The mystery of Mary’s “Immaculate Conception” is the reason for the Solemnity of the Roman Catholic Church, celebrated annually on December 8th. The sermon of a priest and professor illustrates the Catholic belief system from pure fiction.
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The Solemnity in honor of Mary
December 8th is another high festival of the Roman Catholic Church. Just two days after St. Nicholas, this figure with a miter cap, cloak and shepherd’s crook is already the focus of attention on Mary. The “Solemnity of the Virgin Mary, Mother of God, conceived without original sin,” as it Catholic News Agency (CNA) describes. On the occasion of this Catholic feast, in the middle of Advent, Aldo Vendemiati, professor at the Faculty of Arts of the Pontifical Urban University and priest, prepared a dedicated sermon. CNA has taken this sermon from the priest’s website (Quelle) and published it again.
The enduring epic about Mary
As is well known, Mary, the wife of Joseph and mother of Jesus Christ, plays a very special role in the Roman Catholic Church. The church was clearly not satisfied with the biblical descriptions of Mary. There was clearly a vacuum in their own view of the world and God and the church filled this by creating newly imagined fictions around the nature of Mary as a person.
The scope of the newly created Marian epic can be seen from the numerous titles given. One selection is “Mother of God, Virgin of Virgins, Holy Mother of Divine Grace, the Most Chaste, Seat of Truth, the Mystical Rose and Queen of Heaven” (das Vorbild der katholischen Maria – Info).
A sermon in honor of Mary
It is therefore not surprising that the priest and professor Vendemiati has to base his sermon in homage to Mary on created fictions so that the connections can make any sense.
The sun cannot be missed
With the Solemnity of Mary on December 8th, the “Way of Advent” takes a break. This path goes upwards like a mountain hike through a dense forest. Hardly any light falls on the hiker. At some point a clearing will be reached and “the sun will illuminate everything with its radiance.” A wider and more wonderful view opens up. A moment that allows the hiker to rest in ecstasy while contemplating this beauty. But this is not a reason to stay, but rather a moment for the necessary strength to achieve the beauty “that has revealed itself to our eyes.”
The beauty seen on December 8th is Mary, “the masterpiece of creation and redemption”.
The beautiful sun is above everything
The sun is the highest symbol of the Roman Catholic Church. This can be seen in the design of the monstrance and in the extensively designed sun rays above the altar of St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican. Francis of Assisi, the namesake of the current pope, counted the sun, moon and stars among his siblings. The circular wafer venerated during the “Holy Mass” and taken from the crescent-shaped cup is the homage to the highest Catholic “Sun God” on every Sunday (“Sun Day”). Whether this is called Osiris, Helios or Mithras is irrelevant.
Already in this passage of his sermon, the priest makes clear his affinity for the sun and describes Catholic teaching about human divinity. This inherent divinity in man only needs to be developed in order to “achieve even that [sun’s] beauty”.
The good man and the evil sin
“It is not human nature that is evil, but sin,” said Vendemiati. Undoubtedly sin is evil, but still this statement is a contradiction in terms. Because a “good nature” of man would not commit sin. Only a fallen nature is unconcerned about violating the law of God. The Bible actually describes the actual human condition quite well. Genesis 8:21:
“I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake; for the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done.”
Jeremiah 17:9:
“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?”
But the Catholic priest apparently takes the opposite view (Info).
Mary – The Perfect One of God
In his sermon, the professor also gets to the actual topic of the event. He tells about the person who came and who God provided for. “A completely human role model”. A model in which humanity is perfect, completely without “blemishes and wrinkles” and without “the changes caused by sin”.
Is the priest talking about Jesus Christ? No! He speaks of: “Mary, the completely beautiful, the masterpiece of creation, the masterpiece of redemption.”
Mary is exactly the “human person” that God “wanted from eternity”.
Mary was human and not a person
According to this description, Mary is completely without sin and this story therefore belongs to the realm of Catholic fiction. This is also proven by the phrase “human person” instead of human being. “Personalizing” is a specialty of the Catholic Church, based on Roman law. Man is in the reality created by God, but the person is a fiction. Even the Bible makes this difference clear (Info).
However, the priest has no choice but to remain in the Catholic fiction and must therefore follow the instructions of his secretly adored master.
Searching the Bible for evidence of these professor’s theses is pointless. They don’t exist. You would only find it in the Roman Catholic Catechism.
Mary – The Graceful One for Salvation
Since God is full of grace, let Mary also be filled with this grace. Jesus Christ stands between God and Mary, said the priest. He is the mediator.
This grace makes the “person of Mary” (not human, therefore fiction) holy in everything that constitutes her humanity. “Feelings, reason, will.”
Immortal soul is a requirement
In addition to the divinity contained in man, this church also teaches the immortal soul (Lies of the Serpent in the Catechism – Info). A soul that continues to exist after earthly death is an absolute prerequisite for any further fiction based on it. However, this immortal soul does not exist. The Bible does not say this and the church knows this very well! (Info).
