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JMJ
Feast of the Motherhood of the Most Blessed and Ever Virgin Mary
Christian
Doctrinal Instruction: “The Most Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God”
“If anyone does
not confess that the Emmanuel [Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ] in truth is
God, and that on this account the Holy Virgin is the Mother of God (Theotokos, Gk.) - for according to the
flesh She gave birth to the Word of God made flesh - let him be anathema” (“The
Anathemas of the Chapter of St. Cyril [against Nestorius]” of the Council of
Ephesus, 431 AD).
“We rightly
teach that the glorious Holy ever Virgin Mary is acknowledged by Catholic men
[to be] both properly and truly the one who bore God… become incarnate from Her….
Because the Son of God was properly and truly made flesh from Her and born of
Her, we confess that she was properly and truly the Mother of God made
incarnate and born from Her…” (Pope John II, 533-535, Epistle Olim quidem; the same affirmed by Popes
St. Agapetus I, 535-536, and St. Silverius, 536-540).
Error: the Nestorian heresy
The denial of
the true humanity of Christ involves the denial of the true motherhood of Mary
and the denial of the Divinity of Christ logically leads also to the denial of
Mary’s motherhood of God. Thus, the Nestorians refused to recognize Mary’s
title “Theotokos” (Mother of God), and designated Her by the titles “Mother of
Man” or “Mother of Christ”.
The Catholic Dogma: Mary is truly the
Mother of God
In the Apostles’
Creed, the Church professes her belief in the Son of God, “born of the Virgin
Mary.” As the Mother of the Son of God, Mary is the Mother of God.
The dogma of
Mary’s Motherhood of God contains two truths:
1. Mary is truly
a mother, that is, She contributed everything to the formation of the human
nature of Christ, that every other mother contributes to the formation of the
fruit of her body;
2. Mary is truly
the Mother of God, that is, She conceived and bore the Second Person of the
Divinity, not indeed according to the Divine Nature, but according to the
assumed human nature.
Proof from the Sacred Scriptures,
Tradition, and Reason
The Church,
through which the Divine Spirit teaches men all
truth, explicitly sets forth
what the Sacred Writ implicitly affirms. Holy Writ attests to the true
Divinity of Christ [That all men may
honor the Son, as they honor the Father (Jn. 5.23), for example] and to the
true motherhood of Mary. Mary’s true motherhood is clearly foretold by the
Prophet Isaias, Behold a Virgin shall
conceive and bear a Son and His Name shall be called Emmanuel (7.14). In
similar words the Angel transmits to Mary the message, Behold thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and shalt bring forth a Son and
thou shall call His Name Jesus (Lk. 1.31). Mary’s motherhood of God is
implied in the words of St. Luke, The
Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow
thee. And therefore also the Holy which be born of thee shall be called the Son
of God (Lk. 1.35), and in the words of St. Paul, God sent His Son made of a Woman (Gal. 4.4). The Woman who bore the
Son of God is the Progenitress of God, or the Mother of God. Mary is the Mother
of God: not the Most Holy Trinity but the Second Person – the Eternal Word (cf.,
Jn. 1.1) – Who at the Incarnation assumed the human nature and united to
Himself both the divine and human natures.
The Fathers also
teach Mary’s true motherhood of God, not explicitly, but implicitly. St.
Ignatius of Antioch: “For Our God Jesus Christ was carried in Mary’s womb
according to God’s resolve of salvation.” St. Irenaeus: “This Christ, Who as Logos [the Word] of the Father was with the Father… was born of a Virgin.” The
title of Theotokos became current after
the third century. It is attested to by Origen, St. Alexander of Alexandria,
Eusebius of Caesarea, St. Athanasius, St. Epiphanius, by the Cappadocians and
others, as well as by Arius (a priest of Jewish descent who denied the Divinity
of Jesus Christ0 and Apollinaris of Laodicea. St. Gregory of Nazianzen: “If
anyone does not recognize the Holy Mary as the Mother of God, he is separated
from the Divinity.” The principal defender of Mary’s motherhood of God against
the Nestorians is St. Cyril of Alexandria.
