Theotokos: The Dignity of the Mother of God

Jesus Christ is one Person.  In the one Person of Christ is two natures – human and divine.  This fact is termed the hypostatic union.  Each nature retains its own unique characteristics and properties.  The two natures are united in one subsistence and one Person.  They are joined in a moral or accidental manner.  The two natures are not comingled or co-mixed.  Nevertheless, the two natures are substantially united.

Mary’s Divine Motherhood may also be regarded from two points of view.  First, there is an objective dignity associated with her as the Mother of God.  Secondly as the Mother of God, Mary receives prerogatives and privileges proper to this very important role she fulfills.  All her special blessings and privileges arise out of her exalted role as the Mother of God.

In the next section of this blog, Mary’s dignity as the Mother of God and the graces attached to her Divine Motherhood will be explored.  First we will look at the objective dignity of her role in salvation history.

The unique dignity of Mary’s Divine Motherhood is expressed in three areas.  The Divine Motherhood confers on her a rank superior to any other creature.  It constitutes her as the very center of the hierarchy of rational creatures.  It makes her a connecting point, an intermediary of sorts, between God and His created universe.

As Mother of God, Mary is in a category all her own.  She ranks higher than all other creatures.

Mother of the Son

As Mother of the Word, Mary has a unique relationship with the Second Person of the Trinity.  As mentioned before, Christ is the true Son of the Eternal Father and His earthly mother.  The dignity of this relationship is beyond any other human experience and is thus beyond human words to adequately express.  The Fathers of the Church tried to express this by applying to Mary certain passages from the Psalms; wherein the beauty of the Ark of the Covenant, the Temple of Solomon, and the great City of Zion are applied to her.  The Ark of Noah, the Ark of the Covenant, the Golden Bowl in the Temple, etc. are all seen as types of Mary – realities from the Old Testament that point to or signify Mary’s role in salvation history.  As the Ark of the Covenant contained the presence and glory of God, so Mary’s womb contained the presence and glory of the Son of God – the God of the Universe condescended to dwell in the womb of the Virgin.

Daughter of the Father

Mary’s Divine Motherhood also entails a unique relation to the First Person of the Trinity.  Mary can claim one and the same Son with God the Father – obviously not in the sense of any divine nature – Mary is a creature and not divine.  But in the human sense, Mary is the mother of the Son of God.  This relationship with the Father is often referred to as Mary’s daughterhood.  It is the theological counterpoint to her motherhood.  It is a prerogative unique to Mary resulting in a special kind of adoption.  God the Father cannot but look upon the mother of His Divine Son with some special pleasure.  She is His adopted daughter who excels all His other adopted children by right of primogeniture.  From this prerogative arise Mary’s titles of “Lady” and “Queen”

Spouse of the Holy Spirit

Christ was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit.  There was no cooperation by a human male in this.  The Holy Offspring was truly indeed the Son of God.  In saying “Let it be done to me according to thy word”, Mary freely willingly cooperated in the Incarnation.  In this capacity, she has been called the Spouse of the Holy Spirit.

Thus, Mary is the Mother of the Divine Logos, the daughter of God the Father, and spouse of the Holy Spirit.  What an ineffable mystery.  What a tremendous honor.  What awesome dignity.

The Son endows with infinity the goodness of His mother; if the fruit is infinitely good, the tree too must in a sense possess infinite goodness.    Albert the Great

From the fact that she is the Mother of God, the Blessed Virgin has a certain infinite dignity, derived from the infinite Good who is God, and on this account there cannot be anything better, just as there cannot be anything better than God.   Thomas Aquinas

But Mary’s profound dignity must not and cannot be separated from her character as God’s obedient daughter.  Mary submitted totally to the will of God as expressed to her by the angel.  Her whole life was “yes” to the will of God and the mission of her Son.  Without this character, the dignity of her Divine Motherhood would remain in a sense imperfect.  It was for this reason that our Blessed Lord answered the woman who exclaimed; “Blessed is the womb that bore thee,” by saying; “Yea, rather, blessed are they who hear the word of God and keep it.”   (Luke 10:27 and following)