Today we inhabit a politically charged arena where speech has to toe the accepted lines on matters of race and gender. However, long before “wokeism” came along, Catholicism had already been dealing with nearly 500 years of the Reformation dissent. If there were no Protestant rebellion, the landscape for devotion to Mary might be different from what we have now. The Church has laboured under the scrutiny of “theological correctness” and in the desire for rapprochement, Catholics have had to be mindful that they do not sentimentalise Mary and with that, trivialise Jesus Christ.
Given such sensitivity, why does the Church still dedicate the first day of the year to Mary, under the title Mother of God. This title actually predates the Reformation revolt. In fact, the term “Mother of God” is more than relational because the early Church needed to define Jesus in Himself. Was He one person or two? Both the Councils of Ephesus (AD431) and Chalcedon (AD451) settled on the title “Theotokos” (or God-bearer). The use of “Theotokos” has to be understood in the context of the dispute concerning Mary as “Christotokos” or the “bearer of Christ”.
There is a logic for calling Mary the Mother of God. It comes through the event or the phenomenon of the Incarnation. Jesus, who is the Word made flesh, has two distinct natures—a divine nature and a human nature. How do these natures relate to each other? If we follow logic, having two natures would mean that He has two separate sources and modes of operations—divine and human. The danger is that we might end up with Jesus being a composite of two persons. It explains why Nestorius called Mary “Christotokos”[1]. Whereas the early Church depended on the principle of the “Communicatio Idiomatum” to explain the relationship between the two natures of Christ. To understand this principle, we need to clarify what the terms nature and person mean.
The term “nature” answers the question of “what”. What is He? He is God and He is man because He has a divine nature and a human nature. However, having these two natures does not equate to two persons. Through “Communicatio Idiomatum”, every action, be it divine or human, must be attributed to the Person of Christ because “person” answers the question of “who”. Who is He? He is the 2nd Person of the Blessed Trinity and He is God. Nature is where the action originates from. But the person is the doer of the action meaning that Jesus can act in a divine manner or a human manner. As God, He can perform divine activities or can act in a divine way, like raising the dead, multiplying loaves of bread, walking on water and changing water into wine. As man, He can also perform human actions or can act in a human way, like being born, sleeping, eating, feeling fatigue, agonising in the Gethsemane and dying on the Cross. The “Person” is always the same even at one time He is called God because of His divine nature, and at another time, He is called man because of his human nature.
In summary, if Jesus means God-who-saves, then Mary must be the Mother of the God-who-saves. It is as plain as that. This is the Mother whom Jesus gave us. As we emerge from the pandemic, what lessons can we learn from the Mother who stood by her Son at the foot of the Cross? Entering 2023, if we were to make resolutions, we might consider two of her virtues that can assist us to navigate the challenges of our times.
Firstly, consider the Marian virtue of humility. Even if this sounded tired and boring, the truth is, we can never get enough of this virtue simply because we are a me-first generation. It is tiring to be reminded of humility because we are self-obsessed and self-centred. Have you noticed in our conversations how we tend to be “absolutists”? Meaning? Almost everyone speaks as if he were the PM or the Pope. We can be so pig-headed without even realising it. Placing others first has a powerful effect because it allows let go of our selfish and arrogant ways. The humility of Mary is the antidote to pride and selfishness as it opens up space to tune in to God’s will. If we intend to shape the world according to the image of Christ, without humility we will never be docile instruments in the hands of God. Instead, we will dictate to God what to do.
Flowing from humility is the virtue of simplicity. The idea of living simply ties in with Pope Francis’ effort in this time of climate crisis. We have just marked Christmas, which in the place of being linked to the coming of Christ, it is associated with materialism. To celebrate, we are encouraged to spend and buy more. The premium is placed on material accumulation like chasing the latest gadgets or the fanciest cars. Presently as travel regains traction, we are infected by revenge travel. But materialism is not the solution to the need for connexion and fulfilment.
Imitating Mary’s simplicity reminds us that our ultimate happiness is spiritual rather than material. It is a hint that this world is not our permanent abode whereas eternity awaits us at the end of our earthly journey. Furthermore, simplicity gives us the possibility of living out Pope Francis’ exhortation outlined in "Laudato si" in which knowing that we are basically terrestrial transients, it is our duty to ensure that future generations do not pay the price of our irresponsible exploitation of the world.
Just these two resolutions can start us on the Marian path to holiness. To do this, we turn to the Mother of God for her maternal assistance. Sadly, the eagerness of Protestants to focus on Christ alone as the Saviour and sole Mediator of the world, has had a chilling effect of making us forget how powerful the intercession of Mary is in this path to holiness and redemption. The other ancient dogma of Mary’s perpetual virginity provides us with a glimpse of her role in mediating Christ’s salvation. It is true that her perpetual virginity points us in the direction of the future where there will be no more marriage. We hear how Jesus told the Sadducees that in the Resurrection, no one marries nor is anyone given in marriage. Instead we will be like angels in heaven. But that is not the reason for Mary’s strength in interceding for us.
Mary’s perpetual virginity is a sign of her total consecration to God, her single-minded service of Her Lord and Saviour. In other words, the saints all have a deep love for Mary because they all see in her the icon of whom they themselves want to be—totally given to God. Mary by her total consecration to God is not a goddess or a mini-deity. Instead, she leads all to Her Son as St Louis de Montfort used to say: “To Jesus through Mary”. St John Paul II took “Totus tuus” as his motto and had it engraved on his coat of arms. “I am all yours and all I have is yours”. He dedicated himself entirely to Mary because he knows that by being totally hers, she will do the only thing she knows, to lead him to Christ.
Buffeted by the strong winds of Protestant discomfort with Mary, we take on their fear that our love for Mary might diminish our reverence and love for Christ. Au contraire, the more we love Mary, the deeper will our love be for Christ because she always leads us to Him. It was she, at Cana, who directed the steward: “Do whatever He tells you”. Just maybe, if we do not want people to love Jesus, then we should diminish our love for Mary. That would make the devil happy.
Finally, in an age of celebrated “victimhood”, we might want to honour the womanhood in Mary as the Mother of God. Man was created from dirt whereas woman was created from the living flesh and bone of man. If we accept the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, then perhaps we can say that Eve was created based on the image of Mary, the solitary boast of our human nature. St John Chrysostom, one of the Four Eastern Fathers of the Church, dedicated a part of the Eucharistic Prayer to our Lady which might offend the Protestant sensitivity: “It is truly proper to glorify you, O Theotokos, the ever-blessed, immaculate, and the mother of our God. More honourable than the cherubim, and beyond compare more glorious than the seraphim, who, a virgin, gave birth to God the Logos, you, truly the Theotokos, we magnify". Finally, as St Maximillian Kolbe assured us: 'Never be afraid of loving the Blessed Virgin too much. You can never love her more than Jesus did.'. Indeed, to Jesus through Mary.
Pray for us, O Most Holy Mother of God.
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[1] She is the bearer of Christ and not the bearer of God because the title “Theotokos” suggests that she is the originator of God. St Cyril’s objection was that a mother can only give birth to a person and not a nature.
[1] She is the bearer of Christ and not the bearer of God because the title “Theotokos” suggests that she is the originator of God. St Cyril’s objection was that a mother can only give birth to a person and not a nature.
