DIVINE MATERNITY OF MARY Most Holy. — It is Mary’s principal privilege, and the root of all the others. The nature and foundations of the d. m. were elucidated by Pius XI in the encyclical Lux veritatis, on the fifteenth centenary of the Council of Ephesus.
Human motherhood, in general, implies a permanent relationship of the mother with the child and vice versa, founded on generation. It therefore entails that a woman (the generative principle) communicate to the child (the generated term) a nature identical to her own (the term according to which the subject is generated) by means of true and proper generation (conception, gestation, and childbirth). There is therefore a true relationship, whose constitutive elements are: the generative principle, the generated term (the subject or person generated according to a determinate nature), and the foundation, that is, generation. Applying these notions to the d. m. of M., one may say that it consists in a permanent relationship of Mary (the generative principle) with Christ (the term or person generated according to human nature), founded on generation. Since Mary truly generated the divine person of the Word according to human nature, she enjoys true and proper d. m. All this is readily understood if one keeps in mind that in Christ there is one person alone (the divine person of the Word), in whom two natures subsist, the divine and the human. Consequently, one and the same person (the divine person of the Word), generated from all eternity by the Father according to the divine nature, was generated in time by Mary according to human nature. The denial of the unity of person in Christ led Nestorius (v.) to admit that Mary was only Χριστοτόκος (Mother of Christ) and not Θεοτόκος (Mother of God). For he admitted in Christ not only two natures but also two persons, the divine and the human, in a perfect moral union of wills. This heresy was solemnly condemned at the Council of Ephesus (431), amid the singular rejoicing of all the faithful (cf. Denz-U, 148).
This dogma is explicitly contained in Revelation. In Sacred Scripture Mary is presented as the mother of Jesus, conceived by her and brought forth by her (Is. 7, 14; Mt. 2, 11; Lc. 1, 31; 2, 7; Io. 2, 1, 3, 5, 12; 19, 25-26; Gal. 4, 4). Jesus, moreover, is presented as God. Therefore Mary, being the mother of Jesus, true God, is in the true and proper sense the Mother of God. Thus, in fact, St. Elizabeth greeted her when, inspired by God, she exclaimed: « And whence is this granted me, that the Mother of my Lord should come to me? » (Lc. 1, 43). The term « Lord » is synonymous with « God », since in the same chapter it is used fourteen times and always in the sense of « God », and Elizabeth herself adds: « those things shall be fulfilled in thee that were spoken to thee by the Lord », that is, by « God » (Lc. 1, 45).
Christian tradition, from the apostolic age onward, has always explicitly attested the d. m. of M.: St. Ignatius of Antioch (Ephes., 7), St. Irenaeus (Adv. haer., III, 16, 22; PG 7, 921, 955), Tertullian (De carne Christi, 17; PL 2, 781-82), St. Hippolytus (Contr. haeres. Noeti, 17; PG 10, 825-28). As regards the technical term Θεοτόκος, it was already so universal that St. Cyril of Alexandria could appeal, against Nestorius, to the common usage of the holy Fathers who had preceded him (Liber ad Reginas, De recta in D. N. I. C. fide; PG 76, 1218).
The dignity that derives for Mary from the d. m. is entirely singular and, in a certain sense, namely morally, infinite, since the Son, as St. Albert the Great asserted, makes the goodness of the Mother infinite (Mariale, q. 197). It brings the Virgin into the closest relationship with the individual persons of the Most Holy Trinity. The d. m. alone incomparably surpasses the entire order of nature, grace, and glory, since it raises the Virgin to the highest of all created orders, to the order of the Apostolic Union, to which she belongs as the instrumental cause of the Incarnation of the Word. For this reason the holy Fathers, the Doctors of the Church, and ecclesiastical writers have used the most beautiful titles to exalt the transcendent dignity of the Mother of God.
LITURGICAL FEAST. - A particular feast in honor of the divine motherhood of Mary was instituted only in the eighteenth century. In response to a petition from the Portuguese clergy and King Joseph Emmanuel, Benedict XIV, by decree of the Sacred Congregation of Rites (22 January 1751), granted it to Portugal, to be celebrated with the rite of a double major feast on the first Sunday of May; he himself prepared its Mass and Office (cf. Benedetti XIV, Opera, VI [Prato 1842], p. 212). In time it was also extended to the Venetian Dominions (1752), the Kingdom of Naples (1778), the diocese of Perugia (1800), Tuscany (1807), England (1843), etc. Then, in commemoration of the fifteenth centenary of the Council of Ephesus, Pius XI (encyclical Lux veritatis, 25 December 1931; AAS, 23 [1931], pp. 516–17) extended it to the universal Church with the rite of a double feast of the second class and a proper Mass and Office (cf. F. G. Holweck, Fasti Mariani, Freiburg in Br. 1892, pp. 224–25). - Vedi tav. XXVII.
