Quantus tremor est futurus quando Judex est venturus cuncta stricte discussurus

I guess the reason why Catholics find the idea of intermediary intercessors appealing is because we make a bigger deal of Christ as Judge more than Protestants do. We, in fact, believe in two of them: the Particular Judgement (happens at the moment of death) and the General Judgement (at the end of the world). I guess it's a by-product of justification by faith alone vs. justification by faith and good works. We're afraid to mess up; we're afraid of being like the servant who buried the talent his lord had given him instead of using it and producing something. In the Tridentine Rite, there are a lot more references to the Last Judgement than there are today. It shows up in the gospel reading for the First Sunday of Advent (1st Sunday of the old liturgical year) and in the Last Sunday after Pentecost (last Sunday of the liturgical year). It's also mentioned at the ceremony of the Paschal Candle at the Easter Vigil. Finally, during All Souls' Day, funerals, and any Mass of the Dead, the sequence Dies Irae is sung or recited; the entire sequence is a vivid picture of the Last Judgement.

I guess Catholics feel that we are constantly under the gun. Jesus is benevolent, and he has provided salvation for us all and made it available. At the same time, if we choose to reject this gift, we feel that the same Jesus will not hesitate to allow us to reap the consequences of our actions. We recognize a potentially PO'd Christ: "Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting flame." Jesus is all loving, but we also see him as all just. He's like the strict but fair teacher; do you work, and you'll be ok, but mess up, and you have to be accountable.

So Catholics have this dichotomy in our view of Jesus. On the one hand, he's the Good Shepherd who will heal the sick and hang out with the outcast. On the other hand, this is the same Jesus who beat the snot out of the sellers in the Temple and cursed the fig tree for not bearing fruit.

That's why we have devotions to the Virgin and the saints; there's no anger with them. They can't grant us anything per se, but they can't throw us into hell either.

Jesus is the Pontifex, the Bridge-Builder, who made the connection to salvation for us; he alone was able to do that. At the same time, we Catholics are never sure that our "wedding garment" is proper. Are all our accounts settled? Will Christ be pleased with us, or will he be upset at one of our deliberate faults? There's a mix of love and of nervousness as we try to cross this bridge. What we see the Virgin and the saints for are two reason: one, to give us an example of how to cross that bridge, and two, to hold our hands while doing it.

Pax.
Iggy