The following is part two of an eight part Catholic Response to an actual letter from an Evangelical Protestant wherein he listed off eight common objections to Catholicism.  To read the actual letter in its entirety, please click here.

Protestant Objection #2:

According to Roman Catholic Doctrine, Mary is our mediator who takes our prayers to God the Father.

Protestant Answer:

The Bible teaches that there is only one person that takes our prayers to God, and that is Christ Jesus. 1 Tim 2:5; Heb 8:6; 9:15,24; 12:24; 1 John 2:1 Isaiah 53:12; Luke 22:32; 23:34;John 14:6; 16; 17:9; Rom 8:34; Heb 7:25.

Catholic Response #2 - Mary as Mediator

It is now time to turn to the second “objection” on your list.

You:

2.) According to the Roman Catholic Doctrine, Mary is our mediator that takes our prayers to God the Father.

Me:

Again, any doctrine within the Church is always a "Catholic" doctrine - not a "Roman Catholic" one.

Okay – aside from that – there are a number of problems with your (unintentional) misrepresentation of what we believe.

First of all, Catholics, just like Protestants,  ALSO believe that Jesus is the ONLY mediator for mankind with regard to the Father.

John 14:6 says:

Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me.

And so it is - and so the Catholic Church teaches it.

Your statement here makes the rather bold and sweeping implication that we believe that Mary - and therefore not Jesus - is the "mediator" to "the Father."

This is simply not true, my friend. Rather, we teach as a matter of binding faith that Jesus is the ONLY mediator between us and the Father.

Now...does that mean, therefore, that we are NOT called to be intercessors on behalf of others?  Of course not.  All Christians – even Protestants – recognize that we are all called to mediate for others.

We DO pray for each other, right? Well...that is all that we mean by anyone being a "mediator". This is a secondary sense and is NOT meant in a way to do an "end around" on the ONE mediator-ship of Jesus - the REAL Mediator.

There is a special sense that we say that Mary is a model to follow in regard to what mediating is all about. For when we see her in Scripture she is telling us to "Do whatever he tells you..." (John 2:5).  Mary always points to Jesus as she intercedes for others.  And that is certainly worthy of imitation.

Just as Paul tells us to "imitate" his example (2 Thessalonians 3:7-9; Hebrews 13:7),  so too we are called to imitate those who lived in a manner pleasing to God.

Mary's willingness to go to Jesus on behalf of others is worthy of our imitation and DOES NOT EVER EVER EVER mean that we should go to her INSTEAD of going to God or to Jesus.

If I ask someone to pray for me (and if you want to, please do, I can always use prayers) that does not mean that I will refuse to pray to God myself. It is not an either/or. It is a both/and.

You:

Answer: The Bible teaches that there is only one person that takes our prayers to God, and that is Christ Jesus.

Me:

And yet Jesus also taught us to pray to the Father, right? He DID teach us the "Lord's Prayer", didn't he?

If we are to ONLY take our prayers to Christ why, then, did He tell us to start the aforementioned prayer with the words, "Our FATHER..." Why didn't the prayer start off with, "Our Savior the Son, who art in heaven..."?

The answer to that is to - again - think of His command in terms of a both/and. Since we who are "in Christ" (that is to say, baptized Christians) are part of the Mystical Body of Christ then anything that we do or say - if it is DONE or SAID within the realm of God's Grace (that is to say that you are allowing God to work within you) - IS being done or said "through" Christ.

Therefore, a prayer, if sincerely done and under the help of the Holy Spirit, is BOTH an act of Christ's Body AND directed through Christ TO the Father.

Thus, if I pray for you (and I promise that I will - as I do for everyone that I converse with), and I am in a state of grace (i.e., "in the Body of Christ") while praying for you, then Christ WILL mediate my prayer even if I address my prayer to the Father.

And so we are all mediators – and we are all enjoined to pray for others.  Therefore the “mediatorship” of Mary (which we try to imitate, as per Paul’s instruction to imitate others who are our spiritual mentors) is ONLY understood as a “lesser mediation” directed TOWARD the ONE MEDIATOR (Christ).

I also ask you to consider Revelation 5:8, which reads:

“And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp, and with golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints…”

Here we see where the 24 heavenly presbyters (elders) offer bowls of incense, "which are ***the prayers***of the saints," TO both the Lamb (Jesus) and to the One Seated on the Throne (the Father).

So this begs the obvious question:

Is this not a Biblical example of a lesser mediation (by humans) directed TOWARD the One Mediator (Jesus)? 

It is a fair question, and it must be fairly recognized that this is all that we are referring to with regard to the mediatorship of Mary – or anyone else for that matter.

I hope that you prayerfully consider everything that I have thrown at
you so far.

I wish God's Blessings upon you and I look forward to continuing this discussion when we address your objections to the Catholic doctrine of Transubstantiation and the sacrificial nature of the Mass.