The Mother of God

January 1^st is the secular New Year, and yet we celebrate the Blessed Mother, in particular the solemnity of Mary as “Mother of God.”

This idea of Mary as Mother of God begins in Sacred Scripture. When our Blessed Mother visits her cousin Elizabeth we know that a profound mutual sharing in the Gospel took place between them and the children in their wombs leapt for joy. Elizabeth in her joy tells Mary, “And how does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” (Luke 1:43) Lord in this instance is a substitute for Yahweh. The Jewish people would not utter God’s name out of respect, they would substitute Yahweh with Adonai (Lord). In Greek the substitute is Kyrios (Lord). When “L” for Lord is capitalized (in Scripture) that signifies that it is being used as a substitute for God and not for a king or some noble, when it is used for a king or some important person it is then used with the lower case “l.” The biblical foundation showing that Mary is God's mother is set; however there is more that helps us understand this truth.

Calling Mary the Mother of God also protects Jesus’ divinity. We believe that Jesus from the moment of his conception was and always is fully divine and fully human. His two natures were always intact and worked harmoniously. Therefore, since Jesus is always Divine, even while in the womb, Mary must be God’s mother, if she is not, then logically Jesus could not be Divine, how can we separate Jesus’ divinity, whether in Mary's womb or after birth? We cannot, at least without doing damage to the person of Christ. The Council of Ephesus understood this and therefore declared Mary, "Theotokos" the God bearer. However, this debate about Mary would be taken up again at Chaldecon in 451 when Pope Leo I helped define the two natures of Christ.

A better way to explain this is through a logical argument, one given by St. Leo the Great I believe. For example,

All A’s are B’s.

All B’s are C’s.

Hence all A’s are C’s.

This is logic 101. Let us replace the letters with Jesus, Mary, and God.

Mary (A) is the Mother of Jesus (B)

Jesus (B) is God the Son (C)

Hence Mary (A) is the Mother of God's Son (C)

We must remember, however, that Mary is not God’s mother in terms of her being before God or giving birth to the Trinity, she is not God. There is a concept called the internal Trinity and the external Trinity, that which we see is the external Trinity, i.e. Jesus in the flesh and that which we do not see, the hidden God so-to-speak. There is more to it than that, but for our purposes it suffices to say that Mary is the Mother of God in terms of what we see, the second person of the Trinity, the Son of God.

The Church defends Mary as Mother of God because in doing so we are really defending and clarifying who Christ is.

Beyond just the theological understanding is that Mary shares her motherhood with the Church and all of humanity. Jesus gives her to be a mother to us. It is in her life that we find motherhood and faith that knows no equals, a faith that serves as an example to the Church. As a mother she always looked to taking care of her family, as a person of faith she always sought to do the will of God, always saying yes to what God asked of her.

She was asked to be the mother of God not because it was by chance, rather she was asked because of who she was, the perfect example of faith, the new Eve, or what Eve should have been, Immaculate.

We can take courage and comfort because Mary now looks after us just as she looked after her own family, always looking to our good and happiness. Let us make sure then that just like Elizabeth we recognize her and when we ask, “why should this happen to me that the mother of my Lord should visit me,” we will know the answer instinctively, because to be persons of faith it is none other than experiencing a mutual sharing in the Gospel. And that is what we are doing today with the Mother of God.

Fr John