Sunday, November 19, 2006

Apologetics Advice From Origen

Therefore "'the infant in [Elizabeth's] womb leapt, and she was filled with the Holy Spirit. She cried out in a loud voice and said, 'Blessed are you among women.'" At this point we ought to refute the heretics' usual objections; otherwise some simpler people might be deceived. Someone or other gave vent to his madness and claimed that the Savior had repudiated Mary because she had been joined to Joseph after his birth. This is what he said. I hope he knows what the state of his mind was when he said it. If heretics ever raise an objection like this to you, answer them and say, "Elizabeth surely was filled with the Holy Spirit when she said, 'Blessed are you among women.' If the Holy Spirit called Mary 'blessed,' how could the Savior repudiate her?" Furthermore, they assert that Mary had marital relations after the birth of Jesus. But they have no source of proof. For the children who were called Joseph's were not born of Mary. There is no passage in Scripture that mentions this.

-Origen, in his 7th Homily on the Gospel of Luke.

No comments: