--A. Delesalle

The title “Mother of God” is not found as such in the writings of the New Testament. The first known mention is that of Saint Hippolytus of Rome (d. 235). Later, Nestorius, Patriarch of Constantinople (428), will dispute the attribution of this title to Mary because of his views on Christology. For him, the Son of God is one thing, the son of Mary another, in the sense that he sees in Christ two Persons: one Divine (the Logos), the other human (Jesus). Consequently, for Nestorius, Mary cannot be called “theotokos” (Mother of God), at least in the real sense demanded by the hypostatic union (the union of the two natures, the human and the Divine, in the one Person of the Word).

The Council of Ephesus (431) defends this unicity of per-son in Christ and condemns Nestorius and his followers. It approves, by acclamation, the second letter of Saint Cyril to Nestorius and through this approval officially confirms the attribution to Mary of the title Mother of God. The normative decision taken at Ephesus will be explicitly promulgated as dogma in 451 by the Council of Chalcedon.

1. Theological Content

As noted above, the title of Mother of God derives from Catholic teaching on the Incarnation of the Word. Mary conceives and brings forth, in His human nature, One Who is God from all eternity. Jesus is not God by the fact that He is conceived or born of Mary (this would not be a Mystery but an absurdity because it would make Mary mother of the Divine nature). Mary is Mother of God because from her own flesh she gives to the Word a human nature like hers. And just as in ordinary human generation the terminus of the parents' generative action is not the human nature produced but the person subsisting in this nature, so in the case of Mary: her maternal action reaches to the Person of the Word, Who by this very fact is truly her Son. Mary is “theotokos” because “the Word was made flesh” in her and through her.

This is laden with consequences that bring out the full import of the title Mother of God. If Jesus is sole Savior, only Mediator, and the Priest, Prophet, and King par excellence, it is as man, because His human nature from the first moment of its existence was congenitally united with the Divine nature in the Person of the Word. Mary’s maternal action, under the power of the Holy Spirit, results in One Who, because God-Man, is the Savior, the Mediator, and the Priest, Prophet, and King of the New and definitive Covenant.

Mary, then, is Mother of the Savior in a sense much more profound than when we say of a woman that she is mother of a priest or of the president of a nation. The fact of being a priest or president of a nation does not result from the generative action of the parents but from a call or a consecration or an election, which affects a subject already “humanly” constituted. The same is true of an “hereditary” title, bestowed in virtue of juridical determinations that are completely extrinsic to generation as such. This is not the case here. The engendering to which Mary is called, with all the spiritual and physical re-sources of her being, could not but produce, ontologically and existentially, the Mediator par excellence, Whom she for her part is instrumental in constituting as such. This also indicates the depth of the association that exists here between Mary and the Holy Spirit, Who alone is capable of realizing in her such a wonder.

The reality of the Divine Motherhood explains the human and supernatural perfection of Mary. It is the only case in which a “Son” was able to “fashion” His Mother as He wanted her to be.

This Son is all-powerful. He could not but prepare for Himself a Mother worthy of Him, a “worthy Mother of God,” totally devoted to her exceptional vocation: “Redeemed by reason of the merits of her Son and united to Him by a close and indissoluble tie, she is endowed with the high office and dignity of being the Mother of the Son of God and, in consequence, the beloved daughter of the Father and the temple of the Holy Spirit. Because of this sublime grace she far surpasses all creatures, both in heaven and on earth” (LG 53).

On a similar note: “The Father of mercies willed that the Incarnation should be preceded by its acceptance by her who was predestined to be the Mother of His Son, so that just as a woman contributed to death, so also a woman should contribute to life. This is true in outstanding fashion of the Mother of Jesus, who gave to the world Him who is Life itself and who renews all things and who [i.e., Mary] was enriched by God with the gifts that befit such a role” (LG 56).

Because of the “close and indissoluble tie” (LG 53) it forms between the Mother and her Son, the Divine Mother-hood both calls for and explains “the cooperation absolutely beyond compare” that Mary brings “to the work of the Savior,” a cooperation that makes her our Mother “in the order of grace” (LG 61).

2. The Divine Motherhood and History

In bringing a child into the world, every woman influences the course of history. But how much more in the case of Mary! She has a unique place in the sacred history of humankind because by embracing the Father’s gift she plays a part in bringing us the One Who is the Beginning, the Center, and the End of this history. In the long line of generations, and the unfolding of God’s plan, Mary stands as it were at the crossroads.

Mary, of the purest stock of Israel and the royal line of David, belongs to the People of God who are waiting for the Messiah. The Son of Mary “will be great and will be called Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give Him the throne of David His father. He will rule over the house of David for-ever ...” (Lk 1:32-33). Clearly, Jesus too will be of Davidic de-scent (cf. 2 Sm 7:14, 16; Ps 2:7; 89:27-28).

Mary’s question (“How can this be since I do not know man?”) provides the Angel an occasion to broach a new dimension: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; hence, the holy offspring to be born will be called Son of God” (Lk 1:35). The “overshadowing” brings to mind the “cloud,” a word that is part of Biblical literature and connotes the effective presence of God (Ex 40:34-35; Nm 9:18-22; 10:34). Saying that the Child will be Holy indicates His privileged belonging to God (Is 6:3). For the Old Testament, the expression “Son of God” designates the Messiah (Ps 2:7; 2 Sm 7:14); here, however, the implication is not of a Divine protection in this Old Testament sense but of sonship proper.

Because Mary accepts a certain surmounting of her fore-fathers’ Messianic conceptions, she enters into a new dimension of faith and introduces into our world the One through Whom we can accede to Divine sonship.

Mary’s free acceptance, along with what is being accomplished in her “by the power of the Holy Spirit,” gives our history its ultimate meaning in the plan of God that is realized in Jesus and by His work. Become one of us in this woman of our race, Mary of Nazareth, the Word of God dies on the Cross and rises again, the Living One forevermore. Through Him we partake of the life of the Spirit that He has come to give us so that we might have it in abundance.