In the midst of sorting through attempting to celebrate Christmas during Advent, I discovered that our last RCIA class before Christmas will focus on Mary. I’m sure Father Z & the gang would welcome visitors so if anyone wants to come, email us for details.
My dear wife finds it amusing that I hadn’t heard the song “Blue Christmas” before. Apparently some guy named Elvis was responsible for it. Regardless of this, today I heard four different versions of the song. Porky Pig sang in the first of them. I do not believe that this Elvis guy sang any of them. I’m beginning to think he must be dead or something. Probably was pretty unpopular. I bet porky made the song famous.
Could someone please explain why they were defined? In particular, why couldn’t they remain at the level of doctrine rather than be promoted to dogma? I’ve heard that the Orthodox agree that Mary was conceived without sin, but were uncomfortable about declaring as dogma. Since the Orthodox Church is the only other Church we recognize as maintaining the Deposit of Faith, their discomfort gives me pause.
On a related note, where does the tradition of Mary’s perpetual virginity come from? I know the words for “brother” and “sister” in Scripture can mean “cousin” or other relatives, but what evidential support do we have for this interpretation?
Mrs. B. proposes these answers:
Shouldn’t dogma be limited to those articles of faith which are absolutely required for salvation? In a word, yes. In a few more words, Mary’s Immaculate Conception and Assumption are articles of faith required for salvation. Why? My thought is this… Mary is definitely not your typical woman. She gave birth to God.
As far as the Immaculate Conception goes, I think in order to carry out such an important task you’d have to be totally without sin. If an angel showed up & told me I’d give birth to God, I’d totally freak out because I’m certainly no saint. Not Mary, though, she said yes with very little hesitation. Mary’s Immaculate Conception is directly tied to the Annunciation and Nativity… and Jesus being both God & Man. So… if believing that Jesus is God & man is dogma, then it would follow that believing Mary was immaculately conceived would also be dogma.
The Assumption is also important to our salvation. Sure, Jesus was raised from the dead & ascended into heaven… He’s God. For Mary to be assumed, body and soul, into heaven gives us the extra push of hope & faith that we’ll share the same someday. It’s saying that it happened to someone who, though without sin, was not divine and thus can/will someday happen for all who are in heaven.
On a related note, where does the tradition of Mary’s perpetual virginity come from? I know the words for “brother” and “sister” in Scripture can mean “cousin” or other relatives, but what evidential support do we have for this interpretation? I don’t know where exactly the tradition comes from, and I don’t have any sources to back me up, but I will say that I struggled for a long time with Mary’s perpetual virginity. One day, it occured to me that Mary’s marriage to Joseph could not have been a typical marriage whatsoever. So, even though nobody’s ever put anything in front of my face & said, “see, the answer is HERE,” I no longer find it difficult to believe. It was a weird little epiphany. I just suddenly realized that Mary’s existance as Mary’s life was most incredibly unique and extraordinary and that nothing about the idea of her perpetual virginity seemed weird anymore.
So, there you have it, Funky… Mrs. B.’s take on Marian theology, however flawed it may be.
Stay Tuned for Next Week’s puzzle… Advent: Blue or Violet???
Don’t you just love how I blog about six months of marriage and my husband blogs about taking over Cleveland and pretending it’s my birthday?
He’s the best, really he is.
Today was a nutty, awesome day at CCD… In summary, I got to play with a baby. There’s a whole lot of rambling that goes along with the story, but I’ll try to stick to the point. Six-month-old babies are squishy and fun. They’re also kind of heavy.
She was a lot of fun. And she likes Funshine Bear. You can’t go wrong with a baby who likes Funshine bear. REALLY REALLY made me wish Matt had a job already.
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