Posted on 12/16/2007 4:05:55 PM PST by NYer
God has a mother and she was chosen before the beginning of time.
This is an amazing belief, one that is sometimes mocked and often misunderstood, and misrepresented, sometimes even by Catholics. Yet this truth is at the heart of Advent and Christmas–as well as at the heart of the entire Christian Faith.
This belief is also captured in a short phrase in the Hail Mary: "Holy Mary, Mother of God." They are just five simple words, but words bursting with mystery and meaning. They tell us many things about Mary and about the Triune God and His loving plan of salvation for mankind, in which Mary has such a significant place.
Mary is holy. To be holy is to be set apart, to be pure, and to be filled with the life of God. The call to holiness, the Catechism of the Catholic Church states, is summarized in Jesus' words: "Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect" (Matt 5:48; CCC 2013). Mary's holiness comes from the same source as the holiness that fills all who are baptized and are in a state of race. But Mary's relationship with the Triune God is unique, as Luke makes evident in his description of Gabriel appearing to Mary:
And the angel answered and said to her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason the holy offspring shall be called the Son of God" (Lk 1:35)
Possessing perfect faith, itself a gift from God, Mary was overshadowed by God the Father, anointed by the Holy Spirit, and filled by the Son. She was chosen by God to bear the God-man, the One in whom the "whole fullness of deity" would dwell (CCC 484). Completely filled by God, she is completely holy. Chosen by God, she is saved. Called to share intimately and eternally in the life of her Son, she was, the Catechism explains, "redeemed from the moment of her conception" (CCC 49) and "preserved from the stain of original sin" (CCC 508).
The Pentateuch contains the account of how God chose a small, nondescript nomadic tribe, the Hebrews, to be His "holy people" for "His own possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth" (Deut 7:6). Many years later, in the fullness of time, God chose a young Jewish woman from a place of little consequence to be the Mother of God. This, in turn, would result in the birth of the Church, which Peter describes as a "chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession" (1 Pet 2:9).
Mary, faithful and holy, is chosen so that others can also be chosen and made holy, transformed by her Son into the sons and daughters of God and joined to the Body of Christ. Mary "is the Virgo fidelis, the faithful virgin, who was never anything but faithful," writes Fr. Jean Daniélou, "whose fidelity was the perfect answer to the fidelity of God; she was always entirely consecrated to the one true God."
It has been said many ways and in many places but bears repeating that "Mother of God" is the greatest and most sublime title that Mary can ever be given. It sums up all that she is, all that she does, and all that she desires. The title of Theotokos ("God-bearer", or "Mother of God"), far from being some late addition to Church teaching, is rooted in Scripture and the Advent story. The Catechism explains that Mary was "called in the Gospels 'the mother of Jesus'" and that she "is acclaimed by Elizabeth, at the prompting of the Spirit and even before the birth of her son, as 'the mother of my Lord'" (CCC 495).
Mary, the Mother of God, is also the first disciple of her Son, the God-man. She is also the New Eve, whose obedience and gift of her entire being overturns the sin and rebellion of the first Eve. Her Son is the New Adam, who comes to give everlasting, supernatural life and heal the mortal wound inflicted by the sin of the first Adam (cf. 1 Cor 15:45).
The lives and the love of the New Adam and the New Eve fill the season of Advent. Mary quietly and patiently calls all men to Bethlehem to see and worship the Christ Child. Jesus waits for mankind to recognize Him as Lord and Savior. But He doesn't just wait for us; He comes to us. But His coming awaits completion, both in our individual lives and in the life of the world. Which is why James, in today's epistle, writes, " Be patient, brothers and sisters, until the coming of the Lord. . . . . You too must be patient. Make your hearts firm,because the coming of the Lord is at hand" (Jas 5:7-10).
Fr. Daniélou explains beautifully this paradox of Advent, of Jesus having come already and yet coming still:
"We live always during Advent, we are always waiting for the Messiah to come. He has come, but is not yet fully manifest. He is not fully manifest in each of our souls; He is not fully manifest in mankind as a whole; that is to say, that just as Christ was born according to the flesh in Bethlehem of Judea so must He be born according to the spirit in each of our souls."
Although young, poor, and faced with incredible challenges, Mary waited patiently on the promises and the coming of her Lord and Son. The Catechism says that because Mary "gives us Jesus, her son, Mary is Mother of God and our mother; we can entrust all our cares and petitions to her: she prays for us as she prayed for herself: 'Let it be to me according to your word.' By entrusting ourselves to her prayer, we abandon ourselves to the will of God together with her: 'Thy will be done.'" (CCC 2677). That is indeed the perfect prayer, from the perfect woman and mother, for Advent: "Thy will be done."
