"Sorry, God. I've got other plans. I have to wash my hair and the donkey needs feeding."
The most important part Roman Catholics do not understand in this "Mary consented" foolishness is that Mary's non-compliance was impossible because God ordained Christ's birth (and death) from before the foundation of the world.
Just so you can have a better, truer idea of Mary's frame of mind, let's see what really happened to Paul...
And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do." -- Acts 9:3-6"And as he (Saul) journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven:
And he did.
"Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?"
THAT is the reaction of both Paul and Mary.
If an angel came to me and told me that X would happen and I did not believe it, I would say no, thanks, leave me alone.
If one says yes (which you do not deny Mary said), then it means one believes (what you call “understands”).
So, Mary was the first believer. I think we actually agree on this but you think you don’t.
The difference is that you think that belief is not free consent, that those who believe are made to believe by God.
Fine, but if that’s true, then God uses us like puppets.
Your proof-text is ludicrous. Sure, God decreed Christ’s birth and death from before the foundation of the earth. But that says nothing about whether Mary was free to refuse. You have another governing theory that says she was not, but your prooftext proves nothing in that regard. I have a governing theology that says she could say no or she was not really human.
Your opening sentences are predicated on Mary believing the angel to be from God and speaking truth. Sure, no one who believed that God had chosen her would say, “I have to wash my hair.” But your very statement proves my point: she didn’t say “I have to wash my hair, I have other plans” because SHE BELIEVED in the truth of the incarnation taking place right now.
So, we are back to where we started. She’s the first believer. You are not the first. She’s ahead of you in line. She’s not simply your equal. She’s the one whom God chose and who believed he had chosen her. She’s the first believer.
She’s the first believer.
She’s the first believer.
She’s the first believer.
You can’t wish this away. So you say, “she had no choice but to believe.” In which case, she was a puppet.
And since you believe you are a puppet too, I guess in your world, you two are equal. Equal in your puppetry.
But common sense shows that people can and do say no to God. If Mary was not really free to say no she was not really human and the Incarnation did not really take place because God became incarnate of a non-human. But that doesn’t faze you because you believe all humans are non-human, unfree.
I have to admit, Calvinism is rigorously logical. But absolutely contrary to fact. We are free to reject God. Mary was. She consented. We love her and honor her for it.
So did Jesus. What a religion you’ve created—in your religion Jesus has to diss his own mother in order to take her down to our level so that we won’t be guilty of blasphemy.
I’d rather go with a God Incarnate who honors his mother as his mother. And no other woman has ever been the mother of the Incarnate Word of God. So the Word of God, appropriately, honors her and so do I.
You could too if you just relaxed your monergistic obsessive-compulsive theology a tad. You don’t even have to become a Catholic. You could be Orthodox. Or Baptist or Lutheran. It wouldn’t hurt you to honor Jesus’ mother. A lot of Protestants do, increasingly so.
And a side-benefit. It’s very Scriptural.