To the objection
made by Nestorius that Mary is not the Mother of God because from Her was taken
the human nature only, but not the Divine Nature, it is replied that not the
nature as such, but the person was conceived and born. By comparison, the
mother who bore us did not have any part in the production of our soul – the nobler
part of our being which was the work of God alone – and yet no one would dream
of saying ‘the mother of my body’ but ‘my mother,’ that is, the mother of one
who lives and breathes, thinks and acts, one in his personality, though uniting
in it a soul directly created by God, and a material body directly derived from
the maternal womb. As Mary conceived and bore the Person of the Eternal Word
subsisting in human nature, She is truly the Mother of God. Thus, the title Theotokos includes a confession of the
Divinity of Jesus Christ.
Consequences
1. Mary’s
Objective Dignity
As the Mother of
God, Mary, of all rational creatures [She is still a creature; not a divine ‘Creatress’
as the heretics would impute], transcends in dignity all created persons ,
angels and men [therefore, Her transcendence is only of created dignity still, never
of glory due the Divine], because the dignity of a creature is the greater the nearer it is to God. And of all created things after the human nature of Christ,
which is hypostatically united with the Person of the Eternal Word, Mary is
nearest to the Triune God. As a true mother, She is related by blood to the Son
of God according to His human nature. Through the Son, She is associated intimately
also with the Father and the Holy Ghost. The Church honors Her on account of
Her position as Mother of God, and on account of Her high endowment with grace
deriving from Her position as the daughter of the Heavenly Father and the
Spouse of the Holy Ghost. In a certain sense, Mary’s dignity is infinite, since
She is the Mother of an Infinite Divine Person.
In order to
express the sublime dignity of the Mother of God, the Church, following the
Fathers, applies, especially in her Sacred Liturgy, many Old Testament literary
passages in an accommodated sense for Mary: a) from the Psalms, which depict
the glory of the magnificence of the Tent
of the Covenant , of the Temple,
and of City of Sion (86.3; 45.5;
131.13 – chapters and verses according to DRV); b) from the Sapiential or
Wisdom Books which refer to the Divine Wisdom – transferred to Mary Sedes Sapientiae (Seat of Wisdom): Prov.
8.22ff; Ecclus. [Ecclesiasticus; Sirach in Neo-Catholic versions] 11.23ff; c)
from the Canticle of Canticles [Song of Songs in non-Catholic versions], in
which the Bride is glorified (for example, 4.7) and transferred to Mary as “the
Bride of the Holy Ghost.”
2. Mary’s
Plenitude of Grace
Mary’s plenitude
of grace is declared in the Angelic salutation: Ave, gratia plena, Dominus tecum (“Hail, full of grace, the Lord is
with thee,” Lk. 1.28). According to the
context, Mary’s special endowment of grace is an accompaniment of Her vocation
to be the Mother of God. Her vocation demands a specially rich measure of
Sanctifying Grace.
The Fathers
stress the connection between Mary’s fullness of grace and Her dignity as
Mother of God. St. Augustine, having based Her sinlessness on Her dignity as Mother of God: “Whence, then, do
we know with what excess of grace She was endowed, in order to conquer sin in
every regard, who merited to conceive and to bear Him of Whom it is certain
that He had no sin?” (De natura et gratia,
36, 42).
St. Thomas
Aquinas sees in Mary’s fullness of grace a verification of the axiom: The
nearer a thing is to a principle, the more it receives from the operation of
that principle. But of all creatures Mary His Mother stands nearest to Christ, Who
is the Source of Grace – as God, being the Origin of all graces; and, as Man
being the Instrument. Consequently, She duly received from Him a supreme
measure of grace – which still falls as much sort of Christ’s fullness of grace.
Mary’s vocation to be the Mother of God demands for Her the richest endowment
with Grace (cf., Summa, III, 27,5).
A blessed Feast to all!
