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Wednesday 27 June 2012
Saint Cyril of Alexandria, Bishop,
Doctor
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| Theotokos |
Night Office and Mass – The
Word (Lectio Divine) today seemed to in neutral gear until the prayer of the
COLLECT opened up ‘the daylight.’
“Almighty
God and Father, you gave Saint Cyril of Alexandria the grace to defend
vigorously the divine motherhood of the Virgin Mary.”
The Commentary of St.
Cyril speaks of his life, of his love Mary, Mother of God and in faith of Emmanuel, Christ, the one true Son, both God and man.
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From a letter by Saint Cyril of Alexandria, bishop
Defender of the
divine motherhood of the Virgin Mary
That anyone could doubt the right
of the holy Virgin to be called the Mother of God fills me with astonishment.
Surely she must be the Mother of God of our Lord Jesus Christ is God, and she
gave birth to him! Our Lord’s disciples may not have used those exact words,
but they delivered to us the belief those words enshrine, and this has also
been taught us by the holy fathers.
In the third book of his work on
the holy and consubstantial Trinity, our father Athanasius, of glorious memory, several times refers to the holy
Virgin as “Mother of God.” I cannot
resist quoting his own words: “As I have
often told you, the distinctive mark of holy Scripture is that it was written
to make a twofold declaration concerning our Saviour; namely, that he is and
has always been God, since he is the Word, Radiance and Wisdom of the Father;
and that for our sake in these latter days he took flesh from the Virgin Mary,
Mother of God, and became man.”
Again further on he
says: “There have been many holy men,
free from all sin. Jeremiah was sanctified in his mother’s womb, and John while
still in the womb leaped for joy at the voice of Mary, the Mother of God.” Athanasius is a man we can trust, one
who deserves our complete confidence, for he taught nothing contrary to the
sacred books.
The divinely inspired Scriptures
affirm that the Word of God was made flesh, that is to say, he was united to a
human body endowed with a rational soul. He undertook to help the descendants
of Abraham, fashioning a body for himself from a woman and sharing our flesh
and blood, to enable us to see in him not only God, but also, by reason of this
union, a man like ourselves.
It is held, therefore, that there
are in Emmanuel two entities, divinity and humanity. Yet our Lord Jesus Christ
is nonetheless one, the one true Son, both God and man; not a deified man on
the same footing as those who share the divine nature by grace, but true God
who for our sake appeared in human form. We are assured of this by Saint Paul’s declaration: When the
fullness of time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law,
to redeem those who were under the law and to enable us to be adopted as sons.
Let us pray.
Almighty
God and Father, you gave Saint Cyril of Alexandria the grace to defend
vigorously the divine motherhood of the Virgin Mary.
We
believe she is truly the Mother of God; grant that we may be saved by Christ
your Son, made man,
who
lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
God
for ever and ever.
Amen.
QUOTE:
Cyril's theme: "Only if it is one and the same Christ who is consubstantial with the Father and with men can he save us, for the meeting ground between God and man is the flesh of Christ. Only if this is God's own flesh can man come into contact with Christ's divinity through his humanity. Because of our kinship with the Word made flesh we are sons of God. The Eucharist consummates our kinship with the word, our communion with the Father, our sharing in the divine nature—there is very real contact between our body and that of the Word" (New Catholic Encyclopedia).
