Catholics, can you answer this specifically?

Question

I find most Catholics here stretching Scripture to its limits to answer a question, they either don't answer specifically or don't understand at all Scripture in an exegesis sense. So my SPECIFIC question is:

Why didn't the Apostle Paul mention Mary and her feast and holy days? Paul wrote most of the doctrine of Christ's church, yet doesn't mention her by name nor says there must be prayer to her and for her as Catholic's believe.

Again answer specifically.

Why didn't Peter in his epistles mention Mary and the honor for her? Seems to me the "first pope" knew Mary personally, yet didn't mention a dogma for her.

How about James and Jude? Their own mother and Jesus' younger brothers, why didn't they mention these feast and holy days for their mom? Seems pretty important in the Catholic church, yet the children leave this important doctrine out of their writings?

Last of all, what about Jesus? Other than telling John, "behold your mother", where was His specific command that Mary should be exalted in the church? That shrines and statues should be erected to her, that rosary beads should be prayed to, that parades to honor her should be done, etc.? And by the way, Jesus was telling John to take care of her and was not giving Mary any special power as Catholic's twisted her into.

Answer 1

All the Doctrines about Mary did not exist until about 150 years ago. The Catholics have replaced God with Mary!



Most Catholics listen to what the Catholic Church says and rejects the Truth from God.



God says for all have sinned and only Jesus Christ was sinless, but yet the Catholics rejects what God says and claim Mary was sinless!



So who is the Catholics following and Worshiping, God or Mary?



in my opinion the Catholics are following Mary as their god.

Answer 2

Specifically it isn't in there, NOR DOES IT MATTER.





You seem to either have forgotten or ignored this verse (and the rest of Luke 1 and 2, for that matter.)



Luke 1:48 For he hath regarded the low estate of his handmaiden: for, behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.



These words are in the Gospel. Are you going to blaspheme and lie to say they are heretical?





If all were in the Epistles then there would be no need for the Gospels. If all were in the Gospels there would be no need for the Epistles.The Epistles expound on the Gospels, but aren't meant to replace them. There would be no need of the Old Testament in the Bible. if it did not supply the foundation and base to understand what is written in the New Testament. Each work is complete in it's own, but they are meant to compliment each other, supplying in some what is not included in other works. You cannot exclude all other Books in the Bible in your consideration. This is why there are 73 books in the complete Catholic Bible, 66 in your version.



You commit the fallacy of "moving the goal posts".

You choose to reject the tradition of honoring Mary because it isn't in the Epistles? It has been shown to you in earlier questions/answers that there is nothing contrary in the Bible to giving her honor. And now that isn't good enough, it has to be in the Epistles to be a valid concept. Well tell you what, friend. The concept of the Trinity and Sunday worship isn't in mentioned by name in the epistles either. Will that be your excuse to question those dogmas?? May be you do and haven't told yet; if you are an SDA or JW then it explains a lot.







2 Thessalonians 2: 15Therefore, brethren, stand fast; and hold the traditions which you have learned, whether by word, or by our epistle.



You should also go back and read Romans 14 for good measure.

Answer 3

A fundamental mistake that I think many sola scriptura people make is that they do not actually sit back and think about what, exactly, the New Testament is, especially the epistles.



The Epistles are not instruction manuals. They are letters sent from an individual to a church that (oftentimes) is struggling with some aspect of Christian faith. They are meditations of Christ's nature, the nature of love and corrections against specific issues that were rising up in the local communities: Dissent between believers, false teachers, division between followers of 'Paul' or 'Peter' or 'Apollos', etc. Put yourself in their shoes. If you are writing to a community that is asking you for help, do you take a break halfway through and go 'Oh, by the way, remember that Joe's birthday is the 22nd, and that he really likes bacon. Oh, also, a few more things about Joe.' No, no you wouldn't.



The epistles are silent about a lot of things, only briefly touching on a number of teachings that have been transmitted to the various nacent groups of Christians by 'the Church, which is the pillar and bulwark of truth.' For instance, it is never explicitly mentioned in the epistles that we should pray the Our Father, despite the fact that Jesus told us to do so. The beatitudes... not mentioned. Likewise, Mary is neither mentioned nor NOT mentioned by Paul. What might this mean? Well, it either means that Mary was completely unimportant (extra-biblical writings by church Fathers would disagree with this position) and not worth mentioning one way or the other, OR it could mean that there were no theological issues surrounding Mary that needed either reinforcement or reproach. We can't really be sure.