Extremely embarrassing glorification of Mary
In his sermon, the priest addresses Mary’s exemplary feelings. The angel sought out Mary to announce her pregnancy. “She was frightened,” was the priest’s first explanation.
When Mary and Joseph forgot their twelve-year-old son Jesus in the temple in Jerusalem and returned, Mary expressed that she and Joseph “searched for him in fear,” according to the second illustration.
At the wedding at Cana the wine ran out. Here Mary demonstrated her “sensitivity” by saying, “You have no more wine!” was the priest’s third clarification.
All of this expresses the “completeness of her emotions,” which always “express the fullness of grace.”
It’s getting really embarrassing now
Mary was frightened by the angel’s appearance, was afraid for her son and worried about the supply of wine for the wedding guests. The “fullness of Mary’s emotions and grace.” One is tempted to look for evidence of satire at this point in the sermon. But it is actually serious “theology.” What level do you have to be in order to feel the urge to prostrate yourself in front of an image of Mary when faced with such embarrassing glorification?
Maria – Her will is an example
This glorification of Mary is not enough for the priest. After all, she is also a model of reason. The angel (Gabriel) told Mary that through her “Christ” would become human.
As usual, the theology professor refrains from clearly identifying “Jesus [the] Christ”.
As we all know, Mary answered with a “willing yes.” Humanity and the entire universe have been waiting for this “yes”. This can be requested, but not forced.
Mary also answered: “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be done to me according to your word.” That was the “great merit of Mary”. She freely agreed to God’s plan. This is “the assent of the love of a creature to the love of the Creator.”
“All this crushes the head of the serpent and destroys sin.” We, “who are the descendants of Mary,” follow Mary as our example, said the priest, and concluded his sermon with the repeated reference to the desirable self-glorification of people.
Voluntariness is alien to the nature of the church
In fact, God does not force anyone to do anything. He leaves it up to each individual whether they decide for or against God and His statutes. But God makes it clear very, very often where obedience leads and where disobedience leads. Both forever. It may well be the case that the voluntary nature of a decision appears to be so important to the priest from a Catholic family because coercion is part of the traditions of his church.
Holy Spirit doesn’t matter?
Just by the way. The priest did not say a single syllable about the Holy Spirit in his sermon or in this context. As if the Spirit of God played no role whatsoever, because Luke 1:35:
“The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.“
Humility and Obedience – Extraordinary?
Was Mary’s humility and obedience to God so extraordinary? Certainly yes to the entirety of man in his fallen nature. But with regard to the right path according to the examples of Jesus Christ and His Apostles, definitely not. Mary wanted the will of God to happen. Jesus Christ wanted this too, Luke 22:42:
“Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.“
Jesus Christ also taught this to His disciples, Matthew 6:10:
“Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.“
And the apostles told this also to the Gentiles, Acts 21:14:
“And when he would not be persuaded, we ceased, saying, The will of the Lord be done.“
Self-surrender, surrender of one’s own will to God and fulfillment with the Holy Spirit are not extraordinary “achievements” of Mary, but rather the prerequisite for every human being to be able to follow Jesus Christ. In fact, it is the essence that cannot be achieved through baptism alone. It is an ongoing process. Every day anew.
The redemptive work of Jesus Christ is denied
Quite hidden, but nevertheless clearly, the priest denies the blood sacrifice of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of our sins while maintaining His righteousness. The priest tries to confirm the statement of Genesis 3:15:
“And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.“
However, the theologian connects this statement from God to the serpent, immediately after the first fall, with the entire vermilion surrounding Mary. Their “chastity, humility, immaculateness, grace, etc.” crush the serpent’s head and with it the sin. But this couldn’t be more wrong. Until Jesus Christ gave His blood on the cross, not one sin was wiped out. Everything depends on Jesus Christ, nothing depends on Mary, that is the reality. But it is precisely this unique and everlasting blood sacrifice of Jesus Christ that the church vehemently denies (Info). In other words, the Church of Rome hates Jesus Christ with everything it has and everything it is.
Strangely successful sandbox level
This sermon for the glorification of Mary contains a good package of philosophy about this religious institution that associates itself with Christianity. It is always astonishing what childlike, naive stories people actually accept. A fiction as stable as a loose house of cards that would collapse at the mere touch of the Bible’s newly opened cover.
But the reason for the impending catastrophe for many people is their complacency, gullibility and irrationality. Only a few people bring themselves to read the Bible on their own responsibility and with their own understanding.
This sermon was written in 2023 and not sometime in the 6th, 14th or 18th centuries. There are actually very many Christian churches that not only want to join forces with the Church of Rome, but also want to merge into it through ecumenism as the one, holy, apostolic, Catholic church (Info).
But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.!
Matthew 4:4
By the way: Matthew 4:4 is usually only quoted in half, or in modern Bible editions it is only reduced by half (Info).
Bible verses from King James Version
