a heart for God. But should we pray to her, and does she pray for us? How do Catholics come to that conclusion?
It is for Catholics an argument by theological extension. The historical theological understanding of Jesus is that he is perfect. Some ancient theologians presented a rebuttal to this, saying, “How can Jesus be perfect if he was born of a sinful human?” All humans are sinful. Mary included. Wouldn’t Mary’s sin be passed on to her son?
So, those theologians reasoned, to avoid Jesus gaining a sinful nature through birth from a human, God had to do some kind of miracle. Those theologians decided that the miracle had to take place before Jesus was conceived in Mary’s womb by the Holy Spirit. If Jesus was conceived into a sinful womb, they believed, he would inherit that human’s sinful nature, just as all humans inherit a sin nature from their parents.
In their view, God must have done a miracle in Mary before she became pregnant with Jesus. That miracle made Mary sinless. That is what Catholics call The Immaculate Conception. They are not talking about the conception of Jesus in Mary’s womb. The Immaculate Conception is a speculative idea that Mary’s parents miraculously conceived her in perfection. They believe that when Mary was conceived in her mother’s womb, it was immaculate. Sinless. Thus Mary was born sinless. That, the Catholics say, is how Jesus could also be born sinless.
So Mary was not only a virgin, Catholics believe; she was sinless. This idea of the Immaculate Conception, of Mary being a sinless virgin, elevates her significantly in the mind of Catholic theology, to the point where she holds a unique role, the sinless Mother of God. Catholics believe that though Mary is mother of God, she is not equal to Jesus. Mary is still fully human, whereas Jesus is 100% God and 100% human,
In the Catholic view, while Mary is not deity, Mary is in a class of humanity all by herself. No other human, Catholics say, had that kind of miraculous conception and sinlessness, and thus, Catholics believe humans can pray to Mary, such that she has Jesus’ ear, just like she did at the wedding in Cana.
But generally, Protestants, and especially Evangelical Protestants, disagree with this. Mary was human, just like the rest of us, conceived in sin, and living a life that included sinful actions and thoughts. She needed salvation just like the rest of us. There is no teaching in the New Testament that mentions anything about praying to Mary or about Mary interceding. Therefore, while we can very much respect Mary and see in her a great example, we do not pray to her.
That brings us to the second part of this question about Mary: Is it a sin to believe that anyone other than Jesus can intercede on our behalf? My opinion is No, it is not a sin to believe that others can intercede for us. Intercessory prayer is the act of going to God on behalf of other people. We are to be interceding for others. There are loads of passages in Scripture that teach us to pray for one another.
But let me make a clarification, though: we Protestants do not believe that dead humans are interceding on our behalf. Thus we do not pray to dead humans. We pray directly to our trinitarian God. Father, Son and Spirit.
In Romans 8:26–27, Paul writes that the Spirit intercedes for us, “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.”
In what I just read, both Jesus and the Spirit intercede for us. 1st John 2:1 and Hebrews 7:25 also describe Jesus interceding for us. My conclusion to this group of questions: we should respect Mary and even look up to her as example of a faithful disciple, but we do not pray to her. Is it a sin to pray to Mary? I don’t believe we should call it sin. Misguided? Yes. But sin? No. Instead we should pray to Father, Son and Spirit, and the Son and Spirit intercede for us. We also pray for one another.
In the next post, I try to answer a question about the separation of church and state.
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Engaging Scripture 