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."
“If it’s so simple; why the constant badgering about it?”
That’s EXACTLY my point! All Christians agree with all Muslims and all Jews that they all profess to believe in the God of Abraham. Yet the Protestant anti-Catholics here have either been pretending Muslims don’t profess that, making excuses, or saying only Catholics and Muslims do (and bizarrely leaving out all Protestants and all Jews).
The simple fact is ALL Christians, Muslims and Jews profess to believe in the God of Abraham.
That’s point I’ve been trying to make. But it’s not about the truth, boat, it’s about RC’s winning an argument. I don’t know how many times I quoted and highlighted that — but you know how it is: RC’s that strident are blind to any truth, much less THE truth.
Hoss
“How can he know this?”
Simple: He does the opposite of what you do. You deny scripture. He doesn’t. You deny history. He doesn’t. You presume to know more than Christ’s Church. He doesn’t.
“between”
Not between. See, you can’t even get it right.
Then why won't you openly admit to serving the same god as Muslims?
“And you have the AUDACITY to JUDGE Protestants!”
On those who attack Christ’s Church? Absolutely.
To be clear, numerous times daily in Jewish prayers, the God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob is specifically addressed.
**Seeing as nobody can read another person’s mind to know what they really are intending by their outward acts, how is anyone supposed to tell you actually worship God rather than the man standing in front of you in church?**
The preacher that is still HERE on earth is in the same boat as the person in the pew, except for being in a place of authority.
**He knows Mary intercedes for us**
He didn’t learn that from scripture. Who from?
The only time in scripture, of praying to the deceased, is where King Saul, asked a witch to bring up Samuel. That turned out real bad.
The only time the scripture shows a mother being given a seat, by her son the king, is the case of Bathsheba. Her request to Solomon on Adonijah’s behalf, sure went well didn’t it?
**He knows Mary is not God.**
But your church gives her all the powers of God.
To believe liars that say someone is ascended to heaven, intercessing to boot, and can hear thousands of prayers AND relay them to Christ in mere seconds, would require that person to be God: omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent.
But, like products of the silversmiths of Diana, the Mary worship has created jobs, and put food on the table for centuries.
“Then why won’t you openly admit to serving the same god as Muslims?”
Ultimately the issue - as always - was Protestant anti-Catholic bigotry. I used repeated posts to force the anti-Catholics here to admit that they too profess belief in the God of Abraham (which they didn’t want to earlier admit or attempted to deny that Muslims do).
I posted this from Tim Staples, but OF COURSE everyone ignored it:
But even if it is possible for a person (or a faith, like Islam) to claim belief in the one true God, but so distort what God teaches that he (or it) ceases to truly believe in the “one true God” in reality, then, according to the Church, Islam has not reached that point in its errors.
Thus, we Catholics have to be careful to distinguish between the fact that Muslims believe in the one true God “living and subsisting in Himself; merciful and all-powerful, the Creator of heaven and earth,” and the fact that they get it wrong—profoundly wrong—when it comes to both who God has revealed himself to be in the New Testament, and what he has taught his people.
We pull no punches as Catholics when it comes to pointing out the errors of Islam. But we also need to begin by getting it right concerning the things about which we agree.
End paste
And what about Jews? Jews deny the Trinity, deny the divinity of Christ, deny the divinity of the Holy Spirit, and yet no one here denies they profess belief in the God of Abraham nor would anyone here - no matter how much of an anti-Catholic bigot - deny that they adore and acknowledge the same God we Christians do. We just conclude that they have a seriously limited and flawed understanding of God because they don’t accept the revelation of the Trinity in scriptures. How is that different from Muslims?
Here’s the quote from John Paul II that Tim Staples included:
Whoever knows the Old and New Testaments, and then reads the Koran, clearly sees the process by which it completely reduces Divine Revelation. It is impossible not to note the movement away from what God said about Himself, first in the Old Testament through the Prophets, and then finally in the New Testament through His Son. In Islam all the richness of God’s self-revelation, which constitutes the heritage of the Old and New Testaments, has definitely been set aside. Some of the most beautiful names in the human language are given to the God of the Koran, but He is ultimately a God outside of the World, a God who is only Majesty, never Emmanuel, God-with-us. Islam is not a religion of redemption. There is no room for the Cross and the Resurrection(p. 92).
