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Dear father Angelo,

I seek clarification about some doubts…

In the New Testament it’s written that the intermediary to get to the Father is Christ and that only through His name we can pray to the Father

I reviewed the story of the Fatima’s apparitions and I wonder why in an apparition the Virgin asked for something to be consecrated to her heart, and that through her heart one can reach God, etc…

Does this not look like a contradiction? If Jesus said that He is the only intermediate between man and God, I wonder why we have these apparitions: I think that sometimes they’re misleading. Maybe when She talked about Her heart she was actually referring to Jesus; however, by praying to the Virgin Mary doesn’t one risk to “forget Jesus”?

God sent his Angels to give messages to men, then he sent Jesus on earth and He appeared to his disciples after his death.

Our Lady did not appear to the disciples or any other person in a relatively short time after her death, I think. It seems to me that the Marian apparitions had started not before the 20th century. I can’t honestly see how these apparitions can be useful on a spiritual level. For the sake of spiritual growth, I think that private apparitions (maybe of Christ Himself) would make much more sense.

Think about the stigmata… If God sent his Son on the earth to suffer, to free us from sin, why should some people suffer from the stigmata? Is it only to remember how much Jesus suffered for us, or is there another reason?

I do not understand completely this thing of offering our suffering to save souls, because it’s like saying that all the suffering endured by Jesus was in vain.

I don’t know if I have been clear enough, I hope you will help me to figure this out… Sometimes I have so many doubts, I’m scared to make a mistake; how can I be sure that I’m following the right way and I’m not falling into idolatry?

… Sometimes I think that maybe evangelicals have a point on some things.

I thank you for your attention.

Sincerely,

Angela.

Answer from father Angelo

Dear Angela,

1. Only God is the cause of Grace and Glory. He and he alone is the source of Grace. Nobody else can give it. This has to be clear. Here’s what Saint Thomas affirms: «To Him alone do we offer religious worship when praying, from Whom we seek to obtain what we pray for, because by so doing we confess that He is the Author of our goods: but not to those whom we call upon as our advocates in God’s presence» (Summa Theologiae, II, 83, 4 ad 1). With this stance, Saint Thomas already shows two things: God alone is the author of our good and of the graces we’re looking for. He also points out that there can be intercessors.

2. The necessity of having intercessors was established by God. Think about what can be read in the book of Job. Our Lord commands Job’s friends to go to him so that he could pray for them: «go to my servant Job… and let my servant Job pray for you; for his prayer I will accept, not to punish you severely» (Job 42,8). But in the Sacred Scripture, Job isn’t the only one who intercedes. Even Abraham intercedes: think about these words he said: «Will you sweep away the innocent with the guilty? Suppose there were fifty innocent people in the city; would you wipe out the place, rather than spare it for the sake of the fifty innocent people within it?» (Genesis 18, 23-24). Job figures as an intercessor, similarly to Abraham. 

The same can be said about Moses: «But Moses implored the Lord, his God, saying, “Why, O Lord, should your wrath blaze up against your own people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt with such great power and with so strong a hand? Why should the Egyptians say, ‘With evil intent he brought them out, that he might kill them in the mountains and exterminate them from the face of the earth’? Let your blazing wrath die down; relent in punishing your people. Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac and Israel, and how you swore to them by your own self, saying, ‘I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky; and all this land that I promised, I will give your descendants as their perpetual heritage.” So the Lord relented in the punishment he had threatened to inflict on his people» (Exodus 32, 11-14).

And think about Samuel: «Samuel then gave orders, “Gather all Israel to Mizpah, that I may pray to the Lord for you.” » (1 Samuel 7,5)

«They said to Samuel, “Pray to the Lord your God for us, your servants, that we may not die for having added to all our other sins the evil of asking for a king” » (1 Samuel 12, 19).

In Amos: « I said “Forgive, O Lord God! How can Jacob stand? He is so small!” » (Amos 7, 2).

