January 1

Mary, Mother of God

Solemnity

Scripture Readings

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Reflection on Today’s Feast

By Michael C. Magree, SJ

January 1 is the great feast of Mary, the Mother of God. We invoke Our Lady under a title that might not catch our attention, because it seems so familiar. “Mother of God” figures prominently in the eucharistic prayers at mass and, of course, in the “Hail Mary.” There is good reason it is such a common title; its roots go back to some of the earliest Christian texts we posssess. Yet just because the title is ancient does not make it antiquated. These early sources can stir us to even greater devotion on this feast.

The title is, in the first place, about how God has chosen to save us: “For you know the gracious act of our Lord Jesus Christ, that for your sake he became poor although he was rich, so that by his poverty you might become rich” (2 Cor 8:9). At one of the great councils of the early Church, at Ephesus in 431 AD, the Church affirmed that Mary is Mother of God because of what this says about Jesus. Jesus is not merely a nice guy. One more nice guy could not fix the problem of human sin, estrangement from God. God came to deal with this problem directly and humbly, by making human nature completely his own. Jesus is truly the eternal-Word-made-flesh, Emmanuel, God-with-us. And he is “with us” not by parachuting into some pre-formed adult body, but “with us” to the extent of being carried in a womb and having a real human mother. Mary is Mother of God, because Jesus is truly God.

In focusing, however, on what the title “Mother of God” means about Jesus, we do not want to exclude Mary from the conversation! Precisely what centuries of Christian devotion have recognized is that our salvation is tied up not only in who Jesus is but in who Mary is. In Mary we see that for all of us humans God does not save us apart from our cooperation, not without reshaping us into the image of God’s own humble love. The eternal Word’s own humility, his own self-emptying in becoming “poor” for us, is matched by the humility of her who says to the angel, “May it be done to me according to your word” (Luke 1:38).

At that point, Mary must surely have only barely begun to understand what she was invited to do. But she visits her relative, Elizabeth, who acclaims Mary as “Mother of my Lord” (Luke 1:43). Could this somehow imply that Mary is the “Mother of the LORD,” that is, Mother of God? Luke’s Gospel is not concerned in its very first chapter to explain what this might mean. The Gospel will only slowly unfold how it applies the title “Lord” to Jesus across the whole narrative. But here, right in the first chapter of the Gospel, the stunning declaration helps explain why Mary would then burst into her great song of praise to God. Her humble acceptance of God’s plan for her leads her to declare some of the most exalted language about herself: “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord… all generations will call me blessed” (Luke 1:46–48). If she is realizing that “my Lord,” maybe even “the LORD,” has somehow come to her very womb, then, of course it makes sense that all generations are going to talk about her! Humility is turned into exaltation! Truly, God “has lifted up the lowly” (Luke 1:52).

These themes are picked up in one of the most ancient texts that we possess about the Blessed Virgin Mary. In the 1930’s a fragment of ancient writing from Egypt was first published, a fragment that likely dates from the 200’s AD. It contains a hymn to Our Lady known later in Latin as Sub Tuum Praesidium. It beautifully asks for protection under Mary’s compassion, and names her in Greek as Θεοτόκος, God-bearer, the Mother of God. It also declares Mary to be “blessed,” much as she herself had predicted.

St. Ignatius Loyola was so conscious of the connection between devotion to Mary and devotion to Jesus that he constantly invites his followers to turn to Mary for what we need. We love her humble agreement to become the one who bore the humble Christ. Let our love for her, and our need for her, lead us to imitate her, and so to become even closer followers of her Son.

Sub Tuum Praesidium

We fly to Thy protection,

O Holy Mother of God.

Do not despise our petitions in our necessities,

but deliver us always from all dangers,

O Glorious and Blessed Virgin!

We fly to you, O Mother of God!