PRAISED BE THE THEOTOKOS!

PRAISED BE THE THEOTOKOS!

Introduction

Our thoughts on the Blessed Mother highlights for this first month of the year her title and role as Mother of God. For Catholics around the world, while the liturgical year begins with the First Sunday of Advent, the calendar year is joyfully ushered by the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God.

Because the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God is on January 1, other themes converge on this holy day. January 1 concludes the Christmas Octave; thus, celebrating Mary’s divine motherhood on this day adds a further note of Christmas joy. January 1 is also a day of prayer for world peace; hence, remembering Mary’s divine motherhood on this day reminds us that Jesus, her Son, is our Peace. January 1 is of course the first day of a new year; for this reason, venerating Mary as Mother of God on this day focuses our adoring hearts on her Son Jesus who continue to renew our life and in whom we have all become sons and daughters of God.

Vatican II’s Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, whose final chapter is devoted to the Blessed Mother, calls Mary “Mother of God” 12 times. This alone says the importance of the Church’s teaching on Mary as the Mother of God.

History

It is true, the title “Mother of God” in reference to Mary of Nazareth, as such, cannot be found in the Scripture. In Luke 1:42-43, however, Elizabeth exclaims upon Mary’s visit to her, “Most blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb! And how does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” Here Elizabeth already declares Mary to be “Mater Domini” or “Mother of the Lord”.

In Galatians 4:4, Paul the Apostle was just short of naming Mary as the mother of God’s Son who is not only truly human but is also truly God. Paul affirms: “In the fullness of time, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the law….” Moreover, as Paul asserts that “God sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying out ‘Abba, Father!’” we are led to acknowledge that Mary is mother to us all who are, therefore, brothers and sisters of Jesus, the Father’s only Begotten.

But the origin of the precise title “Mother of God” in reference to Mary is in the 3rd or 4th century. Records show that the title was first used by St. Hippolytus of Rome (d. 235 A.D.). However, Nestorius, Patriarch of Constantinople (c. 428 A.D.) contested the attribution of this title to Mary because his view was such that Jesus as Son of God was one thing and Jesus as Son of Mary is another. Nestorius’ view sees in Christ two Persons: one Divine (the Logos), the other human (Jesus). Thus, Nestorius could not accept that Mary could be referred to, in the real and strict sense of the title, as “Mother of God”.

Nestorius’ view runs totally counter to our Catholic doctrine. We believe, uphold, and teach that in Jesus there are two natures, not two persons. Jesus is one Person with two natures. He is the Second Person of the Most Blessed Trinity in whom the mystery of having divine and human nature exists. Technically, we call this mystery of the human and divine natures equally and simultaneously present in the one Person of Jesus, the Eternal Word, the Logos, as “hypostatic union”.

Just as Mariology is always the function of Christology, clarifying the Church’s teaching on the Person of Jesus became the avenue to understanding Mary’s divine motherhood. In 431 A.D., the Council of Ephesus clarified, defended, and declared officially the Church’s teaching that Jesus Christ, the Eternal Word of God and Only Begotten Son of the Father, is one Person with two natures; namely, human and divine. The Council, having approved by acclamation the Second Letter of St. Cyril to Nestorius regarding the Mariological and Christological disputes, condemned Nestorius and his followers, and officially confirms the attribution to Mary of the title “Mother of God”.

At the end of the session that finally resolved this Mariological and Christological issues, a large number of people marched through the street at Ephesus, shouting: “Praised by the Theotokos!” And in 451, the Council of Chalcedon, promulgated as dogma the normative decision taken at the Council of Ephesus.

Theotokos

The Greek term Theotokos (“God-bearer) became the touchstone of the Church’s teaching about the Incarnation. The Council Fathers insisted that it is always right to call the Blessed Virgin Mary Theotokos because Jesus, Whom she gave birth to, is not only true man but is likewise true God, and that the two natures in the one Person of Jesus cannot be separated. Hence, she who gave birth to the man-Jesus also gave birth to the God-Jesus. There are no two persons given birth to just as there are no two deliveries made by the same Mary for the same Jesus.

Thus, while it is the touchstone of the Church’s teaching about the Incarnation of the Word, the meaning of the title “Mother of God” directly flows from the Incarnation of the Word. Jesus is God from all eternity and Mary conceived and brought Him forth into the world. Jesus is not God by the fact that Mary conceived and delivered Him. If that is the case (we know and believe it is not of course!) then the Incarnation of the Word of God is an absurdity, not a mystery, because it would make Mary mother of the divine nature. Mary is Mater Dei because from her own flesh she gave to the Word a human nature like hers. There is something of Mary in Jesus because of the Incarnation. Mary is Theotokos because “the Word was made flesh” in her and through her.

