I like to combine teachings from Swedenborg and the Catholic church. It is a challenge because the two entities do not see eye to eye on the surface.
Today is the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception. The Virgin Mary was conceived without original sin. This is one of those traditional beliefs that you will not find in the Bible. This is one of those traditional beliefs that Swedenborg might have criticised. And that criticism in turn would have prompted most Catholics to dismiss Swedenborg as a nut. It's a vicious circle.
However, since I can see that both Swedenborg and the Catholic church have the Truth with a capital T, I know there must be a correspondence of sorts in what they say. And, in this case, it is (get ready here for one of the most 'original' thoughts I have ever had!): Mary is to the Catholic church as remains is to Swedenborg. I've written this all before, but I was inspired again today at Mass. Remains are a concept unique to Mr. Swedenborg, I think. Wherever that word appears in the Bible (or that general idea, such as when the Bible says to the effect, "and these people were remnants ..." or "all this was left ...") it refers to a very very interior gift of combined sacred truth and good that God has hidden in us. Here are some quotes from Swedenborg:
Arcana Coelestia 5897
To put for you remains in the land. That this signifies the midst and inmost of the church, is evident from the signification of "remains," as being goods joined to truths stored up within man by the Lord.
AC 1738
But what remains are may be seen above, namely, that they are all the states of love and charity, and consequently all the states of innocence and peace, with which a man is gifted. These states are given to man from infancy, but less by degrees as the man advances into adult age. But when a man is being regenerated, he then receives new remains also, besides the former, thus new life. For it is from remains, or by remains, that a man is a man;
AC 1050
And such is the case also with the states of innocence, charity, and mercy with which he is in like manner imbued from infancy, and without which states he would be much viler than a brute. Yet these are states which man does not learn, but receives as a gift from the Lord, and which the Lord preserves in him. Together with the truths of faith, they are also what are called "remains" and are of the Lord alone. Insofar as a man in adult age extinguishes these states, he becomes dead. When a man is being regenerated, these states are the beginnings of regeneration, and he is led into them; for the Lord works through the remains, as already stated.
AC1450
These celestial things are insinuated into man chiefly in his state of infancy up to childhood, and in fact without knowledges; for they flow in from the Lord, and affect him, before the man knows what love is and what affection is; as may be seen from the state of infants, and afterwards from the state of early childhood. These things in man are the remains which have been spoken of several times; and which are insinuated by the Lord and stored up for use in afterlife .
I think of remains as a hook that the Lord placed in us as infants, so that He could one day get us back. It is not really a part of us. It is strictly a part of God. It remains hidden until and unless we decide to become reformed, or as Swedenborg would say, regenerated. Then it brings forth the Lord within us. Remains is a concept that has to do with the Lord, with the church, and with individual humans. The Lord's birth into the world reflects the Lord's birth into the church and the Lord's birth into our minds.
The Immaculate Conception of Mary is like that. Mary was put on earth, immaculate and not a direct part of the human race's sin problems, to be the vehicle that would bring forth the Lord. Mary has to be sacred or she would not be able to symbolize what remains symbolizes. Truth is truth, it just gets put into different words in different places. Mary was the original anchor baby, born here to make the Lord's later cititzenship with us possible. I was able to meditate on remains and on what could/should be happening within my mind while the priest read this:
from Luke:
In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin's name was Mary. And he came to her and said, "Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you!" But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and considered in her mind what sort of greeting this might be. And the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there will be no end." And Mary said to the angel, "How shall this be, since I have no husband?" And the angel said to her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God. And behold, your kinswoman Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. For with God nothing will be impossible." And Mary said, "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word." And the angel departed from her.
Hi Susan - A lot of people, not you!, confuse the Immaculate Conception with the Virgin Birth. The Immaculate Conception is all about Mary. The Virgin Birth is all about the Lord Jesus Christ. If He had not been born with the usual evils we all are born with, plus all the other evils we could not bear, He could not have taken on all of the hells and subdued them. Of course, from a worldly point of view, this is submission of the hells is hard to see. But He sees so much more from His vantage point of Infinity, and His love for us is for our happiness to eternity. Keep reading and thinking! - Marcia
ReplyDeleteSo true, Marcia. When I was just Catholic and not Swatholic, I could never figure out why there was that big deal about Mary's conception - the church would fight to the death so to speak over that one seemingly-unimportant idea.
ReplyDelete(As a cradle Catholic who's still practicing, I know what the Immaculate Conception doctrine is.)
ReplyDelete(Also, like Sue, I find many of my questions answered in Swedenborg and not in traditional Catholic doctrine. Which does not mean that I have jettisoned those parts of Catholic doctrine which make sense to me, which is most of it any way.)
The Eastern Orthodox state that Mary was without personal sin (sinless), but wasn't conceived without original sin. In effect, they provide a hairsplitting argument to deny the Immaculate Conception, while affirming the sinlessness of Mary.
Islam affirms the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception. Here is a quote from http://www.ewtn.com/library/mary/marykran.htm:
"We know that the Islamic religion ignores the concept of original sin; it attributes to man, however, a natural defectibility which makes him impure and imperfect from birth. Nevertheless, in a famous Hadith attributed to the Prophet, it is affirmed that: "Every child is touched by the devil as soon as he is born and this contact makes him cry. Excepted are Mary and her Son". From this Hadith and from verses 35-37 of Sura III, Moslem commentators have deduced and affirmed the principle of Mary's original purity. God, in fact, according to the Koranic text, granted the wish of Anna who consecrated to him Mary, about to be born, and the One to whom she would give birth (III, 37). God predestined Mary and purified her, raising her above all women (III, 45)."
I quoted a Hadith above. Now I'll quote the Qu'ran itself - Sura III, verses 35-37. It talks of Anna, Mary's mother, and Mary's birth:
ReplyDeleteBehold, a woman of Imran said, “O my Lord, I dedicate unto you what is in my womb for your special service, so accept this of me for you hears and knows all things.”
36When she was delivered she said, “O my Lord! behold, I am delivered of a female child.” And Allah knew best what she brought forth, and nowise is the male like the female. I have named her Mary and I commend her and her offspring to your protection from the evil one, the rejected.
37Right graciously did her Lord accept her, He made her grow in purity and beauty, to the care of Zakariya was she assigned. Every time that he entered her chamber to see her, he found her supplied with sustenance. He said, “O Mary, whence comes this to you?” She said, “From Allah, for Allah provides sustenance to whom He pleases without measure.”
"you hears and knows all things"
ReplyDeleteUngrammatical.
Evidently, I cut and pasted from a site with errors in its English.
http://charleswelty.net/islam/commentary/sura003.htm
Hi, Roger,
ReplyDeleteHow have you been? I'm glad you are still around. I had no idea that the Koran said anything about Mary - that was very interesting.
Hi Sue, Doing well - very busy. Had a flood in my house in August while I was away (broken water pipe), and I am still recovering from it - what with the insurance company, contractors and the rest. Hopefully, I'll be done in few months.
ReplyDeleteRoger