Mary, Mother of God

Month of May brings us closer to God through our Lady, Mother of God. I would like to enshrine a few aspects of Mother Mary as taught by the Church. This week, let us look at our Lady as the Mother of God, Theotokos. Why do we call her Mother of God?

From the early Church (A.D. 189) St. Irenaeus attributes this title of Mother of God in these words, “The Virgin Mary, being obedient to his word, received from an angel the glad tidings that she would bear God.” Mary has been called Theotokos, or ‘God-Bearer” (Mother of God). The word in Greek is Theotokos. This tittle was given to Mary as a response to early threats to ‘orthodoxy’, the preservation of authentic Christian teaching.

These threats included Bishop of Constantinople named Nestorius and his followers who insisted on calling Mary only the Mother of the Christ, which undermined that Christ is both divine and human. Therefore, Christ’s two natures of divine and human were threatened. To overrule this understanding, the Council of Ephesus in 431 AD declared that everyone must confess that God is truly Emmanuel, and that on this account the holy virgin is the Theotokos, for according to the flesh she gave birth to the word of God become flesh by birth. The Council declared this in order to safeguard the Christological understanding that Christ is both divine and human.

Cyril of Alexandria in the early 5^th Century was amazed at some of the persons who opposed this idea of Mary, Mother of God. He expressed, “I have been amazed that some are utterly in doubt as to whether or not the holy Virgin is able to be called the Mother of God. For if our Lord Jesus Christ is God, how should the holy Virgin who bore him not be the Mother of God.”

This title of Mother of God, shows us the importance of the role our Lady played in the life of Jesus Christ as a mother. Her Fiat, her Yes to God’s will has left an example of readiness to serve the Lord despite the imminent challenges. The gift of Mary as Mother must remind of our call to bear Jesus for the world as she did. We accept this call through our own worthy lives and a deeper understanding of the mysteries of Christ. We are invited into the very relationship that Mary had with her Son. We can become “God-Bearers” and bring God to all those whom we encounter in our lifetime.

We are encouraged to embrace this call to be God-bearers in our parishes, our families, our work places and in our nation. Mysteries of the Rosary will remind us of Christ’s life, suffering, death and glorious resurrection for the Salvation of the World.