I
want to clarify exactly what the Catholic Church teaches about Mary,
because the Church's teaching on Mary
is frequently misunderstood by Protestants.
The Church teaches that Jesus Christ was literally born of the Virgin Mary. That is, the Church teaches that Mary is the actual mother of Jesus Christ. The Church
also teaches that Jesus Christ is God. Therefore, it follows logically that Mary is the "Mother of
God".
And this is exactly what the Church teaches, that Mary is the Theotokos (i.e. "Mother of God"),
the one who literally carried God in her womb, and gave birth to God.
Contary to Protetant misunderstandings, this expression, "Mother of
God", does not mean that Mary
is the ultimate source of the Divine nature, or that she pre-existed Christ, or
that she is divine. Rather, the expression means that she is truly the mother
of the person of Christ, and that the person of Christ is truly God.
The early Church affirmed this expression "Mother of God" to refute
the Gnostic heretics who accepted Christ's deity but denied that He was
actually human, or was actually born from Mary,
i.e. that His humanity was taken from her humanity, so that He truly was of the
seed of David. The early Catholic bishops also used this phrase "Mother of
God" to refute the Nestorian heretics who claimed that Mary was only the mother of Man, or the
Mother of Jesus, but not the Mother of God. The Nestorians claimed that Christ
was *two* persons (one, the human person Jesus, and the other, the Second
Person of the Trinity) and that Mary
was the mother of only *one* of these two persons, i.e. the human person Jesus.
The Catholic Church rejected Nestorianism as a heresy and taught that Christ
was, is, and always will be only *one* divine Person, and that Mary is truly the mother of that one divine
Person. At the Third Ecumenical Council at Ephesus in 431 AD, the bishops, in
response to the Nestorian heresy, all agreed that:
"If anyone will not confess that the Emmanuel is very God, and that
therefore the Holy Virgin is the Mother of God (Theotokos), inasmuch as in the
flesh she bore the Word of God made flesh [as it is written, "The Word was
made flesh"]: let him be anathema."
To deny that Mary is the
Mother of God is equivalent to denying either the deity of Christ, the humanity
of Christ or the unity of the person of Christ. And all three of those are
heresies. The Church taught that since that Second Person of the Trinity is
God, and since Mary is the
mother of that Second Person of the Trinity, therefore, Mary is the "Mother of God". And the Church
fathers unanimously attest to this as well. To deny that Mary is the "Mother of God" is to commit one
of three possible heresies: (1) Docetism (or Gnostism), i.e. denying that God
actually became human and was physically born, or (2) Ebionism, i.e. denying
that the child conceived within her and birthed by her was actually God, or (3)
Nestorianism, i.e. denying that Christ is one divine and human person.
A thing has greater dignity the nearer it is to God. But of all created things,
nothing is nearer to God than His mother, on account of the *organic* relation
between them of mother to son. He is literally flesh of her flesh, for He was
taken from her according to His humanity. Therefore, by being the "Mother
of God", Mary has a
higher dignity than all other created things. Not even any angel is the
"Mother of God". And this is why she is called "Queen of
Heaven", for on account of her being the Mother of God, she received a
dignity above that of all other created things, though, of course, she remains
a *creature*, not a deity (if that even needs to be said).
The Church also teaches that Mary
was conceived without the stain of original sin. This dogma is called the
"immaculate conception". The meritorious cause of Mary's immaculate conception was Christ's
redemptive work, applied to her in advance (since God is not limited by time).
So, again, contrary to the assertion of many Protestants, the doctrine of the
immaculate conception does not imply that Mary
had no need of a Savior. Mary
*did* have need of a Savior, and her Savior is Christ her Son; through His
redemptive work He saved her from the stain of original sin that she otherwise
would have received (as does every child coming into the world since Adam).
Being conceived without the stain of original sin, she was therefore like Eve
who was created without sin. But unlike Eve who disobeyed God, Mary obeyed God, and through her obedience,
Christ came into the world. So just as all mankind fell through Eve's
disobedience, so salvation came to all through Mary's obedience, just as the Church fathers teach.
