45. Mary’s Divine Motherhood
The divine motherhood of Mary is the principal and central mystery of her life. All of the other mysteries, privileges, and perfections of the Virgin Mary are based on her divine motherhood.
Something similar occurs with the person of Jesus Christ. The hypostatic union—the union of Jesus’ human and divine natures in the divine Person of the Word—is the principal mystery of his life. All of the other mysteries depend on and originate from the hypostatic union.
We will, then, first study the divine motherhood of Mary, which is the greatest privilege and the greatest gift granted by God to any created being.
1. Mary, the Mother of God
The Holy Virgin Mary is, truly and rightfully, the Mother of God (de fide).
In the Creed, we confess our faith in Jesus Christ “who, for us men and for our salvation, came down from heaven, was born of the Virgin Mary by the power of the Holy Spirit, and became man.” The divine motherhood of Mary is professed by these words of the Creed. So that no one may doubt it, the Church, in the Council of Ephesus (a.d. 431), defined: “The Holy Virgin is … Mother of God, for she gave birth in the flesh to the Word of God made flesh.”1 In the Council of Chalcedon (a.d. 451), the Church taught that “in his humanity, [Christ] was begotten in this last age of Mary the Virgin, the Mother of God.”2 Further, the Church insists “that in the proper sense and in all truth she is Mother of God.”3
The doctrine of Mary’s divine motherhood is taught implicitly by Sacred Scripture, especially in passages wherein Mary is called “Mother of Jesus” or “Mother of Christ.” The word mother, applied to Mary in passages that relate the conception and birth of Jesus Christ (cf. Mt 1; Lk 2) as well as in other passages of the New Testament, does not have any meaning other than the most common one. The announcement of the archangel Gabriel alludes to this very sense: “And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus” (Lk 1:31).
Sacred Scripture also explicitly states in several passages that Mary is truly the Mother of God. Such are the words of the archangel Gabriel when he tells Mary, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God” (Lk 1:35). Likewise, one discerns it when St. Elizabeth greets Mary with the following words: “And why is this granted me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” (Lk 1:43). St. Paul also tells us that Mary is the Mother of God: “God sent forth his Son, born of a woman” (Gal 4:4).
Sacred Tradition also teaches this doctrine. The Fathers of the Church firmly held that Mary is the Mother of God. Thus, St. Ignatius of Antioch wrote, “The Son of God was truly born of a Virgin,”4 and St. Irenaeus declared, “This Christ, who as the Word [Logos] of the Father was with the Father … was born of a Virgin.”5
The Greek word Theotokos (“Mother of God”) was already used to refer to the Virgin Mary by Alexander, Bishop of Alexandria, as early as the year 318.6 Later, its use spread throughout the Christian world.
Heretics have held teachings opposed to this doctrine. In the first century, the docetae claimed that the body of Jesus was not real and compared it to the “bodies” that angels assume during their apparitions to men. Consequently, they denied that Mary was really the Mother of Jesus and, therefore, the Mother of God. In the fifth century, Nestorius began to teach that Mary was the Mother of Christ only in his humanity. Because of this, he claimed that she should not be called the Mother of God, but only the bearer of God.
Speculative theology can prove that Mary is the Mother of God. Mothers give birth to persons, not just natures, even though they only engender the bodies of their children while God creates each human soul. Similarly, even if it is true that Mary only engendered the body of Jesus, she nevertheless gave birth to a Person, a divine Person: the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity made man.
It is, therefore, understandable why many Christological errors directly oppose Mary’s divine motherhood. In recent years, the Magisterium of the Church has confronted these errors. The declaration Mysterium Filii Dei, for example, recalled the doctrine affirmed by the first ecumenical councils and admonished those who deny the unity of natures in the one divine Person of Jesus Christ.7
The intimate relationship that exists between the mystery of Christ’s being and the Most Blessed Virgin’s divine motherhood is revealed in this very doctrine.8
When the Blessed Virgin said “Yes,” freely, to the plans revealed to her by the Creator, the divine Word assumed a human nature: a rational soul and a body, which was formed in the most pure womb of Mary. The divine nature and the human were united in a single Person: Jesus Christ, true God and, thenceforth, true man; the only-begotten and eternal Son of the Father and, from that moment on, as Man, the true Son of Mary. This is why our Lady is the Mother of the Incarnate Word, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity who has united our human nature to himself forever, without any confusion of the two natures. The greatest praise we can give to the Blessed Virgin is to address her loud and clear by the name that expresses her very highest dignity: Mother of God.9
2. Mary, Temple of the Holy Spirit
The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that, when the fullness of time came, the Holy Spirit accomplished in Mary the preparations for the coming of Christ to the people of God.10 Through the Holy Spirit’s action in her, the Father gave the Immanuel—“God with us”—to the world.
