First off, please do not let this question offend anyone. I'm not meaning to be disrespectful in anyway, I'm just curious. But I am sorry if this upsets ANYONE.
Why do Catholics pray to Mary when it says in the 10 commandments that you should not have any god's/idols before the Lord?
Also, what makes Mary so special? Yes the lord CHOSE her to give birth to Jesus Christ, but does that make her any better then the other chosen ones? Noah, Moses, etc?
I'm just curious.
Once someone asked the question:
http://christianforums.com/showthread.php?p=46848249#post46848249 Ok so two different sections of Scripture:
Luke 11:27-28
As Jesus was saying these things, a woman in the crowd called out. She shouted, "Blessed is the mother who gave you birth and nursed you."
He replied, "Instead, blessed are those who hear God's word and obey it."
Luke 7:28
I tell you, among those born of women no one is greater than John, but the least in the kingdom of God is greater than he."
When I answered it struck me how important these verse are to reinforce Catholic teaching on Mary.
These two verses, often used to question why Mary is important...are actually vital to understanding why she is so very important.
We must reflect on several different parts of Catholic Teaching to see the proper role of Mary as the Catholic Church teaches it.
These verses are vital to understanding that and they reinforce our teaching. They are a caution against excess and an instruction to how and why Mary is important. A real Marian lesson that fits totally in line with Paul VI:
Apostolic Exhortation for the Right Ordering and Development of Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary
In this Pope Paul VI said:
When the children of the Church unite their voices with the voice of the unknown woman in the Gospel and glorify the Mother of Jesus by saying to Him: "Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breasts that you sucked" (Lk. 11:27), they will be led to ponder the Divine Master's serious reply: "Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!" (Lk. 11:28) While it is true that this reply is in itself lively praise of Mary, as various Fathers of the Church interpreted it and the Second Vatican Council has confirmed, it is also an admonition to us to live our lives in accordance with God's commandments.
It is also an echo of other words of the Savior: "Not every one who says to me 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven" (Mt. 7:21); and again: "You are my friends if you do what I command you" (Jn. 15:14).
In both of these Our blessed Lord is saying the same thing. He says, do not think that the claim of closeness to me, the claim of salvation, the claim of greatness is given by anything other than love and obedience to God. By acceptance of the Divine will.
When we see that we also see that Mary exceeds all others. First, is there something special about her as our Lord's mother? Absolutely. Because she accepted the will of God and with it that motherhood. Her motherhood was not accidental. It was not by her motherhood that she followed the will of the Lord...but by her total donation of self to the will of God that she was chosen from all people of all times to be the Mother of our Lord.
So Christ is showing that in the love and obedience to Him and The Father...that is where great gifts are given. And one of the greatest is the gift of motherhood to Mary.
The second verse mirrors the first. If Mary gave her will to God and stayed by Christ to the end and beyond...would not her place in the kingdom be great? The verses give the resounding cry...look not to the things of this world. Look to Me. Look to the Light of the world.
And Mary is an example of how to do this.
The verses can not be taken in the total literal way or else Christ is saying that John is even greater than our Lord...because Christ was born of woman. The Lord is using strong poetic language to get a point across. The meaning of His words are clear. It is not their (Mary and John) relationship to me in the worlds eyes that brings greatness...but their lives...their love of Me. And He calls us to love Him in that same way.
This brings about a necessary mention of Mary's role in Catholic life, and I think at the core of your question Lirpa. Her role is to bring us closer to Christ.
I have always thought of the Rosary as Mary taking us by the hand and saying: "Come with me, let me show you the life of my Son. See Him and love Him as I do."
When I was young I saw my relationship with Mary in this light. We often see a mother with a baby and we are young. The baby is offered to us to hold, to know....to love. But we are young...like children and afraid. We do not know how to hold the child. The mother often, as Mary does, says: "Here, let me show you how to hold Him."
As I grew up and life gets complex. I have a personal relationship with Christ. And as the world throws us it's curve balls and trials...we falter. Sometimes, even with a wonderful personal relationship with Our blessed Lord...we lose our way. He seems so great and we so small. And in trial and darkness...we need help. He comes to help us...but so does Mary. Because she wants us to love Him so deeply.
When there is trial I think of the young girl of Nazareth. How an angel came and gave her such news. How she gave her total will to the plan of the Lord. And the Joy at the Birth of Christ. The joy of watching Him grow in wisdom as He aged. And then I think of the mother at the foot of the cross. The woman given news by an angel is watching her Son die.
If anyone in all of human history could have cursed God and said: "I was lied to...is this Your promise?" It was her at that moment and the moment later when she held Her Son who gave His life for the world. The first to hold Him to her heart in this world and also the last. A mother and child. One saved and the savior. And at that moment she did not abandon Him as her child or her Savior. Can I, in my life...do any less with that example? With that guidance?
How to hold the Lord at Christmas is easy.
The wonderful Child foretold.
How to hold Him at Easter is easy.
Savior and Victor over death.
But to hold Him on Good Friday is hard.
The seemingly dead promise, but in reality the victory of God Himself over Sin and Death. But the eyes to see that in our own daily suffering are dim. Does Easter ever seem as distant as on Good Friday. Surely it is closer in the Joy of Christmas. It would have been so easy for Mary to have left the cross as a broken promise.
But she did not. We know she stayed strong and stayed with the Apostles, just as she stood with Him to the foot of the Cross. From His birth, though His ministry, To the Cross, to Pentecost and beyond. And that is the example we follow...devotion to our Blessed Lord until the end and beyond.
That is how I view the verses as well as how they reinforce the proper Catholic relationship with Mary and why she is so important to us. Yes, we have the Lord. And He helps us know Him better. But we also have Mary and the Saints to show us how to grow and build that relationship with Him. Because our blessed Lord knows...we often need more help than is necessary because we are human and capable of such love...but also such a fall. So He shares with us His own mother and her example. The verses are not a condemnation of her but an exultation of how she lives with Him in her heart. A life that Scripture shows to the foot of the Cross and beyond.