Catholics, Please Say Something about Jesus!

Mary,

this is a most brilliant, sound and encouraging article.

Often we read too much and hence skim over what we read. But this article is excellent and deserves to be read carefully, studied deeply and acted on. It is full of optimism and hope, emphasizing that Jesus is our Savior.

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For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more surely, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life. But more than that, we even boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

The Holy Bible : New Revised Standard Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1989), Ro 5:10–11.
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There was a time when English Catholics in particular had a vivid memory of Protestants playing with a supposed host as a dog with a bone. Such scenes were normal street scenes in London when Elizabeth’s (and Cecil’s) secret police led a tyrannical and anti-Catholic State. Just as normal were the scenes of good Catholic men and women being imprisoned and murdered by the apostate – which is to say, the Protestant – state. But at least two things have happened between then and now. First, the apostate state also began to persecute non-Catholic Christians – such as Baptists – who did not share an affiliation with the State church. Second, the generations passed, and the sons and daughters of Protestants received false teaching as if it were true. In the first case, we must necessarily conclude that those who died for their Baptist faith (for example) died for Christ, no matter how poorly informed their consciences might have been. In the second case, we must accept the fact that the wisdom received from fathers and mothers – however poorly informed it might also have been – is not easily dismissed by the children. Deprived of the light emanating from Rome in a way not unlike that of Catholics who lived under bad Popes, they have simply done the best they can. “The best they can” has in modern times been translated into an oversimplified understanding of the Faith. However, this oversimplified version of the Faith is exactly the sort of simplification that the Catholic Church has always offered to those members of her flock who have lacked time and resources to delve into all of the deepest mysteries of the Faith. It is certainly of a different order than most of the simplifications offered to unschooled (or just plain busy, as in nine-children-and-no-money-busy) Catholics throughout the millennia, but it is not of a different kind. Indeed, the focus on Mary as the person best able to lead us to Christ is exactly one of these simplifications. Ad Iesum per Mariam is a slogan offered by the Church over and over again as an effective means to find one’s way to salvation, especially if one lacks the time for deep theological study. And it is effective if followed, as many faithful Catholics have done so.

But it is important to observe that the Church might just as easily have offered as a simplification of her teachings something on the order of Accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior. For even an unschooled Catholic, to know Mary is to know Christ, because the two are inseparable. It is simply impossible in the minds of a great many Catholics – whether deeply schooled or not – to even conceive that Mary could be thought of without considering Christ in the same thought. The fact that Protestants do not understand this is not necessarily the fault of the individual Protestant (whose faith has been poorly informed from childhood) – but it reflects more on the stereotypical understanding that many Protestants have of Catholics than anything else. On the one hand, we certainly should prepare ourselves to evangelize each individual based on where that individual stands at a particular moment. With a Protestant person, this means understanding the simplification of their rhetorical emphasis on Jesus to the exclusion of all else (as if there were not also a Father and Holy Spirit, for example). But in times of crisis – such as illness or death – I can think of no good reason why a Catholic should have to cope both with the crisis and with the possibly bigoted responses from the Protestants he might encounter.

Yes, I would say, “I’d ask Mary to pray for me.” I hope I’d also have the wherewithal to say, “Yes Jesus is my Lord and Savior.” But if my wife just died and some Protestant went about tsk-tsking my focus on Mary – and my inability to delve any deeper than that for the time being – well that is his problem and not mine.

Mary, your answer distresses me. If I were at one of your talks and I heard this, I would raise a voice of protest.

As a Catholic I have a Kingdom that includes the King, the Queen, and the glorious saints. Our treasure is to be given to Protestants, not hidden away. I have found one thing to be very true about witnessing to Protestants. When one takes your approach, it only amounts to all of us merely being Protestant. (We all agree that Jesus is the ONLY Savior, great, then why should I become Catholic?)I find it is more helpful to emphasize that which we do not share, as opposed to that which we do share. Then Protestants can understand the glory of the Catholic faith.

This man’s answer was beautiful and the Protestant would do well to stop preaching and to ponder it. All of the graces the Protestant has comes through the Catholic Church anyway. That is the teaching of our Church.

Mary is the Mediatrix of all grace. That is the teaching of the Church. Throw that out to your Protestant friends. Jesus wants you to.

Methinks I should mention this:
I’ve been a huge fan of EWTN since my return to the ‘States in 2005. I’ve watched many of Marcus Grodi’s shows in which he interviews former Protestants. In the vast majority of those interviews, you’ll see a long, winding road from Protestant ideals to Catholic conversion. Most of the time, it happens as a result of several interactions with Catholics or practical Catholic faith, not from the odd occasion when Catholic and Protestant discuss faith.

Seems to me that we can take a hint from this: You’ll most likely have the most success from a long friendship with someone.
After high school graduation, I’ve never been in one place for more than two or three years at a time.

It’s very difficult to establish and/or maintain any meaningful, fruitful friendship or dialogue when we don’t cross paths more than that.
I think I’m one of millions in that state of life.

If this man is aware of it or not, saying what he did about Mary is implicitly saying much about Jesus, because Mary is Theotokos who was immaculately conceived, gave birth and nurtured her Son, fully participates in His mission, was assumed body and soul into heaven and reigns as the Queen Mother.

I don’t find the man being 80 years a Catholic and yet his son had a Protestant funeral to be relevant. He died and cannot be faulted for where his funeral was held. Since his son was attending this Protestant church and since he was attending with his son, this is no surprise.

Moreover, the nature of the question, “I finally asked him one day, ‘If you died and stood before the Lord and He asked you why He should let you into heaven, what would you say?’”, requests this man’s answer. Since he is speaking in the first person to God, his answer, “I just ask the Virgin Mary to pray for me,” is telling. Let’s evaluate it.

His answer first brings forth that he is not guilty of the sin of presumption. The very question asked seems to expect some sort of presumption. Prayers for the Virgin implies he sees himself as a wretched sinner. In what way is this attitude different than St, Francis of Assisi or any other of the saints? The answer is, it’s not different, his attendance at a Protestant church aside, for we are evaluating his answer. Mary is Queen Mother and as such, asking for Mary’s prayers are quite noteworthy, for it has always been Mary’s role to bring us to Jesus.

Surely there will be objections about the failure of this Catholic man by attending a Protestant church, having a Protestant funeral, etc. There’s no doubt the man was far from a model Catholic in judging what the article reveals. Be that as it may, the man’s answer which is what is being criticized in the article, is actually the best thing about the man as you have revealed him, in my opinion.