· In Mary, the Holy Spirit accomplished the compassionate design of God: The Virgin conceived by the Holy Spirit and gave birth to the Son of God.
· In Mary, the Holy Spirit manifested the Son of the Father made Son of the Virgin. She is the burning bush. Full of the Holy Spirit, Mary presents the Word to mankind.
· Through Mary, the Holy Spirit began to place humans in communion with Christ. The shepherds, the Magi, Simeon and Anna, the spouses at Cana, and the disciples were the first to receive Jesus through Mary.
· Mary, Mother of the “total Christ,” was present with the twelve apostles at the dawn of the “last times” when the Holy Spirit manifested the Church.
3. Mary’s Divine Motherhood is a Gift
“God sent forth his Son” (Gal 4:4), but to form his Son’s body, he wanted the free cooperation of a creature. Thus, God chose a daughter of Israel to be the Mother of his Son and sent his angel “to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary” (Lk 1:27). God chose one who was thought to be weak to show his fidelity to his promises. “After a long period of waiting the times are fulfilled in her, the exalted Daughter of Sion, and the new plan of salvation is established.”11
Mary’s divine motherhood is a free supernatural gift granted to her by God. This gift is intimately connected with the Incarnation of the Son of God. Consequently, in the bull Ineffabilis Deus (1854), Pope Pius IX taught, “By one and the same eternal decree, God has predestined Jesus to a natural divine filiation and Mary to be the Mother of God.… By one and the same eternal decree, Jesus was predetermined to be the Son of the Most High and Mary the Mother of God.”12
4. Mary’s Dignity
Due to her divine Motherhood, Mary’s dignity surpasses that of all created persons (common teaching).
The eminent dignity of the Virgin Mary is explicitly revealed in Sacred Scripture. St. Elizabeth did not hesitate to tell Our Lady, “Blessed are you among women” (Lk 1:42). The Blessed Virgin herself, full of gratitude to God, sang in the canticle of the Magnificat, “he has regarded the low estate of his handmaiden. For behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed” (Lk 1:48).
The Fathers of the Church taught the doctrine of the Virgin Mary’s excellence with words like the following ones of Origen: ‘“Hail, full of grace.’ This greeting is addressed only to Mary.”13 Likewise, St. John Damascene remarked, “She has power over all creatures, because she is the handmaid and Mother of the Creator.”14
Reason enlightened by faith can prove that the dignity of Mary, as Mother of God, is superior to that of any other creature. In conceiving the body of Christ and giving birth to the divine Person of the Lord, Mary established a direct relationship with the Person of the Incarnate Word. Aside from Christ’s, no union between humanity and divinity is more perfect than Mary’s union. For the same reason, her dignity and beatitude—derived from her perfect sanctity: full of grace—are superior to the bliss of all saints, which consists only in knowing and loving God.
Footnotes;
1. DS 252.
2. DS 301.
3. DS 427; cf. CCC, 466–470, 484–486, 495.
4. St. Ignatius of Antioch, Eph. 7.2.
5. St. Irenaeus, Ep. 53.
6. Cf. Ep. 1.12.
7. Cf. Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Decl. Mysterium Filii, Feb. 21, 1972.
8. Cf. CCC, 470.
9. St. Josemaría Escrivá, Friends of God, 274.
10. Cf. CCC, 721–726.
11. LG, 55; cf CCC, 488–489.
12. Pius IX, Bull Ineffabilis Deus, Dec. 8, 1854: DS 2803.
13. Origen, In Luc. Hom., 6.
14. St. John Damascene, De Fide Orth., 4.14.
Something similar occurs with the person of Jesus Christ. The hypostatic union—the union of Jesus’ human and divine natures in the divine Person of the Word—is the principal mystery of his life. All of the other mysteries depend on and originate from the hypostatic union.
