Question:  Dear Greg,

            What a pleasant surprise to get your answer to my recent query so quickly and through E-mail.  My query, relating to purgatory, involved my witnessing to a Catholic friend, who insists on believing in purgatory, the Virgin’s intercession, and praying for the dead (the latter based on 2 Maccabees).  Certainly Ephesians 2:8-9 is clear to me.  But he insisted I ask you the question.

            One more question relates to Jesus on Calvary’s Cross telling John to look upon Mary as his mother and vice-versa.  The R.C. position is that Jesus then made Mary our spiritual mother and that all of God’s graces and blessings come through her alone.  My interpretation has been that Jesus was teaching us compassion for others in spite of personal difficulties.  Your comments please.

            Joe

Answer:  Dear Joe,

            The official Catholic teaching in several areas has God’s grace being administered through the Catholic church alone (for example, the sacraments).  However, this teaching violates the historic Christian belief that the body of Christ is universal, that there are Christians who are visible and known to us, while other Christians are “invisible” (that is, they are not easily identified by membership in a human organization.

            Not all Christians are Catholic/Lutheran/Baptist/Methodist, etc. – of course some are.  They are so by God’s grace, not because of humans who are part of the Catholic/

Lutheran/Baptist/Methodist churches.  God has not given any human enterprise an exclusive right to market Him and/or represent Him.  And we can thank God for that!

            Your explanation of what Jesus said to John about Mary from the cross is in keeping with normal methods of understanding not only the Bible, but literature in general.

            In Christ,

            Greg Albrecht