| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
by Stephen N. Filippo
Mary’s Divine Motherhood is firmly rooted in Sacred Scripture. To find the first explicit references about Mary’s divine maternity, that she truly is the Mother of God, let us turn to Sacred Scripture:
In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said, "Hail full of grace, the Lord is with you!" But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and considered in her mind what sort of greeting this might be. And the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of David forever; and of his kingdom there will be no end." (Luke 1:26-35)
God sent an Archangel to Mary, to announce to her that she is "full of grace" and has "found favor with God." Therefore, she will conceive, carry in her womb and then bear His son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, the actual Son of the Most High God, who was born, "not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God" (John 1:13).
Mary wondered how this could be done since she was not married and therefore had no marital intimacy. In other words, she was still a virgin:
-
And Mary said to the angel, "How can this be, since I have no husband?" And the angel said to her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child born to you will be called holy, the Son of God. (Luke 1:34-35)
The Early Church Fathers on Mary’s Divine Motherhood
The early Church Fathers also taught that Mary is indeed the Mother of God. St. Ignatius of Antioch (d. cir. 110 AD), taught directly by the Apostles, tells us in his letter to the Ephesians that, "Our God, Jesus Christ, was conceived by Mary in accord with God’s plan:
of the seed of David it is true, but also of the Holy Spirit."1 Therefore, God is the inseminating husband of Mary, whose "power" overshadowed her, and allowed her to conceive in her womb, without the aid of man. Through a divine spark He ignited in her womb, the Incarnation: God became man. Through a divine spark He united in her womb the material world with the spiritual world:
-
"And the Word became flesh and dwelt amongst us" (John 1:14). Therefore, since God made all matter from the first moment in creation, but man had fallen greatly, God made human flesh sacred again, through the Incarnation of His Son. Therefore, Mary's Motherhood is of divine origin. This also explains why St. Joseph is simply the foster father of Jesus, and not His biological father.
-
Nevertheless, what cannot be said of anyone lese who ever lived, that He is Himself in His own right God and Lord and Eternal king and Only-begotten and Incarnate Word, proclaimed as such by all the Prophets and by the Apostles and by the Spirit Himself, may be seen by all who have attained to even a small portion of the truth. The Scriptures would not have borne witness to these things concerning Him, if, like everyone else, He were mere man. But that He had in Himself what no other ever had, that pre-eminent generation by the Most High Father; and that He also experienced that pre-eminent birth from a virgin –the divine Scriptures testify to both in His regard.2 . . . Therefore, "The Virgin Mary, . . . being obedient to His word, received from an angel the glad tidings that she would bear God."3
St. Ephraim, (c.306-373 AD) Father and Doctor of the Church, also called "harp of the Holy Spirit," in one of his hymns to Mary says:
-
In the womb of Mary the Infant was formed, who from eternity is equal to the Father. He imparted to us His greatness, and took on our infirmity. He became mortal like us and joined His life to ours, so that we might die no more. This Virgin became a Mother, while preserving her virginity; and though still a virgin she carried a Child in her womb; and the handmaid and work of his Wisdom became the Mother of God.5
St. Gregory of Nazianz, (c.330-389), Church Father and one of the eight Universal Doctors of the Church, says that to not believe that Mary truly is the Mother of God is to be outside the Church:
-
If anyone does not agree that Holy Mary is the Mother of God, he is at odds with the Godhead. If anyone asserts that Christ passed through the Virgin as through a channel, and was not shaped in her both divinely and humanly, divinely because without man and humanly in accord with the law of gestation, he is likewise godless. If anyone assert that His manhood was formed, to be clothed over afterwards with divinity, he too is condemned.6
At the General Council of Ephesus in 431 AD the Church declared as dogma that Mary is Theotokos: "Holy Mother of God," the maternal parent of Our Lord God Jesus Christ, not merely Christotokos; the Mother of Christ the man, because Mary truly bore God in her womb and gave physical birth to Him. At the time, some theologians had objected to calling her the Mother of God on the grounds that she participated in giving birth to His human nature only, not His divinity. The Council countered by pointing out that it was not His human nature alone that she gave birth to, but the entire person, the God-man, and that Person is divine. Since Mary conceived the second person of the Holy Trinity incarnate, she is truly the "Holy Mother of God." Therefore, the Council declared her, Theotokos, "Holy Mother of God."
Her divine maternity is intimately tied into His Sacred Humanity. So, the General Council of Ephesus very clearly pronounced the correct Christology in reference to the Incarnation for all time: First, by explaining that the Divinity remained intact:
-
For we do not say that the nature of the Word became flesh by undergoing a change, nor that it was transformed into a complete man, made up of soul and body. Rather, we affirm that the Word, having united to Himself according to the hypostasis [union of God with flesh] the flesh animated by a rational soul, became man in an ineffable and incomprehensible manner and was called Son of man. This union is not merely according to the will or to good pleasure; nor does it consist in the assumption of a personality.
