THEOTOKOS MOTHER OF GOD

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THEOTOKOSMOTHER OF GOD
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Mary, Mother of God

• All Christians believe that Jesus was born of the
  Blessed Virgin Mary.
• Jesus has two natures,
• divine and human,
• yet he is one divine Person
• Since this one divine person was born of Mary
• she really is the Mother of the one divine
  person,
• The Mother of God.
• To deny this is to deny the Incarnation

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Mary as the NT Queen Mother

• The OT Kings clearly prefigured Christ,
• The NT King of kings
• (Rev 1916)
• Jesus in his humanity descended from King David
• The Kings of Judah of Davids line especially
  prefigured Jesus kingship
• the Lord God will give him Jesus the throne of
  His father David.
• (Lk 132)
• The wife of the king of Judah was not the queen.
• The queen was the kings mother
• (Queen Mother)
• She had great honor and authority in the kingdom
• (1 Kings 219-20)

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Mary as the NT Queen Mother

• Solomon by honoring his mother established an
  institution that lasted 400 years,
• as long as the kings of Judah.
• The Queen mother served as the kings confidant
  and advisor.
• She had an official position she had to be
  deposed in order to be removed.
• (1 Kings 1513)
• The Jewish concept of a Davidic king would have
  naturally included the king on his throne
• with the queen mother at his right hand.

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• The Holy Spirit was preparing the way for Mary
• Jesus, the NT Davidic King,
• does not have a wife.
• His mother would be the NT queen
• Rev 11-12 describes
• A woman gives birth to a son who will rule all
  the nations (125)
• Jesus is a new Solomon
• just as Solomon ruled over other kings
• (2 Chronicles 923-26)
• Jesus is the King of kings and Lord of lords
• (Rev 1916)
• Any king of the house of David would be expected
  to have a queen mother.

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Mary, Mother of God

• Scripture Teaches
• Elizabeth calls Mary mother of my Lord.
• (Lk 143)
• Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
  and his name shall be called Emanuel, which means
  God with us.
• (Mt 123)
• the child to be born will be called holy, the
  Son of God.
• (Lk 135)
• when the time had fully come, God sent forth his
  Son, born of woman.
• (Gal 44)

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• Early Fathers Confirm
• Ignatius of Antioch (110)
• For our God, Jesus Christ, was conceived by Mary
  in accord with Gods plan
• Irenaeus of Lyons (180-190)
• The Virgin Mary, being obedient to His Word,
  received from an angel the glad tidings that she
  would bear God.
• Council of Ephesus (431)
• This council condemned as heresy the teaching of
  Nestorius that Jesus is two distinct persons, and
  that Mary is the mother of the human person only.
• Correct belief about Mary preserves correct
  belief about Jesus.

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• Protestant Reformers Insist
• Martin Luther
• Not only was Mary the mother of Him who is born
  in Bethlehem but of Him who, before the world ,
  was eternally born of the father, from a Mother
  in time and at the same time man and God.
• John Calvin
• It cannot be denied that God in choosing and
  destining Mary to be the Mother of His Son,
  granted her the highest honor. Elizabeth calls
  Mary Mother of the Lord, because the unity of the
  person in the two natures of Christ was such that
  she could have said that the mortal man
  engendered in the womb of Mary was at the same
  time the eternal God
• Ulrich Zwingli
• It was given to her what belongs to no creature,
  that in the flesh she should bring forth the Son
  of God.

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• Why do Catholics honor Mary?
• Mary is completely devoted to the will of God
• Mary is neither a timid nor a submissive woman
• She openly proclaimed Gods vindication of the
  humble and oppressed in the Magnificat
• She experienced poverty and suffering, flight and
  exile, death of loved ones
• Her action and strength gave witness to and
  helped strengthen the apostolic community

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• God honored Mary above all creatures by making
  her the mother of his Son.
• (Lk 128,30)
• In honoring Mary the Catholic Church is following
  the example of God
• Luke 126-56
• The Archangel Gabriel shows Mary great honor
• Elizabeth filled with the Holy Spirit calls
  Mary blessed.
• Mary herself prophesies that all ages will call
  her blessed.