The Most Sublime Privilege

Just as in the case of all that the Blessed Mother enjoys, her being the Mother of God is God’s pure and free decision and action. It is grace. It was God who chose Mary to be the mother of His Son and not Mary who chose to be the mother of God. A merely human child does not and cannot choose the mother it wants to have. But not so with God-becoming-man. In the case of the God-man Jesus, It was the Baby who chose who His mother would be. The choice was Mary of Nazareth. Because of this choice, God preserved Mary from all sin and corruption, from the first moment of her conception (i.e., the dogma of the Immaculate Conception), by virtue of what is technically called “preservative redemption” (i.e., that God applied the merits of Jesus’ death and resurrection to Mary even before the actual death and resurrection of Jesus took place), even until the end of her earthly sojourn (i.e., the dogma of the Assumption).

Evidently, the most sublime of Mary’s privileges is her Divine Maternity. Without that Maternity, her other privileges would not exist because she was created to be the Mother of God. Moreover, the reason for Mary’s other privileges, such as her Immaculate Conception, her miraculous virginity, her fullness of grace, her Assumption, and her spiritual motherhood of all humankind, is her Divine Maternity. Her role and title as “Mother of God” explains everything in Mary; without it, nothing can be explained about her.

Other implications reveal the importance of Mary’s Divine Maternity. If we could not assert that Mary is the Mother of God because she gave a body to the Son of God, then neither could we adore this Body; nor would we have been redeemed by the death and resurrection of this Body’ nor would we be united to this Body and share in the divine life by receiving this same Body in the Holy Eucharist.

Conclusion

The Relationships Established by Mary’s Divine Maternity

While Mary’s Divine Maternity exults Mary above all the rest of creation, making her surpass all creatures – angels included – in an immeasurable degree, and makes her the first among equals, wonderful and deeper relationships between her and the Most Holy Trinity and between her and us have been established.

We, too, have our sublime dignity as children of God by adoption through Jesus Christ who alone is God’s Son by nature. Mary, however, is not the adoptive mother of the Son of God; she is His real mother. While we can lose our divine adoption, Mary can never lose her Divine Maternity.

Her Divine Maternity places Mary in the most intimate relationship that a creature can ever have with the Three Divine Persons. Mary is the beloved daughter of the Father, the loving mother of the Son, and the immaculate spouse of the Holy Spirit.

As daughter of the Father, she was predestined at the same moment that God decreed the Incarnation of His Son (cf. Gen 3:15). As Mother of His son, Mary is associated with the Father in the generation of His Son; thus, He gave her exceptional privileges and loved her first among all creatures. With the Father, Mary, too, can say of their Son, Jesus: “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.”

As mother of the Son, Mary did not only give flesh and blood to the Eternal Word of God. She fulfilled the duties and enjoyed the rights of a true mother over the Son of God. She nourished Him, clothed Him, educated Him. She commanded Him and He obeyed. In Jn 2:1-12, we are told that Jesus performed His first miracle (or “the first of His signs” in the style of expression in the Gospel of John) upon the intercession of Mary, His mother, who was present with Him in a wedding at Cana.

In relation to the Third Person of the Most Holy Trinity, Mary is His spouse because the Gospels and the Apostles’ Creed clearly say that she conceived the Son of God through the Holy Spirit. In a most unique way, the Holy Spirit dwells in her, His immaculate spouse and worthy temple.

Because of the most singular manner she is related to the Three Persons of the Most Holy Trinity, Mary’s relationship with all humankind is enhanced and given a special role and meaning. She who is God’ daughter, mother, and spouse is mother to us all. She is mother of the Church and of all humankind, even those who refuse to acknowledge her motherhood. She who is the mother of the Redeemer is likewise the mother of the redeemed. She who is mother of God is also mother of all the God loves.

Resolutions

As fruits of our meditation on Mary, Mother of God, I suggest three resolutions for us to make.

First, let us show our gratitude to God who created Mary and made her mother of His Son by loving Mary. The Father was first to have valued Mary so highly, should not all believers value her as much?

Second, since the Lord Jesus commanded us from the cross: “Behold your mother” (Jn 19:27), let us fix our eyes on Mary, whose only desire is to lead us closer and closer to her Son, so as to follow her discipleship from Bethlehem to Calvary and beyond. Is it not that Mary’s command to the servants at the wedding in Cana, “Do whatever He tells you”, her command to us as well?

Third, because Mary became the mother of God by the power of the Holy Spirit whose immaculate spouse she is, let us strive to rediscover the power of the same Spirit whom we received at baptism and who dwells in us, too. Are we not temples of the Holy Spirit ourselves? In 1 Cor 3:16, Paul the Apostle reminds us: “Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you?” And again in chapter 6, verse 19 of the same letter, we read: “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?”

Mary is Mater Domini; thus, Mater Dei; thus, Mater Ecclesiae. Mary is the Mother of the Lord; therefore, the Mother of God; therefore, the Mother of the Church. She was chosen by God; she gave birth to God; and she is in the midst of the Church, the People of God, for whose salvation her Divine Maternity was created, invented, and established by God

Mary is the Mother of God so that she may be our mother too. She is our mother because she is the Mother of God. Praised be the Theotokos!