DID YOU KNOW? – Mary, Mother of God

 

January 1 is the Feast of Mary, Mother of God. This is the oldest title of Mary, dating back to the Council of Ephesus in AD 431. The title was designed to safeguard the full divinity of Christ against the Nestorians, who wanted to call Mary only the mother of the Christ. A more recent title for Mary is Mother of the Church. Between them, these two titles indicate the importance that Mary has for Catholics: she is the mother of our Savior and our spiritual mother, birthing us into the Body of Christ by her birth of the Head, Jesus. It is her relation to Jesus and the Church that makes Mary of significance in Catholic theology.

 

Four aspects of Mary’s life have been made official dogmas of the Church. Besides Mother of God, they are her Perpetual Virginity, her Immaculate Conception, and her Assumption into heaven. Many people often mistake the dogma of the Immaculate Conception as referencing the conception of Jesus, but it actually refers to the conception of Mary, preserved from the taint of original sin, in the womb of her mother Anne.

 

These dogmas are required belief for Catholics, but it does not mean that they are the only aspects of Mary’s life that are authoritatively taught. Titles of Mary such as Coredemptrix, Mediatrix and Advocate have a long history in the teaching of the Church’s ordinary Magesterium.

 

Catholics do not worship Mary; she is not God. The Church distinguishes between latria, the adoration and worship due to God alone, and dulia, the respect, veneration and love we offer to the saints. Mary, as the person most closely associated with Christ and given the highest honor and sanctity by God, is given the highest honor, or hyperdulia.