Mary

Mary has become for Catholics the Mediator between us and an angry God who is angry and needs to be appeased for our offenses.  You sin.  You have to pay.  Apparently, Jesus failed to do this for us on the cross.  He took away a lot of sins, just not yours or so the thinking goes for those who ask Mary to get them into heaven.  Mary is supposed to be an example of how to grow in the spiritual life, e.g. the contemplative who ponders things, who opens to God's will despite inconveniences and fears, who is faithful and attentive in difficult times, who suffers her own cross, who exhibits fateful leadership, who is a disciple in her manner of life.  All this can point us to Christ, not get in between us and Christ, like a lawyer gets between client and judge.  We ask people to pray for us, including Mary.  This is fine and part of being a mystical family.  I think some people would be happy to die and go someplace where they see only Mary and skip God altogether.