God’s grace redeems the Virgin
The Church recently celebrated the great Feast of the Immaculate Conception, situated to draw Catholics more deeply into the mystery of God's grace, Mary's faith, and the plan of salvation. Although not formally defined as a doctrine of the Catholic Church until 1854 by Pope Pius IX, belief in Mary's sinlessness goes back to the earliest centuries of the Church and is rooted in Scripture, especially the first chapter of Luke's Gospel.
In the encyclical Ineffabilis Deus, Pope Pius IX formally stated the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception:
The most Blessed Virgin Mary was, from the first moment of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege of almighty God and by virtue of the merits of Jesus Christ, Saviour of the human race, preserved immune from all stain of original sin. [135 Pius IX, Ineffabilis Deus (1854); CCC 491]
Although the Eastern Orthodox recognize and celebrate Mary's sinlessness, many Protestants do not. Some, in fact, take great offense with this belief, insisting that it makes light of Jesus' life, death, and resurrection, and that it implies that Mary is more than a creature, perhaps even equal to her Son.
But the Church makes very clear that Mary's Immaculate Conception is a gift of God. After all, Mary was "redeemed from the moment of her conception," making it difficult for her redemption to be her own work. And Pope Pius IX's definition strongly states that the Immaculate Conception was "by a singular grace and privilege of Almighty God" and by the work and merits of Mary's Son. Sadly, some Christians not only reject this truth, they even resort of saying that Mary "not special" or "not worthy of praise"–even though Mary, inspired by the Holy Spirit, declared that "from this time on all generations will count me blessed" (Lk 1:48).
John Cardinal Newman once noted that Catholic beliefs about Jesus and His Mother are intimately connected and cannot be torn apart from one another. "Catholics who have honoured the Mother, still worship the Son," he wrote, "while Protestants, who now have ceased to confess the Son, began . . . by scoffing at the Mother." It is a cautionary statement that all Christians, including Catholics, should take to heart during the Advent season.
No where is it taught in Catholic doctrine that Mary was immaculatly conceived so that Jesus would be sinless. Jesus is God and as such is without sin throughout eternity, even in His incarnation.
“I mentioned our Lord’s humanididdy only to bolster that argument against the thesis that sinlessness necessarily made our Lady somehow less human.”
The fact of her sinlessness is not the problem at all. It is that the Latin Church claims that from conception she was different from the rest of us and thus sinless. That’s the rub and that’s what makes her “not human”, whence the Christological heresy, etc.
This individual is either ignorant of his Maronite faith or recognizing a devout Orthodox, decided to feed you what you wanted to hear ;-)
The Maronite Church maintains very strong bonds with the Vatican. Only last month, the Patriarch made an appeal for support of the situation in Lebanon and the Holy Father immdiately responded. The Maronites are very proud to be the only Eastern Church that has never separated from the Magisterium.
The Mother of the Redeemer has a precise place in the plan of salvation, for "when the time had fully come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, 'Abba! Father!'" (Gal. 4:4-6)With these words of the Apostle Paul, which the Second Vatican Council takes up at the beginning of its treatment of the Blessed Virgin Mary, 1
I too wish to begin my reflection on the role of Mary in the mystery of Christ and on her active and exemplary presence in the life of the Church. For they are words which celebrate together the love of the Father, the mission of the Son, the gift of the Spirit, the role of the woman from whom the Redeemer was born, and our own divine filiation, in the mystery of the "fullness of time." 2
This "fullness" indicates the moment fixed from all eternity when the Father sent his Son "that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life" (Jn. 3:16). It denotes the blessed moment when the Word that "was with God...became flesh and dwelt among us" (Jn. 1:1, 14), and made himself our brother. It marks the moment when the Holy Spirit, who had already infused the fullness of grace into Mary of Nazareth, formed in her virginal womb the human nature of Christ. This "fullness" marks the moment when, with the entrance of the eternal into time, time itself is redeemed, and being filled with the mystery of Christ becomes definitively "salvation time."
You are the first Roman Catholic I have ever heard make that statement!
Thank you for the ping. Amazing how any mention of the Mother of God brings out Protestant classless behavior. One wonders how they can still call themselves Christian.
“This individual is either ignorant of his Maronite faith or recognizing a devout Orthodox, decided to feed you what you wanted to hear ;-)”
My suspicion is the latter. His daughter is married to an Orthodox guy and they attend our parish. He’s from Lebanon and is here for the Feast of the Nativity. His brother is a Maronite hierarch in Lebanon.
