Posted on 08/18/2019 7:05:12 PM PDT by Al Hitan
Today the Church remembers with thanksgiving the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God. Historically, this day was understood to mark her dormition, or "falling asleep," which was most anciently regarded as her natural death and burial. From early on, however, the Church considered that she who conceived and gave birth to the very God of very God, by His Word and Holy Spirit, was also resurrected and ascended into heaven, in both body and soul, soon after her death. There is no word of Holy Scripture to teach these traditions as doctrine, but we should not be too quick to dismiss them as merely pious devotion. Such piety, at its heart, is a confession of that which is the Church's faith in Christ, the Blessed Virgin Mary's Son, our Savior and our God.
St. Mary is uniquely honored among all the saints of God in Christ, not only by the Church, but first of all by the Lord God Himself. He has had mercy upon her, blessed her with His grace and favor, and chosen her above all other women to bear the almighty and eternal Son of God. She is rightly called, and truly is, the Mother of God; for her own dear Son, the Fruit of her womb, is indeed the one true God, begotten of the Father from all eternity. It is from her flesh and blood that the Lord has taken for Himself a true and natural body, bone of her bone and flesh of her flesh, so that henceforth He is true Man, the perfect second Adam, our elder Brother, our kinsman Redeemer, the promised Seed of the Woman, by whom we are reconciled to God. As the ancient fathers of the Church confessed, God thus became like us, in order that we become like Him, by grace. It is that great salvation that we celebrate in commemorating any of the saints, and in particular the Blessed Virgin Mother of God, St. Mary.
She is an icon of the Church, a living Sacrament of Christ, and a beautiful example of faith, of all the true children of father Abraham. Her body was comprehended by the Word and Spirit of God to become the tangible means by which the Son of God became flesh and was given to us, and not only for us, but for the life of the world. It is His body, conceived and born of St. Mary, that our sins and sorrows did carry. It is a human body, like our own in every way, save without sin, because He was born of this woman (born under the Law to redeem us). Thus do we recognize in her an archetype of the Blessed Sacrament of our Lord's body and blood.
What is more, in conceiving and giving birth to the Son of God, she is a type of the Church, the holy mother who surely gives birth to the sons of God in Christ. We too have been conceived and given new birth by the same Word and Spirit of the same Holy Triune God that overshadowed the Blessed Virgin Mary and knit within her womb the incarnation of the only-begotten Son. Thus are we, like Him, "born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God" (St. John 1:13).
Along with her vocation as the woman by whom the Son of God was given to and for the world, St. Mary also stands with us as a living member of the Church, the Body of Christ. When the Word of the Gospel was announced to her, she received that Word in faith, obtained in her by the mercies of God, and meekly bowed her head in humble trust: "Let it be to me according to Thy Word." Blessed is she who has heard the Word of God and kept it, who treasured it in her heart, who believed that there would surely be a fulfillment of all that God had spoken to her. In all of this, St. Mary is one of us, a faithful disciple of her own dear Son, and among that great cloud of witnesses with which we are surrounded, of that blest communion, fellowship divine.
When the Church in pious tradition has considered St. Mary to be resurrected and ascended to heaven, already in both body and soul, it is a confession of faith in that which Christ Jesus our Lord has accomplished for us and for all by His victorious Cross, Resurrection and Ascension. We may indeed contemplate that she by whom the Lord became like us, should exemplify the way in which we all become like Him, recreated in the glorious Image of the Man from heaven. Of course, we do not rest faith upon the tradition of St. Mary's dormition and assumption into heaven; faith clings to Jesus Christ alone and finds true peace and Sabbath rest forever in Him. But what we envision concering St. Mary, we understand to be the Church's hope precisely in Christ our Lord, our Savior and our God. For we know that He is the Resurrection and the Life, and that she who believes in Him will live even if she dies; yes, and everyone who lives and believes in Him will never die.
We believe, teach and confess with the absolute certainty of faith that St. Mary is the Mother of God; that the almighty and eternal Son of the living God was born of this woman, born under the Law, to redeem us who were under the Law. In celebrating that marvelous incarnation of God the Son, in which He died and rose again for us men and our salvation, we may also celebrate proleptically the resurrection of the body that all His saints share with Him by grace through faith in the Gospel. And in that glorious light, we sing: "O higher than the cherubim, more glorious than the seraphim, lead their praises: 'Alleluia!' Thou bearer of the eternal Word, most gracious magnify the Lord: 'Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!"
While I continue to see that Catholic practice more important than Jesus' actual words:
Call no man father.
Considering the PROOF that Catholic doctrine was out of whack even before John finally died (Revelation chapters 1-3); it's no wonder that 4 centuries later the Church is STILL coming up with stuff the Apostles NEVER taught.
Christ saved me the moment I turned to Him in faith. He saved me by the power of His shed blood and resurrection. Nothing on my part and no sacraments needed. there was nothing for me to achieve, it was a done deal. Your statement proves the RCC does not have a Christian understanding of salvation and teaches man made heresy.
Tell this to Augustine:
Augustine (De bono viduitatis)
Tell this to Paul:
2 Timothy 3:14-17 (NIV)
14 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, 15 and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.
16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the servant of God[a] may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
If Sola was good enough for Paul to recommend to Timothy; why isn't it still ok?
“...thoroughly equipped...” from Paul’s hand, evidently isn’t thorough enough for Rome.
My voodoo charm I picked up in Haiti keeps rabid elephants away from my door.
It has worked for nigh on these 37 years now; I believe it will still work long after I am gone.
I finally 'see' it; and it is STILL unscriptural!
Just like my Haitian, voodoo, rabid elephant charm!!
Your link to the EVIDENCE of this claim is missing.
Cargo cult people have MORE basis for their beliefs!
Christ saved me the moment I turned to Him in faith. He saved me by the power of His shed blood and resurrection. Nothing on my part and no sacraments needed. there was nothing for me to achieve, it was a done deal. Your statement proves the RCC does not have a Christian understanding of salvation and teaches man made heresy.
How is it that you Catholics 'know' it?
Not very likely; as you don't even listen to your own POPE!!
Sacraments, scapulars, ever-virgins...
It is sure a good thing that ROME has put all this in place to save us.
You wouldn't know TRUE if it bit you in the Ever Moving Goalposts.
Why is NO ONE castigated for having the ASSURANCE that the Brown Scapular seemingly provides?
Funny how the compliers of the Bible didn't include those writings that talk about all these things we "need" for salvation.
They don't accept the bible truth that Jews, Gentiles and anyone else lose their identity when they become Christians...They claim that Catholic are grafted into the Jewish tree...
They have some perverse notion that they are living in the Millennial era spoken of in Revelation and they, the Catholic religion, are bringing in the Kingdom, and when they unite all the religions into the Catholic fold, Jesus will then return...
They don't care what the bible says...Doctrinally they only pluck out a verse here and there if they think it justifies and bolsters their religion...And then they will twist the verse out of recognition and convince their members that the verses must be 'translated' and only they (their Magisterium) are able to translate the verses...
There's no point in any of them reading the bible because they aren't qualified to understand it anyway...
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