We will, then, first study the divine motherhood of Mary, which is the greatest privilege and the greatest gift granted by God to any created being.
1. Mary, the Mother of God
The Holy Virgin Mary is, truly and rightfully, the Mother of God (de fide).
In the Creed, we confess our faith in Jesus Christ “who, for us men and for our salvation, came down from heaven, was born of the Virgin Mary by the power of the Holy Spirit, and became man.” The divine motherhood of Mary is professed by these words of the Creed. So that no one may doubt it, the Church, in the Council of Ephesus (a.d. 431), defined: “The Holy Virgin is … Mother of God, for she gave birth in the flesh to the Word of God made flesh.”1 In the Council of Chalcedon (a.d. 451), the Church taught that “in his humanity, [Christ] was begotten in this last age of Mary the Virgin, the Mother of God.”2 Further, the Church insists “that in the proper sense and in all truth she is Mother of God.”3
The doctrine of Mary’s divine motherhood is taught implicitly by Sacred Scripture, especially in passages wherein Mary is called “Mother of Jesus” or “Mother of Christ.” The word mother, applied to Mary in passages that relate the conception and birth of Jesus Christ (cf. Mt 1; Lk 2) as well as in other passages of the New Testament, does not have any meaning other than the most common one. The announcement of the archangel Gabriel alludes to this very sense: “And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus” (Lk 1:31).
Sacred Scripture also explicitly states in several passages that Mary is truly the Mother of God. Such are the words of the archangel Gabriel when he tells Mary, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God” (Lk 1:35). Likewise, one discerns it when St. Elizabeth greets Mary with the following words: “And why is this granted me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” (Lk 1:43). St. Paul also tells us that Mary is the Mother of God: “God sent forth his Son, born of a woman” (Gal 4:4).
Sacred Tradition also teaches this doctrine. The Fathers of the Church firmly held that Mary is the Mother of God. Thus, St. Ignatius of Antioch wrote, “The Son of God was truly born of a Virgin,”4 and St. Irenaeus declared, “This Christ, who as the Word [Logos] of the Father was with the Father … was born of a Virgin.”5
The Greek word Theotokos (“Mother of God”) was already used to refer to the Virgin Mary by Alexander, Bishop of Alexandria, as early as the year 318.6 Later, its use spread throughout the Christian world.
Heretics have held teachings opposed to this doctrine. In the first century, the docetae claimed that the body of Jesus was not real and compared it to the “bodies” that angels assume during their apparitions to men. Consequently, they denied that Mary was really the Mother of Jesus and, therefore, the Mother of God. In the fifth century, Nestorius began to teach that Mary was the Mother of Christ only in his humanity. Because of this, he claimed that she should not be called the Mother of God, but only the bearer of God.
Speculative theology can prove that Mary is the Mother of God. Mothers give birth to persons, not just natures, even though they only engender the bodies of their children while God creates each human soul. Similarly, even if it is true that Mary only engendered the body of Jesus, she nevertheless gave birth to a Person, a divine Person: the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity made man.
It is, therefore, understandable why many Christological errors directly oppose Mary’s divine motherhood. In recent years, the Magisterium of the Church has confronted these errors. The declaration Mysterium Filii Dei, for example, recalled the doctrine affirmed by the first ecumenical councils and admonished those who deny the unity of natures in the one divine Person of Jesus Christ.7
The intimate relationship that exists between the mystery of Christ’s being and the Most Blessed Virgin’s divine motherhood is revealed in this very doctrine.8
When the Blessed Virgin said “Yes,” freely, to the plans revealed to her by the Creator, the divine Word assumed a human nature: a rational soul and a body, which was formed in the most pure womb of Mary. The divine nature and the human were united in a single Person: Jesus Christ, true God and, thenceforth, true man; the only-begotten and eternal Son of the Father and, from that moment on, as Man, the true Son of Mary. This is why our Lady is the Mother of the Incarnate Word, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity who has united our human nature to himself forever, without any confusion of the two natures. The greatest praise we can give to the Blessed Virgin is to address her loud and clear by the name that expresses her very highest dignity: Mother of God.9
2. Mary, Temple of the Holy Spirit
The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that, when the fullness of time came, the Holy Spirit accomplished in Mary the preparations for the coming of Christ to the people of God.10 Through the Holy Spirit’s action in her, the Father gave the Immanuel—“God with us”—to the world.
