Polycarp Ministries

Today’s Gospel reading reminds me of another breaking point in my quest for truth. Mary, the blessed mother. Encountering this scripture in Greek class (Luke 1:26-38) shattered my misconceptions about the Church. Historically and theologically I had learned the reasons for Mary as Theotokos (God-bearer). There was no time in Christ’s life when He was not God, even in the womb of this young virgin. I also knew that Catholics did not WORSHIP Mary or any other saint, because worship is due to God alone. But they are true champions and leaders of the Faith, and receive the respect they deserve for their leadership roles and examples. I’ve never understood why people get so upset about that. They will pay hundreds of dollars to watch their favorite college football team play, name their children after their sports heroes, and skip Church to be with their team. And they say Catholics are idol worshippers? But I digress.

After hearing sermon after sermon around Christmas time, seeing it as their chance to keep everybody protestant I guess, explaining that Mary was “just an ordinary woman” and “nothing special” I almost went crazy. Even before I believed in the immaculate conception and assumption, I knew that Mary was special. Unless my protestant friends can show me another virgin who gave birth to God-incarnate, raised Him according to the law of Moses, helped initiate His ministry @ a wedding feast, never left Him during His ministry, stood by weeping as she watched Him die, rejoice after His resurrection, remain with and encourage His disciples after His ascension, etc. Doesn’t sound too ordinary to me.

Oh, I almost forgot. Our salvation hinged on her answer in the passage above. Verse 37 says with God nothing (no word) WILL BE impossible. To that point, everytime God spoke a word, it became. There was no IF. Now God and all creation wait for the answer. His prophets have fortold of this event. It comes down to the answer of this young girl. She said “yes”, the incarnation was manifest, and Heaven rejoiced. She was indeed special and specially chosen for this task. No wonder the angel greeted her by saying literally “Greetings, she who HAS BEEN FILLED with grace, the Lord is with you.” Mary’s actions point us to salvation in Christ alone and give honor to God alone. It’s all so very scriptural, and that’s why it was so hard to escape God’s call to me toward His Church.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 1st, 2005 at 12:51 am and is filed under My Story. 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.