Around the time of the Protestant Reformation a man named
John Knox had left Scotland due to the ruling of a Catholic Queen. He proceeded
to write and preach against the Catholic’s and their “idolatry.” Around the
year 1553 Knox published a writing entitled A
Treatise on Prayer.
Throughout this discourse he covered many topics that
Protestant and Catholics still discuss today. Included in these topics is
Prayer as a whole. Knox reminds his readers that to pray successfully we have
to be willing to trust God. God knows all things, and through His intercession
we can come to have our prayers answered. God takes His time, he knows our
desires and wishes to meet us where we stand, but like with Sarah and
Elizabeth, He will answer our prayers when He thinks we are ready rather than when
we think we are.
Knox continues covering ever so briefly the topic of
confession, though not necessarily in so many words. He feels that participating
in the visible sacraments contributes to acknowledging the idolatry of the
Catholics. He writes that man simply needs to come to God, the creator Himself,
with a repentant heart and pray. All one must do is present their sinful heart
to God, acknowledging their mistakes and asking God to listen and He will hear
the prayer. According to Knox confession as the Catholics do it is unnecessary,
we need only go directly to God.
Another topic which the author presents is that of a
mediator in prayer – He believes that apart from God himself, the only one to
be prayed to is Jesus Christ. “For no man can come to the Father” says Jesus
Christ “but by me.” (John 14:6)[1]
Knox expands saying that neither saints nor angels can be mediators between man
and the Heavenly Father, and should man try to make anyone other than Christ
the mediator we “take honor from Him.”[2]
While I acknowledge Knox’s emphasis on prayer to be a
wonderful thing, he seems to lose his way in a few different places. Confession
for instance is a good example. Yes, God is always listening and waiting for
man to communicate through prayer, but when man sins it is his pride that gets
in the way of his faith and their dialogue. Man is the one that severs the
connection between himself and God. God remains there, waiting for man to
return repentant so that they can resume their relationship. God never once
turns his back on man, but it is necessary for man to get past his pride and
confess his sins. Without that little bout of humility man will continue to
return to his sinful ways.
Another thing I found interesting is how drastically
different Knox’s view on a mediator between man and God is. Knox believes that
only Christ apart from the Father Himself should be the one to be prayed to,
otherwise the person praying falls into idolatry. The Catholic Church however
teaches at many different times that Mary, the Saints, and even the angels are
all mediators between man and God. In the case of Our Lady think about St. Louis
de Montfort’s True Devotion to Mary –
The way in which true devotion has been explained to me from the beginning is “to
Jesus through Mary.” Quite simply we ask
for the Blessed Mother to intercede on our behalf so that we can place our
prayers and petitions at the feet of Jesus on the Cross. It is one of the most
widely accepted devotions to Mary within the Catholic Church, and it is because
Mary acts as a mediator between man and God.
In the case of the Angels and Saints as mediators the proof
can be found woven throughout the mass itself. At the high mass, during the
incensing of the offerings it is prayed “May the Lord, by the intercession of
blessed Michael the Archangel, who standeth at the right side of the altar of
incense…”[3]
Later, in every mass, both high and low,
it is prayed “We most humbly beseech Thee, Almighty God, to command that these
offerings be borne by the hands of Thy holy Angel to Thine altar on high….”[4]
If we were not to be praying to the Angels and Saints, it would not be
recommend right in the sacrifice of the mass.
The Angels, Saints, and quite specifically Mary are not
supposed to cause idolatry. Many Protestants believe that because Catholics
pray to all of these extra people we are taking away from our prayer to God. In
reality we are respecting the examples that God has set before us, trying to
live our lives as many of the saints had, and asking for their intercession on
our behalf. They are with God, they understand the struggles that many people
have gone through or are going through. By praying to them we can gain a deeper
understanding of how they lived their lives and came to reside with God, and we
can ask them to talk to God on our behalf. We are not taking away from our
prayers to God, rather we are using the instruments He placed before us,
through the saints, to draw closer to Him.
I may not have agreed with everything that Knox presented,
which makes sense as he is known as a central part of the Protestant
Reformation, bringing forward parts of the Calvinist and Presbyterian faiths,
but I must admit it was an interesting read. It caused me to reflect on my
prayer life. I know I fall, everyone does, but without the examples of the saints,
Mother Teresa of Calcutta, St. Therese of Lisieux, St. Francis, St. Augustine,
St. Elizabeth Ann Seaton and St. John Paul II, I don’t know that I would ever
be able to pick myself up again.
As Knox says it is necessary to have prayer be a central
part of your life, but the way he suggests we make that happen does not go hand
in hand with how the Catholic Church feels it ought to happen. The Sacraments
are a wonderful example of this, they do not lead to idolatry as Knox
indicates, rather they lead to a deeper reflection on the mystery of God, and
they cause one to dive deeper into prayer. That deepness in prayer is something
that Knox was pushing for, but he was also trying to take away the things that
help us achieve that level of prayer and faith with God. He felt they were a
distraction, and yes, if done improperly (i.e. devotions to saints becoming the
worship of saints) they are, but if done well, they lead one to come to know
God better and have a beautiful relationship of prayer with Him.
Resources –
Knox, John. A Treatise On Prayer. Presbyterian Heritage Publisher, 1995. Accessed August 12,
2014. http://www.ccel.org/ccel/knox/prayer.
“John Knox.” Accessed August 12,
2014.http://www.christianitytoday.com/ch/131christians/denominationalfounders/knox.html?start=2.
Hunter-Blair, Oswald. “John Knox.”
Accessed August 12, 2014.http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08680a.htm.
The Roman Catholic Daily
Missal, 1962: With Kyriale in Gregorian Notation. Kansas City, Mo.:
Angelus Press, 2004.
[1] John Knox, A Treatise On Prayer (Presbyterian Heritage Publisher,
1995), 1, accessed August 12, 2014, http://www.ccel.org/ccel/knox/prayer.
[2] Ibid.
[3]
Roman Missal
[4] Ibid.
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