Wednesday, October 11, 2006

FEAST OF THE MATERNITY OF OUR LADY
Why Stress Mary's Divine Maternity Today?
There is an urgent reason for stressing the Divine Maternity of Our Lady today. It is a widespread undermining of this cardinal truth of our faith in nominally Catholic circles of the twentieth century. The movie “The Last Temptation” was a blasphemous portrayal of Christ as a sinner. This movie was warmly endorsed and had not a few Catholic supporters, including a professedly Catholic scripture scholar whom I had as a teacher.
On a wider scale, the teaching of sex education in many Catholic schools today presents Christ, in so many words, as “a human person,” who had the same fallen human nature as our own.”
It is therefore imperative that, in today's confused world, we emphasize, underline, underscore, focus on, stress, concentrate on Mary as the Mother of God. I do not hesitate saying that recitation of the Rosary is an outstanding sign of our profession of faith in Our Lady's Divine Motherhood.
Remember, too, why we Catholics have two parts to what we now call the “
Hail Mary.” The second part is really the “Holy Mary,” which was officially added to the “Hail Mary” by the Church. Why? Precisely in order to profess our Catholic Faith in Mary as the Mother of God, which was being undermined by the founders of Protestantism in the sixteenth century. [Excerpted from a conference by Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J. 1914-2000+r.i.p.]

As we celebrate this Feast of the Maternity of Our Lady (October 12), we would like to consider three things:
1. Mary is truly the Mother of God.
2. As the Mother of God Mary claims the greatest dignity next to God.
3. As Mother of God we must honor and venerate Her above all other creatures in heaven and on earth.

1. The greatest joy of a mother is to see her son honored and respected. Mary experienced that joy. She knew that Jesus was God. Read the true story in St. Luke, 1: 26-35, of the announcement by the Angel Gabriel to Mary that She was to be the Mother of God. Let me quote the concluding words of the angel:
"The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee. And therefore the Holy One to be born shall be called the Son of God."

The Son of Mary is called the Son of the Most High, the Son of God. As soon as Mary gave Her consent, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity took a body and soul in Her most chaste womb. From the very first instant of their existence the body and soul of Christ were united to His Divinity.

Christ, remember, had two natures, the divine and the human. But Christ was only one Person, the divine, and this Divine Person was true Man while He remained true God.
"Behold a virgin shall be with child, and bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted, is God with us." (Isaiah 7:14)

Again in St. Luke, 1:43, cousin Elizabeth was inspired to exclaim:
"And how have I deserved that the mother of my Lord should come to me?"

Holy Mother Church, the infallible teacher of God's truth, has expressly declared that Mary is the Mother of God.

2. As Mother of God Mary enjoys the greatest dignity next to that of God Himself. A creature becomes the Mother of the Creator. A young maiden becomes the Mother of the Allpowerful and Eternal God.

3. Because Mary is the Mother of God, because She enjoys a place next to God Himself, because She enjoys such a high dignity, it is only reasonable that we should honor and venerate Her above all creatures. We Catholics do not adore or worship Her. We adore God alone. However, we do honor Her, we do respect Her, we do venerate the Mother of Jesus. And we hope that others will honor Her too!

The attention we give to Mary does not take away from the worship of Her Son. On the contrary, it increases the devotion to Her Child. May Mary lead us and the whole world, during these turbulent and error filled times, to the Sacred Heart of Her Son, who is Divine Mercy Himself! Amen.

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