Mother of God.
Christmas
celebrates the incarnation of God becomes Man.
As the Catholic Church celebrates the Octave of Christmas solemnly for
eight days, the concluding day on January 1st is the Solemnity of Mary the Holy
Mother of God.
We see the expression of Mary as the Mother of the Lord, of God, in the New Testament. St. Elizabeth, then over six months’ pregnant
with St. John the Baptist, greets the Blessed Virgin
Mary, then early in her pregnancy with Jesus, saying, “And why is this granted me, that
the mother of my Lord should come to me?” (Lk 1:43.) We know from the Old
Testament that the Hebrews and their descendants would not pronounce out loud
the Divine Name (transliterated as YHWH) but would instead speak out loud “the
Lord.” Even in almost all English Bibles, “the Lord” (usually written with all
caps) is printed instead of the Divine Name used in the original text.
Here Elizabeth specifies, "my Lord,” clearly denoting God. “Mother of
my Lord,” she says, which is the same as saying, “Mother of my God.”
Christians spoke of Mary as the Mother of
God right from the beginning. St.
Ignatius of Antioch, a disciple of the Apostle John, wrote (c. 110 AD), “For
our God, Jesus Christ, was conceived by Mary in accord with God’s plan.” St. Irenaeus of Lyons, a disciple of St.
Ignatius, wrote (c. 180-199 AD), “The Virgin Mary ... being obedient to His
word, received from an angel the glad tidings that she would bear God.”
It is only logical. If Jesus is God and Mary is His mother, then
it is quite right to speak of Mary as the Mother of God. Not to do so is to deny the incarnation. But how can a creature be the mother of the
Creator? By God’s design. The eternal Son of God (Luke 1:35) became
human and was born of woman (Galatians 4:4).
Elizabeth recognized this by the Holy Spirit when she called Mary the
“Mother of my Lord” (Luke 1:43) – “Lord” in the New Testament refers only to
God. So “Mother of God” is really a
Biblical expression.
That Mary should be called the Mother of
God was never even an issue in the 16th Century Reformation. The leaders of the Reformation – Martin
Luther, John Calvin, Ulrich Zwingli – all spoke of Mary as the Mother of God,
that being her highest honor.
There have only been two times in history
that the title, “Mother of God,” has been challenged. First, in AD 428, Nestorius, Patriarch of
Constantinople, promoted a teaching that Jesus is two distinct persons (not one),
and that Mary is the mother of the human person only, so refused to use call
her “Mother of God” (“Theotokos”) and instead called her “Mother of Christ” (“Khristotokos”).
A huge controversy broke out. The central issue here is not who Mary is but who
Jesus is – is He one person or two?
Basically, Nestorius said the Word (Divine) took on the appearance
(only) of a man. So, Nestorius said, Christ the man died on the cross, but not
the Word (God). The Church’s Council of
Ephesus (AD 431) dealt with this question, condemned Nestorius’ position as
heresy, and affirmed Mary’s title as “Mother of God” – thus preserving the correct
belief about Jesus: one Person with two
natures, divine and human.
The only other challenge to the title comes in more recent times when some Christians, growing up without the historic Apostolic faith, have rejected the title of “Mother of God” mistakenly thinking it gives too much glory to Mary – but all the while in ignorance that in so doing they are rejecting the truth about who Jesus Christ is. It is unfortunate.
Dibby Allan Green