So now I am totally confused. Are you agreeing with Catholic theology or not? Kinsman’s responses made me think you do not.
I am truly flattered by the suggestion that my post is such a theological Rorshach test that posters from different sides of the Great Divide of FR's Religion Forum can see in it some support for their respective positions. Can the
parousia be far behind?
Seriously, I am a Catholic Christian who is deeply in love with the Lord for his having first loved me ('who is forgiven much loves much'), and I want nothing more than to be a witness to his mercy and love and to glorify his holy name (and here I but echo Mary's words at Lk 1:49).
kinsman, you asked at #105 that I declare: "What efficacy is there in intercessory prayer - other that through Jesus Christ?" Although it's really outside the scope of my interest on this thread, I feel I owe you some kind of reply for three reasons: (1) your question is directly related to the article at the top of this thread (how novel!); (2) the two of us registered on FR during the same year (and, I'm sure, were similarly motivated to do so by the shameful behavior of the Rapist-in-Chief), so I feel a certain bond between us; and (3) you asked me so danged politely : )
Here's the general outline of my reply:
Paul is clear at 1Tim 2:5 that there is only one mediator between God and man, and that one mediator is the God-man Christ Jesus. Through baptism, we are all incorporated into the Body of Christ (cf. 1 Cor. 12:13), and as members of his Body, we mediate God's graces to others. For example, we say colloquially that Peter raised Tabitha from the dead (Acts 9), but as Christ said on the occasion of his raising of Lazarus from the dead (Jn 11), "I am the resurrection and the life." Do these two episodes contradict one another? Can we say that Peter raised Tabitha? Sure, we can say it, as long as we understand that Christ is the one doing the heaving lifting here and that Peter is mediating God's gift of life to Tabitha. (I am careful here to point out that we do need to acknowledge the response of faith on the part of any such 'secondary' or 'derivative' mediator for any secondary mediation, if you will, of God's grace; indeed, Christ himself had trouble working miracles in Nazareth because of the people's lack of faith (cf Mk 6:4-5)). The point is that we have plenty of evidence to support the notion that Christians can mediate God's grace.
Now I realize that you want to know whether a Christian who is asleep in Christ (i.e., dead) can mediate for us (or intercede for us -- and I freely confess that in this truncated reply I am using
to mediate and
to intercede interchangeably). But that's not what you asked, and for a number of reasons I'm arbitrarily giving only one bite of the apple tonight on this question.
Peace.