By Deacon Mike Siebert
Connecting Faith and Life
In our Catholic Church, we have at least two Holy Weeks. Obviously, the Holy Week leading up to Easter — and the other is the week after Christmas — capped off with Jan. 1, the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God. Ever wonder why we call Mary the Mother of God? Doesn’t it sometimes seem like we’re giving Mary way too much credit? Many people outside of the Church certainly think so — yet it’s actually very logical. In fact, if we were to deny that Mary is the Mother of God, we would end up throwing out all of Christianity with it!
So let’s do a short theology lesson. First, the easy question: Was Mary the Mother of Jesus? Yes — obviously — that’s well established in the holiday we’re celebrating this week: Christmas. The second question gets a little trickier: Was/is Jesus God? I’ll give you the short answer: YES. That’s what our whole Catholic faith is based upon! However, I can remember the first time I was asked that specific question: “Is Jesus God?” It wasn’t totally clear to me. It’s like, he is God, yet somehow, he’s distinct from the Father … so maybe he’s NOT God?
That’s where the prelude of the Gospel of John can help. (My favorite scripture!) Let’s focus on just two verses 1 and 14: These two verses teach us as much about Mary as they do about Jesus and the Trinity:
“In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God” (John 1:1).
What or who is the word that John speaks of? Verse 14 makes it pretty clear: The Word Became Flesh and Dwelt among us.
The word, in Greek “the logos,” which is the mind, the will, the plan of God — became human and literally “pitched his tent” among us. Who else could John be referring to but Jesus? John is clearly saying Jesus is the Word of God. So, switching out that one word, let’s read that first verse again: In the beginning was Jesus and Jesus was with God and Jesus was God.
Can it be any clearer that Jesus IS God? He is the Word, the divine Logos. And John tells us Jesus was “in the beginning” — which means he is co-eternal with God the Father — which means he wasn’t created after God the Father. So if we’ve agreed that Mary is the mother of Jesus, and this reading makes it perfectly clear that Jesus is God, then doesn’t it follow that Mary was/is the mother of God!?
That title, “Mother of God,” may sound normal to us, but in the past, there were fights and arguments about it. A lot of people thought that Mary was the mother of the human form of Jesus, but that he didn’t become divine until birth or maybe not even until he was baptized by John and the Holy Spirit descended upon him.
However, our Catholic belief is that Jesus (God) took on human flesh at the moment of the Annunciation when the Holy Spirit impregnated Mary. From that moment, the humanity and the Divinity of Jesus cannot be separated. Therefore, Jesus the man was, is and always will be God, which means at the moment of conception, Mary was bearing God in her womb. Mary carried God — the alpha and omega — the God of Abraham, Isaac and Joseph — THE GOD — in her womb! On one hand, the title of this feast points more to who Jesus is, explicitly stating his perpetual divinity, but it also leads us to recognize that Mary was unique among humanity because of her personal relationship with God.
Mary played an irreplaceable role in bringing about the birth of God. She is the Theotokos — the “God bearer.” She is also our mother since we are adopted as brothers of Jesus. Finally, Mary is the example for us to follow: She may have been the first human to carry God inside of her, but now, all of us do. When we leave Mass after receiving Holy Communion, Jesus is inside of us! We are God bearers! We take him out to the world so that all the world can become sons of God.