Jack Chick: “Why is Mary Crying?” (Pt. 3)

This is the third part in a 4-part series. Part four will appear on Thursday.

Click the image for a larger view of each frame.

The issue of statues, including bowing to them, has been addressed here.

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Jack Chick misunderstands what is meant by the term, “Mother of God.” Chick thinks that it means that Mary was present at or before the creation of the world, that Mary is preexistent, and that Mary is divine. But here is what the Catechism of the Catholic Church (#466) explains: “The Nestorian heresy regarded Christ as a human person joined to the divine person of God’s Son. Opposing this heresy, St. Cyril of Alexandria and the third ecumenical council, at Ephesus in 431, confessed “that the Word, uniting to himself in his person the flesh animated by a rational soul, became man.” Christ’s humanity has no other subject than the divine person of the Son of God, who assumed it and made it his own, from his conception. For this reason the Council of Ephesus proclaimed in 431 that Mary truly became the Mother of God by the human conception of the Son of God in her womb: “Mother of God, not that the nature of the Word or his divinity received the beginning of its existence from the holy Virgin, but that, since the holy body, animated by a rational soul, which the Word of God united to himself according to the hypostasis, was born from her, the Word is said to be born according to the flesh.” (emphasis added)

In other words, the title is to preserve the divinity of Christ and the unity of His natures versus the idea that Christ was two persons. Chick again has committed the straw man fallacy. Catholics do not claim that Mary was present when God made the world, or that Christ’s divine nature comes from her, or that she is in any way divine. Yet that is the belief he argues against, thus deceiving many people into believing false things about Catholicism. He has borne false witness to his Catholic neighbors, thus violating the 8th commandment.

The question of Mary’s sinlessness has already been addressed in this series.

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Here Chick fails to understand what Catholics mean when we call Mary “mediatrix.” First, what is a mediator? Webster’s defines a mediator as one who “interposes between parties in order to reconcile them.” Insofar as Christ pays for our sins, He is the only mediator. But there can be other mediators insofar as others 1) lead us to Christ, 2) pray for us. If someone repents of their sins on account of me, I have reconciled them to God by leading them to Christ. Likewise, if I pray for God to have mercy on someone, I am mediating for them. Note that the only way I can do either of these things is because of the sacrifice of Christ. I am neither adding to nor taking away from that sacrifice, but working with it. Mary does this for us more so than anyone else. Thus the Second Vatican Council, Lumen gentium n. 62, says, “This maternity of Mary in the order of grace began with the consent which she gave in faith at the Annunciation and which she sustained without wavering beneath the cross, and lasts until The eternal fulfillment of all the elect. Taken up to heaven she did not lay aside this salvific duty, but by her constant intercession continued to bring us the gifts of eternal salvation. By her maternal charity, she cares for the brethren of her Son, who still journey on earth surrounded by dangers and cultics, until they are led into the happiness of their true home. Therefore the Blessed Virgin is invoked by the Church under the titles of Advocate, Auxiliatrix, Adjutrix, and Mediatrix. This, however, is to be so understood that it neither takes away from nor adds anything to the dignity and efficaciousness of Christ the one Mediator.“

Notice what Chick does here. What he says is true. If Mary can’t do the things on the left side of the panel, there will be consequences. (But she can do those things, of course.) Chick at least seems reasonable here. He has not argued against the belief that Mary can pray for us, that Mary can answer our prayers, or that Mary is the Queen of Heaven. Instead, he argued that we must now bow down to statues, that Mary was not sinless, and he argued against a misunderstanding of Mary as Mother of God and Mediatrix. He deceives you by making you think he has refuted these charges against the Catholic Church, when in reality he has argued against none of them. Out of the four points he did argue, he misunderstood two major concepts.

The real purpose of this panel is to set us up for the next section, in which he claims devotion to Mary is actually the worship of a Babylonian goddess. Apparently, accusing us of worshiping Jesus’s mother rather than Jesus is not enough; he has to take it a step further and accuse of of worshiping a pagan goddess. We worship neither. We honor Mary as Christ honored her, for He gave her to us as a mother before he died (Jn. 19:26-27).

Prayer for Jack Chick

Dear God, through Your infinite merciful Love, and through the intercession of Our Lady of La Salette, soften and open the heart of Jack Chick. Help him to see through the lies about the Church and accept it as the Church which Christ founded, and may he come to love Mary as Jesus loved her, so that he might have a fuller relationship with Your Son. We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Savior. Amen