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FATHER PABLO T. GADENZ
essay: Mary is “Mater Dei: The Highest of God’s Creatures.” Especially in the context of All Saints Day,8 as we recall the cloud of witnesses in heaven, all the angels and saints, who surround us (cf. Heb 12:1), we consider Mary the Mother of God and our Mother, Queen of the angels and saints, the highest of God’s creatures. Mary, Mother of God Mater Dei). In several places in the
21). In John’s Gospel, at the wedding at Cana, we are told that “the mother of Jesus was there” (Jn 2:1). Similarly, Jesus’ mother is present at the foot of the cross (Jn 19:2527). In the Acts of the Apostles, “Mary, the mother of Jesus” is gathered in prayer in the upper room with the Eleven (Acts 1:14). In addition to these references to the “mother of Jesus,” there is also one verse that refers to Mary as the “mother of the the Holy Spirit, Elizabeth cries out, “Whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” (Lk 1:43). Here we begin to see how the truth of Mary’s motherhood goes hand-in-hand with the truth of Jesus’ identity. If Jesus is Lord, as the kurios that the Greek version of the Old Testament (the Septuagint) used to refer to the Lord God of Israel, then Mary the mother of Jesus is also the mother of the Lord.
Mary, all of which capture this truth that she is the mother of Jesus the Lord, the Son of God. For example, the earliest recorded Marian prayer, from a papyrus found in Egypt, written in Greek, and dated by some scholars to the third century, begins with the words: “Under your mercy, we take refuge, Mother of God.”9 In this phrase, the vocative form of the Greek word Theotokos is used, meaning literally “God-bearer” or she who gives birth to God. This prayer is perhaps more familiar in its Latin form as the Sub Tuum Praesidium, Mother of God,10 despise not our petitions in our necessities, but deliver us from all danger, O ever glorious and blessed Virgin.”11
MATER DEI: THE HIGHEST OF GOD’S CREATURES
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At the Council of Ephesus (431 A.D.), the use of titles such as Theotokos or Mater Dei reached the level of Church dogma. As with most of the Church’s Councils, the Council of Ephesus was called to clarify a controversy that had arisen.14 Nestorius, Theotokos, explaining that Mary was not Mother of God but only Mother of Christ (Christotokos) or Mother of the man (Anthropotokos). The controversy was thus Christological in its essence, though it had implications for Marian devotion. Nestorius’ view met with protest around the Christian world. In particular, Cyril of Alexandria wrote to Nestorius defending the title Theotokos. Eventually, to resolve the dispute, the Council of Ephesus was convened. Amidst tumultuous proceedings, Nestorius was then deposed and the title Theotokos
afterwards the Word descended; what we say is that, being united with the
called the holy Virgin “Mother of God” (Theotokos). This does not mean that the nature of the Word or his divinity received the beginning of its existence from the holy Virgin, but that, since the holy body, animated by a rational soul, which the Word united to himself, according to the hypostasis (kath’hupostasin), was 15
Theotokos, Mary the Mother of God, a dogma which, in the Latin Church, is now commemorated on the octave day of Christmas, January 1, with the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God. The Christological orientation of the Church’s Marian teaching is evident,16 both in the teaching of the Council of Ephesus itself and in its current liturgical commemoration connected to the celebration of the birth of Christ. Indeed, Mary is Mater Dei, the highest of God’s creatures, on account of her relation to Christ, the Son of God. Mary, Higher Than the Angels and Saints Having discussed the Christological reasons for Mary’s exalted dignity and fullness
By the time of the Council of Nicea (325 A.D.), there is clear evidence of the use of the title Theotokos. St. Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria and great defender of Christological doctrine against the Arians, writes that “Christ became man, Theotokos).”12 Also in the fourth Mater Dei. On other occasions, he uses the title Mater Domini, Mother of the Lord, following Elizabeth’s words from the Gospel of Luke.13
For help in understanding this doctrine, we turn to the Church’s common doctor, St. Thomas Aquinas. In the Summa Theologica, been considering, stating that “the Blessed Virgin Mary is raised above all the choirs of angels,” and concludes that on account of “the fact that she is the mother of God,” she has a dignity such that she could not be better than she is.17 He also treats this doctrine in his commentary on the Hail Mary, where he writes that Mary surpasses the angels in three ways: in dignity, in her close association with God, and in her fullness of grace.
INSTITUTE FOR CHRISTIAN SPIRITUALITY
IM M AC ULATE C O N C EP TIO N S EM IN ARY S C H O O L O F TH EO LO G Y