Why do Catholics honor Mary?
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• Jesus Christ, the Son of God honors Mary
• (Jn 21-11)
• The first disciples honor her
• (Acts 114)
• The early Christian Church honored Mary
• (150CE Catacomb art)
• If we Love Jesus we love his mother
• The question should be
• How can anyone not honor Mary?

Why do Catholics honor Mary?
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• How do Catholics honor Mary?
• hyperdulia--veneration of Mary vs.
  latria--worship of God
• fiat--She fully and freely accepted the will of
  God and acted upon it.
• Charity and service were the driving force of her
  actions.
• She was first and most perfect of Christs
  disciples

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The Annunciation is the beginning of Motherhood

• The fact of the Annunciation of the Blessed
  Virgin Mary is related in Luke 126-38.
• The Evangelist tells us that in the sixth month
  after the conception of St. John the Baptist by
  Elizabeth, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to
  the Virgin Mary, at Nazareth, a small town in the
  mountains of Galilee.
• Mary was of the house of David, and was espoused
  to Joseph, of the same royal family.
• She had, however, not yet entered the household
  of her spouse, but was still in her mother's
  house, working, perhaps, over her dowry.
• (Bardenhewer, Maria Verk., 69).

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The Annunciation

• And the angel having taken the figure and the
  form of man, came into the house and said to her
  
• "Hail, full of grace
• (to whom is given grace, favored one),
• the Lord is with thee."
• Mary having heard the greeting words did not
  speak
• she was troubled in spirit,
• since she knew not the angel,
• nor the cause of his coming,
• nor the meaning of the salutation.

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The Annunciation

• And the angel continued and said
• "Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found grace with
  God. Behold thou shalt conceive in thy womb,
• and shalt bring forth a son
• and thou shalt call his name Jesus.
• He shall be great,
• and shall be called the Son of the Most High
• and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne
  of David his father
• and he shall reign in the House of Jacob forever.
  
• And of his kingdom there shall be no end."

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• The Virgin understood that there was question of
  the coming Redeemer.
• But, why should she be elected from amongst women
  for the splendid dignity of being the mother of
  the Messiah, having vowed her virginity to God?
• (St. Augustine).
• Therefore, not doubting the word of God like
  Zachary, but filled with fear and astonishment,
• she said
• "How shall this be done, because I know not man?"

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The Annunciation

• The angel to remove Mary's anxiety and to assure
  her that her virginity would be spared, answered
  
• "The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee and the
  power of the Most High shall overshadow thee.
• And therefore also the Holy which shall be born
  of thee shall be called the Son of God."
• In token of the truth of his word he made known
  to her the conception of St. John, the miraculous
  pregnancy of her relative now old and sterile
• "And behold, thy cousin Elizabeth she also has
  conceived a son in her old age, and this is the
  sixth month with her that is called barren
  because no word shall be impossible with God."

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• Mary may not yet have fully understood the
  meaning of the heavenly message and how the
  maternity might be reconciled with her vow of
  virginity, but clinging to the first words of the
  angel and trusting to the Omnipotence of God she
  said
• "Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it done to
  me according to thy word."

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The Annunciation

• The year and day of the Annunciation cannot be
  determined as long as new material does not throw
  more light on the subject.
• The present date of the feast (March 25) depends
  upon the date of the older feast of Christmas.

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The Annunciation

• The Annunciation is the beginning of Jesus
• in His human nature.
• Through His mother
• He is a member of the human race.

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• Many holy fathers
• (Sts. Jerome, Cyril, Ephrem, Augustine)
• say that the consent of Mary was essential to the
  redemption.
• It was the will of God, St. Thomas says
• (Summa III30),
• that the redemption of mankind should depend upon
  the consent of the Virgin Mary.
• This does not mean that God in His plans was
  bound by the will of a creature, and that man
  would not have been redeemed, if Mary had not
  consented.
• It only means that the consent of Mary was
  foreseen from all eternity, and therefore was
  received as essential into the design of God.

