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{"id":2866,"date":"2008-01-01T12:30:00","date_gmt":"2008-01-01T12:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2008\/01\/mother-of-god-at-the-poolside\/"},"modified":"2008-01-01T12:30:00","modified_gmt":"2008-01-01T12:30:00","slug":"mother-of-god-at-the-poolside","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2008\/01\/mother-of-god-at-the-poolside.html","title":{"rendered":"Mother of God at the Poolside"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

$\"\"$ <\/a>Last year the attendance for the Mass for the Solemnity of the Mother of God was poor so the parish pastor decided to have just one Mass today. Happily the church was packed. Our splendid choir sang, there were seventeen perfectly drilled young male servers. Fr Michael Cassabon\u2013our newly ordained priest was home from Rome for the holidays. He was our principal celebrant with Fr. Newman, Fr Bart (resplendent in blue Maronite vestments) and myself concelebrating. We were also joined in the congregation by Sister Marie Bernadette\u2013 the latest of our Nashville Domincan sisters\u2013the fourth come to work in our parish school.<\/span><\/p>\n

Fr Michael preached a splendid sermon about the origin of the term \u2018Mother of God\u2019, named and knocked Nestorianism and pointed out the practical effects of heresy\u2013calling for us to integrate the physical and spiritual in our own lives. It is certainly true that Christological heresy which separates the divine and human natures produces a type of Christian who is religiously pious people and otherworldly, but don\u2019t make any real connections with their spiritual lives and the nitty gritty of the ordinary world.<\/span><\/p>\n

What also impresses me about the feast of the Mother of God is how necessary it is to continue to be aware of Christological heresies and how they continue to crop up. It is commonplace here in the American south, when discussing the Virgin Mary with Protestants to discover that they actually hold to Nestorianism (even though they do not understand it as such) By the swimming pool one day last summer I was talking to a very nice Presbyterian lady, and when she began asking about our beliefs concerning the Virgin Mary I said, \u201cWhen you consider what really happened\u2013that God took flesh from the Blessed Virgin\u2013that he had her physical make up\u2013you can see how important she really was.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The good lady was shocked, \u201cBut that is not how it happened!\u201d said she. \u201cMary was simply the channel through which God came into the world.\u201d In other words, the divine nature and the human nature were not really unified in our Lord. The interesting thing is, this Christological heresy is invariably linked with a Eucharistic heresy. Such people do not believe in the true unity of the divine and human nature in Jesus Christ\u2013neither do they believe in the transformation of the bread and wine into the body, blood soul and divinity of our Lord.<\/span><\/p>\n

Alas, I am on a theological ramble. What is most glorious about today\u2019s feast is that all the theology was gathered up into a wonderful celebration of the Mass where all the truth of Christ\u2019s One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church is gathered up into one great sacrifice of praise.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"