Mary, quite contrary ...

This is the final instalment of five articles in which I have been looking at Dan Strange’s five magnetic points – the five fundamentals that all human beings are looking for and to which they are magnetically drawn, and which can be seen in the lives of Catholics.

The fifth magnetic point is the reality of a higher power: a way to measure up to the supernatural. From a Biblical viewpoint, we must remember what Jesus said: “I am the light of the world. Anyone who follows me will never walk in the darkness but will have the light of life” (John 8v12). He is the Highest Power who became a human being we can know and love personally. He is also the only mediator between God and us (1 Tim. 2v5). He is the only one who died, rose from the dead and can intercede for us.

There is a sense in which Roman Catholics relate to the supernatural through Jesus Christ, at least to a certain extent. They formally recognise Him as the mediator. Practically though, that relationship happens through the mediation of Mary and the saints and in the context of ritual acts or ceremonies such as the “sacramentals”, e.g. blessed water, holy oil.