Mary, Mother of God
January 1, 2023 •
This dogma of our faith that Mary is not just the Mother of Christ, She is the Mother of God Himself, is necessary for belief in Jesus Christ. It is necessarily tied to the incarnation and birth of our Savior. We are required to believe it.
It was in the plan of the Father that the Logos, the Word, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, His eternally begotten Son, would take on human flesh to save us from our sin. He was sent, He took flesh of the womb of the Virgin Mary, and built Himself up a body.
In doing that, this Divine Person: the Logos, the Word of God, eternally begotten Son of the Father, became a real human man.
But He's not a human person.
This is a very important theological point. It's heresy to say that Jesus is a human person. No, He's a Divine Person. If He's a human person, then He's not actually God. He's not actually eternal. Not one with the Father and the Spirit. He can't be a human person.
He's got to be a Divine Person, with a Divine nature, and a human nature. That's what it means when we say He is the God Man.
This theology is essential for belief in Jesus Christ. It's precisely because He is fully God and fully man that He is the only one Who can save us from sin. As God, He's the only One who can save us. But He must be fully man, otherwise our human nature isn't saved.
It's one of the teachings of the Church: what is not assumed by the Son is not redeemed.
If He doesn't take on our nature - a true body and a true soul - then our bodies and souls are not redeemed by Him.
All of this theology, all of this doctrine, is tied up in the dogma as Mary the Mother of God.
You see, you can't give birth to a human body, without giving birth the the person who possesses that body. You are the mother of the person you gave birth to. Even though you only conceived and gave birth to their body. This is how Mary is the Mother of God. Because Jesus is a Divine person.
And though yes, being a created human, She conceived by Divine grace and gave birth to the human nature - not the Divine nature - She did in fact give birth to the Person who is Divine, who possesses that human nature.
Father offers us all this philosophy & theology early on a Sunday morning in order that we might know and understand our Lord better, thereby being able to draw closer to Him and love Him more.
These truths, these doctrines, these dogmas that have been handed down to us by the Church from Christ Himself, they matter more than anything else in the world. . . . Now the Church doesn't expect you to memorize all the philosophy and theology of it. But She does expect you to believe it. We are required to assent to all of these doctrines and these dogmas with faith.
Nm 6:22-27; Ps 67:2-3, 5-6, 8; Gal 4:4-7; Lk 2:16-21
Homily begins at 26:53