Byzantine Catholic Mission
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Holy Resurrection Byzantine Catholic Mission |
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O ye incorporeal angels who stand before the throne of God, luminous with the brilliance thereof and everlastingly shining with radiance. As secondary luminaries, entreat Christ, that He grant unto our souls peace and great mercy. O immortal messengers of the truly incorruptible Life, ye most blessed ones who received life from the first Life, ye have become holy beholders of the eternal Wisdom, full of light, and reflecting lamps shown forth as is meet. O ye archangels and angels, principalities, thrones, dominions, six-winged seraphim, and divine, many-eyed cherubim, instruments of wisdom, virtues and powers most divine. Pray ye to Christ, that He grant our souls peace and great mercy. Archives:
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HOLY RESURRECTION BYZANTINE CATHOLIC MISSION
Slava Isusu Chrisu! Slava Na Viky!
Divine Liturgy begins at 4 p.m. Every Sunday
Every Third Sunday of the Month is Food Sunday
Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Divine Liturgy Intention:
Our Offerings
Help Bring St. Therese to Knoxville
I am simply content to find myself always imperfect, and in this I find my joy. Good deeds count as nothing, if done without
love.
—St. Therese of Lisieux, 1873-1897
Therese, a new film about the life and times of St. Therese of Lisieux, will open Friday, Oct. 1 — but
only in a few select cities. However, if Luke Films, the movie’s production company, finds that our area has a large
enough “Potential Movie Going Audience” Therese may open in Knoxville. Please register your name and
address through the movie’s website, www.theresemovie.com, to show Luke Films
that East Tennessee wants to see Therese. Let’s bring “The Little Flower” to Knoxville!
How Could Mary, a Human Being, Be the Mother of God?
The title “Mother of God” is offensive to some of our Protestant brothers and sisters because they believe that it
raises Mary to an inappropriate, even idolatrous level — the level of God Himself. There is also genuine confusion among
others — including Catholics — as to how Mary, a finite creature, could be the “mother” of an eternal
being. “Wouldn’t Mary have had to exist before God in order to be His mother?” they reason.
Referring to Mary as “Mother of God,” however, does not imply that she existed from all eternity (like God) or
that she is the source of Jesus’s divine nature. Mary was and is a human being. She is the Mother of God because she
gave birth to the God-Man, Jesus, the “Word made flesh” (John 1:14).
The reality of Mary’s divine maternity was proclaimed a dogma of the faith by the Council of Ephesus in 431, and
this teaching contains two important affirmations:
1. Mary is truly a mother. Since Jesus had no human father, Mary contributed all genetic material to the formation of
His human nature. As Pope John Paul II states in his encyclical Redemptoris Mater, “Jesus is the flesh and blood
of Mary!”
2. Mary conceived and bore the Second Person of the Trinity. Echoing the Nestorian heresy (which denied the
inseparable unity of the two natures of Christ in one Person), some Protestant Christians hold that Mary was the mother of
Jesus’s human nature only. But a mother does not give birth to a nature; she gives birth to a person. Since Jesus is a
divine Person, it is logical that Mary be called the “Mother of God,” the “Theotokos,” even if this
mystery has aspects that exceed our human understanding.
The title “Theotokos” also helps us to understand this teaching a little better. The word literally means
“God Bearer” not “God Generator.” To “generate” God would imply that one is His origin,
but this cannot be possible because God exists from all eternity. To “bear” God means to hold Him in one’s
womb. Historic Christianity (the Catholic and Orthodox churches) believe that Mary actually bore God (in the Person of Jesus
Christ) in her womb. Jesus didn’t “become God” when He left her womb.
To deny Mary’s divine maternity is to cast doubt on the reality of Jesus’s divinity. Mary’s divine maternity
is, then, essentially a Christological dogma in that it affirms the divine Personhood of Jesus.
Since we have been reborn as children of God in baptism and now share in the divine life through grace, Mary has become our
mother as well. By drawing near to her as our mother, we draw near to Jesus Himself, the source of our salvation. This is why
devotion to Mary is so essential to the life of the Christian, and why the Church encourages us to foster a greater love for
the Blessed Mother in our lives.
One final point: It is interesting to note that two of the early Protestant leaders, Martin Luther and John Calvin, taught
Mary’s divine maternity and even condemned those who denied this essential truth.
More honorable than the cherubim and beyond compare more glorious than the seraphim, who, a virgin, gave birth to God the
Word, you, truly the Mother of God, we magnify!
Pastoral Ponderings: Thinking about Stewardship
An area of concern for all parishioners is the concept of stewardship. By definition, a steward is somebody’s manager.
Since God is the sole owner of everything we have — “The earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it”
— we are all stewards of God. Stewardship consists of three areas: time, talents, and treasure. Accepting the Biblical
model of returning 10 per cent of the “first fruits” to the Lord, we should attempt to use at least 10 per cent of
our time for prayer, reflection, and works of mercy and ministry. Our individual talents are difficult to fit
into a tithing model, but in true Christian humility we recognize that the gifts that are uniquely ours are not to be hidden,
but to be used to glorify the one who gave them. Finally, Jesus reminds us that “Where your heart is, so is your
treasure.” When we commit to a life of Christian Stewardship, we commit to norms that are different from those of
society.
I will conclude on a light note: A $1 bill met a $20 bill and said, “Hey, where’ve you been? I haven’t seen
you around here much. The Twenty answered, “I’ve been hanging around at the casinos, went on a cruise and then to
the mall — that kind of stuff. How about you?” The One said, “You know, same old stuff, church, church,
church.”
— Father O’Connell
October is Respect Life Month — Pray for Life! Last updated: 4-Oct-2004 |
