serb1389 said:
So I was having a discussion with some friends last night trying to explain to them that Christ received his humanity from the human nature of the Theotokos. But her PERSON was not affected by the Divinity because that would be an impeding on her free will.
Yet, her person WAS affected by the ever-virginity theology. If her virginity was preserved, in what other ways was the Theotokos changed as a Person? It would be impossible to carry God & not be changed as a person right?
Any insights on this would be great! Never thought about it from this angle!
I realize the discussion was bigger and this is just a summary. I am not sure that I can agree with the statement (as written, but I know that on these forums sometimes our words get cut short) that her person was not affected by the Divinity because that would be impeding on her free will. The Energy is also Divinity, and she had to be affected by it, and it was precisely her free will (and thus synergeia) by which God made her "full of grace," grace being the energetic Divinity (Divine Energy). Her personhood was not "changed" in the sense that she became a different human hypostasis, but it was changed kat'energeia, fully and completely. The perpetual virginity was part of her accepting the supreme vocation given to her, but in no way was it ever necessitated against her will, but something that she chose daily to uphold, until she was translated in the Dormition (but still obviously is always affected by, thus "is" not "was"). When we acclaim her as "our Lady," we have many things before we reach the ever-Virginity, All-holy, pure, highly blessed, and glorious. Then we reach "Lady" (and Theotokos) before we reach that she was "ever-Virgin." So all these qualities, but also that she is "Lady" (Despinis). While the ever-virginity is fact, when commemorating her in Proskomedia we commemorate her as Lady, Queen, when we say "the Queen stood at Thy right side arrayed in golden robes all glorious" and we cut and place the particle next to the Lamb (on the right side of the Lamb, from the Lamb's perspective). The point is that we mention her as Queen (Lady), as glorious, but also recognize the most important thing, that is, her proximity to the Lamb of God.