In Scripture, the term “worship” was similarly broad in meaning, but in the early Christian centuries, theologians began to differentiate between different types of honor in order to make more clear which is due to God and which is not.
As the terminology of Christian theology developed, the Greek term
latria came to be used to refer to the honor that is due to God alone, and the term
dulia came to refer to the honor that is due to human beings, especially the saints. Scripture indicates that honor is due to these individuals (Matt. 10:41b). A special term was coined to refer to the special honor given to the Virgin Mary, who bore Jesus—God in the flesh—in her womb. This term,
hyperdulia (
huper [more than]+
dulia = “beyond dulia”), indicates that the honor due to her as Christ’s own Mother is more than the
dulia given to other saints. It is greater in degree, but since Mary is a finite creature, the honor she is due is fundamentally different from the
latria owed to the infinite Creator.
Another attempt to make clear the difference between the honor due to God and that due to humans has been to use the words
adore and
adoration to describe the total, consuming reverence due to God and the terms
venerate, veneration, and
honor to refer to the respect due humans. Thus, Catholics sometimes say, “We
adore God but we
honor his saints.”
Unfortunately, many non-Catholics appear unable or unwilling to recognize these distinctions. They confidently assert that Catholics “worship” Mary and the saints, and, in so doing, commit idolatry.
This is patently false, but the education in anti-Catholic prejudice is so strong that one must patiently explain that Catholics
do not worship anyone but God—at least given the contemporary use of the term. The Church is very strict about the fact that
latria, adoration—what contemporary English speakers call “worship”—is to be given
only to God.
Saint Worship?
Virgin Mary Appreciation Thread