The Church also teaches that throughout her life, Mary was free from concupiscence (internal motions of
inordinate desire) and actual sin. Being free from concupiscence was the result
of being conceived without the stain of original sin. But being free from
actual sin was due to Mary's
free choice and the grace of God (for the angel Gabriel said that she was
"full of grace"). The Church also teaches that she remained a virgin
throughout her life. (The reference to "brothers" of Jesus is understood
as cousins; the word for brothers did not at that time have the precise
familial limits it does now in English.) And Joseph, being a righteous man,
would not have dared to enter that which had become more holy than the ark of
the covenant, for her womb was literally the sanctuary of God, more holy than
the Holy of Holies of Solomon's Temple. If Uzzah died from just touching the
ark, with how much more reverence would Joseph have treated Mary's womb as the very sanctuary of God?
She had been betrothed to the Holy Spirit, and would remain so for life.
The Church also teaches that at the end of her life Mary died, and was assumed body and soul into Heaven,
where, as the Mother of God, she reigns with Christ as Queen of Heaven. Since
Christ is the King of all creation, and since Mary is His mother, she shares in His royal dignity. As
the second Eve, who obeyed in all things, she through her obedience
participated with Christ (the second Adam) in the redemption of all men.
Without Mary's obedience
there would be no incarnation. (That is why she is called 'co-redemptrix'.) And
Mary is also called
Mediatrix, in that through being Christ's mother she mediated Christ to us, and
now united with Christ in Heaven, she as the second Eve and "Mother of
God" continually intercedes on behalf of all her children, and in that way
is a mediator to us of God's grace. You can see that mediating role already in
the story of the wedding feast at Cana, where she intercedes to Christ on
behalf of the bride and groom. But the account has deeper significance, because
it prefigures the marriage of Christ to His bride, the Church. And so it
prefigures Mary's greater intercessory role in the
marriage of her Son to His bride, i.e. the Church.
Protestants who quote 1 Tim 2:5 as an objection to Mary's title of "Mediatrix" fail to understand
that Paul is not there claiming that no one except Christ can pray or intercede
for us. Paul is there speaking of the atonement that only a God-man could
effect, not of the prayers and intercessions that we rightly offer to God on
behalf of each other.
Mary is also the mother of
the Church. This follows from the fact that the Church is the body of Christ (1
Corinthians 12:27-31; Ephesians 4:1-6, 15-16; Colossians 1:18; etc.). Mary is the mother of the body of Christ
(not *just* His body, but at least His body). And therefore Mary
is the mother of the Church. Just as Eve was the mother of all mankind, so Mary is the mother of all the
redeemed. When Jesus said to John, "Behold your mother", he was not
merely speaking to John, but to all the Church. (And the Church fathers agree.)
If Christ is our brother (Heb 2:10-13), and Mary is Christ's mother, then Mary is *our* mother as well. The Church fathers affirm
this as well. That makes today (September 8) not just the birthday of Mary, but the birthday of *our* mother. And Mary being *our* mother is one
reason why Catholics know that they can ask Mary to pray for them. Good mothers love to answer their
childrens' requests, and Mary
is the mother greater than any other, having been chosen by God to be the
mother of His Son.
The Church teaches that because of Mary's
unique dignity as "Mother of God" (and the second Eve, and the mother
of the Church), Mary is
worthy of special honor, even more than that due to angels and saints. It was
not for no reason that she said, "*all* generations will call me
blessed". But, Mary is
not to be worshipped, for worship is rightly given to God alone. Christ
perfectly kept (and still now perfectly keeps) the Fourth Commandment:
"Honor thy father and mother". In this way Christ Himself honors His
mother, both during His time on earth and now in heaven. And since we are to be
like Christ, we too should honor His mother.
Mary, first and foremost, is
a Christian, a follower of Christ. She directs us to Christ; she points us to
Christ. Unlike the first Eve, who through her disobedience led Adam to disobey
God, she who through her obedience brought Christ into this world urges us to
obey her Holy Offspring. What does she say to us but what she said at the
wedding feast at Cana: "Do whatever He tells you."
