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MARIOLOGY
Mary, Mother
of God and Mother of the Church
by Kevin M. Britt, M.A., M.Div., D.D.
The Blessed Virgin Mary is the most unique woman in the history of the world. What other woman has ever been written about as much as she? What woman's name is more famous than hers? What woman's name has been taken by others as their own more than hers? "None, other than Mary," we must respond to such questions.
References and data on the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Bible are found primarily in the New Testament, though certain passages of the Old Testament, as interpreted by inspired writers in the New Testament, concern her. It is interesting to note that in the New Testament the name "Mary" is used fifty-five times and only twenty-two of these references refer to Mary the Mother of Jesus; the others are to Mary Magdalene, Mary the sister of Martha and Lazarus, Mary the mother of James and John (also known as Mark), and the wife of Clopas. The sparseness of historical detail concerning the Mother of Jesus is due to the theologically disciplined writing peculiar to Sacred Scripture: the interest of the inspired writers lies in the salvific action of God in history. Endeavoring to keep the divine activity in history foremost, they content themselves with only that data necessary to provide the minimal historical setting that renders the work of God comprehensible to their readers.
"The two basic Christian beliefs concerning Mary, the divine maternity and the virginal conception of Jesus, are clearly stated in the Gospels. Other beliefs are developed from these basic beliefs or are found in the traditional belief and cult of the Church" (Dictionary of the Bible, John L. McKenzie, S.J. Bruce Publishing Co., 1965, p. 552).
Not being a scripture scholar, I am not able to delve into all the intricacies of the inspired writers in outlining for us the reality of Mary as the Mother of God. However, a reading of the Gospels clearly demonstrates, in distinctive ways, the unique role Mary played in God's plan of Salvation. These inspired writers when speaking of Mary often convey a deeper theological meaning by their words than the average reader might pick up. Each Evangelist gives his own inspired reflection upon the reality of what God has brought upon this earth.
"The most important historical inference to be drawn from the Gospel data about Mary's life are the religious implications of the Lucan Annunciation scene. According to the Lucan theology, her understanding of herself and of her future underwent profound alteration due to the virginal conception of the messianic King. She was required thereafter to live in the obscurity of faith, awaiting the realization of the angelic prophecies concerning her Son. In the thought of Mt. 1:18-25, Joseph agreed to share this religious life of faith with her. That their married life would have pursued the normal course of preparing for other children besides Jesus seems excluded by the Lucan theology. This theology demands of Mary that she await the time for the manifestation of her choice by God as the Virgin Mother of His Son, the divine Messiah" (New Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. 9, p. 347).
Mary's role as Mother of God was from the very beginning a gift to the Church; for indeed, had she not accepted this call, where would we be? It has always been Mary's role to bring us Christ and to lead us to Christ. As the Catechism of the Catholic Church says: "What the Catholic faith believes about Mary is based on what it believes about Christ, and what it teaches about Mary illumines in turn its faith in Christ" (no. 487).
That true faith in Christ has been challenged more than once in the Church's history. Each time faith in Christ is challenged the Holy Spirit brings forth those who stand to defend the unchangeable truth.
The Nestorian heresy regarded Christ as a human person joined to the Divine Person of God's Son. Opposing this heresy, St. Cyril of Alexandria and the third ecumenical council at Ephesus in 431 confessed "that the Word, uniting to himself in his person the flesh animated by a rational soul, became man." Christ's humanity has no other subject than the Divine Person of the Son of God, who assumed it and made it His own, from His conception. For this reason, the Council of Ephesus proclaimed in 431 that Mary truly became the Mother of God by the human conception of the Son of God in her womb: "Mother of God, not that the nature of the Word or His divinity received the beginning of its existence from the Holy Virgin, but that, since the holy body, animated by a rational soul, which the Word of God united to Himself according to the hypostasis, was born from her, the Word is said to be born according to the flesh" (CCC #466).
Indeed, Mary became the instrument through which God sent His Son to redeem the world. Through the unflappable faith of this young Jewish maiden, heaven and earth are once again in tune. In her "fiat," her willingness to trust in God's word, the Holy Spirit brings flesh to that Word in a wonderful union of the Divine and human natures in the one Person of Jesus. It is the Holy Spirit who sanctifies the womb of the Virgin Mary, making it a holy place for the conception God's eternal Son in a human form as her own. Mary, the chosen one, was prepared by God through her own Immaculate Conception - the perfect vessel for the perfect gift. As the Fathers of the Second Vatican Council clearly stated: she "was enriched by God with gifts appropriate to such a role" (Gaudium et Spes no. 56). By the gift of God, Mary remained free of every personal sin her whole life. In this same document from Vatican II we read: "Thus, giving her consent to God's word, Mary becomes the mother of Jesus. Espousing the divine will for salvation wholeheartedly, without a single sin to restrain her, she gave herself entirely to the person and to the work of her Son; she did so in order to serve the mystery of redemption with him and dependent on him, by God's grace ..." (Gaudium et Spes no. 56).
