Marian Dogmas

 All four Dogmas of Mary:  

Divine Motherhood, Perfetual Virginity, Immaculate Conception, The Assumption

Divine Motherhood

Early in the fifth century Nestorius, a bishop in the Easttaught tthe heresay of two separate persons in Jesus one divine, the other human as opposed to the doctrine of two natures, true God and true man, its adherents claimed Mary was only the mother of the human Christ, not His entire person.

 In 431 AD, at the Council of Ephesus, Nestorianism was condemed and the first Marian dogma was proclaimed : Mary Mother of God ---Teotokos --- God bearer. Upon hearing the news, the people in this city went around cheering: "Holy Mother of God, pray for us sinners." The chant eventually became the second part of the "Hail Mary." the first comprising the greetings of the Archangel Gabriel and Elizabeth. All her titles flow out from singular privilege as Mother of God.

  God created His own mother free of the stain and curse of sin. The eternally begotten Son had to be formed in a spotless vessel; a ggrace-filled sinless mother, for God and sin cannot mix.

Perpetual Virginity

Mary's Perpetual Virginity was stressed in the Lateran Synod of 649 where Pope St. Martin I formally declared the Doctrine as an article of faith. Luther, Calvin and Zwingli --- the leaders of the Refornation --- all professed Mary's Perpetual Virginity that succeeding generations of Protestants rejected.

   If she had remained virgin all her life, how do we explainthen the brothers and sisters of Jesus as mentioned in the Bible? Wasn't He also referred to as the "first born"? There is a verse too in regard to Mary and Joseph that "he knew her not until she gave birth." Without Church Tradition and apart from Hebraic context , these passages can easily lead to wrong conclusions. 

   Closely-knit Jewish culture had no word for brother, a word that is used in 371 verses from Genesis to Revelation. These are four meanings of the word "brother" in biblical usage : siblings, relative or cousin, tribesman of Christian fraternity. Herman and Asaph are "brothers" sharing common ancestry from Levi (1 Chronicles 6:33-43). David called Jonathan , Saul's son, his brother (2 Samuel 1:26).

   "Brothers and sisters," as used in some Bibles, is an English translation from the Greek "addelphos" meaning kindred. it could denote either sibling, cousins and other relatives. This posed no problem to early Christians who were better catechised and addressedeach other as "brother" in the same wayCharismatics do today except for Helvidius and a few of his adherents. Today's misunderstanding is an offshoot of subjective or private interpretation among Protestants who have been cut off from the Sacred Tradition and teaching Magisterium of the Church. 

   The term "first born" denoted a male child that opened the womb, an an ancient Hebrew term (Ex 13:2; Nb 3:12) Mosaic Law prescribed  that the child be presented to the Temple with an offering 40 days after birth . "First born" did not necessarilly mean there weeeere other children, as our modern English usage connotes "Until" or "till" in Sacred Scripture expresses an action that had not happened up to a certain point but does not imply that it took place later. 

    For instance, "Michal, the daughter of Saul had no children until the day of her death" (2 Samuel 6:23). From that  would we assume that she bore a child after she died?  Noah released a raven from the ark thar "went back and forth and do not return till the water dried up upon the earth" (Genesis 8:7). Fact is, the raven never returned at all! Or about the location of the grave of Moses that no one knows "until this present day" (Deuteronomy34:6). Does that mean it has already been found today?

Immaculate Conception

Motherhood of God is the basis for the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception, proclamed by Pius IX 1854. He said, "The Blessed Virgin Mary was preserved by a singular grace and privilege of God Omnipotent and because of the merits of Jesus Christ the Savior of all men, free from all stain of Original Sin." Mary was conceived free of sin and its consequences. She is not just another woman.

     She was the Virgin Mother (Matthew 1:23) who remained virgin throughout her life --- before, through and after the conception  and birth of Jesus according to Church teaching from antiquity. The only time this belief was questioned in the early Church was in 380 AD when Helvidius said that the "brethren of Jesus" were other children of Mary and Joseph.

    St. Jerome defended  Mary's Perpetual Virginity, using Scripture and writings of Apostolic Fathers, Ignatius, Polycarp, Irenaeus and Justin Martyr. He labelled Helvidius and his teaching "novel, wicked, and a daring affront to the faith of the whole world."

     Who will doubt one of the Church's greatest patriarchswho look part in deciding what  books were to go into the Canon of Sacred Scripture at the Synod of Hippo? Apart from his reputation for translating the Bible into the Vulgate which all of Christendom used for centuries, Jerome is considered as the greatest Bible scholar of all time. A Bible commentary is even named after him, although the new edition by modern scholars is not as clean cut in orthodoxy as the previous one.

Assumption

Sacred Scriptures and uninterrupted Church tradition witnessed by the Fathers of the Church are the basis for celebrating Mary's being assumed body and soul into heaven. On November 1, 1950, Pope pius XII issued the PapalBull Munificentissimus Deus promulgating the fourth Marian Dogma.

  AlthoughMary's Assumptionis a fairly recent Marian dogma. It is not a entirely new belief, nor is it new revelation --- the Church teaches all public revelation ended with the last Aposle. This solemn feast dates back to the earliest Christian era. The Artmenian Lectionary of Jerusalem  (c 451) points to Mary's Qssumption, oriiginally known as the Dormition of Mary; it was generally believed she did not die, but went into a deep sleep and was brought up to heaven. In the eighth century , the title "Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary" was given to the feast in the Gregorian Sacramentary. We have evidence of this as an early doctrine in liturgy.