That's a quick overview of what the Catholic Church teaches about Mary. Below I have included some quotations from the Church
fathers concerning Mary:
------------------------------
St. John of Damascus:
"Moreover we proclaim the holy Virgin to be in strict truth the Mother of
God. For inasmuch as He who was born of her was true God, she who bare the true
God incarnate is the true mother of God. For we hold that God was born of her,
not implying that the divinity of the Word received from her the beginning of
its being, but meaning that God the Word Himself, Who was begotten of the
Father timelessly before the ages, and was with the Father and the Spirit
without beginning through eternity, took up His abode in these last days for
the sake of our salvation in the Virgin's womb, and was without change made
flesh and born of her. For the holy Virgin did not bare mere man but true God: and
not mere God but God incarnate, Who did not bring down His body from Heaven,
nor simply passed through the Virgin as channel, but received from her flesh of
like essence to our own and subsisting in Himself. For if the body had come
down from heaven and had not partaken of our nature, what would have been the
use of His becoming man? For the purpose of God the Word becoming man was that
the very same nature, which had sinned and fallen and become corrupted, should
triumph over the deceiving tyrant and so be freed from corruption, just as the
divine apostle puts it, For since by man came death, by man came also the
resurrection of the dead. If the first is true the second must also be
true."
"The body which is born of the holy Virgin is in truth body united with
divinity, not that the body which was received up into the heavens descends,
but that the bread itself and the wine are changed into God's body and blood.
But if you enquire how this happens, it is enough for you to learn that it was
through the Holy Spirit, just as the Lord took on Himself flesh that subsisted
in Him and was born of the holy Mother of God through the Spirit. And we know
nothing further save that the Word of God is true and energises and is
omnipotent, but the manner of this cannot be searched out. But one can put it
well thus, that just as in nature the bread by the eating and the wine and the
water by the drinking are changed into the body and blood of the eater and
drinker, and do not become a different body from the former one, so the bread
of the table and the wine and water are supernaturally changed by the
invocation and presence of the Holy Spirit into the body and blood of Christ,
and are not two but one and the same."
"We adore only the Creator and Maker of things, God, to whom we offer
latria since God is to be adored according to His nature. We also adore the
holy mother of God, not as God, but as mother of God according to the flesh. We
also adore the saints, the chosen friendsof God, by whom we have easy access to
Him."
St. John Cassian (On the Incarnation of the Lord: Against Nestorius)
"And so you say, O heretic, whoever you may be, who deny that God was born
of the Virgin, that Mary the
Mother of our Lord Jesus Christ ought not to be called Theotokos, i.e. Mother
of God, but Christotokos, i.e., only the Mother of Christ, not of God. For no
one, you say, brings forth what is anterior in time. And of this utterly
foolish argument whereby you think that the birth of God can be understood by
carnal minds, and fancy that the mystery of His Majesty can be accounted for by
human reasoning, we will, if God permits say something later on. In the
meanwhile we will now prove by Divine testimonies that Christ is God, and that Mary is the Mother of God."
St. John Cassian 719
Tertullian
"God recovered His own image and likeness, of which He had been robbed by
the devil. For it was while Eve was yet a virgin, that the ensnaring word had
crept into her ear which was to build the edifice of death. Into a virgin's
soul, in like manner, must be introduced that Word of God which was to raise
the fabric of life; so that what had been reduced to ruin by this sex, might by
the selfsame sex be recovered to salvation. As Eve had believed the serpent, so
Mary believed the angel. The
delinquency which the one occasioned by believing, the other by believing
effaced. But (it will be said) Eve did not at the devil's word conceive in her
womb. Well, she at all events conceived; for the devil's word afterwards became
as seed to her that she should conceive as an outcast, and bring forth in
sorrow. Indeed she gave birth to a fratricidal devil; whilst Mary, on the contrary, bare one who was one
day to secure salvation to Israel, His own brother after the flesh, and the
murderer of Himself. God therefore sent down into the virgin's womb His Word,
as the good Brother, who should blot out the memory of the evil brother."
St. Gregory of Nyssa
"Have any of ourselves dared to say "Mother of Man" of the Holy
Virgin, the Mother of God: which is what we hear that some of them say without
restraint?"