· In Mary, the Holy Spirit accomplished the compassionate design of God: The Virgin conceived by the Holy Spirit and gave birth to the Son of God.
· In Mary, the Holy Spirit manifested the Son of the Father made Son of the Virgin. She is the burning bush. Full of the Holy Spirit, Mary presents the Word to mankind.
· Through Mary, the Holy Spirit began to place humans in communion with Christ. The shepherds, the Magi, Simeon and Anna, the spouses at Cana, and the disciples were the first to receive Jesus through Mary.
· Mary, Mother of the “total Christ,” was present with the twelve apostles at the dawn of the “last times” when the Holy Spirit manifested the Church.
3. Mary’s Divine Motherhood is a Gift
“God sent forth his Son” (Gal 4:4), but to form his Son’s body, he wanted the free cooperation of a creature. Thus, God chose a daughter of Israel to be the Mother of his Son and sent his angel “to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary” (Lk 1:27). God chose one who was thought to be weak to show his fidelity to his promises. “After a long period of waiting the times are fulfilled in her, the exalted Daughter of Sion, and the new plan of salvation is established.”11
Mary’s divine motherhood is a free supernatural gift granted to her by God. This gift is intimately connected with the Incarnation of the Son of God. Consequently, in the bull Ineffabilis Deus (1854), Pope Pius IX taught, “By one and the same eternal decree, God has predestined Jesus to a natural divine filiation and Mary to be the Mother of God.… By one and the same eternal decree, Jesus was predetermined to be the Son of the Most High and Mary the Mother of God.”12
4. Mary’s Dignity
Due to her divine Motherhood, Mary’s dignity surpasses that of all created persons (common teaching).
The eminent dignity of the Virgin Mary is explicitly revealed in Sacred Scripture. St. Elizabeth did not hesitate to tell Our Lady, “Blessed are you among women” (Lk 1:42). The Blessed Virgin herself, full of gratitude to God, sang in the canticle of the Magnificat, “he has regarded the low estate of his handmaiden. For behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed” (Lk 1:48).
The Fathers of the Church taught the doctrine of the Virgin Mary’s excellence with words like the following ones of Origen: ‘“Hail, full of grace.’ This greeting is addressed only to Mary.”13 Likewise, St. John Damascene remarked, “She has power over all creatures, because she is the handmaid and Mother of the Creator.”14
Reason enlightened by faith can prove that the dignity of Mary, as Mother of God, is superior to that of any other creature. In conceiving the body of Christ and giving birth to the divine Person of the Lord, Mary established a direct relationship with the Person of the Incarnate Word. Aside from Christ’s, no union between humanity and divinity is more perfect than Mary’s union. For the same reason, her dignity and beatitude—derived from her perfect sanctity: full of grace—are superior to the bliss of all saints, which consists only in knowing and loving God.
Footnotes;
1. DS 252.
2. DS 301.
3. DS 427; cf. CCC, 466–470, 484–486, 495.
4. St. Ignatius of Antioch, Eph. 7.2.
5. St. Irenaeus, Ep. 53.
6. Cf. Ep. 1.12.
7. Cf. Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Decl. Mysterium Filii, Feb. 21, 1972.
8. Cf. CCC, 470.
9. St. Josemaría Escrivá, Friends of God, 274.
10. Cf. CCC, 721–726.
11. LG, 55; cf CCC, 488–489.
12. Pius IX, Bull Ineffabilis Deus, Dec. 8, 1854: DS 2803.
13. Origen, In Luc. Hom., 6.
14. St. John Damascene, De Fide Orth., 4.14.