Mary, the Mother of Jesus

Introduction

In the same way as the woman who bore you is called your mother and not the mother of your body only, Mary is the mother of the whole person of Jesus Christ, who is God (cf. Colossians 2:9). The Church proclaimed this truth in the Council of Ephesus in 431 A.D.:

Therefore, because the holy virgin bore in the flesh God who was united hypostatically with the flesh, for that reason we call her mother of God, not as though the nature of the Word had the beginning of its existence from the flesh (for "the Word was in the beginning and the Word was God and the Word was with God", and he made the ages and is coeternal with the Father and craftsman of all things), but because, as we have said, he united to himself hypostatically the human and underwent a birth according to the flesh from her womb.

--Third letter of Cyril to Nestorius

Full of Grace and Perpetual Virgin

Luke 1 (English-RSVCE)

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In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth,

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to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin's name was Mary.

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And he came to her and said, "Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you!"

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But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and considered in her mind what sort of greeting this might be.

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And the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.

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And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus.

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He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David,

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and he will reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there will be no end."

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And Mary said to the angel, "How shall this be, since I have no husband?"

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And the angel said to her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God.

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And behold, your kinswoman Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren.

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For with God nothing will be impossible."

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And Mary said, "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word." And the angel departed from her.

In addition the tense in Greek indicates ``from the beginning,'' implying that, that Mary was full of grace from her conception by a special act of God (cf. the passage from Bishop Sheen, below). In verse 34, Mary inquires of the angel how she is to conceive, not because she does not believe (cf. verse 45, below), but because she wants to be able to cooperate fully with the plan of God. Jewish law of the time allowed marital relations between a bethrothed couple. Mary's question therefore seems out of place: clearly she could conceive by Joseph even then, so lacking a husband was not the issue. Therefore a better translation is, ``because I do not know man.'' The best explanation for her question is that she already knew that she was not to have relations with any man, that is, she was to be perpetually a virgin because she was set aside specially by God.

This question of Mary's reveals her humility and her keen desire to follow God's will. The angel has just told her that she is to be the mother of the Messiah-- the dream of every Jewish girl. Instead of jumping at the opportunity and possible abandoning her special, previous calling from God, she tries to discover how the two are compatible.

Mary's humble acceptance of the plan of God (verse 38) is a model for all Christians.

Bishop Sheen Explains the Immaculate Conception

Just suppose that you could have pre-existed your own mother, in much the same way that an artist pre-exists his painting. Furthermore, suppose that you had an infinite power to make your mother anything that you pleased, just as a great artist like Raphael has the power of realizing his artistic ideals. Suppose you had this double power, what kind of mother would you have made for yourself? Would you have made her of such a type that would make you blush because of her unwomanly and unmotherlike actions? Would you have in any way stained and soiled her with the selfishness that would make her unattractive not only to you, but to your fellow-man? Would you have made her exteriorly and interiorly of such a character as to make you ashamed of her, or would you have made her, so far as human beauty goes, the most beautiful woman in the world; and so far as beauty of the soul goes, one who would radiate every virtue, every manner of kindness and charity and loveliness; one who by the purity of her life and her mind and her heart would be an inspiration not only to you, but even to your fellow-men, so that all would look up to her as the very incarnation of what is best in motherhood?

Now, if you who are an imperfect being and who have not the most delicate conception of all that is fine in life would have wished for the loveliest of mothers, do you think that our Blessed Lord, who not only pre-existed His own mother, but who had an infinite power to make her just what He chose, would, in virtue of all the infinite delicacy of His spirit make her any less pure and loving and beautiful than you would have made your own mother? If you who hate selfishness, would have made her selfless, and you who hate ugliness, would have made her beautiful, do you not think that the Son of God who hates sin would have made His own mother sinless, and He who hates moral ugliness, would have made her immaculately beautiful?

Faithful Intercessor

Luke 1 (English-RSV)

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In those days Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country, to a city of Judah,

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and she entered the house of Zechari'ah and greeted Elizabeth.

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And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit

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and she exclaimed with a loud cry, "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!

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And why is this granted me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?

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For behold, when the voice of your greeting came to my ears, the babe in my womb leaped for joy.

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And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfilment of what was spoken to her from the Lord."

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And Mary said, "My soul magnifies the Lord,

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and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,

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for he has regarded the low estate of his handmaiden. For behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed;

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for he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name.

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And his mercy is on those who fear him from generation to generation.

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He has shown strength with his arm, he has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts,

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he has put down the mighty from their thrones, and exalted those of low degree;

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he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent empty away.

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He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy,

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as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his posterity for ever."

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And Mary remained with her about three months, and returned to her home.