Another example comes from the book of Jeremiah when God asks the prophet to not pray for the people: «Do not intercede on behalf of this people, nor utter a plea for them. I will not listen when they call to me at the time of their misfortune» (Jeremiah 11,14). However, Jeremiah’s prayer is so precious that king Zedekiah came to him and said: «Pray to the Lord, our God, for us» (Jeremiah 37,3).

We also have a testimony that those who are in the afterlife pray for us living in this world: in a vision, Judas Maccabeus sees the high priest Onia who tells him, referring to Jeremiah: «This is God’s prophet Jeremiah, who loves his brethren and fervently prays for his people and their holy city» (2 Maccabees 15, 14).

3. One might ask the reason why God wants these intercessors.

The answer is simple: to remind us of the bond of charity by which we are parts one of another (we form a single body) and for reasons of humility (sometimes we are like Job’s friends, if not worse). Therefore, nobody can replace the sole mediator, Jesus Christ. However, it is this sole mediator, being Himself God, that wants us to proceed also through intercessors.

4. Here is what saint Thomas said about the necessity of praying only to God: «Prayer is offered to a person in two ways: first, as to be fulfilled by him, secondly, as to be obtained through him. On the first way we offer prayer to God alone, since all our prayers ought to be directed to the acquisition of grace and glory, which God alone gives, according to Psalm 83:12, “The Lord will give grace and glory.” But in the second way we pray to the saints, whether angels or men, not that God may through them know our petitions, but that our prayers may be effective through their prayers and merits. Hence it is written (Apocalypse 8:4) that “the smoke of the incense,” namely “the prayers of the saints ascended up before God.” This is also clear from the very style employed by the Church in praying: since we beseech the Blessed Trinity “to have mercy on us,” while we ask any of the saints “to pray for us.”» (Summa Theologiae, II-II 83, 4).

5. For what concerns the unique role that Our Lady has, I recommend you to look up these answers:

Some expressions used by Our Lady in approved apparitions…

Concerning the intercession of Saints and their patronage

What if the devotion to Mary can decentralise the role of Christ in our life

I don’t know if the reference to Mary could overshadow the centrality of…

6. You’re telling me that you can’t see the utility of these apparitions on the spiritual level, and you think that a private apparition (maybe of Christ Himself), aimed at the spiritual growth on a personal level, would make much more sense.

However, it was Christ Himself who gave to each and every one of us Our Lady as a mother in the order of grace, and he gave her to us also as the Mother of the Church. Shouldn’t it be appropriate for Our Mother to let her closeness be felt even through apparitions? In either case, that’s what God has decided. Marian apparitions help to remember us and to explicate to us the Divine Revelation. They don’t add anything to it. Does it make any sense to you to say, as the evangelicals do, that the Marian apparitions in Lourdes shall be considered works of the devil?

7. Lastly, Father Pio didn’t add anything to the passion of Christ. I’ve explained many times the meaning of these words by Saint Paul: «… and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ on behalf of his body, which is the church» (Colossians 1,24). I explained this passage by reporting the teaching expressed by Pius XII in his encyclical Mystici Corporis: «Dying on the Cross He [Christ] left to His Church the immense treasury of the Redemption, towards which she contributed nothing. But when those graces come to be distributed, not only does He share this work of sanctification with His Church, but He wills that in some way it be due to her action» (EE 44).

8. You concluded by saying that maybe evangelicals have a point on some things. Evangelicals, like all Protestants, make the same fundamental mistake which is to explain the Scripture in accordance with private interpretation; the problem is that by doing so they act in open contrast with the Scripture given to them by the Church: «Know this first of all, that there is no prophecy of scripture that is a matter of personal interpretation, for no prophecy ever came through human will; but rather human beings moved by the holy Spirit spoke under the influence of God» (2 Peter 1, 20-21). 

By doing so they deprive the faithful not only of the right understanding of the Sacred Scripture but also of many invaluable gains, such as the intercession of Mary and the Saints, in open contrast with the evident teaching of the Scriptures themselves.

As I advise you to search on our website for other answers related to Evangelicals, I bless you and I assure you of remembrance to the Lord.

Father Angelo