-
It was not that first an ordinary man was born of the Holy Virgin, on whom afterwards the Word descended; what we say is that being united with the flesh from the womb, (the Word) has undergone birth in the flesh, making the birth in the flesh His own . . . Thus the Holy Fathers have unhesitatingly called the Holy Virgin "Mother of God" (Theotokos). (DS 605)8
St. Cyril, (d. cir. 441 AD) Church Father and Doctor, then Bishop of Alexandria, who presided over the General Council of Ephesus, writes elsewhere:
-
I have been amazed that some are utterly in doubt as to whether or not the Holy Virgin is able to be called 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? But perhaps then you will inquire: "Tell me, then, was the Virgin the Mother of His divinity?" And to this we will respond that His living and enhypostate Word is confessedly begotten of the very essence of the God and Father and has His subsistence without a beginning in time, always co-existing with the Father who begot Him, co-subsisting and co-discerning in Him and with Him. And in these last times of the age, when He was made flesh, that is, when He was united to a body having a rational soul, He is said to have been born also in fleshy manner of a woman.9
Therefore:
We confess therefore that our Lord Jesus Christ is the Only-begotten Son of God, perfect God and perfect Man, having a rational soul and a body; according to his divinity born of the Father before the ages, and in these last days, according to His humanity, born of the Virgin Mary for us and our salvation. According to His divinity He is consubstantial with the Father, and according to his humanity He is consubstantial with us. A union was made of the two natures, on which account we confess one Christ, one Son, one Lord [one divine person]. In accord with this understanding of the unconfused union we confess that the Holy Virgin is the Mother of God, through God the Word’s being incarnate and becoming Man, and, from His conception, His joining to Himself the temple assumed from her.10
Under the title, "Holy Mother of God," we re-cognize that the Blessed Virgin Mary is truly the maternal parent of Our Lord God, Jesus Christ, who, at the same time, is her and our God. This divine maternity imputed a very special calling to her.
The Archangel St. Gabriel simply and sublimely addressed her, "Hail full of grace, the Lord is with you!" (Luke 1:27) Imagine waking up one day and being addressed by an Archangel! How many human beings have had that experience? But many have had the experience of motherhood. Therefore, Mary is the example par excellence for all mothers to imitate and model their lives on.
Hymns Portraying Mary as the Holy Mother of God
The first two verses of an ancient hymn to Mary found in the Breviary shed light on her Divine Moth-erhood from another perspective, that of the immense wonder and awe of the miracle of the creature bearing her Creator:
The God whom earth and sea and sky,
Adore and laud and magnify,
Whose might they own, whose praise they tell,
In Mary’s body deigned to dwell.
O Mother blest! The chosen shrine
Wherein the Architect divine,
Whose hands contain the earth and sky,
Vouchsafed in hidden guise to lie.11
Written by Venantius Fortunatus (530-609 AD), the hymn magnificently describes the wondrous munificence, magnanimity and incredible condes-cension of our great God in sublime humility. God gives to Mary what no other human being has ever received: a chance to cooperate uniquely in the Redemption of mankind; for the creature to participate in the birth of the Creator, for mere dust to help form the divinity.
Sacred Tradition Testifies to Mary’s Divine Maternity
The Apostles Creed (c.100 AD) testifies that Jesus "was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary." This means that the third person of the Holy Blessed Trinity came down from heaven and intermingled with Mary’s flesh to unite the human with the divine life of the second person of the Holy Blessed Trinity, the Son. He is true God and true man, His human nature like ours in all things except He could not sin (Our Lord’s inability to sin is called the doctrine of impeccability). Therefore, from all eternity the Most Blessed Trinity had their eye on Mary, anticipating her, giving to her alone graces beyond our wildest dreams, richness of life, inner beauty beyond human comprehension, intimate divine friendship and their love, far beyond "what no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived" (1 Cor. 2:9).
Therefore, Mary Has a Special Place of Honor and Privilege in the Church. That she is truly the Mother of God is confirmed by the Church’s actions. Next to the Holy Blessed Trinity, the Blessed Virgin Mary should be most highly esteemed, venerated, prayed to, talked to and invited into one’s heart and life. If one wishes to win the Son, win the Mother first. This is why the Church has from earliest times, extended to her the cult of hyperdulia. Worship and adoration belong to God alone. Adoration is the act of religion whereby the human mind and will recognize that God alone deserves supreme honor because of His infinite sovereignty and dominion over His creatures, as well as His infinite perfections. We ack-nowledge our complete dependence upon Him. In return, we offer Him deeply sincere words and postu-res of praise, piety, prayer and sacrifice. The Church calls this highest form of worship and honor: latria, which is due God alone.
