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**If people can believe that Mary should be called the Mother of God, fine**, Those who accept the authority of the church on this and other such matters will have little problem. For some of us, it's more complicated than that.
This is only complicated because protestants in the united states have in intrinsic distain for the BVM due to their puritan roots. Outside of the U.S. this is a non-issue for the most part.
** To me, it is misleading.** We all know that God existed eons before Mary, eternally in fact. Mary was the mother of Jesus, the man Jesus. His divinity was not born in the womb like a body is born in a womb. In fact, the divine nature of Christ was a given, not something that developed for the nine months preceding birth. To even hint that somehow she was the mother of God strikes me as at least a poor choice of words. How can a human being be mother to her creator in any credible fashion?
How could the creator be born of a creature that he created? I am certain that at no time in history “Mother of God” has never been used to imply that the BVM was the mother of God the Father. It only states that the BVM is the Mother of God Incarnate. It seems your issue is with the BVM, not the Catholic title given to her.
** It is quite enough to honor Mary as the mother of Jesus.** I mean, what could be a higher honor? So, let’s honor her. But there is something troubling (to my mind anyway) when she is identified as the mother of God, when she is seen as having enormous power in heaven, able to influence her son to respond a certain way to a prayer sent through her. I find many Catholics quite convinced that prayers directed to her or to some other special saint(s) means they are more likely to receive positive responses. Hm!
The wedding at Cana comes to mind:
1 On the third day there was a marriage at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there; 2 Jesus also was invited to the marriage, with his disciples. 3 When the wine failed, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” 4 And Jesus said to her, “O woman, what have you to do with me? My hour has not yet come.” 5 His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”
6 Now six stone jars were standing there, for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. 7 Jesus said to them, “Fill the jars with water.” And they filled them up to the brim. 8 He said to them, “Now draw some out, and take it to the steward of the feast.” So they took it. 9 When the steward of the feast tasted the water now become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the steward of the feast called the bridegroom (John (RSV) 2)
**And, I ask again, how can a creature be mother to her Creator? **
Again, how can the Creator be borne of a creature? Is Jesus not God? This is fairly simple.
B]The result of this whole thing - again, just my honest opinion, which I hope can be expressed here - is that Mary has assumed goddess-like characteristics among many
. I have one good friend, for example, who only goes to Mother Mary when he has a problem. She (he says) has more compassion, more understanding, is less likely to be angry, etc. All so worldly.
Certainly you are more then welcome to express your opinion here, and while I can not speak for your friend, I can say that the blessed virgin does have a special place in Heaven due to the fact that she IS the Mother of God Incarnate.
** This seems to me to have developed in another age, when people lived in a world that was much simpler than we know the world to be now.** They didn’t realize that there might be a billion solar systems out there, and quite possibly this tiny speck we call earth may not be the main focus of God’s attention. Read the Church Fathers again. They were brilliant for their time. But how wrong they were on matters celestial, how many superstitions about the world they embraced, all because they had no concept of the vastness of this awesome, immense universe. I don’t condemn them, But we don’t have to defend their errors either.
I wouldn’t deny that the title of the BVM developed in another age - although I will argue that it developed out of ignorance. The ECF’s were theologians not astronomers, why would things celestial influence their exegetics‘? This would be an ad hominem abuse.
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**God bless everybody - and a happy New Year, too. **
Indeed, Happy New Year!
God be with you