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Mary: Mother of God
Fundamentalists are sometimes horrified when the
Virgin Mary is referred to as the Mother of God. However, their reaction
often rests upon a misapprehension of not only what this particular title
of Mary signifies but also who Jesus was, and what their own theological
forebears, the Protestant Reformers, had to say regarding this doctrine.
A woman is a man’s mother either if she carried
him in her womb or if she was the woman contributing half of his genetic
matter or both. Mary was the mother of Jesus in both of these senses; because
she not only carried Jesus in her womb but also supplied all of the genetic
matter for his human body, since it was through her—not Joseph—that Jesus
"was descended from David according to the flesh" (Rom. 1:3).
Since Mary is Jesus’ mother, it must be concluded
that she is also the Mother of God: If Mary is the mother of Jesus, and
if Jesus is God, then Mary is the Mother of God. There is no way out of
this logical syllogism, the valid form of which has been recognized by
classical logicians since before the time of Christ.
Although Mary is the Mother of God, she is not
his mother in the sense that she is older than God or the source of her
Son’s divinity, for she is neither. Rather, we say that she is the Mother
of God in the sense that she carried in her womb a divine person—Jesus
Christ, God "in the flesh" (2 John 7, cf. John 1:14)—and in the sense that
she contributed the genetic matter to the human form God took in Jesus
Christ.
To avoid this conclusion, Fundamentalists often
assert that Mary did not carry God in her womb, but only carried Christ’s
human nature. This assertion reinvents a heresy from the fifth century
known as Nestorianism, which runs aground on the fact that a mother does
not merely carry the human nature of her child in her womb. Rather,
she carries the person of her child. Women do not give birth to
human natures; they give birth to persons. Mary thus carried and
gave birth to the person of Jesus Christ, and the person
she gave birth to was God.
The Nestorian claim that Mary did not give birth
to the unified person of Jesus Christ attempts to separate Christ’s
human nature from his divine nature, creating two separate and
distinct persons—one divine and one human—united in a loose affiliation.
It is therefore a Christological heresy, which even the Protestant Reformers
recognized. Both Martin Luther and John Calvin insisted on Mary’s divine
maternity. In fact, it even appears that Nestorius himself may not have
believed the heresy named after him. Further, the "Nestorian" church has
now signed a joint declaration on Christology with the Catholic Church
and recognizes Mary’s divine maternity, just as other Christians do.
Since denying that Mary is God’s mother implies
doubt about Jesus’ divinity, it is clear why Christians (until recent times)
have been unanimous in proclaiming Mary as Mother of God.
The Church Fathers, of course, agreed, and the
following passages witness to their lively recognition of the sacred truth
and great gift of divine maternity that was bestowed upon Mary, the humble
handmaid of the Lord.
Irenaeus
"The Virgin Mary, being obedient to his word, received
from an angel the glad tidings that she would bear God" (Against Heresies,
5:19:1 [A.D. 189]).
Hippolytus
"[T]o all generations they [the prophets] have
pictured forth the grandest subjects for contemplation and for action.
Thus, too, they preached of the advent of God in the flesh to the world,
his advent by the spotless and God-bearing (theotokos) Mary in the
way of birth and growth, and the manner of his life and conversation with
men, and his manifestation by baptism, and the new birth that was to be
to all men, and the regeneration by the laver [of baptism]" (Discourse
on the End of the World 1 [A.D. 217]).
Gregory the Wonderworker
"For Luke, in the inspired Gospel narratives, delivers
a testimony not to Joseph only, but also to Mary, the Mother of God, and
gives this account with reference to the very family and house of David"
(Four Homilies 1 [A.D. 262]).
"It is our duty to present to God, like sacrifices,
all the festivals and hymnal celebrations; and first of all, [the feast
of] the Annunciation to the holy Mother of God, to wit, the salutation
made to her by the angel, ‘Hail, full of grace!’" (ibid., 2).