You follow the Bible exclusively, but its very existence is unbiblical. Since Jesus didn't tell anyone to compile the New Testament, how do you prove the books are inspired?
I guess you missed my point. You said "where does Jesus say write this down". Now you are trying to make some strange point about the existance of the bible being unbiblical. My point was that the whole bible is Jesus' Word. Your point makes no sense.
No, wait. This is all starting to make sense. Since my Bible doesn't contain the phrase "write this down" as spoken by Jesus then it proves that Mary is a goddess! YES I GET IT!!!
True...
It's essentially Paul's Gospel, but don't let that ruin your daydream.
Not so true...
Luke is a book written about the events that took place before Paul's ministry...Luke was not an eye witness but he was a great researcher...
Luke likely never met Mary...
And after Jesus died, wouldn't you think the only 'sinless' person on the face of the earth would attract some attention??? Where's the account of Mary spending 3 years with the resurrected Jesus to learn what her Son's plan for the church was??? Jesus didn't tell her anything, did He??? Jesus spent His time with the Apostle Paul...
So while Paul was extremely busy starting and nurturing the Gentile church, must be Mary and Peter got together and high-tailed it to Rome to get the Catholic church going, eh???
Totally illogical...Mary couldn't have been born 'immaculate' with parents who were soiled with sin...
Both of Mary's parents would have to have been sinless as well...
I am hereby totally at sea! As far as I knew the only way in which we/they/whoever teach that our Lady differs from the rest of the human-type personnel is that she is sinless from conception -- not that she is something else and therefore sinless.
Is the answer in your other posts on this thread? Are you saying the immaculatitude is an essential (with respect to what it is to be human) difference- or, rather, that we say that?
Dadgum it? WHAT Christological heresy? Guide me along here, I'm juggling too many things at oncet!
Catholics don't limit the deposit of faith to what is explicitly found in the Bible, but it seems you do. With that in mind, you can't justify even reading the Bible, since the Bible doesn't indicate what books were inspired. Scripture doesn't even prophecy the Bible - but it does prophecy Mary in Genesis, Isaiah, etc.
It's kind of amusing to watch people try to imprison the entirety of salvation to Scripture that didn't exist for decades after Christ's death. All things in Scripture are infallible, yet they are not the only things that are infallible. If they are the only things that are infallible, and the Apostles were teaching a Gospel without the aid of Scripture, then their errors could have been manifold. If you say, "no", the preaching of the Gospel was infallible by protection of the Holy Spirit, then there is nothing in Scripture which indicates that the Holy Spirit put an end to the efficacy of oral tradition.
The term concpetion is misleading. The dogma properly relates not to her physical conception but to her “ensoulment,” when she becomes a person. The two actions are separate.
No more than Jesus could have been born of a virgin.
In both cases, the intervention of the Holy Spirit was necessary. There is some confusion on this thread that it was absolutely necessary for Jesus to:
a) be born of a woman unstained with Original Sin, or
b) to be born of a virgin, or
c) to be born of a woman at all (instead of just being formed out of the dust like Adam)
God chose all of the above because it:
a) effectively reverses the sin of Eve
b) fulfills the prophecies of Genesis and Isaiah, and
c) demonstrates that the family unit (Father, Mother, and offspring) reflects the love of the Holy Trinity.
Where Eve was tempted by the serpent and obeyed, Mary was solicited by the angel and obeyed. Where the stain of Original Sin is the result of Eve's folly, Mary's role would be a demonstration that God has the power to purify our souls. Where Adam and Eve sought to have dominion over God, Mary declared herself the "handmaiden" of the Lord - essentially, His slave.
These are not coincidences. This is what God planned. And we celebrate this as part of our faith. If you don't wish to celebrate with us, that's up to you. But as much as you may try to pin us as "focused" on Mary, it's only because you don't recognize that the center of our Church, the Holy Eucharist, is the body and blood of Christ.
mary would have been known to the Church only as a holy woman. As to spending time with Jesus, you seem to have overlooked the first two chapters of Luke. She was the first witness to his mission. Unless the Birth story is a myth, then Luke must have known her or someone close to her. There is a legend that Luke painted her portrait, which is based on this supposition. Assuming that the Gospel was written before Paul’s death, he might have known her since she wasprobably a young girl when Jesus was born. She would have been say, 75, in 60 AD. On the other hand, since thse chapters are a kind of prologue, they may have been added later.
Exo 17:14 And the LORD said unto Moses, Write this for a memorial in a book, and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua: for I will utterly put out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven.
Exo 34:27 And the LORD said unto Moses, Write thou these words: for after the tenor of these words I have made a covenant with thee and with Israel.
