Liturgical Living

Apologetics

The Blessed Virgin Mary

Mary, the Mother of God

“Mother of God” (Theotokos, ‘God-bearer’) doesn't mean Mary is the source of the divine nature. It means the one she bore is a divine Person — Jesus is God, and Mary is his mother. Deny the title and you end up denying that Jesus is God.

The short answer. Mothers are mothers of persons, not of natures. Mary is the mother of Jesus; Jesus is God; therefore Mary is the Mother of God. Elizabeth already calls her ‘the mother of my Lord.’

Scripture already gives her the title

Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Elizabeth calls Mary “the mother of my Lord” — ‘Lord’ (Kyrios) being the divine name. The child in her womb is God the Son.

Luke 1:43Why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?

The one she bore is God made flesh

The Word who ‘was God’ became flesh; God sent his Son ‘born of a woman.’ The person born of Mary is the eternal God. So she is truly the mother of God the Son according to his humanity.

John 1:1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
John 1:14The Word became flesh and lived among us. We saw his glory, such glory as of the only born Son of the Father, full of grace and truth.
Galatians 4:4But when the fullness of the time came, God sent out his Son, born to a woman, born under the law,

The title defends Jesus, not just Mary

The Council of Ephesus (AD 431) defined Theotokos precisely to protect the truth that Jesus is one divine Person — not a God-part and a man-part loosely joined. It is first of all a statement about Christ.

Common objections

“Mary is only the mother of Jesus' human nature.”

We never say a mother is 'mother of a nature' — your mother is the mother of YOU, a person, even though she didn't create your soul. Jesus is a single divine Person; whoever is his mother is the mother of that Person, who is God.

“Calling her ‘Mother of God’ makes her older than God.”

It says nothing about origins. As God, the Son is eternal and un-originated; as man he was born in time of Mary. Motherhood concerns the person born, not the beginning of his divinity.

Scripture quoted verbatim from the World English Bible (public domain).

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