Men and women of the Bible
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Mary is the mother of God |
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The
Roman Catholic Church teaches that Mary is the mother of God: ‘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".[144] 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)’ (The Catechism
of the Catholic Church, 495). |
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Confutation |
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We
can call Mary ‘the mother of Jesus’ but we can’t call her ‘the mother of God’
because no one called her in that way in the days of Jesus nor in the days of
the apostles. Mary was just a creature of God. Of course she was chosen by
God to give birth to the Son of God, however you should keep in mind that the
Word which was made flesh, that is, the Son of God, was with God and was God
before God created all things, therefore even before Mary was born, and even
before the Son of God was born, according to the flesh, of Mary, for He was
with God the Father before the foundation of the world. Moreover you should keep
in mind that since all things were made through the Word, Mary also was
created through the Word thus she can’t be called ‘the mother of God’ but she
must be called ‘the mother of Jesus’. We may even call her ‘the mother of our
Lord’, for that’s how Elizabeth called Mary, but we can’t call her ‘the
mother of God’ because no one called her in that way while Jesus was on
earth, nor after He was taken up into heaven. Luke, who wrote the Acts of the
apostles, calls Mary ‘the mother of Jesus” (Acts |
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To
sum up, even though Jesus was the Word made flesh, and thus, God with us, we
must call Mary ‘the mother of Jesus’ or at most ‘the mother of our Lord’, but
far be it from us to call her ‘the mother of God’ for that’s not a name given
to her by the Scripture. |