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Mary, Mother of God |
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Mary, Mother of God
Solemnity of the
Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God
January 1 |
The Blessed Virgin Mary is the mother of Jesus Christ, the mother of God.
Fundamentalists are sometimes horrified when the Virgin Mary is referred
to as the Mother of God. However, their reaction often rests upon a
misapprehension of not only what this particular title of Mary signifies
but also who Jesus was, and what their own theological forebears, the
Protestant Reformers, had to say regarding this doctrine.
A woman is a man’s mother either if she carried him in her womb or if she
was the woman contributing half of his genetic matter or both. Mary was
the mother of Jesus in both of these senses; because she not only carried
Jesus in her womb but also supplied all of the genetic matter for his
human body, since it was through her—not Joseph—that Jesus "was descended
from David according to the flesh" (Rom. 1:3).
Since Mary is Jesus’ mother, it must be concluded that she is also the
Mother of God: If Mary is the mother of Jesus, and if Jesus is God, then
Mary is the Mother of God. There is no way out of this logical syllogism,
the valid form of which has been recognized by classical logicians since
before the time of Christ.
Although Mary is the Mother of God, she is not his mother in the sense
that she is older than God or the source of her Son’s divinity, for she is
neither. Rather, we say that she is the Mother of God in the sense that
she carried in her womb a divine person—Jesus Christ, God "in the flesh"
(2 John 7, cf. John 1:14)—and in the sense that she contributed the
genetic matter to the human form God took in Jesus Christ.
To avoid this conclusion, Fundamentalists often assert that Mary did not
carry God in her womb, but only carried Christ’s human nature. This
assertion reinvents a heresy from the fifth century known as Nestorianism,
which runs aground on the fact that a mother does not merely carry the
human nature of her child in her womb. Rather, she carries the person of
her child. Women do not give birth to human natures; they give birth to
persons. Mary thus carried and gave birth to the person of Jesus Christ,
and the person she gave birth to was God.
The Nestorian claim that Mary did not give birth to the unified person of
Jesus Christ attempts to separate Christ’s human nature from his divine
nature, creating two separate and distinct persons—one divine and one
human—united in a loose affiliation. It is therefore a Christological
heresy, which even the Protestant Reformers recognized. Both Martin Luther
and John Calvin insisted on Mary’s divine maternity. In fact, it even
appears that Nestorius himself may not have believed the heresy named
after him. Further, the church he founded has now signed a joint
declaration on Christology with the Catholic Church and recognizes Mary’s
divine maternity, just as other Christians do.
Since denying that Mary is God’s mother implies doubt about Jesus’
divinity, it is clear why Christians (until recent times) have been
unanimous in proclaiming Mary as Mother of God. |
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