Peter of Alexandria
"They came to the church of the most blessed Mother
of God, and ever-virgin Mary, which, as we began to say, he had constructed
in the western quarter, in a suburb, for a cemetery of the martyrs" (The
Genuine Acts of Peter of Alexandria [A.D. 305]).
"We acknowledge the resurrection of the dead, of
which Jesus Christ our Lord became the firstling; he bore a body not in
appearance but in truth derived from Mary the Mother of God" (Letter
to All Non-Egyptian Bishops 12 [A.D. 324]).
Methodius
"While the old man [Simeon] was thus exultant,
and rejoicing with exceeding great and holy joy, that which had before
been spoken of in a figure by the prophet Isaiah, the holy Mother of God
now manifestly fulfilled" (Oration on Simeon and Anna 7 [A.D. 305]).
"Hail to you forever, you virgin Mother of God,
our unceasing joy, for unto you do I again return. . . . Hail, you fount
of the Son’s love for man. . . . Wherefore, we pray you, the most excellent
among women, who boast in the confidence of your maternal honors, that
you would unceasingly keep us in remembrance. O holy Mother of God, remember
us, I say, who make our boast in you, and who in august hymns celebrate
your memory, which will ever live, and never fade away" (ibid., 14).
Cyril of Jerusalem
"The Father bears witness from heaven to his Son.
The Holy Spirit bears witness, coming down bodily in the form of a dove.
The archangel Gabriel bears witness, bringing the good tidings to Mary.
The Virgin Mother of God bears witness" (Catechetical Lectures 10:19
[A.D. 350]).
Ephraim the Syrian
"Though still a virgin she carried a child in her
womb, and the handmaid and work of his wisdom became the Mother of God"
(Songs of Praise 1:20 [A.D. 351]).
Athanasius
"The Word begotten of the Father from on high,
inexpressibly, inexplicably, incomprehensibly, and eternally, is he that
is born in time here below of the Virgin Mary, the Mother of God" (The
Incarnation of the Word of God 8 [A.D. 365]).
Epiphanius of Salamis
"Being perfect at the side of the Father and incarnate
among us, not in appearance but in truth, he [the Son] reshaped man to
perfection in himself from Mary the Mother of God through the Holy Spirit"
(The Man Well-Anchored 75 [A.D. 374]).
Ambrose of Milan
"The first thing which kindles ardor in learning
is the greatness of the teacher. What is greater than the Mother of God?
What more glorious than she whom Glory Itself chose?" (The Virgins 2:2[7]
[A.D. 377]).
Gregory of Nazianz
"If anyone does not agree that holy Mary is Mother
of God, he is at odds with the Godhead" (Letter to Cledonius the Priest
101 [A.D. 382]).
Jerome
"As to how a virgin became the Mother of God, he
[Rufinus] has full knowledge; as to how he himself was born, he knows nothing"
(Against Rufinus 2:10 [A.D. 401]).
"Do not marvel at the novelty of the thing, if
a Virgin gives birth to God" (Commentaries on Isaiah 3:7:15 [A.D.
409]).
Theodore of Mopsuestia
"When, therefore, they ask, ‘Is Mary mother of
man or Mother of God?’ we answer, ‘Both!’ The one by the very nature of
what was done and the other by relation" (The Incarnation
15 [A.D. 405]).
Cyril of Alexandria
"I have been amazed that some are utterly in doubt
as to whether or not the holy Virgin is able to be called the Mother of
God. For if our Lord Jesus Christ is God, how should the holy Virgin who
bore him not be the Mother of God?" (Letter to the Monks of Egypt
1 [A.D. 427]).