Again, with James and Jude. 1) There is debate as to whether or not they were Mary's sons, or her cousins, or the sons of Joseph by a prior marriage. What is clear is that neither of them were deemed fit to take care of Mary, given that Jesus gave her to John and not them upon his death (which would be odd if she had other family members) 2) We have a single letter from each of them. Maybe they had mentioned things in prior letters, or later letters? It would be ridiculous to assume that Jesus, in the Great Commission, actually meant 'hey, a few of you should write a couple of letters, and a subset of those should be what everyone follows'



Finally, as for John. It is a common position among Biblical scholars that John is writing as 'us', that when Jesus tells John 'behold your mother', that John is a placeholder for Christians everywhere.



The problem is that you ask for specific commands from a book that was never intended to hold ALL of the 'specific commands' of Jesus and the Apostles. After all, it even says in the Bible that Jesus 'told them many things and did many signs too numerous to recount in this book.' Instead of looking at a book that was not compiled until 398 AD, instead, look to what the early Church actually practiced.



If we look at the Early Church, we see clear signs of the veneration of Mary over 150 years before the Bible was compiled, and evidence of the establishment of Marian feasts as well. We have catacomb art of Mary dating back to the 100s,



In summary, the Bible is not meant to be the sole source of knowledge about our faith, and to limit oneself to only looking at it, and only looking at it in a particularly narrow way, places blinders of your ability to understand the truth.

Answer 4

Jesus specifically sent us the Holy Spirit to teach us all truth through the Catholic Church with the authority from Matthew 16:18-19 & 18:18.

Answer 5

Jesus did not confer teaching authority upon Paul, nor did He ever mention a "New Testament." If you were a real Christian and not just pretending, you would know to whom He gave authority.



You would also know Jesus is a Davidic king. Guess who intercedes for the people before a Davidic king.



If you knew your Bible - even the abridged version - you wouldn't have to guess.



Does it gratify you to pander to the uneducated?

Answer 6

What is contained in the writings in the Bible that God wrote are perfect and without blemish. ALL the Holy Apostles knew Mary and understood her divinity, If you would read the gospel instead of making up ignorent questions regarding it, then you would know all of this.

Answer 7

Why didn't the Apostle Paul mention Mary and her feast and holy days?



The writings of Paul that were preserved to be included in the New Testament were inspired by the Holy Spirit and presumably, the Holy Spirit did not think any mention of Mary was needed in Paul's writings.



To the best of our knowledge there were no saint feast days during the lifetime of Saint Paul. Although I wonder if Paul remembered the martyrdom of Saint Stephen (which he whitnessed and possibly participated in) every year.



And, just like the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, the significance of the Blessed Virgin Mary was not understood until the Holy Spirit guided the Church toward it a few generations later.



That said, the Blessed Virgin Mary is important to Catholics primarily because the Bible says she is important to God.



• Mary is the handmaid of the Lord (Luke 1:38), a servant of God just like us.



• Mary is the first Christian. All other Christians follow her on the road of faith. She is the model for all of us because she actively cooperated with the Will of God by saying "Yes" to God in the plan of salvation.



• Mary is the model of faith. Mary's faith never wavered throughout Jesus' life, even while watching him die on the cross when most of the Apostles ran away.



• Mary is full of grace. The angel Gabriel called her, "Full of grace" and said, "The Lord is with you." She is full of grace at that moment; the Lord is with her at that moment, before she says "yes" to the angel's question. Catholics believe the state of grace was with her since her Immaculate Conception. God prepared her for her later role as the mother of Jesus.



• Mary is the mother of Jesus Christ, of God the Son.



• Mary is a dwelling place of the Holy Spirit, a tabernacle. The angel Gabriel says to her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will cover you with its shadow." (Luke 1:35)



• God praised Mary through His messenger, the angel Gabriel, "Rejoice, Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you." If God and his angels praise Mary, shouldn't we?



• Jesus honored Mary. Jesus kept the Commandments and did not sin. Jesus fulfilled the Commandment to honor both his father and his mother. WWJD? What would Jesus do? Jesus would and did honor Mary, his mother.



• The Holy Spirit inspired praises of Mary. When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the infant leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit,

cried out in a loud voice and said, "Most blessed are you among women," and "Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled." (Luke 1:41-45)



• The Scriptures tell of Mary's place with Jesus. Mary gives birth to Jesus, presents him to the shepherds, to the wise men, to God in the Temple. She lived with him for many years in Nazareth, intercedes with Jesus in Cana, suffers with him at the foot of the Cross, and prays to him with the apostles in the Upper Room.



• Mary was a prophet. "Behold, from now on will all ages call me blessed. The Mighty One has done great things for me." (Luke 1:48-49) As Christians who believe the Bible, we must call Mary "blessed."



• Mary is our Mother too. While he was on the Cross, Jesus said to his beloved disciple (who represents all Christians), "this is your mother." (John 19:27)



For more information, see the Catechism of the Catholic Church, section 484 and following.



With love in Christ.