Jan 15 Wed
Does God have a Mother?
The celebration of Mary as the Mother of God is ancient. In 431, in the Council of Ephesus, the Church declared that Jesus is God, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity. But Nestorius, a heretic, disagreed. He considered Jesus only a prophet who received God’s inspiration.
Thus, since Jesus was only a man who was filled with God, Nestorius called Jesus the “God-carrier” (Theophoros). For him, Mary was not the Mother of God, but only the “Christ-bearer” (Christotokos).
The Council of Ephesus defended the truth about Jesus and Mary and declared her the “God-bearer,” (Theotokos), Mother of God.
The Archangel St. Gabriel used careful and prudent language when he announced Jesus’ birth. He did not speak of “what will be born IN you” to avoid the impression that a body would be introduced into her womb from outside. He spoke of “what will be born FROM you,” so that we might know by faith that Mary’s Child originated within her and from her.
By taking our nature and offering it in sacrifice, the Word was to recreate it completely and then invest it with his own nature, thus the Apostle wrote: “This corruptible body must put on incorruption; this mortal body must put on immortality.”
This was not done in outward show only, as some could imagine. This is not so. Our Savior truly became man, and from this followed the salvation of man as a whole. Our salvation is in no way fictitious, nor does it apply only to the body. The salvation of the whole man, that is, of soul and body, has been achieved in the Word himself.
What was born of Mary was therefore human by nature, in accordance with the Scriptures, and the body of the Lord was a true body: It was a true body because it was the same as ours. Mary, you see, is our sister, for we are all born from Adam.
In the Gospel of Luke, Elizabeth called Mary, the “Mother of my Lord.” The title “Lord” (Adonai) refers to the divine Name and Elizabeth acknowledged Mary as the “Mother of my God.”
With this in mind, we look again at the Gospel of Matthew: “A Virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel, which means, ‘God (Greek theos) with us’.” (Matthew 1:23). Mary is the virgin who will ‘bear’ the Child who is ‘God (theos) with us.’ In other words, Mary is the ‘God-bearer’ (Greek Theo-tokos).”
Early Christians understood that to deny that Mary was the “Mother of God” was to deny the essence of Christianity: God himself became human while remaining divine.
The words of St John, the Word was made flesh, have the same meaning, as seen in the phrase St Paul: “Christ was made a curse for our sake.” Man’s body has acquired something great through its union with the Word. From being mortal, man has been made immortal; though it was made from the earth, it should pass through the gates of heaven.
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