"This expression, however, ‘the Word was made flesh’
[John 1:14], can mean nothing else but that he partook of flesh and blood
like to us; he made our body his own, and came forth man from a woman,
not casting off his existence as God, or his generation of God the Father,
but even in taking to himself flesh remaining what he was. This the declaration
of the correct faith proclaims everywhere. This was the sentiment of the
holy Fathers; therefore they ventured to call the holy Virgin ‘the Mother
of God,’ not as if the nature of the Word or his divinity had its beginning
from the holy Virgin, but because of her was born that holy body with a
rational soul, to which the Word, being personally united, is said to be
born according to the flesh" (First Letter to Nestorius [A.D. 430]).
"And since the holy Virgin corporeally brought
forth God made one with flesh according to nature, for this reason we also
call her Mother of God, not as if the nature of the Word had the beginning
of its existence from the flesh" (Third Letter to Nestorius [A.D.
430]).
"If anyone will not confess that the Emmanuel is
very God, and that therefore the holy Virgin is the Mother of God, inasmuch
as in the flesh she bore the Word of God made flesh [John 1:14]: let him
be anathema" (ibid.).
John Cassian
"Now, you heretic, you say (whoever you are who
deny that God was born of the Virgin), that Mary, the Mother of our Lord
Jesus Christ, cannot be called the Mother of God, but the Mother only of
Christ and not of God—for no one, you say, gives birth to one older than
herself. And concerning this utterly stupid argument . . . let us prove
by divine testimonies both that Christ is God and that Mary is the Mother
of God" (On the Incarnation of Christ Against Nestorius 2:2 [A.D.
429]).
"You cannot then help admitting that the grace
comes from God. It is God, then, who has given it. But it has been given
by our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore the Lord Jesus Christ is God. But if
he is God, as he certainly is, then she who bore God is the Mother of God"
(ibid., 2:5).
Council of Ephesus
"We confess, then, our Lord Jesus Christ, the only
begotten Son of God, perfect God and perfect man, of a rational soul and
a body, begotten before all ages from the Father in his Godhead, the same
in the last days, for us and for our salvation, born of Mary the Virgin
according to his humanity, one and the same consubstantial with the Father
in Godhead and consubstantial with us in humanity, for a union of two natures
took place. Therefore we confess one Christ, one Son, one Lord. According
to this understanding of the unconfused union, we confess the holy Virgin
to be the Mother of God because God the Word took flesh and became man
and from his very conception united to himself the temple he took from
her" (Formula of Union [A.D. 431]).
Vincent of Lerins
"Nestorius, whose disease is of an opposite kind,
while pretending that he holds two distinct substances in Christ, brings
in of a sudden two persons, and with unheard-of wickedness would have two
sons of God, two Christs,—one, God, the other, man; one, begotten
of his Father, the other, born of his mother. For which reason he maintains
that Saint Mary ought to be called, not the Mother of God, but the Mother
of Christ" (The Notebooks 12[35] [A.D. 434]).
NIHIL OBSTAT:
I have concluded that the materials
presented in this work are free of doctrinal or moral errors.
Bernadeane Carr, STL, Censor Librorum, August 10, 2004
IMPRIMATUR:
In accord with 1983 CIC 827
permission to publish this work is hereby granted.
+Robert H. Brom, Bishop of San Diego, August 10, 2004
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Interested in reading more about Mary and the Saints?
Check out these wonderful titles from the Mary and the Saints section of our online Catalogue
(links open in a new window):
Mary
Refuting the Attack on Mary, Father Mateo
Mary, the Second Eve, John Henry Newman
True Devotion To Mary, St. Louis De Montfort
Hail, Holy Queen: The Mother of God In The Word of God, Scott Hahn
Mary, Our Jewish Mother - Audio, Rosalind Moss
God's Plan of Salvation: Immaculately Conceived - Audio, Scott Hahn
Mary, the Mother of God - Video, Stephen Ray
Mary and The Saints - Video, Marcellino D'Ambrosio
Rosary
A Young Person's Guide To The Rosary And Confession, Catholic Answers
Saints
Relics, Joan Carroll Cruz
The Many Faces of Virtue, Donald Demarco
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