Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!mips!dimacs.rutgers.edu!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: psburns@lims01.lerc.nasa.gov (MAUREEN BURNS) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: May 25 1991 Medjegorje message Message-ID: Date: 15 Jun 91 05:57:13 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: NASA Lewis Research Center Lines: 26 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu In article , jabishop@uokmax.ecn.uoknor.edu (Jonathan A Bishop) writes... >billy@tcom.stc.co.uk (Billy Khan) writes: > >please understand that Catholics do not in any way worship Mary. We remember >her because she is the Mother of God, but she is not divine. It is my opinion, having spoken with a few devout Catholics who hold Mary in such high esteem, that the issue is not whether they think of her as divine, but rather they think of her as more approachable than Jesus, therefore more worthy of their affection, attention, prayers and yes, even worship. I'm not sure why they think of her as more approachable. Worship is great esteem, honor and reverence paid to a sacred being or object. In Scripture, after the Isrealites were led out of Egypt, and they worshipped the golden calf, certainly they did not think of it as divine. But they ascribed to it the characteristic of "sacred", and chose to pay homage to it. Perhaps they too thought of it as more approachable, being incapable of pronouncing judgement on them. They knew their actions and attitudes would anger a righteous God, and were fearful of the judgement which they knew would await them, so they chose to create something which offerred a more palatable option. But Jesus is not unapproachable. He is in love with his creation, and desparatly wants to have relationship with us. We simply need to accept his invitation. Maureen