Luke 11:27-28 And it came to pass as He spake these things a certain woman of the company lifted up her voice and said unto Him Blessed is the womb that bare Thee and the paps which Thou has sucked. But He said, Yea rather blessed are they that hear the word of God and keep it.
With you posting this passage notuptome, I have to ask....Are you a blessing to your family and neighbors? Yes...No? Well, in this passage, when an admirer wished to compliment Jesus by praising his mother, Jesus did not deny the truth of the blessing she pronounced. Her beatitude (which means "blessedness" or "happiness") recalls Mary's canticle:
All generations will call me blessed (Luke 1:48). Jesus adds to her words by pointing to the source of all true blessedness or happiness -- union with God. Mary humbly submitted herself to the miraculous plan of God for the incarnation of his only begotten Son --
The Word of God made flesh in her womb, by declaring:
I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be done to me according to your word (Luke 1:38). Mary heard the word spoken to her by the angel and she believed it. On another occasion Jesus pointed out that our true mother and brothers and sisters are
those who hear the word of God and do it (Luke 8:21). They are truly blessed because they know their God personally and they find joy in hearing and obeying his word.
I don't know about you or the other non-Catholics that have posted here, but for us Catholics, our goal in life, the very reason we were created in the first place, is for union with God. We were made for God and our hearts are restless until they restr in him. An early martyr once said that "a Christian's only relatives are the saints." Those who follow Jesus Christ and who seek the will of God enter into a new family, a family of "saints" here on earth and in heaven. Jesus changes the order of relationships and shows that true kinship is not just a matter of flesh and blood. Our adoption as sons and daughters of God transforms all our relationships and requires a new order of loyalty to God and his kingdom.
Mary is my sister in Christ but she is not my mother in Christ.
Wow.... you and santuzza really don't get it do ya? That is so sad. Jesus chose Mary for His mother from all eternity as part of God’s plan for our salvation. God could have sent His Son any way He chose. He chose to go through Mary to come to us. If Mary is good enough for God to go through to get closer to us, then she is good enough for us to go through to get closer to Him. When we honor her, we do as Jesus did when He followed the fourth commandment and honored His mother. If God is our Father and Jesus is our Brother, then only Mary could complete the family as our Mother.
Honor Mary but do not idolize her.
Lol!!! For about the up-tenth time, Catholics DO NOT worship or idolize Mary, the Mother of Christ – as though she were a deity. Of all the misconceptions about Catholic belief and practice, this one is the most absurd. Catholics are just as aware as Protestants that Mary was a human creature, and therefore not entitled to the honors which are reserved to God alone. What many non-Catholics mistake for adoration is a very profound love and veneration, nothing more. Mary is not adored, first because God forbids it, and secondly because the Canon Law of the Catholic Church, which is based on Divine Law, forbids it. Canon Law 1255 of the 1918 Codex strictly forbids adoration of anyone other than the Holy Trinity. However, Catholics do feel that Mary is entitled to a great measure of exaltation because, in choosing her as the Mother of Redemption, God Himself exalted her – exalted her more than any other human person before or since. Catholics heap tribute and honor on Mary because they earnestly desire to be "followers of God, as most dear children." (
Eph. 5:1). Mary herself prophesied: "For behold from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed. Because he that is mighty, hath done great things to me; and holy is his name." (
Luke 1:48-49). Catholics know that every bit of the glory they give to Mary redounds to the glory of her divine Son, just as Mary magnified God, not herself, when Elizabeth blessed her. (
Luke 1:41-55). They know that the closer they draw to her, the closer they draw to Him who was born of her. In the year 434 St. Vincent of Lerins defended Christian devotion to Mary this way: "Therefore, may God forbid that anyone should attempt to defraud Holy Mary of her privilege of divine grace and her special glory. For by a unique favor of our Lord and God she is confessed to be the most true and most blessed Mother of God."
Among the other women of the bible she had a special ministry but she was still born of man and born with sin. Mary needed a Savior just like everybody else on the planet.
Really????? You actually put a limit on what God can do???? WOW!!!
Guess thats where you and I differ. We Catholics believe that every human being after the fall, including Mary ,was subject to being brought into this world with original sin and needs to be saved. However, Mary was saved from all sin, including original sin from the first moment of her conception. The following is an imperfect analogy. Imagine I am parachuting and falling through the air into quicksand. Suddenly, a gust of wind comes along and blows me away from the quicksand. I would say that at the moment of conception all human beings fall into a pit of quicksand called original sin. But in Mary's case God intervened and protected her from this at the moment of her conception by the merits of Jesus. She had no power or merit of her own that prevented her from falling into the quicksand of original sin. It was Divine Mercy which was preparing a place for the Incarnation. God was preparing an Ark of the Covenant to carry the Word of God.
St. Teresa of Ávila said: "I could have fallen like Mary Magdalene, but your forgiveness of me was greater than hers because you prevented me from falling."
This is a very good explanation of the Immaculate Conception. Mary was redeemed by God from the moment of her conception so that she never fell into sin. Catholics believe that Mary was saved by God from sin, but in a preventative way.
Pax Christi
"All generations will call me blessed" (Luke 1:48).