SPIRITUAL MOTHERHOOD OF Mary Most Holy. -
I. THE FACT
That Mary Most Holy, besides being the natural mother of Christ, the God-Man, is also the spiritual mother of all Christians who are members of Christ’s mystical body, is an incontestable fact, since it is found in the preaching of the Church’s ordinary Magisterium and in the conviction of all the faithful. In the words addressed by the crucified Jesus to his Mother and to St. John: « Behold your son... Behold your mother » (Io. 19, 26), not a few exegetes, both ancient and modern, have seen the solemn promulgation of the fact of Mary’s spiritual motherhood (for example, St. Ambrose, St. John Damascene, George of Nicomedia, Eadmer, Philip of Harvengt, Rupert of Deutz, Gerhoh of Reichersberg). In two stanzas of a fifteenth-century Latin sequence on the Virgin’s compassion, it is said: « The mother is given to the disciple, and this is a great mystery; under the name of John, every faithful person is included » (cf. U. Chevalier, Repertorium hymnologicum, I, Louvain 1802, p. 418, no. 6983).The Roman pontiffs, too, in official documents, have interpreted Christ’s words in this sense. Benedict XIV, in the bull Gloriosae Dominae of 27 September 1748, affirmed that « the Catholic Church, under the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit, has always professed the most filial devotion toward the Blessed Virgin, seeing in her the most loving mother, a mother bestowed upon it by her dying Spouse in his final words » (Bullarium, II, Prato 1846, p. 428). Leo XIII, in the encyclical Adiutricem populi of 5 September 1895, explicitly taught that « according to the Church’s perennial sense (“quod perpetuo sensit Ecclesia”), Christ, in the person of John, designated the whole human race, especially those who are united to him through faith » (A. Tondini, Encicliche Mariae, Rome 1950, p. 22). Pius VIII, Benedict XV, and Pius XI declared the same.
II. NATURE
When it is asserted that Mary is our mother, this does not mean that she is so inSPIRITUAL MOTHERHOOD OF MARIA MOST HOLY – MATERNAL
SPIRITUAL MATERNITY OF MARIA S.MA — Madonna of Mercy. Panel executed for the altar of the Trinity in the cathedral of Pistoia. Workshop of Filippo Lippi (1466–67) — Berlin, State Museum.
in a metaphorical sense, for example, because she loves as a mother, but in the proper sense. Nor does it mean that she is our mother merely in the juridical sense, that is, insofar as she has adopted us as children, but really, namely, in the sense of a direct communication of life. It is necessary, however, to bear in mind that the life communicated directly by Maria is not natural life but the supernatural life of divine Grace, incomparably superior to the life of nature communicated directly by the earthly mother.
III. THE FOUNDATION
The fundamental reason for this supernatural motherhood is to be sought in the doctrine of the mystical body of Christ. Indeed, through the Incarnation in the womb of Mary, the Word made man became the mystical head of all humanity (which is the synthesis of all creation), and humanity became his mystical body. Therefore, by naturally giving birth to Christ, Mary also gave birth, supernaturally, to the mystical members of Christ, that is, to all humanity. The Head and his members became the fruit of the Virgin’s womb, and Mary became the mother of the total Christ, head and members: naturally the mother of Christ and supernaturally the mother of all his mystical members.It must nevertheless be noted that Mary’s universal and supernatural motherhood, at the moment of the Incarnation and by virtue of it, existed only in a potential state (not yet in actu), since at that time all humanity was included in Christ or, rather, in the humanity assumed by him only in an initial way. This potential inclusion of humanity and of its individual members becomes actual and personal when individual human beings are incorporated into the mystical Christ through faith and Baptism, indispensable for attaining eternal life (cf. Mc. 16, 15-16; Io. 3, 5-6), since they make Christ and us an inseparable supernatural reality, a single mystical person. This actual supernatural generation of the individual into the supernatural life of divine Grace likewise takes place only in Mary, through the operation of the Holy Spirit. In Baptism, in fact, what occurred potentially for all humanity in the Incarnation takes place actually for the individual. In Baptism, the Virgin mystically actualizes her potential motherhood.
In addition to communicating directly, together with Christ, the supernatural life of Grace, Mary nourishes and develops this same life in each of her children through actual graces, all of which pass through her hands. This maternal action continues until the human being has attained in heaven the fullness of the age of Christ.
IV. THE EXTENT
If Mary’s spiritual motherhood is founded on our incorporation into Christ, it followsthat it extends as far as Christ’s quality as head of his mystical body extends. Now, Christ’s quality as head extends to all creatures, both angels and men, since all, although in different ways, are mystical members of Christ, and therefore in all there circulates the supernatural life of divine Grace derived from the Head.
Therefore Mary’s spiritual motherhood also extends to all creatures, angels and men, since She cooperated in uniting them and incorporating them into Christ, as members to the head. Not all, however, are so in the same way and to the same degree. For Christ is actually the head of some, of others he is head only potentially, and of others in no way. He is actually the head of the faithful, sinners, the just, and the blessed, but to a very different degree. Of the sinful faithful (deprived of Grace, but united to Christ through faith), Christ is head (and Mary is mother) only in a certain respect; of the just faithful Christ is head (and Mary is mother) in every respect; of the blessed, both angels and men, Christ is head (and Mary is mother) in a more excellent manner. Christ is potentially the head (and the Madonna is potentially mother) of unbelievers, who perhaps one day will be united to Christ through charity or at least through faith. Christ is in no way the head (and Mary, in no way is mother) of those, both angels and men, who are damned, since in no way, either actually or potentially, are they united to Christ, being definitively separated from him.