Mary, Called to be Holy
Mary, Called to be Holy CCC 2013-2014; 2028; 2813
To understand
why the Church considers and calls Mary HOLY, we must know the word HOLINESS
as part of Vocation, and our Spiritual Journey into the Life of Christ.
I – The Call to be Holy!
1. According to Vatican II, in the document titled, Lumen Gentium (Light of the Nations), Pope Paul VI writes, All Christians in any state or walk of life are called to the fullness of Christian life and to the perfection of charity. (Para 40, 2)a. You and I are called to live fully for Jesus, and to show His Love that leads others to Christ.
b. There is no excuse to living for Christ where your family, neighbor, or stranger can see you shine His life or light in your world.
2. Jesus teaches His disciples, and us, the value of holiness is to Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. Gospel of St Matthew 5:48
3. PopePaul VI writes, To reach this perfection, the faithful should use the strength dealt out to them by Christ’s gift, so that… doing the will of the Father in everything,0 they may wholeheartedly devote themselves to the glory of God and to the service of their neighbor. Thus, the holiness of the People of God will grow in fruitful abundance, as is clearly shown in the history of the Church through the lives of so many saints. (Lumin Gentium para 40, 2)
4. As we continue to practice our faith, Christ becomes more
and more united through us, with us, and in us.
a. This union with Christ is mystical as you and I participate with Him through the sacraments
b. This mystical experience also makes known the Holy Trinity to those you encounter .
c. It is God who calls us to this intimacy, while special graces and extraordinary signs are given to some of us in order that we share them with all.
Our sins have been washed away…
6. In the Sacrament ofBaptism, washed simply means for the Christian to be sanctified and justified.
a. Sanctified (Late Latin: Sanctifcare) means to set apart for a sacred purpose or to religious use. To free from sin. To impart or impute sacredness, inviolability, or respect. To give moral or social sanction. To make holy or to be pious. (Ex: Observe the day of the sabbath, to sanctify it… [Deuteronomy 5:12])
b. Justified means having or shown to have a just, right, or reasonable basis.
i. We are sanctified and justified in the Name of Christ, and in the Spirit of God.
7. Our Father in heaven calls you and to be holy. To be Christ, since He is our source of being and our wisdom, guiding us to God and to continuous sanctification. (1 Corinthians 1:30; 1 Thessalonians 4:7)
a. This is why when we say Hallow
be your Name, in the prayer of the Our Father (CCC 2759 - 2865), it is because He
makes us Holy, and we bring His Holiness to our world. (Ex: My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord... (Luke 1:46-56)
8. St. Cyprian teaches us in his work, De Dominica Oratione – On the Lord’s Prayer, he writes, By whom is God hallowed, since he is the one who hallows? ‘You shall be holy to me; for I the Lord am holy.’ We seek and ask that we who were sanctified in Baptism may persevere in what we have begun to be. And we ask this daily, for we need sanctification daily, so that we who fail daily may cleanse away our sins by being sanctified continually… We pray that this sanctification may remain in us.
So the next time you pray the Our Father, let God make you HOLY. Mary allowed God to make her HOLY that she may fully take in the presence of God. She gives Him Flesh, so that He may be born amongst us.
III – Origins of Original Holiness.
1. We begin with Original Holiness – Where does it begin?
a. It is important to know that the Church gives us an answer because it has been given by God the authority to interpret the Old & New Testaments:
i. The word, TESTAMENT, comes from the Latin word testāmentum, which means to testify or give evidence. In Middle English, it means a will, or covenant.
ii. What is a COVENANT? Covenant, as understood by the Hebrew people, was a contract made between two persons or families over materials or property. From religious understanding, it was more than property, but a spiritual contract of life. Dr. Scott Hahn explained the Covenant like this – I will be your God, and you will be my People. The Church believes in the same Covenant made by God through Moses, as well as the New Covenant made by Christ. Pay close attention to the words of the Priest at Mass, when he holds the chalice saying these words, take this, all of you, and drink from it, for this is the chalice of my blood, the Blood of the new and eternal covenant.
iii. The Church, by her experience with God through their encounter with Jesus, can testify to this living contract. What is born from this encounter is the writing of the New Testament. This gives reason for the Church to be the sole interpreter of the New Testament and the prophetic teachings of the Old Testament. The practice of these teachings is called TRADITION.
iv. The Latin word for tradition is trāditiōn, which means to hand over, to give, or to transfer.
2. One of these traditions is that our first parents, Adam and Eve, lived in original holiness and justice. (Council of Trent 1546: DS 1511)
a. God made them in Original Holiness so that we share in His Life
i. God pours His grace so that we may live in awe of Him.
ii. Through this covenant, we come like God. The Latin word for Divine is dīvīnus or dīvus, which means God.
For more on the subject or writings of the Council of Trent, click here.