Called in the Gospels "the mother of Jesus," Mary is acclaimed by Elizabeth at the prompting of the Spirit and even before the birth of her Son, as "the mother of my Lord." In fact, the One whom she conceived as Man by the Holy Spirit, who truly became her Son according to the flesh, was none other than the Father's eternal Son, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity. Hence the Church confesses that Mary is truly "Mother of God" (Theotokos) (CCC no. 495).
In the early centuries of the Church there began to arise a perception of the relationship between Mary and the Church. "The Fathers [i.e. of the early Church] pointed out that, as the Virgin Mary is the mother of Christ, so also the Church is virginal mother of men. Their reflections were deeply influenced by their perception of the likeness that both Our Lady and the Church have with Eve, mother of all the living. However, the parallelism between Mary and the Church was not a major theme in the patristic period. The same may be said of the Middle Ages. Some medieval authors presented the Blessed Virgin as the image and type of the Church, its most eminent member, and its loving Mother; some had nothing to say on the subject. After Albert the Great, the idea was neglected. The present age has returned to the inquiry because of a conviction that the analogy between Mary and the Church, far from being a secondary theme situated on the surface of Catholic teaching, is necessary for understanding the dogma of the Redemption" (New Catholic Encyclopedia, p. 354).
No place more clearly in the present age has the inquiry into the analogy between Mary and the Church been more strident than during the Second Vatican Council, particularly in the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church (Lumen Gentium). The Holy Father, Pope John Paul II in his weekly audience addressed the Council's teaching on Mary (December 13, 1995). The pope says:
The new schema on the Blessed Virgin, drafted so as to be included in the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, shows real doctrinal progress. The stress placed on Mary's faith and a more systematic concern to base Marian doctrine on Scripture are significant and useful elements for enriching the piety and esteem of the Christian People for the Blessed Mother of God.
Moreover, with the passing of time the danger of reductionism, feared by some fathers, proved to be unfounded. Mary's mission and privileges were amply reaffirmed; her cooperation in the divine plan of salvation was highlighted; the harmony of this cooperation with Christ's unique mediation appeared more evident.
For the first time, the conciliar magisterium offered the Church a doctrinal exposition of Mary's role in Christ's redemptive work in the life of the Church.
Thus, we must consider the council fathers' choice, which proved very fruitful for later doctrinal work, to have been a truly providential decision ...
The entire exposition in the eighth chapter of the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church clearly shows that terminological precautions did not prevent a very rich and positive presentation of basic doctrine, an expression of faith and love for her whom the Church acknowledges as Mother and Model.
On the other hand, the fathers' differing points of view, as they emerged during the conciliar debate, turned out to be providential, because, on the basis of their harmonious relationship, they have afforded the faith and devotion of the Christian people a more complete and balanced presentation of the marvelous identity of the Lord's Mother and of her exceptional role in the work of Redemption (The Pope Speaks, Vol. 41, No. 4, 1996, pp. 199-200).
What the council fathers developed in this important document on the Church at the Second Vatican Council is further illuminated and developed in the Catechism of the Catholic Church (nos. 963-975). In this segment of the Catechism is summarized Mary's role as Mother of Christ and Mother of the Church. By giving her fiat at the Annunciation and giving her consent to the Incarnation, Mary was already collaborating with the whole work her Son was to accomplish. She is Mother wherever He is Savior and Head of the Mystical Body (no. 973). Thus, we can say, if she is Mother of the Head, she is also Mother of the Body (Mother of God - Mother of the Church).
"We believe that the Holy Mother of God, the new Eve, Mother of the Church, continues in heaven to exercise her maternal role on behalf of the members of Christ" (Paul VI, CPG no. 15) (no. 975).
Taking its lead from the documents of the Council, the Catechism of the Catholic Church does not treat Mary's role in the plan of salvation in a separate chapter. It does so here in the pages devoted to Christ, inasmuch as she enjoys the unique privilege of being the Mother of God (nos. 487-507), but once again in the article on the Church as well, insofar as she is Mother and archetype of the Church (nos. 963-972) (Introduction to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, Ratzinger, Schoenborn, Ignatius Press, San Francisco, 1994, p. 72).
We Catholics have a unique and precious gift in the Motherhood of Mary. Not only is she the Mother of God but Mother of the Church, thus, our Mother as well through our union with Christ in Baptism. He born from the womb of Mary, we from the womb of the Church: He - Church - We - and Mary, Mother of all three.
Most Reverend Kevin M. Britt is Auxiliary Bishop of Detroit.