Christ in Mary, Christ in Us

The title Theotokos means “God bearer.” This was given to none other than Our Lady, the Blessed Virgin Mary, who is free from original sin and sin per se from the moment of her conception.

God willed such to happen to Mary. In preparation for the coming of someone as pure as Christ, she had to be cleansed. If Our Lady were sinful, she would have had Christ in an unworthy manner.

A woman bearing God had to be a very upright woman—not stained by sin, even by original sin. Mary was especially singled out by God for the purpose of bearing Him in the person of Jesus Christ, who is both true God and true man. Of all the women, Mary was chosen. But we often forget that we are chosen to bear Christ too—and this happens in the Holy Eucharist!

When we believe that the host is Christ’s body and blood, we consider ourselves as blessed as Our Lady whenever we receive Communion and bear Our Lord inside of us.

We look at Mary as the ultimate example of being the God-bearer. She is without sin—worthy to have carried Christ in her womb. And though we may not be as good a man or a woman as Our Lady is, we ought to strive to be, and I’m betting that the Blessed Virgin sees this as a challenge for us. We are to emulate her, being the most venerated saint of the Church.

There are many of us who would just receive Communion without examining ouselves first. Have we done something which has greatly offended God? If so, why are we inviting God inside us in the first place when we haven’t even been respectful to Him by asking for forgiveness through the sacrament of Reconciliation?

We want for Christ to stay with us always. Our nature is fallen, and without His grace, we are pretty much nothing. What is perhaps to be done is to prepare ourselves for bearing Christ as the Father prepared Mary at the moment of her conception.

All of us are aware that the path toward sanctification is not really easy, but who says that we should not pursue sainthood? Then who is to say that we should not strive to be like Mary? Finally, who says that we should not strive to be closer to being as spotless as the Blessed Virgin for us to be worthy enough to bear Christ inside of us?

We may not be immaculately conceived, being without original sin as the dogma of the Immaculate Conception dictates. We may have been fallen at the moment of our conception. But we do have a choice—a choice to either bear God unworthily and a choice to follow the footsteps of Mary and emulate her for us to be like her son, Jesus Christ. Why not take the latter?


[author] [author_image timthumb=’on’]https://ignitumtoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/jaredavatar-2-e1317737695228.jpg[/author_image] [author_info]Jared Combista is twenty-one and comes from the Philippines. He writes about the Church, touching on the topic of distributism although he still considers himself a student and not a scholar on the economic philosophy. He writes for Verum Nocet, as well as his personal blog, The Secular Catholic. He also plays music and he has no idea how that has to do with anything.[/author_info] [/author]

Jared Dale Combista

Jared Dale Combista

Iconoclast, interested in economics, history, philosophy, Catholicism and a whole lot of other stuff.

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