Let me just say at the outset that what I’m going to say here is not out of hatred for my Roman Catholic (RC) friends. I’m writing this out of love. We are commanded by God to love our neighbors as ourselves, and one of the most loving things I can do for, my dear RC friends, is to warn you of the wrath to come if you don’t stop your idolatrous practices. I am particularly addressing this post to all who are ardent devotees of ‘Ina.’
In a few days, Bicol Region, especially the people of Naga City, most of whom are Marian devotees, will once again be engaging in a religious activity that will carry the image of ‘Ina’ to its temporary home at the Metropolitan Cathedral. I’m sure most of you, even those who are not joining the procession, will again be chanting with fervency the words ‘Viva la Virgen!’ I’m sure my FB newsfeed will be inundated by these very same words, as it is now.
The English translation of ‘Viva la Virgen’ is ‘Long live the virgin.’ I don’t know if you read your Bible, but it never says anything about exalting Mary, let alone her sculpted representation. In fact, the Bible specifically prohibits the worship of any idol or graven image. Exodus 20:4-5 says:
“You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me.”
This commandment is repeated in Deuteronomy 5:7-9. This is one of the Ten Commandments given by God through Moses.
The sculpture you call ‘Ina’ is a graven image. It’s an idol, a thing God detests. He specifically prohibits making an idol and worshipping or serving them. Some of you would say, “Well, we don’t really worship Ina, we only venerate it/her.” However, some of you may not know that the word ‘venerate’ is from the Latin ‘veneratus,’ which is the perfect passive participle of ‘veneror,’ meaning ‘worship’ or ‘reverence.’ The fact that you bow down to it, pray to it, even risking your life and limb to touch it during its annual processions means you give it a lot of reverence – reverence that should only be given to God.
But even that aside, even if you don’t worship or serve that image, you still call the image ‘Ina.’ First off, Mary is not your mother – biological or spiritual. She was the mother of our Lord Jesus Christ and had the distinct honor and privilege of conceiving in her womb and giving birth to the Second Person of the Trinity. But that doesn’t make her divine. Sure, she was a godly and blessed woman, but she’s not a divine being worthy of worship. Even angels are not to be worshipped. Only the Triune God – Father, Son and Spirit – is worthy of our worship and adoration. And if there’s a woman we can call ‘mother’ other than our biological mothers, it would be Eve, the first woman, who is called ‘the mother of all the living’ in Genesis 3:20.
Also, Mary cannot intercede for us. She cannot pray for us. The only way to the Father is the Son, and that’s Christ. Jesus says that He is ‘the way, and the truth and the life’ and that ‘no one comes through the Father but through Me.’ (John 14:6) That’s quite clear. Jesus is the only way to the Father – not Mary, not a priest, not an angel. Christ is the only way. So this means Mary cannot pray or intercede for you. She’s dead. She’s in heaven now and cannot hear your prayers. In fact, if she knew that she’s being adored and exalted now by millions of Roman Catholics all around the world, she’d surely grieve to know that people are exalting her, sometimes even above Christ, and violating one of God’s commandments.
And there’s a punishment for violating that commandment. God said that if there’s anyone who makes for themselves an idol and worship or serve them, He will visit ‘the iniquity of the fathers on the children, and on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me’ (Exo. 20:5, Deut. 5:9). 1 Corinthians 6:9 also warns: ‘Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor IDOLATERS (emphasis mine), nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God.’ Revelation 21:8 gives the same warning: ‘But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and IDOLATERS (emphasis mine) and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.’
Think about it, and I want you to really seriously consider this, if God is really pleased with the devotion to a graven image, why did He allow hundreds of devotees to get killed when the Colgante Bridge in Barangay Peñafrancia collapsed as spectators were awaiting the pagoda of ‘Ina’ during the fluvial procession along the Naga River on Sep. 16, 1972? Why did more than 200 devotees drown after the floating pagoda carrying another graven image, a cross, sank during a river festival in Bocaue, Bulacan on July 2, 1993? Why did at least 2 devotees die along the sidelines in Quiapo, Manila during the Black Nazarene procession on Jan. 9, 2016 and hundreds of devotees injured in another procession of the same image in 2018? These tragedies only show that God is utterly displeased with these idolatrous activities, the same way He was displeased when the Israelites turned to other ‘gods’ in the Old Testament. Their punishment was severe.
And so I’m pleading with you, as a fellow human being and as a former Roman Catholic myself, stop violating God’s commandment regarding idolatry. You may think you’re pleasing God by exalting ‘Ina,’ but you’re not. The more you participate in these traslacion and fluvial processions, the more you chant ‘Viva la Virgen,’ the more passionate devotion you have towards this image, the more you elevate Mary to a position only God holds – the more wrath from God you heap upon yourself.
Please, repent and turn away from this grievous sin of idolatry. I don’t want you to face God on Judgment Day and be consigned to hell for all eternity. But you have to repent right now because God doesn’t promise you another day. However, He promises that if you repent and ‘confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.’ (Romans 10:9)
Jesus suffered and died on the cross so our sins can be forgiven and He rose again on the third day, conquering death, so we won’t die spiritually. But our sins can and will never be forgiven if we continue to do the things God hates, if we continue to adore and exalt an idol.
Not many of my RC friends will read this, and those who do might not even take heed of the warning here. But I trust our sovereign God that if He so pleases, He will convict His children who are still caught up in this detestable Mariolatry practice and snatch them out and give them to His Son so they, too, can experience the forgiveness and salvation that a wretched sinner like me has. That is my hope. That is my prayer.
Thank you for reading this far. May God be with you.
Soli Deo Gloria.
the unapologetic apologist 