They Call Mary the Mother of God!
I guess after 3 years someone at the Baptist church in Bertram noticed I wasn’t coming around as much anymore.
I was preparing for confirmation as a Catholic at the Easter Vigil 2007. A few weeks before confirmation, I received a call from the music minister at First Baptist. He needed someone to sing a particular song at their Easter Cantata. I told him I’d be happy to do it assuming the schedule worked out. I told him that I was in formation to become Catholic and that I’d be pretty busy Easter weekend. I told him I wanted him to know because I wanted to be transparent with him. I knew my becoming Catholic might be a touchy subject for some of the folk at his church, but if he was fine with my singing in the cantata, then so was I.
After I told him, he asked me if I’d grown up Catholic. Apparently, a re-version is easier to understand than a con-version. I told him, “No,” that I’d had a supernatural conversion, and I was trying to be obedient to Christ. I chose my words carefully. How could he argue with my desire to be odedient to the Lord?
His only word of advice for me was to say in a hushed, worried tone,”Now, you know, they call Mary the Mother of God. . .” To this I replied calmly, stifling a laugh, “Yes, as a matter of fact, I do know that.” All the while I’m just smiling inside, wondering whether or not he would argue with me if I said Jesus was God.
The minister and I ended the conversation amicably but without any further mention of my singing in the cantata. In retrospect, that was good. God helped me keep my focus on my Catholic future.
Breaking up is hard, especially when the words “Mary, Mother of God” become fighting words. It’s harder still to believe that Mary, the Blessed Mother, and the mother of Our Lord Jesus Christ can be the focus of strife and disunity. She should be the woman who creates unity, being the one human person in all of history who always said,”Yes.”
