{"id":20234,"date":"2024-03-30T14:00:30","date_gmt":"2024-03-30T18:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kolbecenter.org\/?p=20234"},"modified":"2024-03-27T11:56:09","modified_gmt":"2024-03-27T15:56:09","slug":"kolbe-center-3-30-24","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kolbecenter.org\/kolbe-center-3-30-24\/","title":{"rendered":"Kolbe Center 3\/30\/24"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dear Friends of the Kolbe Center,<\/p>\n

Glory to Jesus Christ!<\/p>\n

On this Holy Saturday, it is good for us to reflect on the profound connection between the First Saturday of the world, the Saturday of Our Lord\u2019s \u201crest\u201d in the tomb, and the immaculacy of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Our Blessed Mother.\u00a0 Outside of the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Churches, it is widely believed that the Blessed Virgin Mary was conceived in Original Sin and that She was not Immaculate.\u00a0 Those who hold this view, however, read the Bible outside of the living communion of the Church, whose liturgical prayers and sacred icons, as well as the writings of her greatest commentators on Holy Scripture, have always recognized the immaculate purity of the Holy Theotokos.<\/p>\n

It is sad to meet Christians who see no contradiction in holding that Our Lord Jesus Christ took flesh from a Woman whose flesh was tainted and defiled by sin.\u00a0 To the classic question, \u201cIf you were God, and You could make Your Mother, would You make her tainted or immaculate?\u201d they have no reasonable answer.\u00a0 The very title used by the Archangel Gabriel to greet Our Blessed Mother (Greek -\u00a0kecharitomene<\/em>\u00a0- \u201cyou who have been made full of grace\u201d) seems perfectly calculated to anticipate and refute the impious notion that Our Lord would have become incarnate in a tainted vessel. The Fathers and Doctors of the Church drew a parallel between the first Adam whose body was formed from the \u201cvirgin earth\u201d in the first created world, and the body of the Last Adam, whose Body was formed from the Virgin Mary, beginning the New Creation in Christ.\u00a0 Indeed, if Our Lord Jesus Christ took flesh from a tainted vessel, then His Humanity would have been less noble than that of the first Adam.\u00a0 How could He \u201cthrough Whom all things were made\u201d assume a human nature less noble than that of the first Adam whom He created in His image?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

But if it is impious to assert that God became man in a tainted vessel, it is also impious to assert that God allowed disease and deformity to exist before Original Sin\u2014and all the more so to assert, as theistic evolution does, that God deliberately used millions of years of death and deformity to produce His handiwork, and even to evolve the bodies of the first human beings!\u00a0 In contrast to this impious notion, the living communion of saints has always held that the first created world reflected the perfect beauty, wisdom, and goodness of God before sin entered the world.\u00a0 In the liturgy of St. Bridget, dating back to the fourteenth century, the Bridgettine Sisters pray:<\/p>\n

Virgin Mary,
\nwe know that in you the design and perfection willed by God
\nhave come to be.
\nAs He foresaw you,
\nso He has perfectly created you.
\nAnd of all His creation,
\nyou most please Him.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And again:<\/p>\n

God's creation of the world and all it contains
\ntook place in the instant of his will's expression;
\nand with that design and perfection foreseen by him.
\nYet there remained still uncreated
\nanother work of creation which would surpass what he had already done.
\nYou, Mary, are, as it were, another world,
\na world which God foresaw with greater joy,
\na world the Angels were more pleased to contemplate,
\na world of more benefit to those of good will
\nthan the whole earth and all it contains.
\nMary, we may see in God's act of creation and in all created things
\nan image of your creating.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

These prayers reflect the\u00a0sensus fidelium<\/em>\u00a0that the perfect beauty of the first created world was exemplified in the perfect beauty of Eve, the last creative work of God, which was in turn a foreshadowing of the perfect beauty of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Second Eve. It is a principle of Catholic philosophy that \u201cthe first in intention is the last in execution,\u201d and, in the light of this principle, we can see that Eve\u2014the last creative work of God before the end of the creation period\u2014exemplified and summed up in herself the beauty that God had diffused throughout the first created world.\u00a0 This explains the intimate link between \u201cthe Sabbath rest of the Lord\u201d\u2014on the first Saturday of the world\u2014and the perfect beauty of Eve, fully realized only in the Second Eve, the Blessed Virgin Mary.\u00a0 It is because of this link that Jewish tradition personifies the Sabbath as a Queen, a tradition that finds its fulfillment in the Catholic tradition of honoring the queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary on Saturday, and especially on the \u201cFirst Saturday\u201d of every month.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>\u201cI Am Your God Who for Your Sake have Become Your Son\u201d<\/h3>\n

