Mary, Mother of God

To fulfill my New Years Resolution to write more about Our Blessed Mother during 2017, I'll begin by discussing a Solemnity that already passed us by on Sunday, which also happened to be New Years Day.

Mary goes by many titles. We lovingly call her The Blessed Mother. She is also Queen of Heaven, as well as Our Lady of Consolation and Seat of Wisdom. Her titles also reference the places she has appeared, as in Our Lady of Fatima or Our Lady of Guadalupe. There are many more such designations that we could mention. Of all the names Our Lady is known by there is none that Catholics take more for granted, but that at the same time causes confusion or even revulsion among our separated brethren than that of Mother of God. 

This confusion among non Catholic Christians is understandable, but I wonder if even Catholics understand why we honor Mary under this title. But knowing that Mary is Mother of God is very important. As Deacon Kieth Fournier writes:

From antiquity, Mary has been called "Theotokos"[in Greek], or "God-Bearer" (Mother of God)... A pronouncement of ...The Council of Ephesus in 431 A.D., insisted "If anyone does not confess that God is truly Emmanuel, and that on this account the holy virgin is the "Theotokos" (for according to the flesh she gave birth to the word of God become flesh by birth) let him be anathema." (The Council of Ephesus, 431 AD)

The Council's insistence on the use of the title reflected an effort to preserve the teaching of the Church that Jesus was both Divine and human, that the two natures were united in His One Person.

Jesus is a Divine Person, who possesses two natures. By nature we mean the qualities that make a person place or thing what it is. Through Mary He received a human nature, but since Jesus is the Son of God, the eternal Word made flesh, he also has a divine nature. A woman, though, is not the mother of a nature, but of a person. While in a given context it isn't necessarily wrong to do so, to call Mary mother of Jesus, or even mother of the Christ, exclusively is to divide who Jesus is, and possible deny who He really is. Jesus is Emmanuel, God with us. He is God's "Son, born of a woman." (Gal. 4:4) For this reason we honor Mary as Mother of God, not only to protect her reputation, but primarily to proclaim the truth of who Jesus is: the Divine Son of God.