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Mary the Mother of God

This Solemnity really marks the heart of Christianity, what is most appealing, most incredible, terrible, and terrifying to us: the startling Personality of God. How often are we afraid to think of God? Do we treat God as–God forbid–abstract? Nothing could be further from the essence of the Gospel!

We don’t live in a world where we’re all grasping for some Truth about which we never have a real certainty. We don’t live in a world where God sits back and lets history play out on its own. We don’t live in a world where our spiritual lives are on some kind of transcendental level which need not and should not have anything to do with “the real world” (or “the less-real world.” Both are heresies.).

No. We live in a world where the Truth has a face, where men have literally had supper with God (and had God for supper!), where God has a mother. That’s Christianity. Our Redemption, Christ’s death and Resurrection are concrete. That’s the truth, and it’s terrifying. Who wouldn’t rather believe in a God who is too remote to concern us seriously or who is oppressive and undeserving of our obedience? Why don’t we want to believe in the truth: that God is more humble than we are? That God is better at being human than we are?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 1st, 2008 at 12:15 PM and is filed under liturgical calendar. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

6 Responses to “Mary the Mother of God”

Gravatar Qazse
Posted February 16th, 2008 at 6:55 PM.

I like the way you write. I like the style and the rigor.

I probably disagree with many of your suppositions. But I happened by and wanted to compliment your writing and blogging.

Peace

Gravatar Dylan
Posted February 16th, 2008 at 10:11 PM.

Thank you!

I’m interested in the truth. Please, tell me if you think I have written something untrue. At a minimum, it will either help me understand or appreciate the truth better or it will help bring others to recognizing the same truth.

Tibi Pax Domini Nostri Iesu Christi.

Gravatar Qazse
Posted February 19th, 2008 at 2:42 PM.

I am no judge of what is true for anyone else but me.

Peace

Gravatar Dylan
Posted February 19th, 2008 at 7:19 PM.

Human reason is capable of discerning some truths. These truths can be communicated to others and understood by them. In any case, they remain true whether we judge them to be true or false. (I hate to speak of the truth merely in terms of accuracy because really truths tell us about a Person, about Jesus Christ. He is the Truth. Nevertheless, to speak in terms of accuracy, some things are really true because they correspond to reality as it really is.)

What is the most important thing you believe?

Gravatar Jim N.
Posted February 22nd, 2008 at 4:45 PM.

According to the Angelic Doctor, truth can both be essential, that is, the reality of the nature of a being, or it can be imposed. Each thing, as a physical existence, has a truth - if it is completing the action to which it’s nature is ordered, it is in truth. If I am an artist, and I have a concept of a drawing, and I draw that concept and it comes out as I imagined it, it is the truth of my intellectual process. As you state, we as humans must make a judgment on the truth or falsity of something, and those judgments are imposed truths, in so much as our intellect is informed. When, however, our intellect is informed by the divine intellect, which knows the truth of everything, and is THE truth, then our intellects make informed judgments.

What do I believe? I believe that I can’t even begin to imagine how much there is to believe. I believe that my quest for knowledge is in some ways futile. I believe that one day I will, in my transformed body in the resurrection, come to know God in a way I now cannot grasp even an inkling of.

The most important thing I believe? Jesus Christ did everything towards an end, and that end was the salvation of my soul. What an amazing gift!

Gravatar Dylan
Posted February 23rd, 2008 at 7:34 AM.

Jim, I love it. As our Lord said, “Every man who is of the truth hears my voice.”

The most important thing I believe? I believe in one God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

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