Deu 17:18 And it shall be, when he sitteth upon the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write him a copy of this law in a book out of that which is before the priests the Levites:
Deu 17:19 And it shall be with him, and he shall read therein all the days of his life: that he may learn to fear the LORD his God, to keep all the words of this law and these statutes, to do them:
2Ch 26:22 Now the rest of the acts of Uzziah, first and last, did Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, write.
Isa 8:1 Moreover the LORD said unto me, Take thee a great roll, and write in it with a man's pen concerning Maher-shalal-hash-baz.
Isa 30:8 Now go, write it before them in a table, and note it in a book, that it may be for the time to come forever and ever:
Jer 30:2 Thus speaketh the LORD God of Israel, saying, Write thee all the words that I have spoken unto thee in a book.
Jer 36:2 Take thee a roll of a book, and write therein all the words that I have spoken unto thee against Israel, and against Judah, and against all the nations, from the day I spoke unto thee, from the days of Josiah, even unto this day.
Eze 43:11 And if they be ashamed of all that they have done, show them the form of the house, and the fashion thereof, and the goings out thereof, and the comings in thereof, and all the forms thereof, and all the ordinances thereof, and all the forms thereof, and all the laws thereof: and write it in their sight, that they may keep the whole form thereof, and all the ordinances thereof, and do them.
Hab 2:2 And the LORD answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it.
Joh 1:45 Philip findeth Nathanael, and saith unto him, We have found him, of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.
Jesus was the fulfillment of the WRITTEN scripture...
1Co 14:37 If any man think himself to be a prophet, or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things that I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord.
Rev 1:11 Saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last: and, What thou seest, write in a book, and send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia; unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and unto Pergamos, and unto Thyatira, and unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea.
There's enough there to get you started...Get rid of that catechism and get into the Bible...
It's kind of amusing to watch people try to imprison the entirety of salvation to Scripture that didn't exist for decades after Christ's death. All things in Scripture are infallible, yet they are not the only things that are infallible. If they are the only things that are infallible, and the Apostles were teaching a Gospel without the aid of Scripture, then their errors could have been manifold. If you say, "no", the preaching of the Gospel was infallible by protection of the Holy Spirit, then there is nothing in Scripture which indicates that the Holy Spirit put an end to the efficacy of oral tradition.
Is that why Catholics don't read the bible very much and honor it so little? The bible is just weak isn't it? It doesn't define itself and it doesn't say what you want it to say about Mary. It's incomplete and it's interpretation can only be done by a select few people that abstain from sex. I am starting to understand why discussing Scripture with RC's always seems so pointless and always leaves me trying to defend my faith in the Word of God.
The logic isn't off at all; it simply follows the trail of facts.
No, it needn't be that Mary's parents were created sinless, and that is not what doctrine teaches. But it is perfectly logical that a mother, who donates DNA to the child she bears, need be sinless if the child is to be truly sinless.
Jesus wasn't conceived apart from his mother Mary. She gave Him His flesh. His sinless flesh. There was only one way for that to happen: she needed to have sinless flesh to give.
Yes, perhaps Jesus could have been "created" sinless by some suspension of nature, but then, He wouldn't be fully man, would He?
No, Mary's sinlessness isn't a suspension of nature: it was a restoration of man's original condition; or a preservation of it in her case.
I realize I'm leaving open the question of why Mary's parent's needn't necessarily be sinless; for me, I'm satisfied with the doctrine. However, perhaps on reflection either myself or someone with some real sense can address it for you. I apologize; I'm a bit too busy at the moment and some things are best not forced.
To God & to His will, right?
And the wine failing, the mother of Jesus saith to him: They have no wine. And Jesus saith to her: Woman, what is that to me and to thee? my hour is not yet come. His mother saith to the waiters: Whatsoever he shall say to you, do ye. (John 2:3-5)
Douay Rheims commentary on the underlined portion: "What is that to me"... These words of our Saviour, spoken to his mother, have been understood by some commentators as harsh, they not considering the next following verse: Whatsoever he shall say to you, do ye, which plainly shows that his mother knew of the miracle that he was to perform, and that it was at her request he wrought it; besides the manner of speaking the words as to the tone, and the countenance shown at the same time, which could only be known to those who were present, or from what had followed: for words indicating anger in one tone of voice, would be understood quite the reverse in another.
If Jesus hadn't done anything about the wine situation, would it have been a sin? Would He be showing dishonor toward His mother? The commentary makes Mary a prophet. Wouldn't the commentary be saying that the Prophet Mary knew God's will better than Jesus? If not, how do you explain away the portion of the passage that is in bold, "my hour is not yet come"?
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