Note that the Holy Spirit,speaking through Elizabeth, proclaims Mary blessed (v. 42). Mary prophesies that all generations will indeed call her blessed since God has done great things for her (v. 48): she humbly acknowledges the truth of the appellation ``blessed'' and that God is the source of her gifts.

John 2 (English-RSV)

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On the third day there was a marriage at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there;

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Jesus also was invited to the marriage, with his disciples.

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When the wine failed, the mother of Jesus said to him, "They have no wine."

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And Jesus said to her, "O woman, what have you to do with me? My hour has not yet come."

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His mother said to the servants, "Do whatever he tells you."

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Now six stone jars were standing there, for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons.

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Jesus said to them, "Fill the jars with water." And they filled them up to the brim.

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He said to them, "Now draw some out, and take it to the steward of the feast." So they took it.

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When the steward of the feast tasted the water now become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the steward of the feast called the bridegroom

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and said to him, "Every man serves the good wine first; and when men have drunk freely, then the poor wine; but you have kept the good wine until now."

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This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory; and his disciples believed in him.

Mother of All Christians

John 19 (English-RSV)

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So the soldiers did this. But standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother, and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Mag'dalene.

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When Jesus saw his mother, and the disciple whom he loved standing near, he said to his mother, "Woman, behold, your son!"

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Then he said to the disciple, "Behold, your mother!" And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home.

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After this Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfil the scripture), "I thirst."

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A bowl full of vinegar stood there; so they put a sponge full of the vinegar on hyssop and held it to his mouth.

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When Jesus had received the vinegar, he said, "It is finished"; and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

Mary's presence at the beginning (John 2, above) and at the end of Jesus' ministry (as well as at Pentecost, cf. Acts 1:14) symbollically represents the importance of her presence throughout his life.

Further Defense of Mary's Perpetual Virginity

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While he was still speaking to the people, behold, his mother and his brothers stood outside, asking to speak to him.

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But he replied to the man who told him, "Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?"

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And stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, "Here are my mother and my brothers!

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For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother, and sister, and mother."

``Brethren'': ancient Hebrew, Aramaic and other languages had no special words for different degrees of relationship, such as are found in more modern languages. In general, all those belonging to the same family, clan and even tribe were ``brethren''.

In the particular case we have here, we should bear in mind that Jesus had different kinds of relatives, in two groups--some on his mother's side, others on St. Joseph's. Mt 13:55-56 mentions, as living in Nazareth, James, Joseph, Simon and Judas (``his brethren'') and elsewhere there is reference to Jesus' ``sisters'' (cf. Mk 6:3). But in Mt 27:56 we are told that the James and Joseph were sons of a Mary distinct from the Blessed Virgin, and that Simon and Judas were not brothers of James and Joseph, but seemingly children of a brother of St. Joseph.

Jesus, on the other hand, was known to everyone as ``the son of Mary'' (Mk 6:3) or ``the carpenter's son'' (Mt 13:55).

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As he said this, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said to him, "Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts that you sucked!"

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But he said, "Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!"

St. Augustine on the previous two passages

"Stretching out his hand over his disples, the Lord Chist declared: Here are my mother and my brothers, anyone who does the will of my Father who sent me is my brother and my sister and my mother. I would urge you to ponder these words. Did the Virgin Mary, who believed by faith and conceived by faith, who was the chosen one from whom our Savior was born among men, who was created by Christ before Christ was created in her--did she not do the will of the Father? Indeed the blessed Mary certainly did the Father's will, and so it was for her a greater thing to have been Christ's disciple than to have been his mother, and she was more blessed in her discipleship than in her motherhood. Hers was the happiness of first bearing in her womb him whom she would obey as her master.

"Now listen and see if the words of Scripture do not agree with what I have said. The Lord was passing by and the crowds were following him. His miracles gave proof of divine power, nd a woman cried out: Happy is the womb that bore you, blessed is that womb! But the Lord, not wishing people to seek happiness in a purely physical relationship, replied: More blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it. Mary heard God's word and kept it, and so she is blessed. She kept God's truth in her mind, a nobler thing than carrying his body in her womb. The truth and the body were both Christ: he was kept in Mary's mind insofar as he is truth, he was carried in her womb insofar as he is man; but what is kept in the mind is of a higher order than what is carried in the womb.

"The Virgin Mary is both holy and blessed, and yet the Church is greater than she. Mary is a part of the Church, a member of the Church, a holy, an eminent--the most eminent--member, but still only a member of the entire body. The body undoubtedly is greater than she, one of its members. The body has the Lord for its head, and head and body together make up the whole Christ. In other words, our head is divine--our head is God.

