ACC ~ Matthew 12 v49

WHO IS MY MOTHER?

AUGUSTINE: Is it not true that the Virgin Mary did the Father’s will, she who believed in faith, conceived in faith and was chosen so that, through her, salvation could be born for us among humans and was begotten by Christ before Christ was begotten in her? Holy Mary carried out, plainly and clearly, the Father’s will. Therefore it is greater for Mary to have been a disciple of Christ than the mother of Christ. Indeed, it is greater and better to have been the disciple of Christ than the mother of Christ. Mary was therefore blessed because, even before she gave birth, she bore the Master in her womb. … Mary is holy and Mary is blessed, but the church is greater than the Virgin Mary. And why? Because Mary is a part of the church, a holy limb, an extraordinary limb, an outstanding limb, but she is only a limb of the whole body. If she is but a part of the whole body, greater indeed is the body than a limb. Christ is the head, and Christ is the entire head and body. What shall I say? We have a divine head. We have God as our head. SERMON 72A.7. [1]

[1] MA 1:162-63; WSA 3 3:287-88.

MY MOTHER AND MY BROTHERS

ANONYMOUS: The devil observed that Christ was persuading the people that he was the Son of God. He was saying, “Behold, something greater than Jonah is here,” [1] and “Behold, something greater than Solomon is here.” [2] The devil feared that if he who was considered only a man was acknowledged to be the Son of God, the devil would be abandoned by all. To refute Christ’s words, the devil slyly introduced Christ’s own relatives in the flesh. By focusing attention on them, he hoped to obscure the nature of Christ’s divinity. Thus someone came forward, the devil’s advocate as it were, who with human speech spoke diabolical words, saying, “Behold, your mother and your brothers are standing outside, asking to speak to you.” He seemed to be saying, “Why are you boasting, Jesus, about how you came down from heaven, you who have roots on earth?”Behold, your mother and your brothers are standing outside.” He thus implied that he who has been brought forth by humans cannot be the Son of God. You cannot conceal the one who has been exposed by nature. Then Jesus looked at him who appeared to be a man but who was really the devil speaking. “And who is my mother and who are my brothers?” I have no relatives in this world, I who created the world before its very foundation. I do not know a beginning in the flesh (as Photinus believed), [3] I who was with God already at the beginning. What you see in me as merely a man is only my garment, not my [theandric] nature.

“And stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, ‘Here are my mother and my brothers.’” Without denigrating the process of birth or being ashamed of embodiment as a human, Jesus gave that answer. He wanted to show that the spiritual [God-human] relationship must take precedence over the merely carnal relationship. INCOMPLETE WORK ON MATTHEW, HOMILY 30. [4]

[1] Mt 12:41.

[2] Mt 12:42.

[3] Photinus of Sirmium, a heretic of the fourth century, denied the personal existence of Christ as Logos, the Son of God prior to the incarnation.

[4] PG 56:791.