Mother of God: the “Theotokos”
Today the Church shifts our gaze from the God-child to the Mother of
God.
In the early centuries, some saw the title “Mother
of God” as a little too much, as heretical even. How could the eternal God have a mother? At most, they said, Mary could
only be Mother of the human nature of Jesus, but not of his divinity.
In response, the Church said no: a human being
is not born just as a “human nature”, as if being a person were somehow added later. Rather, from the moment of
conception, the human person in his or her human nature exists as one act of God’s creation, in and through the human act of pro-creation.
Likewise, then, with Jesus. From the moment of
conception, his uncreated divine person is united with his created human nature. Mary thus truly gives birth to the actual
divine person of the Son of God in his true humanity. She is therefore truly and wondrously the Mother of the Son of God.
All of this may seem a little heady. But it is
vitally important, because today many deny the true divinity of the Son of Mary. The title, “Mother of God”, is
one defense of that divinity.
It also defends the true humanity of Jesus. Because
today, too, there are those who say that the Son of God could not possibly have been born from a human mother. That would
be too demeaning, too base ... They say that the Son of God only took possession
of the human person of Jesus of Nazareth at the time of his baptism by John.
This would mean, of course, that there would then
be two persons at work in the human nature of Jesus, something which we rightly
must reject as bizarre. Our faith, however, is clear: the Son of God became incarnate of the Virgin Mary by the power of the
Holy Spirit and therefore Mary is truly, and is forever, the Mother of God.
And because she is truly Mother of the Son made
flesh, the Son himself reveals to her that she is to be the Mother of all flesh,
of all whom he will draw to himself.
Referring to his crucifixion and ascension, Jesus
said, “When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all to myself.” It was precisely from the Cross that he
gave Mary to John, our representative, as his Mother. It was also from his ascended place in heaven that he assumed Mary to
himself, body and soul, so that she could exercise her universal mission as the Mother of humanity.
True motherhood is so important for the integrity
of every human being! Thankfully, the world is full of splendid and selfless mothers, and we thank God for them, for you!
But we must be honest. The shadow of sin can also
fall over the face of many a mother, sometimes in a very sinister way. (The problem of fatherhood is no less worrying, but
that is not our focus today.) The damage caused by a selfish mother can ruin a child’s spirit with very serious consequences
for that child and for society.
Many physical and psychological problems (and
later, criminal problems) can ensue from a mother’s lack of unconditional love, from her absence, from her excessive
presence (however well-motivated), from her abuse of her children be it physically or psychologically.
Of course, mothers, too, are fragile human beings!
We cannot expect them to be perfect! They have their own demons to face down. They may unwittingly carry into motherhood their
own childhood sufferings and, despite their good intentions, end up projecting their problems onto their own children.
There is only one sinless Mother. There is only
one Mother whose gaze is totally transparent and free from the shadow of self-concern. There is only one Mother whose heart
is immaculate, free from manipulation and full of utterly selfless love for the good of her children. She is the Mother of
all mothers, for all mothers are in the end her children. She is Mary, the Mother of God.
As any mother learns how to be a mother from the
very children she bears, so Mary learnt how to be Mother from the Son of God. Her learning process, then, was without error,
though not without pain. The sinless actions of her Son, as he grew in wisdom and grace, elicited from her the sinless reactions
which gradually molded her inimitable art of maternity.
The shape, the structure, the texture, the colors
of Mary’s Motherhood were determined by the will of God to which she had surrendered completely. And that will took
concrete form in the words and deeds of Jesus.
Therefore her Motherhood is imprinted with his
tenderness and wisdom, his prayerfulness and clarity of understanding, his awareness of being divine and being sent, his beautiful
and integral humanity. Her Motherhood is defined above all by his suffering, death, resurrection and ascension.
Through all of this her maternal and Immaculate
Heart was stretched, filled, pierced, broken, healed, renewed and elevated to the sublime role of universal Mother of the
universal Son, her King, her Redeemer and her God.
This same Mother Jesus has given to us, to each
individually and to all as the family of God. Even if our earthly mothers fail us through human weakness, how can we truly
say we are motherless if Mary stands beside and before us?
No greater a Mother could there be! All the skills
and art she learnt and employed in mothering Jesus are now there for us! We must not think of her “as if” she
were our Mother, but as truly being our Mother!
Indeed, in some way she is even more powerful
as our Mother than she was as the Mother of Jesus on this earth. For, from heaven, her immaculate eyes see into the depths
of our hearts and, as at the wedding feast of Cana, she intercedes for us with Jesus without being asked and without taking no for an
answer.
There is no human misery of any one of us or of
the whole of humanity that does not move her compassionate Heart. Although we may feel ashamed when we have fallen into the
moral mud, she does not want us to hold back from her, but all the more to come to her. Even if a mother on earth would reject
a sinful child’s cry for help, the Mother of God will never do so.
Our earthly mothers, wonderful and great though
they may be, are but a faint echo of Mary, our Mother in heaven, the Mother of God.
Her whole concern for us is that, just as she
learned motherhood through the mysteries of her Son, she might work with the Trinity to impress upon our hearts, minds and
bodies those very same mysteries. In that way, she will have mothered us to become sons and daughters of God according to
the image and heart of Jesus.
Mary is no pietistic appendix to Christian living:
by Christ’s doing, she draws us and molds us into the image of his own Sacred Heart. Her goal is that our mortal humanity
might be regenerated in the immortal divinity of the Son of God who, for our sakes, took flesh from her and became man.
O, Great Mother of God! In this year of grace,
2006, draw us away from motherless living to find our true home deep within our own hearts wherein you surrender us to the
life-giving embrace of your incarnate Son, our Savior and our God!
Msgr. Peter Magee
Sunday, January 1st, 2006
Annunciation, DC: 5.30 pm Vigil & 7.00 am
