Thursday, September 8, 2011

The Common Ground of two viewpoints

The texts today in the Roman Catholic Lectionary celebrate the birthday of the Blessed Virgin, Mary. It may be difficult to imagine a more "Catholic" feast. However the text from The letter to the Romans is one of the first texts of "Protestant" Christianity. The "blessedness" of Mary in Catholic theology is a reflection on the timelessness of the Divine. The Eternal is not bound by the temporal and the mystical understanding of the preparation of Mary for her "Yes" (i.e. Immaculate Conception) prior to the historical event without diminishing the freedom of all creatures to respond to God with "No" is a kind of transcendent mirror of the assurance of Paul to the Romans that the intimate relationship or "Yes" to Jesus is assurance of associated with "8-28 ing it" and trusting, as Mary does, that "all things work together for good". The Gospel of Matthew links, for the Jewish converts to whom it was written, the birth of Jesus to the line from Father Abraham. The additional point here is that Father Abraham (Ibrahim by Muslims) is the "father" both of Arab people and Jewish people. The "trust" of Abraham in God is the virtue modeled again by Mary and the virtue whereby Western Christians can put the events of their lives in the hands of God in the spirit of Romans 8:28. What is all the disputing among believers about?

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