In both Novus Ordo and traditional communities of the Roman Rite throughout the world, the Office of Readings for this Holy Saturday confirms the traditional reading of Genesis in a most powerful way, not only in regard to the first created world and the first Eve as a type of the Blessed Virgin Mary, but also in regard to literal historical reality of the \u201cfirst Adam,\u201d as the especially beloved of the Lord, the \u201cfirst man,\u201d to whom Our Lord says, \u201cI am your God, who for your sake have become your son.\u201d As we meditate on these beautiful words in the Office of Readings, taken from an ancient homily, let us thank God for the gift of supernatural faith by which we believe what God has revealed about both the creation and redemption of the world.\u00a0 And let us ask St. Adam and St. Eve to intercede for us, asking the New Eve to obtain for us the complete restoration of the true doctrine of creation as the foundation of our Faith and the only firm foundation for a culture of life:<\/p>\n

Something strange is happening \u2014 there is a great silence on earth today, a great silence and stillness. The whole earth keeps silence because the King is asleep. The earth trembled and is still because God has fallen asleep in the flesh and he has raised up all who have slept ever since the world began. God has died in the flesh and Hell trembles with fear. He has gone to search for our first parent, as for a lost sheep. Greatly desiring to visit those who live in darkness and in the shadow of death, he has gone to free from sorrow the captives Adam and Eve, He who is both God and the Son of Eve. The Lord approached them bearing the Cross, the weapon that had won him the victory. At the sight of him Adam, the first man he had created, struck his breast in terror and cried out to everyone, \u2018My Lord be with you all.\u2019 Christ answered him: \u2018And with your spirit.\u2019 He took him by the hand and raised him up, saying: \u2018Awake, O sleeper, and rise from the dead, and Christ will give you light.\u2019<\/p>\n

I am your God, who for your sake have become your son. Out of love for you and your descendants I now by my own authority command all who are held in bondage to come forth, all who are in darkness to be enlightened, all who are sleeping to arise. I order you, O sleeper, to awake. I did not create you to be held a prisoner in Hell. Rise from the dead, for I am the life of the dead. Rise up, work of my hands, you who were created in my image. Rise, let us leave this place, for you are in me and I in you; together we form one person and cannot be separated.<\/p>\n

For your sake I, your God, became your son; I, the Lord, took the form of a slave; I, whose home is above the heavens, descended to the earth and beneath the earth. For your sake, for the sake of man, I became like a man without help, free among the dead. For the sake of you, who left a garden, I was betrayed to the Jews in a garden, and I was crucified in a garden.<\/p>\n

See on my face the spittle I received in order to restore to you the life I once breathed into you. See there the marks of the blows I received in order to refashion your warped nature in my image. On my back see the marks of the scourging I endured to remove the burden of sin that weighs upon your back. See my hands, nailed firmly to a tree, for you who once wickedly stretched out your hand to a tree.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

I slept on the Cross and a sword pierced my side for you who slept in Paradise and brought forth Eve from your side. My side has healed the pain in yours. My sleep will rouse you from your sleep in Hell. The sword that pierced Me has sheathed the sword that was turned against you.<\/p>\n

Rise, let us leave this place. The enemy led you out of the earthly Paradise. I will not restore you to that Paradise, but will enthrone you in heaven. I forbade you the tree that was only a symbol of life, but see, I who am life itself am now one with you. I appointed cherubim to guard you as slaves are guarded, but now I make them worship you as God. The throne formed by cherubim awaits you, its bearers swift and eager. The Bridal Chamber is adorned, the banquet is ready, the eternal dwelling places are prepared, the treasure houses of all good things lie open. The Kingdom of Heaven has been prepared for you from all eternity.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Yours in Christ Our Risen Lord, through the Holy Theotokos, in union with St. Joseph,<\/p>\n

Hugh Owen<\/p>\n

P.S. Our annual leadership retreat will take place from August 25 to August 31 at the Apostolate for Family Consecration Retreat Center in Bloomingdale, Ohio.\u00a0 For more information and to register, please email me at howen@shentel.net<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dear Friends of the Kolbe Center, Glory to Jesus Christ! On this Holy Saturday, it is good for us to reflect on the profound connection between the First Saturday of …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20235,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[341],"tags":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/kolbecenter.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/annunciation-icon.jpg?fit=188%2C266&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kolbecenter.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20234"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kolbecenter.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kolbecenter.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kolbecenter.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kolbecenter.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20234"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kolbecenter.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20234\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20238,"href":"https:\/\/kolbecenter.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20234\/revisions\/20238"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kolbecenter.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kolbecenter.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kolbecenter.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kolbecenter.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}