Why does the Catholic Church say that Mary was free from sin when in the book of Luke she mentions her need for a savior. And why do Catholics pray to Mary or anybody else when the Bible specifically says that Jesus is the only mediator between God and man?

Your thought please,  

Sol  O’Phlite

Well first, let us define our terms.  

Read the Catechism of the Catholic Church.  In paragraphs 490 to 493  the teaching about Mary’s Immaculate conception is made pretty clear. It certainly doesn’t say that she didn’t need a savior. Strictly speaking, it doesn’t even say that she was without original sin (though I suppose this is implied). It says that by the merits of Jesus Christ, savior of the human race, she was preserved immune from all stain of original sin.  

You may think I’m slicing hairs here, but I’m not.

Notice that Jesus is called the savior of the human race, and Mary was certainly human. No one can finally be saved without Him, though we trust that God in His justice and mercy somehow make the offer of Christ available to all. (see 1Peter 3:19). She was given a unique gift at the beginning of the new creation in order to prepare a place for the Lord’s coming.

Remember that scripture says, “You have prepared a body for me.” (Heb 10:15) The Father prepared all those renewed genes and chromosomes etc. in the very flesh of a Jewish girl in Galilee 2000 years ago.

It may interest you to note that Mary is not the first person in human history to begin life free from the effects of sin. She is the third. Adam and Eve were the first two, but they threw away their immaculate conception while Mary gave herself completely to the will of the Father and so doing became, as the early Christians were fond of saying, a new Eve, the mother of a new creation. This belief goes back to the earliest experience of the Church, though it was only defined recently and it make eminent good sense. Jesus was most certainly her savior and Pope John Paul II called her the most redeemed of women. 

By the way, every nun, priest, deacon, bishop and pope repeats the verse in Luke to which you refer everyday, if they are doing their job. “My soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my SAVIOR.” (Luke 1:46-47)  Or did you think that as we have repeated this verse every day for 2,000 years, we just didn’t notice or understand it?

As for your second question, why do we pray to Mary and the saints when the Bible says that there is “one mediator between God and man, the man Jesus Christ.” (1Tim 2:5). You must have heard the saying, that “a text without a context is a pretext.” You need to read the whole Bible and not just the few verses that tickle itching ears. 

In First Timothy chapter two, verse one, just 4 short verses before the text of which you are thinking. St. Paul tells Bishop Timothy “I beg that petitions, prayers and intercessions be made on everyone’s behalf.”

How dare he?!? 

Doesn’t Paul know that he shouldn’t pray or intercede for people because Jesus is the only mediator between God and man. You and Fr. Martin Luther, that troublesome German priest, and Jean Calvin, God help us, a French lawyer, don’t seem to understand the meaning of the word “mesites,” translated “mediator.” It is just that: mediator, not intercessor, not person who prays.

A mesities was an ambassador one who brought two un-reconciled parties together. There are plenty of messengers in the Bible who, before and after Calvary, seem to make the trip from heaven to earth quite regularly, and still worse they offer the prayers of the saints as incense before the throne of God (Rev 8:3). Those saints and angels had better mind their own business because there is only one mediator between God and man, the man Jesus Christ.

Poor, Sol, you’re confusing mediation and intercession. 

The Bible clearly says that we shall be like angels in heaven (Matt 22:30), and if part of the job of the angels is to offer up the prayers of the saints as incense, then I have no doubt that my prayers, your prayers and the prayers of our Blessed Mother, the Virgin Mary, the princess of the line of King David, come before the throne of God. We are bound together by the great mediator, the mesites, Jesus, in a great family of love. What a joy to know that in this heavenward journey I don’t have to fly solo! 

If you don’t understand this great family of love, this great communion of saints, you had better stop asking people to pray for you. In fact, just to be on the safe side, I would stop talking to other Christians all together, lest someone take pity on you and pray for you.

As ever,

Rev. Know-It-All