Tag Archives: the Mother of God

Mary, Mother of Jesus, Mother of God

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Mary is an important figure in the events of Advent and Christmas Time. The angel visits her at Nazareth, she visits  her cousin Elizabeth, the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem, the coming of the Magi, the flight into Egypt, the presentation of the Child Jesus in the temple, the finding of the Child Jesus in the temple after his loss for three days. All events in Luke and Matthew’s gospels where Mary has a role.

We remember her especially on her feast during Christmas time:  the Feast of Mary, the Mother of God. (January 1st)

Because they focus on Jesus, the gospel writers touch lightly on Mary, but she is an important witness to his humanity and divinity just the same. “For us and our salvation he came down from heaven, and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary and became man.” (Creed)

Through her, the Christmas liturgy reminds us, Jesus took “a body truly like our own.” (Collect, Monday of Christmas Time) Jesus “accepted from Mary the frailty of our flesh.” (Collect, Monday of Christmas Time) She’s the way the Word became flesh.  The First Letter of John, read in Christmas Time, calls this a fundamental truth of faith.

By taking a body “truly like our own” and accepting “from Mary the frailty of our flesh,” Jesus humbled himself, assuming the limitations that come from being human. Mary is his way, giving him birth, nursing him as a infant and raising him as a child.

“Can anything good come from Nazareth?” For 30 years Jesus led a silent hidden life in that small town in Galilee, and Mary was his mother. “I confess I did not recognize him,” John the Baptist says twice when Jesus comes to the Jordan to be baptized. (John 1,29-34) His own in Nazareth did not recognize him either.

He went unrecognized, and so did Mary, who shared his hidden life. She performed no miracles, did not publically teach; no angel came again after the first announcement to her.

We can pass over the Hidden Life that Jesus embraced so quickly, even though the Christmas mystery invites us to keep it in mind. We forget that to be transformed into glory means accepting “the frailty of our flesh,” which Jesus did.

“…though invisible in his divine nature, he has appeared visibly in ours;
and begotten before all ages, he has begun to exist in time;
so that, raising up in himself all that was cast down,
he might restore unity to all creation
and call straying humanity back to the heavenly kingdom.”
(Preface II of the Nativity)

St. Mary Major is the main church in Rome dedicated to Mary, the Mother of God. You can visit it in the video above. It was built in the 5th century to honor Mary’s role as witness to his divine and human natures. The church is also called “Bethlehem in Rome” because many of the Christmas mysteries were first celebrated there; relics from Bethlehem were brought there after the Moslem invasion in the 8th century.

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The great mosaic of Mary in heaven crowned by Jesus, her Son, stands over the altar in the church as its focal point. Companion in his hidden life, she was raised up by her Son, who was human and divine,  through the mystery of his resurrection.

Mary, the Mother of God

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Virgin and Child

The Feast of Mary, the Mother of God (January 1) is celebrated by the Roman Catholic Church as the Christmas celebrations end and a new year begins. This feast begins a month named for the Roman god Janus, the two faced god who looks ahead and looks back. Mary connects us to the world ahead as well as the world of the past, and so we pray to her “that we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.”

Christian churches of the east have a similar feast at this time honoring the Virgin Mary as the Mother of God. .

“Marvelous is the mystery proclaimed today
Our nature is made new as God becomes man;
He remains what he was and becomes what he was not,
Yet each nature stays distinct and undivided.” Canticle, Morning Prayer

Mary’s Son who came “in the fullness of time” blesses all time:
“The LORD bless you and keep you!
The LORD let his face shine upon you,
and be gracious to you!
The LORD look upon you kindly and give you peace!” (Numbers 6, 22-27)

On this feast of Mary, the Mother of God, I think of a PBS special “What Darwin Never Knew” produced awhile ago on Nova. I don’t remember or understand a lot of the program’s scientific material, but its description of DNAs and embryos caught my attention.

According to scientists, embryos from different living beings–humans, animals, birds, fish– appear remarkably alike at an early stage of development, as if they were from the same source. Then, something triggers a different development in each species. Humans sprout arms and legs and begin human development. The other species develop in their own way.

A few years ago, I visited an exhibit called “Deep Time” at the Smithsonian Museum in Washington which described the development of the earth through 4.5 billion years. One section described our development as human beings from 4.5 billion years ago. Our human species developed over time in an evolving world.

In Mary’s womb, the Word became flesh, connected with the world of the past and the world of the future. Early theologians, like St. Irenaeus, say the Word became truly human, and therefore went through the same process of development as we do. They also say the Word had to assume all that he would redeem. Can we say that in his early embryonic journey in Mary’s womb the Word assumed the creation he would renew? The embryonic journey is a sacred journey that needs to be cared for and recognized.

“Blessed is the fruit of your womb,” Elizabeth says to Mary before Jesus’ birth. (Luke 1,42) At that moment, the Word of God gave the promise of redemption to another infant– Elizabeth’s son John. Was that promise also communicated to the rest of creation in Mary’s womb, by the Word made flesh, who dwelt among us– Jesus Christ, maker and Savior of all?