You can also check out Lumen Gentium – Council of Vatican II, click here.
IV. The Origin of Original Sin:
1. It is important to know that it is not our fault for having Original Sin, but all of us have it due to the choice of Adam.
2. Original Sin means we do not have God’s Original Holiness and Justice.
a. This does not mean that our human nature is fully corrupted.
b. Simply put, the Church teaches us that by this wounds
i. We are subject to ignorance.
ii. We are subject to suffering.
iii. We are subject to death.
iv. We are inclined to sin – we call this CONCUPISCENCE, translated from the Latin as concupīscentia. It means to have an uncontrolled sexual desire, or lust.
3. It is in Baptism that Christ gives His grace for us to live for Him. How? By removing Original Sin, we have a strong religious desire to turn back to God.
a. But we will still experience the consequences of the fall of our First Parents. This is why we face a spiritual battle to live in holiness and justice.
4. Like Adam and Eve, Saint Mary was made in Original Holiness or what we call Original Innocence. This is why we celebrate Saint Mary’s Immaculate Conception (December 8th). She freely gives herself to God’s Holiness and Justice. As our mother, she becomes the example of total surrender.
1. She is Immaculate, meaning she is in the world without Original Sin. God fashioned her to be pure and open to His Will. Lumen Gentium, teaches us that we believe Mary to be made the splendor of an entirely unique holiness.
2. In her conception, God takes the stain of Original Sin on Mary within the womb of St Ann.
3. Being Immaculately Conceived makes her a vessel to hold God, so that she brings to the world our Savior. Only by His merits she is made Holy. The Fathers of Vatican II write in Lumen Gentium that…
The Virgin Mary, who at the message of the angel received the Word of God in her heart and in her body and gave Life to the world, is acknowledged and honored as being truly the Mother of God and Mother of the Redeemer. Redeemed by reason of the merits of her Son and united to Him by a close and indissoluble tie, she is endowed with the high office and dignity of being the Mother of the Son of God, by which account she is also the beloved daughter of the Father and the temple of the Holy Spirit. Because of this gift of sublime grace she far surpasses all creatures, both in heaven and on earth. At the same time, however, because she belongs to the offspring of Adam she is one with all those who are to be saved. She is "the mother of the members of Christ . . . having cooperated by charity that faithful might be born in the Church, who are members of that Head."(3*) Wherefore she is hailed as a pre-eminent and singular member of the Church, and as its type and excellent exemplar in faith and charity. The Catholic Church, taught by the Holy Spirit, honors her with filial affection and piety as a most beloved mother. (53)
The Father of mercies willed that the incarnation should be preceded by the acceptance of her who was predestined to be the mother of His Son, so that just as a woman contributed to death, so also a woman should contribute to life. That is true in outstanding fashion of the mother of Jesus, who gave to the world Him who is Life itself and who renews all things, and who was enriched by God with the gifts which befit such a role. It is no wonder therefore that the usage prevailed among the Fathers whereby they called the mother of God entirely holy and free from all stain of sin, as though fashioned by the Holy Spirit and formed as a new creature.(5*) Adorned from the first instant of her conception with the radiance of an entirely unique holiness, the Virgin of Nazareth is greeted, on God's command, by an angel messenger as "full of grace",(286) and to the heavenly messenger she replies: "Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it done unto me according to thy word".(287) Thus Mary, a daughter of Adam, consenting to the divine Word, became the mother of Jesus, the one and only Mediator. Embracing God's salvific will with a full heart and impeded by no sin, she devoted herself totally as a handmaid of the Lord to the person and work of her Son, under Him and with Him, by the grace of almighty God, serving the mystery of redemption. Rightly therefore the holy Fathers see her as used by God not merely in a passive way, but as freely cooperating in the work of human salvation through faith and obedience. For, as St. Irenaeus says, she "being obedient, became the cause of salvation for herself and for the whole human race."(6*) Hence not a few of the early Fathers gladly assert in their preaching, "The knot of Eve's disobedience was untied by Mary's obedience; what the virgin Eve bound through her unbelief, the Virgin Mary loosened by her faith."(7*) Comparing Mary with Eve, they call her "the Mother of the living,"(8*) and still more often they say: "death through Eve, life through Mary." (56)
Click on Lumen Gentium Chapter 8 – Read all of it as it pertains to Mary and her role in our Salvation.
4. The Church believes that Our Father blessed Mary more than any of His creation. She has Christ’s full blessings on Earth and in
Heaven. In Christ, she is holy blameless – even before the foundation of the world.
St. Paul writes this in his Letter to the Ephesians, giving us reason to live as Mary did.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavens, as he chose us in him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and without blemish before him. (Eph 1:3-4)
Let us pray... Click here - LITANY TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY on page 3
St Mary, pray for us.
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