End paste
See what he says? Islam’s Qur’an moves “away from what God said about Himself” in the Bible. Jews, by denying the New Testament, essentially do something similar even though they have the Old Testament. Yet probably no anti-Catholic bigot here would say they adore a different God than Jews. No, instead, we simply generously conclude Jews have limited understanding of the One True God rather than conclude (erroneously) that they adore an entirely different God. And we’re being pretty darn generous there because by denying the Trinity (just as Muslims do!) they are denying a great deal about God. Somehow all of this goes right by the
anti-Catholic bigots without apparently a second thought.
The hypocrisy of anti-Catholic bigots is on display. . . again.
“To be clear, numerous times daily in Jewish prayers, the God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob is specifically addressed.”
yep - and they deny the Trinity just like Muslims. They deny the divinity of Christ. They deny the divinity of the Holy Spirit. Just like Muslims do.
So do you worship the same god as Muslims or not?
“The preacher that is still HERE on earth is in the same boat as the person in the pew, except for being in a place of authority.”
So that means no one is worshiping him? We can both assume that no on is worshiping him. After all he’s just a man. Mary is just a woman. We don’t worship her either.
“He didn’t learn that from scripture. Who from?”
He learned it from scripture. Just because your understanding of scripture might be limited doesn’t mean his is as limited as yours apparently is. The wedding of Cana has always been thought of as an example and foreshadowing of Mary’s intercession. http://home.earthlink.net/~mysticalrose/marian11.html
“But your church gives her all the powers of God.”
Nope. She is not divine. She is not innately holy. The holiness she has was given to her as gift (isn’t that how we all get it?). She is not omniscient. She is not omnipotent. Everything she has comes from God. It’s no different for us.
So you’re objectively wrong. Now, what would a responsible person do at this point if he was objectively wrong about something? Maybe you can show us by your upcoming actions.
“So do you worship the same god as Muslims or not?”
Do Jews?
Do Christians?
If all three groups profess to believe in the God of Abraham, then who do they worship?
Also, I do not worship any god but God. If you can’t even ask the question correctly, then why should I answer it?
No
>>Do Christians?<<
No.
Neither one of those worship the same god as Muslims. It's only the Catholic Church that proclaims they serve the same god as Muslims.
“No”
I have heard some Jews say otherwise. Who am I to believe about Judaism - you or the Jews?
“No.”
Again, a number of Christians - including some Protestants - say otherwise.
“Neither one of those worship the same god as Muslims.”
I never said anything about a god. I asked about God. If you can’t get it right then you are not answering my question.
“It’s only the Catholic Church that proclaims they serve the same god as Muslims.”
Again, no.
Criminal law presumes the defense of rights among peers, the fundamental assumption being the value of each person and therefore the sustainability of their right to live, to own property, to control their own body, etc. But God enters the equation before all that. He is not some coequal peer, only bigger and stronger. We are the product of His creative act, created for His purposes, not our own. None of us asked Him for permission to come into being. He made it happen because that is what He wanted to do. By His permission only can we breath. By the sustaining power of His word alone do we even have the power of thought or choice. There is no area of our being, even our value as persons, including our rights, that does not depend utterly on Him. He cannot be judged by us. We do not have standing to make that kind of judgment.
Very well said. Post of the day, or at least this morning praise God. If God were otherwise then He would not be the God of the Bible, men have "changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things." (Romans 1:23) .
Your reasoned reply relates somewhat to what i tried to say here in this thread, which is a good one for your lawyers.
For a man to think that a man can bring peace can be brokered between two factions that God said would always be having a horrific relationship with each other is pure folly.
I understand why you must support the error of the declaration which presumes peace between Christians and Islam.
It is part of the prophecy of the coming world leader and one world religion.
"when Isaac was born there was a conflict between Ishmael and the new child"
For Ishmael: "the promise of a divine destiny--antagonism and conflict with everyone, and his brothers will fear him. When the descendants act like the ancestor, they will fulfill this destiny of animosity."
The pope cannot change this no matter how hard he tries.
Nice bit of speculation! Maybe you should try asking a learned former Chief Rabbi of Rome, Israel Zolli, who converted to Catholicism.
What they profess is what they profess. No amount of foot stomping or holding your breath on your part will change that.
You have heard that Jews say they serve the same god as Muslims? Would you please provide documentation of that?
>>Again, a number of Christians - including some Protestants - say otherwise.<<
Please show proof of the statement that "some Protestants" say they serve the same god as Muslims.
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