To the saints, on the other hand, we offer dulia, the reverence or honor given to angels and holy persons because they are friends of God. To Mary, we offer hyperdulia: special veneration due Mary alone because of her unique role in salvation history; her extreme closeness and intimate friendship with God, but less than that worship and adoration reserved for God alone:
-
Holier than the cherubim and seraphim, she enjoys unquestionably greater glory than all the other Saints, for she is full of grace (Luke 1:28), she is the Mother of God, who happily gave birth to the Redeemer for us . . . She teaches us all the virtues; she gives us her Son and with him all the help we need – for God ‘wanted us to have everything through Mary (Saint Bernard)."12
-
Redeemed, in a more exalted fashion, by reason of the merits of her Son and united to Him by a close and indistinguishable tie, she is endowed with the high office and dignity of the Mother of the Son of God and therefore she is also the bel-oved daughter of the Father and the temple of the Holy Spirit. Because of this gift of sublime grace she far surpasses all creatures, both in heaven and on earth.13
The Consequences of Not Accepting Mary as the True Mother of God
To disbelieve that Mary is truly the Holy Mother of God has serious consequences. While to deny that Mary is truly the Holy Mother of God does not necessarily mean that one also denies the divinity of Christ (because one can still erroneously hold to certain half truths about her participation), it is nonetheless a major step in that direction as well as an incorrect understanding of her, the nature of her Son and the truth as taught by the Church and does sooner or later lead to heresy unless rectified. However, if one denies the divinity of Christ, then he could not have redeemed the world nor forgiven mankind’s sins. Thus, the gates of heaven are still shut from Adam and Eve’s original sin and no one is saved. Maybe there is no salvation at all, much less an afterlife. Thus, there is no need to call on God for His help, His salvific and efficacious grace. Or, if one were to believe the gates of heaven open regardless, and one were to still believe in an afterlife, they would be Pelagian (denying the need of God’s grace for salvation): I can through the sheer power of my own free will, choose good thoughts, words and deeds and therefore, by my own effort, gain salvation. Again, no need to call on God’s help and grace. Catholicism is reduced to a type of gnosticism: a religion that teaches salvation merely by the special knowledge of revealed truths, not one also based upon the forgiveness of sin and God’s grace.
Since one’s acceptance or rejection of Mary as the Holy Mother of God has serious consequences, the early Church Fathers went out of their way to protect and defend their beliefs about Mary, beliefs that were passed down to them directly from the Apostles, beliefs without which too many other doctrines of the faith crumble. Therefore, at the General Council of Ephesus in 431AD, the Catholic Church formally defined and pronounced Mary’s true personhood to include all that it means to be the "Holy Mother of God" for all time. And we today carry on this wonderful, deep dogma of the Blessed Virgin Mary because it is part of the rich, unchanging Sacred Tradition of the Church.
- 1 William A. Jurgens. (Ed.) The Faith of the Early Fathers. Vol. I., The Liturgical Press: Collegeville, MN., 1970, #42, p.18.
- 2 Ibid., #223, p. 93.
- 3 Ibid., #256a, p. 101.
- 4 Ibid., #680, p. 301.
- 5 Ibid., #711, p. 213.
- 6 William A. Jurgens. (Ed.) The Faith of the Early Fathers. Vol. II., The Liturgical Press: Collegeville, MN., 1979, #1017, pp. 40-41.
- 7 J. Neuner & J. Dupuis, S.J. (Eds.) The Christian Faith: Doctrinal Documents of the Catholic Church. Alba House: New York, 1990, #604, p. 160.
- 8 Ibid, #605, p. 160.
- 9 William A. Jurgens. (Ed.) The Faith of the Early Fathers. Vol. III., The Liturgical Press, Collegeville, MN., 1979, #2058-2059, pp. 206-207.
- 10 Ibid., #2060, p 207.
- 11 The Liturgy of the Hours, Vol. IV., Catholic Book Publishing Co.: NY., 1975, p. 1628.
- 12 Pius XII. Mediator Dei. #169.
- 13 Austin Flannery, O.P. Vatican Council II: The Conciliar and post Conciliar Documents. Dominican Publications, Dublin 1, Ireland, 1992 (2nd Ed.), Lumen Gentium #53, p. 414.
Mr. Stephen N. Filippo, MA., SYD., has been teaching Theology and Philosophy on both the high school and university level for the past five years. He is also a parish DRE.
Back to Catholic Faith January/February 2001 Table of Contents