INTRODUCTION:
There are so many celebrated works in honor and praise of the Blessed Virgin Mary; however, the praise of Mary is an inexhaustible fountain, the more it is enlarged the fuller it gets, and the more you fill it, so much more it is enlarged. In fact, our dear Mother is great and sublime, that the more she is praised the more there remains to be praised. The source of her honor is in the fact that she is called: THE MOTHER OF GOD- Theotokos.
THE WORD ‘THEOTOKOS’
The dogma of the Theotokos proclaims that Mary is the true Mother of Jesus who is God the Son made man. This work on the Theotokos, therefore, attempts to bring simple insights to ordinary minds about the place of Mary as the Mother of God. Theotokos. The Word Theotokos derives from two Greek words, (theos) meaning “God” and (tokos) meaning “parturition or childbirth.” When this is translated literally, it would mean “God- bearer” or “the one who gives birth to God.” The writings of Henry Newman taught, “Mary was no mere instrument of God’s dispensation. The Word of God did not merely pass through her as He may pass through us in Holy Communion. It was no heavenly body which the Eternal Son assumed. No, He imbibed; He sucked up her blood and her substance into His Divine person. He became man from her and received her lineaments and her features as the appearance and character under which He should manifest Himself to the world. He was known, doubtless, by His likeness to her, to be her Son.
SCRIPTURAL BASIS OF THEOTOKOS
The Scriptural idea of the Theotokos is based on the Scriptural passage narrating the encounter between Mary and the Archangel Gabriel. In Luke’s Gospel the
angel declared to Mary: “Behold you shall conceive in your womb and shall bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus… The Holy Spirit will come on you, and God’s power will rest upon you. Therefore, the Holy One who shall be born of you shall be called the Son of God”. (Lk 1:31-35).
By conceiving the Son of God in her womb and bringing Him forth, Mary becomes the Mother of the Son of God. However, there is the opinion that the phrase ‘Mother of God’ used in reference to Mary does not appear in Scripture. It is true that in Scripture we do not find the actual term Mother of God explicitly used, however, Mary is repeatedly referred to as the Mother of Jesus. If Jesus is God, it becomes very difficult to deny our beloved Mother this title: Mother of God.
However, we can still draw a more profound understanding of Mary’s title as Mother of God from an interpretation of the encounter between Elizabeth and Mary. In the story of the visitation, Elizabeth said, “why should I be honored with a visit from the Mother of my Lord” (Lk 1:43). This conversation between Mary and Elizabeth obviously took place in Aramaic, where the title Mother of my Lord, could be taken as a reference to Jesus Christ as Adonai, which, in Hebrew means, ‘My Lord’. Among the Jewish people, it was used as a substitute for the divine name Yahweh. This is evident in the central affirmation of the people of Israel “Hear, Oh Israel the Lord our God is one Lord”. In this case, the use of the phrase: Mother of my Lord, carries the same meaning as the Mother of God.
THE TEOTOKOS AND THE DIVINITY OF JESUS
The idea of Mary as the Mother of God can lead to a misunderstanding of the relationship between Mary’s Motherhood and Jesus’ divinity. The question that sometimes arises is: If Mary is the Mother of God (Jesus Christ), is she also the Mother of His divinity? The use of the phrase Mother of God needs to be understood by the person employing it, as not referring to Mary as Mother of God from eternity but rather only with reference to the birth of Jesus, that is, God’s birth on earth in the flesh. The Church declared that both Divine and human natures were united in the person of Jesus, the Son of Mary. Hence, Mary is the Mother of God, since the Son she bore according to the flesh, Jesus, is truly one of the Divine persons of the Most Holy Trinity. This title of Mary is really a Christological statement, affirming that the Second Person of the Most Holy Trinity, who was born into history is fully human and fully divine.
On the other hand, Christians believe that the Son of God is begotten (born) of God the Father from all eternity, but is born in time of Mary, the title: Mother of God, therefore, refers to the incarnation, when the Divine Person of God the Son took on human nature in addition to His pre- existing divine nature, this being made possible through Mary’s cooperation: “Behold the handmaid of the Lord, let it be done to me according to your word” (Luke 1:38).
What precisely did Mary give Jesus in the act of Motherhood? First of all, let us establish what she did not give Jesus. Mary did not give Jesus His divine nature, nor did she give Him His divine personhood. Both of these aspects of Jesus, in His divinity, existed from eternity. What Mary gave Jesus was a human nature identical to her own. This gift of nature is given through the process of conception, growth or gestation, and birth. So, the fruit of motherhood is the whole child, the entire person and not just the physical body. Mary was the mother of someone, the mother of the person Jesus, who was an incarnate, humanized Divine Person, who subsisted and existed in the historical human nature of Jesus of Nazareth.
CONCLUSION:
Mary, the Mother of God who became man on earth, to save sinners, bless us as we embrace her as our spiritual mother given to us by Jesus on the cross.
-Fr. Josely Rocha