In the month of August, traditional Christians venerate the
holy memory of the one called by God to be His human Mother in the Incarnation,
the one by whose faith became the image and prototype of the Church, the humble
Handmaid of the Lord, the Blessed Virgin Mary. Mary ‘heard the Word of God and
kept it’… in her womb and in her mind. By faith and the Holy Ghost, she
conceived the Word of God through her ear and in her heart even before she
conceived Him in her body. We rightly emphasise the virginal motherhood of
Mary, because it was from her that the Second Person of the Holy Trinity
assumed human nature and was made Man for our salvation; but we should never
fail to remember that Mary became the Mother of God, the New Eve and the Throne
and Temple of the Incarnate Lord because she first believed in her Son, Jesus Christ. And by believing in virginal
purity, she forever personifies, exemplifies and signifies that Church which is
comprised of all those who believe and are baptised into the Eternal Son of God.
The greatest theologian and Church Father of Western
Christendom is undoubtedly Saint Augustine of Hippo, the 4th century
bishop, teacher, scholar and pastor. Let us with eager eyes and souls observe
what he has to say about the Woman, the Mother of all the living, who was the
first to hear and receive the Gospel - from the Archangel, and was the first to
believe in Jesus Christ, setting the pattern and model for all Christian
discipleship throughout the ages:
‘How could Jesus Christ cease being God, when He began to be
Man, who granted to His Mother that she did not cease to be a Virgin when she
gave birth? The Virgin Mother brought forth Him by whom she herself was created,
through her fertile womb and her intact childbirth: thus it befitted God to be
born…
More blessed is Mary through perceiving the faith of Christ
than through conceiving His flesh. The maternal relationship would have been of
no profit to Mary, if she had not more happily borne Christ in her heart than
in her womb, for Him whom Mary had brought forth by believing, she also had
conceived by believing. Should the Virgin Mary not have done the will of the
Father, she who by faith believed, by faith conceived, who was the chosen one from
whom our salvation should be born among men, who was created by Christ before
Christ was created in her? Indeed, the holy Mary obviously did the will of the
Father: and therefore it is greater for Mary to have been Christ’s disciple
than to have been His Mother. The truth of Christ is in the mind of Mary, the
flesh of Christ in her womb; greater is what she bears in her mind than what
she bears in her womb…
Holy is Mary, blessed is Mary, yet better is the Church than
the Virgin Mary. Why? Because Mary is a part of the Church, a holy member, an
excellent member a super-eminent member – yet but a member of the whole Body.
If of the whole body, surely more is the body than the member. The Head is the
Lord, and the whole Christ is both head and body. Consider how the Church is
obviously the bride of Christ; and, what is more difficult to understand, yet
true, how the Church is the mother of Christ. As her type has the Virgin Mary
preceded her. Whence, I ask you, is Mary the Mother of Christ, if not because
she gave birth to the members of Christ? You, to whom I speak, are the members
of Christ – who has given birth to you? I hear the voice of your heart: Mother
Church. This mother is holy, honoured, similar to Mary, she brings forth and is
yet a virgin. That she brings forth I prove through you; for you are born from
her; the Church also brings forth Christ, for you are the members of Christ. Let
the members of Christ give birth in mind, as Mary, as a Virgin, gave birth to
Him in her womb, and thus will you be mothers of Christ…
How do you not also belong to the childbirth of the Virgin,
when you are members of Christ? Mary gave birth to your Head, the Church to
you. For the Church too is both mother and virgin; mother through her charity,
virgin through the integrity of her faith and piety. She gives birth to
nations, but they are members of the One whose body and bride she is herself,
and in this bears likeness to that Virgin Mary, because she too is the mother
of unity in the many. The Church could not be virgin, if she had not found her
Spouse to whom she was to be given.’
Please join us on Thursday 15th August at 7pm as we
offer our respect and reverence for the Theotokos, the God-Bearer,
the first believer in Christ, the first member of the Church, the first
Christian, the first exemplar of the evangelical life, the one described in the
first Anglican Prayer Book as ‘the glorious and most Blessed Virgin Mary,
Mother of Jesus Christ our Lord and God.’
God bless you!
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