JoeT
Member
Hello, I’m a Catholic, a Roman Catholic. Catholics do not believe man is created evil but cursed by the act of one man and one woman, Adam and Eve. Both the punishment and the guilt of their sin are inherited for being in the tribe of men, unlike others we do not receive this curse genetically (i.e. 'sin nature').
If you believe in the Trinity then you are obliged by faith to believe that the Blessed Virgin Mary must be Immaculate and the mother of God as an imperative to Christianity (beyond papal decree). As you know, the Holy Trinity is God the Father, God the son, and God the Holy Spirit; three Persons in perfect unity of one essence, that of God. The Logos, Jesus Christ, is One of Person with two natures perfectly and inseparably joined, God/Man. Christ is God (the uncreated and the creator of all things) and we know he was born of woman, i.e. humanity – wholly God and wholly man. The prophecies of the Old Testament tell of God's plan that the Messiah is be God (uncreated) born of woman (creature). Thus, according to God's revealed plan Christ can only be wholly the perfect God, and perfectly a whole man when born of woman who is the new Eve – having never known sin, i.e. the Immaculate Mary. She becomes the Ark of the New Covenant. Thus to deny the Blessed Virgin Mary as Immaculate, or as the mother of God, mother of the Living Grace, or as the mother of your redemption, or as the mother of your salvation, is to deny Christ as God/man thereby failing to acknowledge Christ is the Theandros.
Consequently, true faith makes the improbable conclusion obligatory; bringing us to a Woman whose child is the perfect union of both God and man. Mary literally and metaphorically (symbolically) is full of grace, mother of God, mother of our redemption. So we quite comfortably adore her.
“Hail, holy Queen, Mother of mercy, hail, our life, our sweetness and our hope. To thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve: to thee do we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this vale of tears. Turn then, most gracious Advocate, thine eyes of mercy toward us, and after this our exile, show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus, O merciful, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary! Amen.”
This is why to discern the true faith in Jesus Christ we can look first to the others views of the Virgin Mary. No other faith, other than the one true faith of Jesus Christ acknowledges the mother of God. Like St. Liguori says, "we acknowledge [Mary the mother of God] for that beautiful aurora, which was always resplendent with the divine light; that chosen ark of salvation, safe from the common shipwreck of sin; for that perfect and immaculate dove, as thy divine spouse declared thee; that enclosed garden, which was the delight of God; that fountain sealed up, which the enemy never entered to trouble; finally, that spotless lily, which thou art, springing up among the thorns of the children of Adam; for whereas all are born defiled with original sin, and enemies of God, thou wast born pure, all spotless, and in all things a friend of thy Creator.”
Surely the Baptist holds Mary in the same light?
(I noticed there was no designation for ‘Catholic’ except non-Baptist)
JoeT
If you believe in the Trinity then you are obliged by faith to believe that the Blessed Virgin Mary must be Immaculate and the mother of God as an imperative to Christianity (beyond papal decree). As you know, the Holy Trinity is God the Father, God the son, and God the Holy Spirit; three Persons in perfect unity of one essence, that of God. The Logos, Jesus Christ, is One of Person with two natures perfectly and inseparably joined, God/Man. Christ is God (the uncreated and the creator of all things) and we know he was born of woman, i.e. humanity – wholly God and wholly man. The prophecies of the Old Testament tell of God's plan that the Messiah is be God (uncreated) born of woman (creature). Thus, according to God's revealed plan Christ can only be wholly the perfect God, and perfectly a whole man when born of woman who is the new Eve – having never known sin, i.e. the Immaculate Mary. She becomes the Ark of the New Covenant. Thus to deny the Blessed Virgin Mary as Immaculate, or as the mother of God, mother of the Living Grace, or as the mother of your redemption, or as the mother of your salvation, is to deny Christ as God/man thereby failing to acknowledge Christ is the Theandros.
Consequently, true faith makes the improbable conclusion obligatory; bringing us to a Woman whose child is the perfect union of both God and man. Mary literally and metaphorically (symbolically) is full of grace, mother of God, mother of our redemption. So we quite comfortably adore her.
“Hail, holy Queen, Mother of mercy, hail, our life, our sweetness and our hope. To thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve: to thee do we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this vale of tears. Turn then, most gracious Advocate, thine eyes of mercy toward us, and after this our exile, show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus, O merciful, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary! Amen.”
This is why to discern the true faith in Jesus Christ we can look first to the others views of the Virgin Mary. No other faith, other than the one true faith of Jesus Christ acknowledges the mother of God. Like St. Liguori says, "we acknowledge [Mary the mother of God] for that beautiful aurora, which was always resplendent with the divine light; that chosen ark of salvation, safe from the common shipwreck of sin; for that perfect and immaculate dove, as thy divine spouse declared thee; that enclosed garden, which was the delight of God; that fountain sealed up, which the enemy never entered to trouble; finally, that spotless lily, which thou art, springing up among the thorns of the children of Adam; for whereas all are born defiled with original sin, and enemies of God, thou wast born pure, all spotless, and in all things a friend of thy Creator.”
Surely the Baptist holds Mary in the same light?
(I noticed there was no designation for ‘Catholic’ except non-Baptist)
JoeT
