In this video, Alex Jurado from the Voice Of Reason YouTube channel responds to a caller seeking help converting his wife to Catholicism.
Transcript:
My wife has brought me into a non-denominational church. I liked it, but doing research on my own, like on YouTube, like where I found you and Sam, I feel like I need to go to the Catholic Church to find the fullness of the Catholic faith.
So I have been going regularly for about six months. I feel like the non-denominational church is kind of putting a wedge between me and my wife. Like the biggest thing that she gives me is that she has a hard time praying to Mary. Now, since my wife brought me to religion through the non-denominational church, I feel like she always has a one-up on me because she’s the one that brought me to the faith.
So I was just wondering if you could give me a Bible verse or just something to where I could kind of hold my ground. I’m just kind of stuck there and looking for guidance.
Right. Well, thank you for calling and thank you for the good question. We’re doing a big beautiful thing here. It’s beautiful to know that your wife brought you to the faith, and now you are bringing her to the fullness of the faith. That’s a story that I want to hear; that’s what I want to see happen with you.
What I would say is, because you’re asking for a specific Bible verse and a specific objection that she might have about Mary, that’s totally fine. We’ll get to that. But first, I would start by maybe asking her, “Hey, the entire Bible itself—the whole thing, this book that we have that we call the Bible that we both believe is the inspired word of God—how do you know that this book in its entirety, that all of these smaller writings that make up this book, really is the inspired word of God? How do you know that there isn’t anything missing from this book? Or what if there are things included in this book that don’t belong there or are not inspired by the Holy Spirit?”
That’s the question that you want to ask her because when you ask her that question, she’s going to be forced to look at something outside of the Bible.
And she would not have an answer for that because the only thing you can appeal to would be the Church—the Church that is able to tell you what is scripture and what is not scripture.
Go to the scriptures and say, you know, 1 Timothy 3:15 says that the Church is the pillar and foundation of the truth. Matthew 16 and Matthew 18 say that the Church actually has the authority to bind and loose. Hebrews 13:17 says that we have the obligation to obey our leaders because our leaders are keeping watch over our souls.
Right? John 14 and John 16 say that the Holy Spirit leads the Church into all truth. Jesus says in Luke 10:16, “Whoever listens to you listens to me; whoever rejects you rejects me.”
And then, when you read in the book of Acts and in the epistles of Paul, the pastoral epistles—1 and 2 Timothy and Titus—you see that the apostles ordained men to the ministry and put them in charge over the churches.
So what I want to know is: where are those successors to the apostles? Do they still exist today? And how do I even know that the Bible that I have really is the inspired word of God?
When it comes to maybe any issue that she might have with the Blessed Virgin Mary and asking her for intercession, tell her to read John chapter 2 about how Mary, the Blessed Virgin Mary, at the wedding at Cana, goes to her son. She influences him; Jesus allows himself to be influenced by his own mom.
She says, “Son, they have no wine.” And what does he say? He says, “It’s not my time yet.” Even though it wasn’t his time, Mary still influenced her son, and he honored her because Jesus perfectly upholds God’s law and he fulfills the request of his mom.
Tell her to go to Revelation 12. Revelation 12 explicitly says that the mother of the Messiah is the mother of all Christians. Revelation 12 says that the devil tries to make war against the woman, but the devil cannot touch the woman because God protects her.
So the devil goes and wages war on all of her offspring—all of her children—who are those who keep the commandments of Jesus Christ.
So if you claim to be a follower of Jesus Christ, according to the Bible, that means that you are an offspring of the woman—the mother of the Messiah.
If we are in relationship with Jesus Christ, we also have a relationship with his mom. We have a relationship with everyone who is in relationship with him. That’s why St. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 12 that we are all one body, and one member of the body cannot say to another member of the body, “I don’t need you.”
And you can tell her why. Because, you know, I don’t know about you, but I never want to say to anyone that’s in heaven, anyone that made it, anyone that’s a member of the body of Christ in heaven, especially the mother of our Lord, “I don’t need you.”
Especially when you consider what John 2 says and what Revelation 12 says, and when you consider her role in the salvation of mankind.
Remember, Jesus Christ is our king. If you go to the Old Covenant, you see that the queen in the Old Covenant was the mother of the king.
Because, you know, the scripture says that Jesus takes the throne of David. That means that his mom is our queen. So if God gave us a queen, let us honor her and let us ask her for her prayers because she has a special place with our king.
Thank you. Thank you. I just want to say thank you, Voice of Reason. Thank you so much. I wake up every day, get on YouTube, and I look for a video of you, and you truly inspire people.
You guys were just talking about Catholics being all fired up, and I couldn’t describe it any other way. For someone who’s just coming into the faith. Keep up the good work.
Thank you man. God bless you. Pray for us.