Often I get flack for praying to Mary by protestants who falsely understand how intercessory prayers work or understand what prayer is. The verse that gets quoted to a lot in a rebuttal against my Marian devotion and countless other people’s”
“For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus,”
– 1 Timothy 2:5
Protestant, prepare to be surprised. Are you holding on to your seat, good you’ll need to!! Contrary to popular belief this is exactly what the Catholic faith teaches that there is only one mediator between God and man.
Earlier in the chapter St. Paul demands that supplications, prayers and intercessions are to be made for all men.” A synonym for intercession is mediation. Hebrews 7:24-25 states this to further proof my point:
“but he holds his priesthood permanently, because he continues forever. 25 Consequently he is able for all time to save those who approach God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.”
This verse refers us back to Jesus being our one mediator ad the right hand of the father but it lists him as an intercessor. Christ has his high priesthood forever because he is eternal.
Christ is only one mediator but St. Paul demands that all Christians to be mediators or intercessors for one another, alive on earth or in heaven. Let us examine carefully the first word in verse five when it stats “For there is only one God and mediator. This word for is being used again in the seventh verse, he states “For this I was appointed a preacher and apostle.” According to Thayer’s Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, is “a delegate, messenger, one sent forth with orders.” An essential part of that is being a mediator. St. Paul says we are all called to be mediators because Christ is the one mediator and for this reason he was called to be a mediator of God’s love and grace to the world! What is an apostle if not a mediator? Doesn’t the word state we are all apostles?
This is not a contradiction! Let us look at another example, the Bible says “But you are not to be called Rabbi, for you have one teacher, (Gr. – didaskolos) and you are all brethren.” On the contrary we can look at two verses
- James 3:1
“Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.”
2. Ephesians 4:11
“So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers,”
These two verses tell us that we have many teachers. The green noun for this is didaskoloi. These many teachers do not take away from Christ as one teacher and mediator, they are Christ on this earth and they are teachers and mediators in him. It is as if we are mediators of salvation sometimes too when we witness and bring someone to faith, it isn’t us but its him who works through us. As members of the body of Christ graced with a specific task by Christ they can say with St. Paul in Galatians 2:20, “It is not I, but Christ who [teaches] in me…”
The church is one united body as we profess in the creeds. There is no one dead who is in Christ Jesus. If you are a believer you have eternal life.
Romans 8:35-38 tells us, among other things, “neither death nor life… shall be able to separate us from the love of Christ.” Thus, those alive on earth can still benefit from—they are still connected to—the other members of the Body of Christ in heaven.
Is Christ our one, true mediator? Absolutely! And it is this same Christ who has chosen to use his Body to mediate God’s grace to the world in and through him.
In conclusion, we are commanded to pray for one another. Praying for someone is showing that you love them. Praying to a saint especially Mary is biblical as well because we are all alive in Christ and there for we can ask a saint to pray for us and then the saint prays to God and the prayers of a just man are heard.
The title of mediatrix in terms of Mary however arises from her yes in the incarnation and the redemption of man (Luke 1:38). Wills are not raped, people are not forced, we are not coaxed. God is not a violator of man or wills. Mary was so so intimate with God in such a special way. She became the Theotokos or God barer and the new Eve. The mother of all living. We can see this more concretely when Jesus said “Behold your mother” and gave everything he had yes including his life and his mother to us and adopting us as part of his entire family as God as our father, Mary our mother, and Jesus our elder brother who is the first born of all creation.
“Therefore, he calls her Eden or virgin earth, because this virgin (the earthly paradise) is a type for another Virgin. Just as the original earth produced paradise’s garden for us without any seed, the Virgin gave birth to light which is Christ, for us and without any seed from man”
“A virgin expelled us from paradise, and through another Virgin we arrive at eternal life.”
“As by a virgin the human race had been bound to death, by a virgin it is saved, the balance being preserved, a virgin’s disobedience by a virgin’s obedience”
-Irenaeus (A.D. 120–200) wrote, (Against Heresies, 3, 22, 19).
Eve gave way to the fall and Adam caused the fall in the same way Mary made it possible that we may be redeemed and Jesus caused our redemption.
With out Mary there would have been no mediator. Mary is a conduit of graces in a special way because she bore the savior and was given the ultimate graces to say yes. The church always taught that only Christ saves.
As I previously mentioned we are mediators in a sense. The definition of mediator is someone who goes between. In 1 Timothy 2:5 it refers to Jesus as the “ONE mediator.” The greek for one is heis, the significance of that in English is first or even primary. This does not denote anything.
A common fear or over reaction is that us mediating diminishes the role of Christ as the supreme mediator. It actually glorifies the the entire trinity. Not only does us being mediators and the saints mediating glorify the entire trinity but it pleases them because it shows love and Christ is love and he shows love through praying for us as he did in the garden and he teaches us to love and furthermore it fulfills Christ. Not only is the earlier glorifying or pleasing or what have you, but the scriptures also say that he who loves intensely covers a multitude of his sins so it is also good for us. Another reason why this glorifies Christ is because he gave us his mother in the end as our own mother showing his ultimate selflessness mercy.
For further resources on Mary please look at
- Catholicism Delivers the Truth on Your Mom
- The Assumption of Mary
- Mary’s perpetual virginity
Defending Rome 