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• The Feast of the Annunciation of the Blessed
  Virgin Mary
• (25 March),
• also called in old calendars
• FESTUM INCARNATIONIS,
• INITIUM REDEMPTIONIS CONCEPTIO CHRISTI,
• ANNUNTIATIO CHRISTI,
• ANNUNTIATIO DOMINICA.

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The Feast of the Annunciation

• probably originated shortly before or after the
  council of Ephesus (c. 431).
• At the time of the Synod of Laodicea (372) it was
  not known

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• St. Proclus, Bishop of Constantinople (d. 446),
  however, seems to mention it in one of his
  homilies.
• He says, that the feast of the coming of Our Lord
  and Savior, when He vested Himself with the
  nature of man (quo hominum genus indutus), was
  celebrated during the entire fifth century.
• This homily, however, may not be genuine, or the
  words may be understood of the feast of
  Christmas.

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• In the Latin Church
• this feast is first mentioned in the
  Sacramentarium of Pope Gelasius (d. 496), which
  we possess in a manuscript of the seventh
  century
• It is also contained in the
• Sacramentarium of St. Gregory (d. 604),
• one manuscript of which dates back to the eighth
  century.

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The Feast of the Annunciation

• Since these sacramentaries contain additions
  posterior to the time
• of Gelasius and Gregory,
• some scholars ascribe the origin of this feast in
  Rome to the seventh century
• The tenth Synod of Toledo (656),
• and Trullan Synod (692)
• speak of this feast as one universally celebrated
  in the Catholic Church.

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The Feast of the Annunciation

• All Christian antiquity
• (against all astronomical possibility)
• recognized the 25th of March as the actual day of
  Our Lords death.
• The opinion that the Incarnation also took place
  on that date is found in the pseudo-Cyprianic
  work "De Pascha Computus", c. 240.
• It argues that the coming of Our Lord and His
  death must have coincided with the creation and
  fall of Adam.
• And since the world was created in spring,
• the Savior was also conceived and died shortly
  after the equinox of spring.

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• Similar fanciful calculations are found in the
  early and later Middle Ages, and to them, no
  doubt, the dates of the feast of the Annunciation
  and of Christmas owe their origin.
• Consequently the ancient martyrologies assign to
  the 25th of March
• the creation of Adam
• the crucifixion of Our Lord
• the fall of Lucifer,
• the passing of Israel through the Red Sea
• and the immolation of Isaac.
• (Thruston, Christmas and the Christian Calendar,
  Amer. Eccl. Rev., XIX, 568.)

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• The original date of this feast was the 25th of
  March.
• Although in olden times most of the churches kept
  no feast in Lent,
• the Greek Church in the Trullan Synod
• (in 692 can. 52)
• made an exception in favor of the Annunciation.
• In Rome, it was always celebrated on the 25th of
  March.

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• This feast was always a holy day of obligation in
  the Universal Church.
• As such it was abrogated first for France and the
  French dependencies,
• 9 April, 1802
• and for the United States, by the Third Council
  of Baltimore, in 1884.
• By a decree of the S.R.C., 23 April, 1895,
• the rank of the feast was raised from a double of
  the second class
• to a double of the first class.

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• If this feast falls within Holy Week or Easter
  Week, its office is transferred to the Monday
  after the octave of Easter.
• In some German churches it was the custom to keep
  its office the Saturday before Palm Sunday if the
  25th of March fell in Holy Week.
• The Greek Church, when the 25th of March occurs
  on one of the three last days in Holy Week,
  transfers the Annunciation to Easter Monday
• on all other days, even on Easter Sunday, its
  office is kept together with the office of the
  day.

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Mary, Mother of God

• Why do we call Mary the mother of God?
• Because she is the Mother of Jesus she is the
  Mother of God.
• She is not the source of Jesus divine nature but
  she is the mother of His human nature.
• There was no time that the human Jesus was not God

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• How is Mary our mother too?
• In John 1926 the disciple symbolizes all
  disciples of Christ
• Mary then is seen as Mother of the Church
• Mary is then Queen of Heaven and earth
• Mary continues to persevere in prayer with and
  for the Church.