From a sermon by Saint Augustine
By faith she believed; by faith, conceived |
---|
|
---|
Stretching out his hand over his disciples, the Lord Christ declared: Here are my mother and my brothers; anyone who does the will of my Father who sent me is my brother and sister and my mother.
I would urge you to ponder these words. Did the Virgin Mary, who
believed by faith and conceived by faith, who was the chosen one from
whom our Saviour was born among men, who was created by Christ before
Christ was created in her – did she not do the will of the Father?
Indeed the blessed Mary certainly did the Father’s will, and so it was
for her a greater thing to have been Christ’s disciple than to have been
his mother, and she was more blessed in her discipleship than in her
motherhood. Hers was the happiness of first bearing in her womb him whom
she would obey as her master.

The Virgin Mary is both holy and blessed, and yet the
Church is greater than she. Mary is a part of the Church, a member of
the Church, a holy, an eminent – the most eminent – member, but still
only a member of the entire body. The body undoubtedly is greater than
she, one of its members. This body has the Lord for its head, and head
and body together make up the whole Christ. In other words, our head is
divine – our head is God.
Now, beloved, give me your whole attention, for you
also are members of Christ; you also are the body of Christ. Consider
how you yourselves can be among those of whom the Lord said: Here are my mother and my brothers. Do you wonder how you can be the mother of Christ? He himself said: Whoever hears and fulfils the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and my sister and my mother.
As for our being the brothers and sisters of Christ, we can understand
this because although there is only one inheritance and Christ is the
only Son, his mercy would not allow him to remain alone. It was his wish
that we too should be heirs of the Father, and co-heirs with himself.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.