Mary’s
divine motherhood broadens the Christmas spotlight. Mary has an important role to
play in the Incarnation of the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity. She consents
to God’s invitation conveyed by the angel (Luke 1:26-38). Elizabeth
proclaims: “Most blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of
your womb. And how does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord
should come to me?” (Luke 1:42-43, emphasis added). Mary’s role as
mother of God places her in a unique position in God’s redemptive plan.
Without naming Mary, Paul asserts that “God sent his Son, born of a
woman, born under the law” (Galatians 4:4). Paul’s further statement
that “God sent the spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying out
‘Abba, Father!’“ helps us realize that Mary is mother to all the
brothers and sisters of Jesus.
Some theologians also insist that
Mary’s motherhood of Jesus is an important element in God’s creative
plan. God’s “first” thought in creating was Jesus. Jesus, the
incarnate Word, is the one who could give God perfect love and worship on behalf
of all creation. As Jesus was “first” in God’s mind, Mary was
“second” insofar as she was chosen from all eternity to be his mother.
The precise title “Mother of God” goes back at least to the
third or fourth century. In the Greek form
Theotokos (God-bearer), it
became the touchstone of the Church’s teaching about the Incarnation. The
Council of Ephesus in 431 insisted that the holy Fathers were right in calling the
holy virgin
Theotokos. At the end of this particular session, crowds of
people marched through the street shouting: “Praised be the
Theotokos!” The tradition reaches to our own day. In its chapter on
Mary’s role in the Church, Vatican II’s
Dogmatic Constitution on
the Church calls Mary “Mother of God” 12 times.
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