Why Mary?

[Hoshiyya]

In my post to which you initially responded, I made the point also that Japanese venerate each other and don't consider it to be worship. You then replied with

You don't consider it to be worship, you mean.​

Then you added;

If worship is engaged in, is it excusable so long as the person doing it thinks it's something else??​

I take it from that, that YOU consider veneration to be worship (although I have to question who made you an authority), hence my earlier comment.

I know who I worship, and I know who, and what I venerate. I love the Saints but my heart aches for God. I'm sorry that you are unable to tell the difference. Truly I am.

While I do not condone the saint-cult of Catholicism, I do recognize that the Bible uses the same word for to implore Pharaoh as to worship God.
Most words in the Bible have multiple meanings that must be understood contextually. Abraham implored Pharaoh, but only worshipped God.

 

[PanDeVida]

Hi all,

So before I start, a little background on this. Long story short, in Bible Class when I was in High School a few years ago, one of my classmates stated that Mary was nothing special, and God could have chosen anyone to bear Christ.

So please forgive me if I sound ignorant in discussing, theology isn't my strong suit at this point.

With that said, I was thinking today while at work, certainly something stuck out about Mary for her to be chosen. So I wanted to ask the GT/Mariology scholars about this.

George, you question is not for us to answer, it is God's

 

[justinangel]

Hi all,

... in Bible Class when I was in High School a few years ago, one of my classmates stated that Mary was nothing special, and God could have chosen anyone to bear Christ... With that said, I was thinking today while at work, certainly something stuck out about Mary for her to be chosen...

If Mary were nothing special, though God willed that she should collaborate with Him in His work of redemption, then what God wills with necessity isn't anything special. Could God have chosen another maiden instead of Mary? This question is non-sequitur, seeing that God did choose Mary. And since God did, He couldn't have acted otherwise, because God is pure act and pure existence. In Him there is no acting otherwise from how He acts and nothing external to Him that He is dependent on for His existence.

God did not choose Mary from among a host of candidates by having to look into the future to see for Himself which maiden was best suited to receive the call. God simply knew, by fashioning Mary's soul at the first instant of her conception, that she was the woman He had predestined from all eternity to be the mother of the Son. And because God also knew that she was the woman whom He would perfect in grace so that she would be a worthy mother (Lk 1:28), He did not have to rely on other candidates and base His decision on their merits. The Divine Maternity is an unmerited and gratuitous gift from God.

Thus, God did not choose Mary, but made her to be the mother of the Son. And since He made Mary this way, He couldn't have made Mary any other way. There is no such thing as a better option for God, since God is perfect and in His perfection, He is infallible. If there are other options for God to choose from, making Him dependent on them, then He must allow a margin for error. He couldn't then be God, as we Jews and Christians perceive Him to be in His existence. The same can be said for what course God willed to redeem the world. Because God is love, he willed with necessity to send His Only-begotten Son into the world to suffer and die for the eternal expiation of sin. But for Christ's sacrifice of himself to be complete, Mary had to make temporal satisfaction for the debt of sin by suffering and dying to self in perfect union with her divine Son. Mary is special because she is the mother of our Lord and the spiritual mother of redeemed humanity: the New Eve.


JA