re mary s assumption mpaul unl edu marxhausen paul writes i hate to sound flippant having shot off my mouth badly on the net before but i m afraid that much of this material only adds to my feeling that the assumption of mary would be better phrased our assumptions about mary in all the time i ve been reading about mary on this group i can not recall reading much about mary that did not sound like wishful veneration with scant if any scriptural foundation i find in the new testament a very real portrait of christ s parents as compellingly human persons to be honored and admired for their humility and submission to god s working beyond doubt but the almalga mation of theories and dogma that has accreted around them gives me an image of alien and inhuman creatures untouched by sin or human desire only christ himself was so truly sanctified and even he knew temptation albeit without submitting to it i also don t see the necessity of saying the holy parents were some how sanctified beyond normal humanity it sounds like our own inability to grasp the immensity of god s grace in being incarnated through an or dinary human being i won t start yelling about how people are worshipping mary etc since folks have told me otherwise about that but i do think we lose part of the wonder of god s incarnation in christ when we make his parents out to be sinless sexless deathless otherworldly beings paul marxhausen paul you did a wonderful job of not doing anything humany possible to offend us catholics hopefully i can be just as careful in my wording as you were i also don t want to extend this topic into an entire major issue of debate anymore than it already is but just a note or two please don t talk about jesus parents the doctrinal positions of the church an unequivocally different regarding mary and joseph i personally have never heard of anything being attributed to st joseph other than his sainthood that is no reference ever to him being sinless assumed into heaven immaculately conceived etc all these ideas apply only to mary i would agree there is very little scriptural evidence for our doctrines about mary needless to say that presents a significant problem to those who accept the bible as the only source of doctrine if however one turns to the sacred traditions of the undivided christian church there is no problem finding plently of evidence that it was basically a unanimous belief among the apostles and all the early generation that mary was assumed into heaven body and soul etc etc it wasn t until the reformation that these doctrines were called into question as far as i am concerned again my personaly feelings if it s a choice between the apostles or luther i ll choose the apostles every time whether or not it is recorded within the writings that the traditions of men have determined to be the bible like a said just a couple of notes as is often said i believe that we must agree to politely disagree may god s peace and blessings be with you always in your search to discover his absolute truth mike walker mdw uxa cso uiuc edu univ of illinois
