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."
Does God have free will??
God gives richly, but for some it isn’t enough. They want more redeemers. Jesus just isn’t enough.
There was no sexual intercourse involved.
Besides, do we consider it “rape” when a farmer artificially inseminates a cow without asking her permission?
The RCC position on Mary being the ‘mother of God’ is classic misinterpretation of the scriptures. And from that, your organization demands that Mary made more of God. In that position, the RCC takes the ‘trinity’ description: ‘God the Son’, to an even more unscriptural level. At least the Protestants don’t go that far.
Mary is mother to the man that “..God hath made......both Lord and Christ”. Acts 2:36. Mary didn’t make him ‘Lord and Christ’, God the Father did by dwelling in him.
By dwelling in Christ (the image of the INVISIBLE God), the invisible God could display his attributes to man, by using a perfect man. That’s John 1:1-14 in a nutshell.
**..means you lost already.**
I can answer EVERY SINGLE argument you have, in your defense of the ‘trinity’, with this simple fact: The omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent God the Father is IN Christ. But, if you are so sure of your understanding, then answering these questions should be easy for you.
In John 14:10, when Jesus Christ said, “Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the WORDS that I speak unto you I speak NOT of myself: but the Father that DWELLETH IN ME, HE DOETH the WORKS.”, was he telling the truth?
Jesus Christ inheritted his name. From who? When? How does someone inherit something if he has ALWAYS been possessor of it?
Are you and your word two separate and distinct persons? (we are made in the image of God aren’t we?)
Who’s greater: The Son says, “My Father, which is GAVE them me, is GREATER than ALL..”. 10:29; and “..for my Father is GREATER than I..”. 14:28.
In Matt. 28:19 (“Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:..”), the greatest teacher of all gave the disciples that commandment, and they promptly went about baptizing in the name of JESUS. Now, first of all, note that he says ‘name’ in the singular, not ‘names’. ‘Son’ is a title. “thou shalt call his NAME Jesus”. Luke 1:21. Jesus Christ said that his name is not his own (John 5:43), And Heb. 1:4 says that he inheritted it. The apostles knew what they were doing when they baptized in the name of ‘Jesus’. Do you use his name in water baptism?
In John 14:26, Jesus said, “The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the FATHER will SEND in MY NAME...”. So, what name are YOU going to use to request the coming of the Holy Ghost?
AND........don’t forget Matthew 28:18; Jesus..spake...”All power is GIVEN unto me in heaven and in Earth” (that’s pretty much everywhere, and let’s see, who GAVE it unto him?......could it be the Father that dwelleth in him, and he in the Father?).
Jesus praying to the Father (17:1), “And this is life eternal, that they might know THEE the ONLY TRUE GOD, ........AND........JESUS CHRIST, whom THOU hast SENT.” John 17:3. So, do you disagree with the Son, who declares the Father to be the “ONLY TRUE GOD”?
Or this: How does a ‘trinitarian’ explain this: “But of that day and hour knoweth....my Father only” (the 2nd and 3rd ‘persons of God’ don’t know??)?
You want the Christ to be the ‘Word’, separate and distinct from the Father, but what saith John the baptist (in the first reference), and Jesus Christ?
John 3:34,35 “For he whom God hath SENT speaketh the WORDS of God: for God GIVETH not the Spirit by measure unto him. The Father loveth the Son, and hath GIVEN ALL THINGS iinto his hand.” The Spirit, which “proceedeth from the Father” (Jesus’ words, not mine), was GIVEN to the Christ without measure; unlimited, and in every fiber of his being.
8:26 “I have many things to say and to judge of you: but he that hath SENT me is true; and I SPEAK to the world those things which I have HEARD of him.” 27 “They understood not that he spake to them of the FATHER.”
47-50 “And if any man hear my words........He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day. For I have NOT SPOKEN of MYSELF; but the FATHER which SENT me, he GAVE me a COMMANDMENT, what I should SAY, and what I should SPEAK. And I know his commandment is life everlasting: whatsoever I SPEAK therefore, even as the FATHER SAID unto ME, so I SPEAK.”
17:14 “I have given them THY WORD...”
17:17 “..THY WORD is truth”. (remember WHO the Son was talking to in John 17?)
Since sitting at a keyboard and using the computer is not a very natural element for me, here’s something you could do, and probably MUCH faster than I:
Take every passage that has the phrase ‘the Son of God’ (there are about 50 of them), and replace it with ‘God the Son’. Then post them here to show that you believe that the phrases are interchangable.
Your god has sexual relations with humans, like Zeus?
To use free will to rebel against a decision of the sovereign Lord God is the definition of sin.
“She is not sitting on the mercy seat. She is above the moon OVER the seat.”
Um, the place Mary is situated is exactly where the mercy seat is, above the lid of the Ark of the Covenant proper. As the “moon” is in direct contact with the lid of the Ark, there is no room for another mercy seat between the Ark and the moon.
“Catholics put Mary in the place of God.”
Or, even if we accept vlad’s contention, they are still putting her ABOVE the place of God, which in iconography means they are giving her the greater honor.
Did your God need to have His diaper changed?
Are you equating Mary with a cow ??
“Are you equating Mary with a cow ??”
I’m equating the relative statuses of the human and the cow with the relative statuses of God and humans. God has sovereignty over humans, just as he gave us sovereignty over the animals.
That’s irrelevant, why won’t you answer the question?
Yes, didn’t yours or does the Catholic church state that Jesus, being the perfect baby, never soiled His diapers?
Does that then mean that the question Boogieman asked gets a “yes”, too?
Of what possible relevance is Jesus’ diaper to Mary’s relation with God in whatever manner it is that Catholics seem to think.
I would like to see him do that as well.
Here’s your answer: God did not have sexual relations like Zeus. The angel told Mary that something was going to happen. We are not given the detail of how the supernatural Conception was accomplished. Evidently, we do not need to know that.
Luke 1:38 King James Version (KJV)
38 And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word. And the angel departed from her.
What is this verse if not assent to the angelic announcement?
**What is this verse if not assent to the angelic announcement?**
When confronted by an angel, very few people in Scripture said no to anything they were told was going to happen.
It just struck me funny ... it is an apt analogy
“Here’s your answer: God did not have sexual relations like Zeus.”
So, if there were no sexual relations, why would you bring up the subject of rape?
What is this verse if not assent to the angelic announcement?
So...you agree then that Mary did not give God an answer -- she didn't say, "yes!" -- but instead acquiesced to the will of God Almighty and recognized that she had no "say"?
Hoss
I am sure you can produce a source for that. I admit I did veer off topic; but, I maintain that there is widespread denial of the full humanity of God the Son. But, that goes right along with general denigration of the human being. Thus, from that point of view, is it a logical step to reduce Mary to an incubator; which some will do.
I entered the thread off a comment that she did not give her permission. Do you agree with that?
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