Thursday, July 16, 2020 –
Continuing with our Holy Day throwdowns, today we will be talking about January 1st: Solemnity of Mary, the Holy Mother of God. Brace yourself, today we are going to go down a sketchy road of history and add in some Greek. WHAT!?
Before we get into it, just know the short answer for what this Holy Day celebrates is:
Mary is the Mother of God.
The longer answer is a bit of a story, but let’s look at the Catechism first. In it, we find an overview of what the Church teaches about Mary as the Mother of God:
Mary’s divine motherhood
495 Called in the Gospels “the mother of Jesus”, Mary is acclaimed by Elizabeth, at the prompting of the Spirit and even before the birth of her son, as “the mother of my Lord”. In fact, the One whom she conceived as man by the Holy Spirit, who truly became her Son according to the flesh, was none other than the Father’s eternal Son, the second person of the Holy Trinity. Hence the Church confesses that Mary is truly “Mother of God” (Theotokos).
There is that Greek word I promised: Theotokos. By the way, it comes from the Greek theos, meaning god, and tokos, meaning bringing forth. So, Theotokos literally means “bringing forth God.”
Now we will get into a brief history…
Once upon a time there was a guy named Nestorius. He didn’t get the whole “Mary is the Mother of God” thing, so he complained…a lot! How can a human woman be the mother of God? Mother means she would come before, right? Well, no. God is outside time and space, and God can do want God wants. There is more theology to that last statement, but ya know…
Well, back to ‘ole Nestorius and his complaining. Some strongly-worded letters were written, an ecumenical council was called, and before you know it anathemas were being thrown hither and dither! Number 1 in particular was a huge sting to Nestorius, and a boon for the Catholic Church:
- If anyone does not confess that Emmanuel is God in truth, and therefore that the holy virgin is the mother of God (for she bore in a fleshly way the Word of God become flesh, let him be anathema. (from the Twelve Anathemas Proposed by Cyril and accepted by the Council of Ephesus, <https://www.papalencyclicals.net/councils/ecum03.htm>).
So, now we have Mary is the Mother of God! Yay! Anyhoo, as time went on, the feast was made, moved around, etc. January 1st used to be celebrated as the Feast of the Circumcision of our Lord because, well, it is eight days after the Nativity of our Lord, and Jewish law says exactly when a baby has to be circumcised. Well, later on Pope John XXIII in the 1960 rubrical and calendrical revision renamed January 1st as an Octave-day of the Nativity. And then, BAM! The 1960s happened and we now have Mary, Mother of God.
Okay, so that was a super shortened history, but you get the idea. Here is what Pope Paul VI had to say (or, rather, write) on February 2, 1974 in Marialis Cultus:
“In the revised ordering of the Christmas period it seems to us that the attention of all should be directed towards the restored Solemnity of Mary the holy Mother of God. This celebration, placed on January 1 in conformity with the ancient indication of the liturgy of the City of Rome, is meant to commemorate the part played by Mary in this mystery of salvation. It is meant also to exalt the singular dignity which this mystery brings to the ‘holy Mother…through whom we were found worthy to receive the Author of life.’” (Marialis Cultus, 5b)
So, all this leads back to what this Holy Day celebrates:
Mary is the Mother of God.
Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us!
