On Dogma

Strangely enough the last post on Mary came about from a discussion on Dogma. I'm sure you remember the Kevin Smith movie that brought about the term "Catholicism Wow":



Remember the discussion between Rufus and Bethany? They are discussing the Apocryphal books(and Bethany being related to Jesus):

RUFUS:You've never gotten the complete picture. If they had compiled the material together like they were supposed to, you'd get the whole story. But by leaving text out, the church has presented you people with an extremely sterile and unmoving account of religious history. The Creation, the entire Old Testament, the history of Christ...
....
RUFUS: He goes from twelve years old to thirty. Whole volumes of text about the eighteen year struggle with His Divine nature prior to His acceptance of it were thrown out, forever lost to the faithful.

BETHANY: I don't buy it. Integral material like that would give people a better understanding of the nature of God. Why leave it out?

RUFUS: Because it was all closely tied in with His family.

BETHANY: His mother and father?

RUFUS: His brothers and sisters.

BETHANY:(beat)Wait, wait, wait - Jesus didn't have any brothers or sisters. Mary was a virgin - that's why it's called the Immaculate Conception.

RUFUS: Mary gave birth to Christ without having known a man's touch - that's true. But she did have a husband. And do you really think he'd have stayed married to her all those years if he wasn't getting laid? The nature of God and the Virgin Birth - those are leaps of faith. But believing a wife never humped her husband - that's just gullibility.

BETHANY:(sudden realization)MARY AND JOSEPH HAD SEX?!?

RUFUS:All the time, from what I understand. Jesus used to tell me stories about hearing them through the walls when He was a kid.(beat)
So you ask why you got tapped. I'll tell you why:a Christ was the salvation of this world once before. And you're the closest thing to a Christ that still walks.

BETHANY:Meaning?

RUFUS: The blood that flows in your veins shares a chromosome or two at the genetic level with the man you call Jesus.
(hand on her shoulder)
You're His great-grand-niece.

Bethany's jaw drops. A high-pitched squeak of a word escapes her lips.

JAY:(takes a hit from his joint)So... that would make Bethany part black.

I had to leave in that last part... its just funny.

To the point...

I discovered the other night how little I know of Mary. I was listening to a conversation the other night on the status of Mary in the Church and this movie was brought up several times. I guess because it was between a Catholic and a Baptist?

So... I honestly never thought much of Mary having sex after marriage. It seems it is important to the Catholic Church though.

I answer that, Without any hesitation we must abhor the error of Helvidius, who dared to assert that Christ's Mother, after His Birth, was carnally known by Joseph, and bore other children. For, in the first place, this is derogatory to Christ's perfection: for as He is in His Godhead the Only-Begotten of the Father, being thus His Son in every respect perfect, so it was becoming that He should be the Only-begotten son of His Mother, as being her perfect offspring.

-Aquinas(III,28,3)

With this subject I thought it a little hard to believe myself that a man and woman would be married and never have sex.... I thought the main importance was that Mary gave birth to Jesus as a virgin. What does it matter after that?

I hated that I didn't have any input on a topic of someone not understanding how Catholics do not worship Mary (not like it is an unusual one). From going over the Catachism and other writings... I can understand how there is confusion.

A question that I have is how is it possible that Mary is free from the stain of original sin? Isn't she still a descendant of Adam?

I don't know. I think I just wanted to put up something on Dogma... I've been crashing at Arthur's place and have watched the movie a couple already because he doesn't have the biggest selection...

I'll write later:)