Meghan and I were talking the other day about a frustration I have concerning the Catholic Church. Now, don't get me wrong, the Catholic Church isn't special, all branches of Christianity have problems and shortcomings. Most notably, they are run by Humans. If nothing else, this is a guarantee that regardless of all the good intentions you may have, your institution (the church) will have issues that it must constantly be working through.
The other day I was at work. I was visited by a Nun soliciting for donations. I decided that although I don't support many of her specific teachings, I certainly want to support the overall spreading of the Gospel. I gave her $10 bucks. She gave me a couple books on why I should convert to Catholicism and also a little plastic medallion. It's this medallion that caught my attention. On it were the words "O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us...".
There are a whole slew of issues I have with this statement, but I'm picking one to look at today: the Immaculate Conception. In short, this is the belief the that when Mary (the mother of Jesus) was conceived by St. Anne (the mother of Mary), the Holy Spirit worked in such a way as to keep Mary from the sinful state that all humans are born into, and to give her on-going perpetual forgiveness of sins she committed (although some versions say she was also without sin). The purpose of this act was to make Mary worthy and capable of carrying Christ. If you are not Catholic and you are wondering why you have never heard and of this, or even of the existence of St. Anne, no you aren't nuts. Zero percent of what I just wrote (except for Mary carrying Christ) is in the Bible.
Now this wouldn't be so bad (well, maybe it would) if it was simply an embellishment, or "filling in the blanks" as humans are prone to do with a story we don't have every piece of. Unfortunately, this is more than "filling in the blanks." This teaching goes against broad picture Christian theology. Christ is the ultimate redeemer, mediator and ransom for all of humanity. This means Mary too. She's not special. At least no more special than any other person in scripture called to fulfill God's purpose for their life. Now there's no doubt in my mind that Mary was an amazing woman to be able to fulfill the role as mother to Christ. But there is no indication AT ALL that her conception, birth, state of sinfulness, or need for forgiveness was in any way uniquely different than the rest of humanity. And in fact the opposite, as mentioned, is clear from scriptural teaching.
From my understanding, if you asked the Catholic Church leaders, you would be told that the evidence for such a dogma comes from much later documents and prevailing attitudes (i.e. a feeling that logically, it makes sense that she was sinless) from people at the time. Now, I'm approaching this from a very detached, non-vested standpoint. I have no dog in this fight one way or the other. It just doesn't seem to follow scripture at all. If someone showed me that it did somehow mesh with scripture I would have no problem adhering to it.
So the question remains: If not to simply "fill in the blanks" of a story, why would the Catholic Church create such a teaching?
I believe that ultimately this is an example of the Catholic church falling into the same struggles as the Pharisees in the New Testament. See, the Pharisees were notorious for their traditions. They were revered for their knowledge and leadership on all things "Godly" during the time of and before Christ. Their problem was that they were victims of their own commitment. They figured, if God's teachings are good, then putting up another, stricter, wall of teaching around the scriptural teachings to keep people "further away" from sin, is better. The Pharisees stopped just teaching the law. Instead, if God said "wash your hands", the Pharisees might have taught you to "wash up to your elbows."
This seems to be what's happened with the teaching St. Anne and the immaculate conception. The Catholic leaders tried to apply logic similar to that of the Pharisees. In seeing that Christ was a virgin birth, and was himself perfect and holy, it only seemed appropriate and even necessary that the vessel to carry Him (Mary) should herself also be, in some way, perfect and holy. Ultimately, this was simply the Catholic church putting up another, stricter wall, around the scriptural teachings in the Bible.
Now, I disagree with a lot of the teachings of the Catholic Church, but I'm not just trying to pick on them. My ultimate point is that this has always been, and will always be, an easy struggle for Christians to fall victim to. We gain a false assurance of feeling that we are more in line with God by following stricter teachings. This is not the case. There can be a case by case benefit to a stricter-than-expected adherence to certain teachings, or for being stricter than normal with yourself for a period of time. But to use this "Pharisaical" bench-mark as a part of an across the board "basic package" of expectations for someone (or yourself) is wrong and unhealthy.
One of the most common ways this attitude appears in the church today is with the traditions we follow. We easily become bogged down by misunderstood, inappropriate, or simply outdated traditions that we often follow blindly as if they were scriptural dictates. Traditions are not inherently wrong. But when they are followed without proper motivation or priority, they easily become no different than the extra "walls" put up by the Pharisees or the Catholic Church: a burden to those seeking to hear the Gospel, and a burden to the proper understanding and spiritual maturity of those inside that Church.
Always ask why. Why do I believe this? Why am I doing this? Is my belief based on a wise understanding of Scripture? We all need a compass. A fixed point to which we can measure our progress and re-calibrate our self when necessary. Our God is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. His scripture is our compass. God expects us to always have a heart that's willing to question and re-calibrate our self and our beliefs when necessary. I encourage you to do this daily in your own life.
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