Q&A: There is one fundamental objection I have against Catholic devotion to Mary. You call her the Mother of God.
Fr. Gaffney, SMM
Submitted by RS of Jacksonville, FL
Mary, . . .
Do you understand the Catholic doctrine? If you think that it means that first there is Mary who then begets God, that is a horrendous blasphemy which has nothing to do with Christianity. Or, if you believe that Mary begets the divine nature of Jesus, that too must evidently be condemned.
Why does the Catholic Church teach that Mary is the Mother of God (Theotokos in Greek)? Because it is nothing more than an explication of what the Scriptures clearly teach. For example, “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God . . . and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (Jn 1:1, 14).
. . . the Mother of God
Mary is the Mother of Jesus, the Word made flesh. She is, then, the Mother of God. Our Lady, therefore, conceived the Word of God according to his human nature, carried the incarnate God within her for nine months and then gave birth to the incarnate God on Christmas night. And doesn’t Paul speak of the fullness of time when God sent his Son, born of a woman? (cf Gal 4:4). Doesn’t Elizabeth salute Mary as the Mother of my Lord (Lk 1:43)? The context of the first two chapters of Luke makes it clear that Lord means God.
The Divine Maternity says something more about Jesus than Mary. It strongly proclaims that this man Jesus is personally our God, Jesus is not two people; he is one person, the Incarnation, the enfleshment of the eternal Word of God. And Mary is his Mother. Therefore she should be called, as the Church clarified dogmatically at the Council of Ephesus, the Mother of God.
Of course, it you deny the divinity of Jesus, then there is no such thing as Mother of God, if you deny that Jesus is truly a human being. Then Mary is not the Mother of God but of some ghost or “angel.” All such thoughts, as I gather from your communication, you would clearly not accept. There is only one Christian answer: Mary is the Mother of Jesus who is our God in a fully human way. She is truly the glorious Theotokos.
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