Posted on 03/25/2015 10:46:15 PM PDT by Steelfish
Because Mary Said “Yes…” — A Reflection For The Solemnity of the Annunciation of Our Lord
March 25, 2011 by Fr. Thomas Rosica
Standing in the middle of the present day city of Nazareth is the mammoth Basilica of the Annunciation, built around what is believed to be the dwelling of Mary. In a grotto-like room at the heart of the basilica is a small inscription on an altar. It reads, “verbum caro hic factum est,” here the Word became flesh. There, it is believed, the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary, and her response changed the world forever.
Imagine yourself in Mary’s place, asked to say “yes” to a divine plan so vast, so profound and so seemingly impossible that you cannot comprehend it. “How can this be?” she asks, bewildered. She is rooted in the faith of her ancestors, and yet now an angel has appeared in the midst of everyday life, extending a startling invitation. “You have found favor with God,” the angel says, “and you will conceive and bear His Son.” Will she accept?
It is Mary above all others who can teach us what it means to live by faith, and how to respond when God’s providence disrupts the daily course of our lives, overturning its rhythms and expectations. Despite her fears and uncertainty over how this promise could be fulfilled, she still answered “Yes.” Are we able to respond to God this way?
When we reflect on the Annunciation to Mary, and her acceptance of the angel’s message, we also reflect on our own vocation — our own calling from God. In the Lord’s Prayer, we pray, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” — an echo of Mary’s “Be it done unto me according to your word.”
Each time we commit ourselves to embracing God’s call and accepting His will, we mark a new point on the path of our relationship with Him. For the rest of her life, Mary pondered her extraordinary encounter with God, turning the weight of the angel’s message over and over again in her heart. From the manger to the cross, Mary’s life was radically changed — her relationship with God profoundly deepened — the moment she said “Yes.”
Mary received and welcomed God’s Word in the fullest sense — becoming impregnated with it, and bearing it to the world. Angels might not appear in our doorsteps, but we do encounter God in each of our daily prayers, and he whispers to us a similar invitation: Will we accept His love and bring it joyously to those around us? Will we trust in His providence, even when we can’t see the path ahead? Amid the noise of everyday life, will we listen for and embrace his call?
When making his pilgrimage to the Basilica of the Annunciation, Pope Benedict XVI offered this prayer to the humble Virgin of Nazareth. It speaks for all of us who likewise seek to accept God’s will with joy:
Mary, Mother of the “Yes,” you listened to Jesus, and know the tone of his voice and the beating of his heart. Morning Star, speak to us of him, and tell us about your journey of following him on the path of faith."
“You think Mary had no more human dignity of a cow? “
No, you have missed the point of the analogy, I’m afraid.
“If anyone, God forbid, gets to be with the Rapist Entity...”
Hmm you bring up “rape” too. I’ll have to ask you as well, does your god have sexual relations with humans, like Zeus?
God is the Creator and we are the created.
His has the ROGHT to tell His creation how it’s going to be.
God hasn’t asked my permission about what He’s doing in my life.
If God needed Mary’s consent, then He is not sovereign.
God and Mary did not have sex so the canard about it being rape is desperation on the part of Catholics.
Mary was told what was going to happen.
She wasn’t asked.
“No, there is no “New Ark”, there is only one Ark of the Covenant, so anyone talking about a “New Ark” is telling fables created by men.”
No, there is an a New Ark - just like there is a New Adam.
“sexual invasion”??????
That implies actual intercourse which denies the virgin birth.
Apologies -- I meant to say "in your own living room."
Exactly...
I wonder what the RCC take on God’s dealing with Moses is.
God FORCED Moses to take the job.
It is essentially the use of a woman's sexual function without her consent.
Back in 1971, the vile feminist lecturerTi-Grace Atkinson told a University audience that God took Mary without her consent--- "knocked her down and knocked her up"--- and Pat Buckley Bozell charged the podium to slap her on the face.
I'm basically opposed to violence, but on this issue I would side with Bozell and not with Atkinson. I will defend Mary from the repulsive suggestion that she was basically forced to be a reproductive concubine, and that Our Good God is the moral equivalent of Muhammad.
If God’s dealing wit Mary was sexual in nature, then her “consent” to the angel’s announcement while betrothed to Joseph, makes her an adulterous.
Actually, I do. I understand that God loves us enough to save us while we were yet dead in our sins. But God does not just simply love. God also is perfect holiness and perfect justice. That means that he hates sin. He has said so Himself. What is a pity is that the Roman Cult has so successfully twisted the minds of its adherents to believe the falsehoods that it teaches.
I am firm in my knowledge of my salvation. I am thankful to God Almighty for his grace. What saddens me is that the Roman Cult teaches that you can't know and you have to work for it. Try re-reading the postings I put up from Romans. In fact, read ALL of Romans. It's very plain. It's very simple. It's very true -- and it's not the narrative Rome teaches.
Personally, I'd trust God's word before I'd trust the Roman Cult.
Hoss
Rape is not only done with a penis. That is not the only way one can be invaded. This is true even in criminal law. Surely you know that.
What a load of carnal stupidity there is on this thread. It is truly repulsive.
I am very sorry that this original post, innocent in itself, opened the doors to Mary-defamers and misogynists for this Carnival of Sacrilege.
Actually, that’s not true. Moses was not a sock-puppet, an android robot or a ventriloquist’s dummy. He could have said “Forget it.” He struggled with the possibility of “forget it” at every key moment of his life. He resisted that temptation. But it was always a possibility that he would just give up.
This is all so repulsive it almost makes me ill. I hope I can get the repugnant, ugly ideas expressed on this thread out of my head. What a putrid sump this forum has become.
I sometimes think you ought not to post articles like this, except as a Catholic/Orthodox Caucus post.
Not only are to avoid near occasions of sin, but we are to avoid presenting others with a near occasion of sin. And this serves as an invitation to a Carnival of Sacrilege. All the Usual Suspects are competing with each other to Desecrate Our Blessed Lady, even implicating God as a exploiter of Mary by forcing her to be a captive reproductive concubine.
I am repulsed beyond all telling.
We should never have cast our beautiful Pearl, Mary, before the swine.
Ha. “Droit di seignor.” You make God out to be the moral equivalent of an Ottoman emperor -—or Henry VIII.
“Inasmuch as impregnation would be an aspect of female sexual function, then yes, impregnation without consent would be an aspect of rape.”
Isn’t God the sovereign of life and death? Does He not decide, in each and every case, which women on earth will be impregnated, and at what time, whether the woman desires a pregnancy or not?:
“For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.” Psalm 139:13
So, even if you believe Mary assented, your definition seems to make God a “rapist” of every other woman who God gave a child to, since no angel was sent to them to ask if they assented to be impregnated.
Just the prudes hittin’ th’ ‘buse button ... don’t be frightened .... and I wash all my veggies anyway ... come on over around July/August for salad ... Paul Newman’s finest, ginger dressing ... deeee - lish !
With God, it doesn't involve intercourse (because intercourse is a physiological interaction, and God does not have physiological parts) but it's still supposed to involve love and respect. Don't try to tell me it doesn't. If your 'god' didn't love and respect Mary enough to care about her voluntary gift of her body and her love, then your 'god' has not the morals of an ordinary sexist pig.
This whole discussion is insulting to God and to those who love God. I could probably find more edifying sentiments expressed at some damned (intentional word choice) radical feminist site. I wonder Ti-Grace Atkinson and Shulamith Firestone are still writing? Calling Kate Millet!
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