According to a late tradition, the
parents of Our Lady, the Blessed Virgin
Mary, were St. Joachim and St. Anne,
natives of Bethlehem who lived in
Nazareth.
Mother of God
Mary's most fundamental privilege is
that of being the Mother of God. We do
not mean she produced the divine
nature, of course. But her Son is God,
so she is the Mother of God. Similarly,
Mrs. Jones shares only in the production of the body of her son
John, not at all in the making of his
soul. Yet we do not say she is mother
of the body of John Jones, but of John
Jones, the person. Pius XI quoted St.
Thomas Aquinas with approval in saying that "From the fact that she is
the Mother of God, she has a sort of
infinite dignity from the infinite good
that God is. (Lux veritatis, Dec. 25,
1931, citing St. Thomas, Summa
Theologiae I. 25. 6. ad 4).
Mary conceived her son by the power
of the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:35). The
Archangel first told her that her Son
was to be the Son of the Most High.
However, any devout Jew could be
called a son of God. But there was more: the angel told her He would
reign over the house of Jacob forever:
right then she would know He was to
be the Messiah, for Jews then
commonly believed the Messiah would
reign forever. Finally, the angel said He would be conceived when the Holy
Spirit would "overshadow" her. That
word, she would know, was the one
use to describe the Divine Presence
filling the ancient Tabernacle in the
desert (Exodus 40:35). Her Son was to be called Son of God "for this reason".
So that He was the Son of God in a
unique sense. From this alone she
likely knew of His divinity, especially
when she would add the words of
Isaiah 9:5-6 that the Messiah would be "God the Mighty". Even though the
Jews found that text hard, she, full of
grace, would readily grasp it.
Ever Virgin
So this was a virginal conception, that
is, without the intervention of a man.
Both Matthew and Luke make this
clear. If we believe the Gospels, we will
understand that readily. The teaching
of the Church, already in the oldest creeds, which call her "ever-virgin,"
tells us she remained a virgin during
and after His birth. Some have tried to
say the teaching on her virginity was
not physical, but just a way of
expressing her holiness. But it is more than that: Vatican II (Lumen Gentium #
57) wrote that His birth "did not
diminish, but consecrated her virginal
integrity." That word "integrity" refers
to physical condition.
Therefore when the Gospels speak of
the "brothers and sisters" of Jesus,
they do not mean other children of
Mary. The Hebrew words were very
broad, could cover any sort of
relationship. For that matter, modern English uses these words even more
broadly for members of fraternities
and sororities.
Immaculate Conception
As a result of this Divine Motherhood,
because it was fitting for Her Son, she
obtained the great grace of the
Immaculate Conception, defined by
Pius IX in 1854. This means that from
the first instant of conception her soul had sanctifying grace, a share in God's
own life, given in anticipation of the
future merits of her Son.
The angel's greeting to Mary is
traditionally translated "Hail, full of
grace," but this has been disputed in
modern times. Vatican II, Pope John
Paul II and others understand the
Greek of Luke 1:28, kecharitomene, to mean "full of grace". The word is a
perfect participle, a very strong form.
The root verb, charitoo, means to put
someone into the state of grace/favor.
And especially, the word is used
instead of her name, in direct address. This is like saying someone is Mr.
Tennis--the ultimate in tennis. So she is
Miss Grace, the ultimate in grace. Pius
IX, in defining the Immaculate
Conception, said that even at the start,
her holiness was so great that "none greater under God can be thought of,
and no one but God can comprehend
it"!
Cooperation in the Redemption
One of the oldest teachings of the
Church is that Mary is the New Eve. Just
as the first Eve really contributed to the
disaster of original sin, so Mary the
New Eve really contributed to
removing it, that is, to redeeming us. She was Mother of the Redeemer
precisely insofar as He is our
Redeemer. Every Pope since Leo XIII,
and Vatican II, in seventeen
documents have said that her role in
redeeming us extends even to a part in the great sacrifice of Calvary itself! It
is a general principle, that if something
is taught repeatedly by the Church,
even on a level less than a definition,
the teaching is infallible.
Vatican II, echoing earlier papal
teaching, tells us that at the cross she
was asked even to "consent" to the
death of her Son (LG # 58). Pope John
Paul II, in his Encyclical, The Mother of
the Redeemer, set out to further deepen that teaching (as he tells us in
his Guardian of the Redeemer [on St.
Joseph]). He showed that this was the
"deepest self-emptying in history" for
her and her Son. In in it, Mary practiced
"the obedience of faith". Now since all perfection lies in positively willing
what God wills whenever we know His
positive will, it is clear that Mary was
called on to positively will that her Son
die, die then, die so horribly. She had
to will this in spite of a love for her Son so great that "only God can
comprehend it"--for Pius IX had said,
as we saw above that her holiness
was that great even at the start. But
holiness and love of God are
interchangeable words. So in willing the death of her Divine Son, it is clear
that her suffering was such that "no
one but God could comprehend it."
Mediatrix of All Graces
As we would expect, having shared at
immense cost in earning all graces, she
shares similarly in distributing all of
them as Mediatrix of all graces. This
truth too has been taught numerous
times by a long series of Popes--every Pope from Leo XIII through John
XXIII.
Assumption and Queenship
At the end of her earthly life, Mary was
taken up (assumed) into heaven,
body and soul. Pius XII, in defining the
Assumption, explained that "Just as
the glorious resurrection of Christ was
an essential part and final sign of this victory [over sin and death by Calvary]
so that struggle [Calvary] which was
common to the Blessed Virgin and her
Son, had to be closed by the
glorification of her virginal body". That
is, the struggle, a work common to the two was a common cause. It brought
Him glorification; it had to bring the
same to her. (In all this it is understood
she is subordinate to Him, and really
depends on Him for all her ability to do
anything at all).
As a result, just as He is now King of
the Universe, she is Queen of the
Universe. "And her kingdom is as vast
as that of her Son and God, since
nothing is excluded from her
dominion" (Pius XII, Bendito seia, May 13, 1946).
Vatican II
Chapter 8 Vatican II's Constitution on
the Church is entirely on her. In it the
Council goes through in detail her
association with Him. She is eternally
joined with Him in the eternal decree
for the Incarnation. She will remain eternally joined to Him as Queen in His
Kingdom. And the council went
through in detail every one of the
mysteries of His life and death,
showing in each case her close
association with Him. The place the Father gave her is really all-pervading,
in His approach to us. In writing this,
Vatican II wrote more extensively
about her, went farther theologically
than all previous Councils combined!
In spite of talk that it downgraded her, it was the opposite. Vatican II could
really be called the Marian Council.
Spiritual Motherhood
On the floor of the Council, Pope Paul
VI declared Mary Mother of the Church.
This was not entirely new. Pius XII, in a
message to the Marian Congress of
Ottawa, Canada, on July 19, 1947 said:
"When the little maid of Nazareth uttered her fiat to the message of the
angel... she became not only the
Mother of God in the physical order of
nature, but also in the supernatural
order of grace, she became the Mother
of all, who... would be made one under the Headship of her Son. The
Mother of the Head would be the
Mother of the members."
From EWTN