St. Gregory of Nazianzen
"If anyone does not believe that Holy Mary is the Mother of God, he is severed from the
Godhead. If anyone should assert that He passed through the Virgin as through a
channel, and was not at once divinely and humanly formed in her (divinely,
because without the intervention of a man; humanly, because in accordance with
the laws of gestation), he is in like manner godless. If any assert that the
Manhood was formed and afterward was clothed with the Godhead, he too is to be
condemned. For this were not a Generation of God, but a shirking of generation.
If any introduce the notion of Two Sons, one of God the Father, the other of
the Mother, and discredits the Unity and Identity, may he lose his part in the
adoption promised to those who believe aright. For God and Man are two natures,
as also soul and body are; but there are not two Sons or two Gods. For neither
in this life are there two manhoods; though Paul speaks in some such language
of the inner and outer man. And (if I am to speak concisely) the Saviour is
made of elements which are distinct from one another (for the invisible is not
the same with the visible, nor the timeless with that which is subject to
time), yet He is not two Persons. God forbid! For both natures are one by the
combination, the Deity being made Man, and the Manhood deified or however one
should express it. And I say different Elements, because it is the reverse of
what is the case in the Trinity; for There we acknowledge different Persons so
as not to confound the persons; but not different Elements, for the Three are
One and the same in Godhead."
St. Basil of Caesarea
"According to the blameless faith of the Christians which we have obtained
from God, I confess and agree that I believe in one God the Father Almighty;
God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Ghost; I adore and worship one God,
the Three. I confess to the economy of the Son in the flesh, and that the holy Mary, who gave birth to Him
according to the flesh, was Mother of God."
Vincent of Lerins
"Nestorius, whose disease is of an opposite kind, while pretending that he
holds two distinct substances in Christ, brings in of a sudden two Persons, and
with unheard of wickedness would have two sons of God, two Christs,--one, God,
the other, man, one, begotten of his Father, the other, born of his mother. For
which reason he maintains that Saint Mary
ought to be called, not Theotocos (the mother of God), but Christotocos (the
mother of Christ), seeing that she gave birth not to the Christ who is God, but
to the Christ who is man."
"This unity of Person, then, in Christ was not effected after His birth of
the Virgin, but was compacted and perfected in her very womb. For we must take
most especial heed that we confess Christ not only one, but always one. For it
were intolerable blasphemy, if while thou dost confess Him one now, thou
shouldst maintain that once He was not one, but two; one forsooth since His
baptism, but two at His birth. Which monstrous sacrilege we shall assuredly in
no wise avoid unless we acknowledge the manhood united to the Godhead (but by
unity of Person), not from the ascension, or the resurrection, or the baptism,
but even in His mother, even in the womb, even in the Virigin's very conception.
In consequence of which unity of Person, both those attributes which are proper
to God are ascribed to man, and those which are proper to the flesh to God,
indifferently and promiscuously. For hence it is written by divine guidance, on
the one hand, that the Son of man came down from heaven; and on the other, that
the Lord of glory was crucified on earth. Hence it is also that since the
Lord's flesh was made, since the Lord's flesh was created, the very Word of God
is said to have been made, the very omniscient Wisdom of God to have been
created, just as prophetically His hands and His feet are described as having
been pierced. From this unity of Person it follows, by reason of a like
mystery, that, since the flesh of the Word was born of an undefiled mother, God
the Word Himself is most Catholicly believed, most impiously denied, to have
been born of the Virgin; which being the case, God forbid that any one should
seek to defraud Holy Mary of
her prerogative of divine grace and her special glory. For by the singular gift
of Him who is our Lord and God, and withal, her own son, she is to be confessed
most truly and most blessedly--The mother of God "Theotocos," but not
in the sense in which it is imagined by a certain impious heresy which maintains,
that she is to be called the Mother of God for no other reason than because she
gave birth to that man who afterwards became God, just as we speak of a woman
as the mother of a priest, or the mother of a bishop, meaning that she was
such, not by giving birth to one already a priest or a bishop, but by giving
birth to one who afterwards became a priest or a bishop. Not thus, I say, was
the holy Mary
"Theotocos," the mother of God, but rather, as was said before,
because in her sacred womb was wrought that most sacred mystery whereby, on
account of thesingular and unique unity of Person, as the Word in flesh is
flesh, so Man in God is God."