"Now, beloved, give me you whole attention, for you also are members of Christ; you also are the body of Christ. Consider how you yourselves can be among those of whom the Lord said: Here are my mother and my brothers. Do you wonder how you can be the mother of Christ? He himself said: Whoever hears and fulfills the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and my sister and my mother. As for our being the brothers and sisters of Christ, we can understand this because although there is only one inheritance and Christ is the only Son, his mercy would not allow him to remain alone. It was his wish that we too should be heirs of the Father, and co-heirs with himself.

"Now having said that all of you are brothers of Christ, shall I not dare to call you his mother? Much less would I dare to deny his words. Tell me how Mary became the mother of Christ, if it was not by giving birth to the members of Christ? You, to whom I am speaking, are the members of Christ. Now you in your turn must draw to the font of baptism as many as you possibly can. You became sons when you were born there yourselves, and now by bringing others to birth in the same way, you have it in your power to become the mothers of Christ.

Co-redemptrix

That the Lord then was manifestly coming to His own things, and was sustaining them by means of that creation which is supported by Himself, and was making a recapitulation of that disobedience which had occurred in connection with a tree, through the obedience which was [exhibited by Himself when He hung] upon a tree, [the effects] also of that deception being done aways with, by which that virgin Eve, who was already espoused to a man, was unhappily misled,--was happily announced, through means of the truth [spoken] by the angel to the Virgin Mary, who was [also espoused] to a man. For just as the former was led astray by the word of an angel, so that she fled from God when she had transgressed His word; so did the latter, by an angelic communication receive the glad tidings that she should sustain (portaret) God, being obedient to His word. And if the former did disobey God, yet the latter was persuaded to be obedient to God, in order that the Virgin Mary might become patroness (advocata) of the virgin Eve. And thus, as the human race fell into bondage to death by means of a virgin, so is it rescued by a virgin; virginal disobedience having been balanced in the opposite scale by virginal obedience. For in the same way the sin of the first created man (protoplasti) receives amendment by the correction of the First-begotten, and the coming of the serpent is conquered by the harmlessness of the dove, those bonds being unloosed by which we had been fast bound to death. (ch. 19, 1)

In accordance with this design, Mary the Virgin is found obedient, saying, "Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word."(2) But Eve was disobedient; for she did not obey when as yet she was a virgin. And even as she, having indeed a husband, Adam, but being nevertheless as yet a virgin (for in Paradise "they were both naked, and were not ashamed,"(3) inasmuch as they, having been created a short time previously, had no understanding of the procreation of children: for it was necessary that they should first come to adult age,(4) and then multiply from that time onward), having become disobedient, was made the cause of death, both to herself and to the entire human race; so also did Mary, having a man betrothed [to her], and being nevertheless a virgin, by yielding obedience, become the cause of salvation, both to herself and the whole human race. And on this account does the law term a woman betrothed to a man, the wife of him who had betrothed her, although she was as yet a virgin; thus indicating the back-reference from Mary to Eve, because what is joined together could not otherwise be put asunder than by inversion of the process by which these bonds of union had arisen; s so that the former ties be cancelled by the latter, that the latter may set the former again at liberty. And it has, in fact, happened that the first compact looses from the second tie, but that the second tie takes the position of the first which has been cancelled.(6) For this reason did the Lord declare that the first should in truth be last, and the last first.(7) And the prophet, too, indicates the same, saying, "instead of fathers, children have been born unto thee."(8) For the Lord, having been born "the First-begotten of the dead,"(9) and receiving into His bosom the ancient fathers, has regenerated them into the life of God, He having been made Himself the beginning of those that live, as Adam became the beginning of those who die.(10) Wherefore also Luke, commencing the genealogy with the Lord, carried it back to Adam, indicating that it was He who regenerated them into the Gospel of life, and not they Him. And thus also it was that the knot of Eve's disobedience was loosed by the obedience of Mary. For what the virgin Eve had bound fast through unbelief, this did the virgin Mary set free through faith. (ch. 22, 4)

Visual Evidence of Early Christian Belief

This image, among the most ancient in Christian art, expresses a theme that lies at the heart of the Christian faith: the mystery of the incarnation of the Son of God born of the Virgin Mary.

At the left, the figure of a man pointing to a star, located above the Virgin with the child: a prophet, probably Balaam, who anniunced that "a star shall come forth out of Jacob, and a sceptre shall rise out of Israel" (Num 24:17).

Conclusion

Mary is the mother of Jesus, who is God. Jesus made her sinless from her first moment of existence in her mother's womb because of the singular role she was to play in our salvation. No other human person forms as vital and direct a link in the coming of Christ. If we allow it, her example and prayers will safeguard our pilgrim way through this valley of tears until we reach the blessed vision of her son, Jesus.

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