Sin, Grace & Mary

A Response to Jimmy Swaggert Ministries, Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Sin and Grace

Catholic doctrine does not say that one becomes saved through confession (p. 35). I believe I explained earlier the Catholic position here regarding hope. Being in "a state of grace" or filled with God's presence is different. Let me offer an illustration. A man is filled with faith as his Lord and savior. He is baptized (born-again), becoming a Christian with all his sins forgiven. However, even as a good man, he might occasionally commit little or venial sins. His general direction still tends toward God, although small sins have the tendency to expand into larger ones. Simple acts of contrition would suffice to cast off the yoke of these transgressions. However, when he begins to plot infidelity and later in its commission, he sins mortally, committing sins of a more serious nature. Vice supplants virtue and iniquity displaces grace. Only he and God can read his soul with perfect accuracy to say whether he has made a fundamental option toward or away from God. However, there are hints. Is he dishonest? Is he manipulative? Is he selfish? If more and more of these answers are contrary to God's will, then a state of grace may indeed be lost and an actual hatred for God and neighbor could be nurtured. What do you think would have happened to such a soul if the man died from a heart attack while commiting a serious transgression like reading pornography or indecent voyeurism? Note that for Catholics, the regeneration of baptism is not repeated with subsequent baptisms, even after serious sin. It has a permanent character and in this sense is similar to the Protestant notion "once saved" then "always saved". However, Catholics hold that a good faith can sour and one can renege on the gift of salvation.

Repetition and Belief

It is at this point that your letter begins to repeat itself, I suppose with the expectation that if you repeat something long enough, no matter how ridiculous, someone will start to believe it: that Catholics see Mary's intercession as more efficacious than Christ's (p. 38); that there is a confusion of the Son (our Redeemer) with the Father (p.38); that Mary could replace Jesus as our Mediator (p. 38); and that veneration of Mary displaces the adoration which belongs to God alone (pp. 38-39).

Mary: The Fruit of a Holy Home

How dare you imply that there is no evidence regarding the parents of Mary when history and common sense offers us valuable data (p. 39)? St. Ann is the name of her mother which comes down to us. Tradition is divided over the name of her husband, although some sources give the name, Joachim. The Church in which I celebrate is named after St. Ann. [NOTE: And I subsequently worked at St. Mary's Church.] I take your blemishing of her memory as an insult against this entire community! Do you suppose that Mary had no parents at all? Do you suppose a flower as holy as Mary could have not been nurtured in a saintly home?

Truth About Mary

Your ignorance of Catholic theology regarding Mary is appalling for one who would seek to be critical of it. You state that the first Christians rendered no Marian worship, no prayers to her (including the "Hail Mary'), and knew nothing of the dogma of her Immaculate Conception (p. 39). The first part of the "Hail Mary' is voiced by an angel. The Church quickly respondes with the second verse. The teaching of her sinlessness might have only existed in a most embryonic state, but such would reach a unanimous consensus over the course of centuries. All these things find their roots in the early Church community. First, neither the ancient Church nor the contemporary one worship Mary in the same way as God; she is a creature, although elevated, and any misplaced worship to her would be tantamount to idolatry! We venerate her as holy and special and as someone who makes Christ especially present for us. We treat her with respect and love. Do you do the same towards the mother of your Savior? Second, the teaching regarding her immaculate conception and perpetual sinlessness are the same. This does not violate the reality that Christ is the only Savior of all, including Mary. The only difference is that Mary would be his first disciple, the first touched by the saving and forgiving power of the cross. For that which we receive in baptism, after the fact of Christ's Paschal Mystery, now reaches backward in time to the very conception of Mary, so that she may from the beginning be a pure and pleasing vessel through which the Lord might enter into the world. She was free and yet she chose to avoid sin in her personal life. This may seem impossible for us who enter the world already tainted by sin, and yet what is impossible for man is feasible for God. This is how the Church sees the problem of her need for Christ reconciled. It is the ancient and eastern appreciation which even makes the Mass, not to mention, the other sacraments possible. The power of Christ cannot be locked into any particular time of human history. It reaches out from first century Palestine and becomes present in our midst today. Third, Mary, as the queen of the saints, is a most perfect window, allowing the light of her son to shine through without any obstruction. Consequently, any prayer directed toward her is presented to the Lord. Indeed, some have said that this window to the divine helps to make the Lord more present to our hearts; her being magnifies (gives glory) to God. Fourth, to say that there is no Ave Maria even in the beginning is to neglect the significance of the angel's words to Mary or of those of the person in the crowd who would one day say a blessing for the breasts that nursed Christ and the womb which brought him forth. Do you recall Christ's response in Luke 11: 28? "Rather," he replied, "blest are they who hear the word of God and keep it." This was no cut down of his mother. It was a veneration of her that excelled the physical reality of her motherhood; before she accepted him into her womb, she had already acknowledged him in her heart and mind. Now, we have the opportunity to be like her, handmaids to God and his will for us. You are quick to point out texts, that would seem to belittle this, but the truth is too clear to be diminished.