From the Friars: María Teotókos

Happy New Year! Have you made your New Years resolutions yet? If not, turn to Mary, the Mother of God, whom we celebrate each year at the beginning of the secular calendar. “Theotókos” is the Greek word meaning “she who gave birth to God,” and it has an important and impressive history, since the early days of the Church. The Fathers of the Church chose this word on purpose (Teotókos – Mother of God) to defend the truth that Mary is Mother both to Christ’s divinity and to his humanity. And since the Council of Ephesus in 451, the Church has proudly confessed this dogma of the divine motherhood of Mary.

Mary is the Mother of God because she is the Mother of Jesus Christ.

All simple, right? Not really. Many do not know that the divine motherhood of Mary. In its beginnings, it was more a defense and proclamation of the divinity of Jesus Christ than a clarification of the role of Mary in the history of salvation. The reason is because many Christians had adopted a false belief that came from the Antioch school, which thought that The Eternal Word (Jesus Christ) assumed the fullness of a ‘complete man‘ without divinity joining it. Therefore, they believed that Mary was Cristotókos (Mother of Christ – the man) but not Theotokos (Mother of God). Because for them Christ was not God and man but only a complete man.

Interesting, right? This brief story provides us with a logic that we must deepen and apply to our spiritual life at the beginning of this new year: Jesus and Mary are inseparable, and by looking for one, the other is found.

Saint Irenaeus, a Father of the Church who also defended Jesus and Mary, offers us words on which we want to meditate: “Mary is the cause of our salvation.” These words are a bit controversial but understood correctly they carry a consequence for us that I believe was one of the purposes of Saint Irenaeus. Mary is the cause of salvation because she is ‘the one who gave birth to God‘ (Teotókos); and Mary is Mother because she welcomed the Holy Spirit into her heart in a unique and complete way.

Perhaps a resolution for this new year will be this: ask that we be fruitful like Mary by the work of the Holy Spirit. We want the Holy Spirit to possess our soul until he activates all his gifts in us.

Unfortunately, we forget that God also wants to use us as instruments of salvation for others.

Turn to Mary, the Mother of God, during this whole year, and see how the Light of Christ grows in the manger of your heart.

— Fr. Francis