1 January [Mary, Mother of God] Lk 2:16-21

Mater De

----- Forwarded Message ----
From: Nivard ...
Sent: Sat, 1 January, 2011 17:39:26
Subject: Motherhood

Mary, Mother of God.     

I wish you all a Happy New Year!

Mary is more Mother than Queen!

We celebrate the solemn Feast of Mary, Mother of God. Theotokos is the title that was officially attributed to Mary in the fifth century.

•    This title highlights the fact that Christ is God and was truly born of Mary as a man. In this way his unity as true God and true man is preserved. Much of the debate seemed to focus on Mary, but it essentially concerned the Son. Several Fathers suggested a weaker term: instead of the title Theotokos, they suggestedChristotokos, "Mother of Christ". However, this was rightly seen as a threat to the doctrine of the full unity of Christ's divinity with his humanity. So the Council of Ephesus, in 431, confirmed the unity of the two natures — the divine and the human — in the Person of the Son of God. Secondly it confirmed the legitimacy of the attribution of the title Theotokos, Mother of God, to the Virgin.
•    The teaching on Mary, Mother of God, received further confirmation at the Council of Chalcedon (451), at which Christ was declared "true God and true man... born for us and for our salvation of Mary, Virgin and Mother of God, in his humanity".
•    The Second Vatican Council gathered the teachings on Mary in the eighth chapter of the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium. It reaffirmed her divine motherhood. The chapter is entitled "The Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God, in the Mystery of Christ and the Church".
•    Thus, the description "Mother of God” is the fundamental name with which the Community of Believers has always honoured the Blessed Virgin. It clearly explains Mary's mission in salvation history.
•    All other titles attributed to Our Lady are based on her vocation to be the Mother of the Redeemer. She is the human creature chosen by God to bring about the plan of salvation. This is centred on the great mystery of the Incarnation of the Divine Word.
•    These days we have been gazing at the Nativity scene in picture and in the crib. At the centre of this scene we find the Virgin Mother, who offers the Baby Jesus for the contemplation of those who come to adore the Saviour: the shepherds, the poor people of Bethlehem, the Magi from the East.
•    The devotion of the Christian people has always considered the Birth of Jesus and the divine motherhood of Mary as two aspects of the same mystery of the Incarnation of the Divine Word. It has never thought of the Nativity as a thing of the past. We are "contemporaries" of the shepherds, the Magi, of Simeon and of Anna, and as we go with them we are filled with joy, because God wanted to be the God-with-us and has a mother who is our mother.
•    All the other titles with which the Church honours Our Lady derive from the title "Mother of God". This one is fundamental. Let us think of the privilege of the "Immaculate Conception". She was preserved from any stain of sin because she was to be the Mother of the Redeemer. The same applies to the title "Our Lady of the Assumption": the One who had brought forth the Saviour could not be subject to the corruption that derives from original sin. All these privileges were not granted in order to distance Mary from us but to bring her close. Indeed, since she was totally with God, this woman is very close to us and helps us as a mother and a sister. The unique and unrepeatable position that Mary occupies in the Community of Believers also stems from her fundamental vocation to being Mother of the Redeemer. Precisely as such, Mary is also Mother of the Mystical Body of Christ, which is the Church. Rightly, therefore, on 21 November 1964 during the Second Vatican Council, Paul VI solemnly attributed to Mary the title "Mother of the Church".
•    It is because she is Mother of the Church that the Virgin is also the Mother of each one of us, members of the Mystical Body of Christ. From the Cross, Jesus entrusted his Mother to all his disciples and at the same time entrusted all his disciples to the love of his Mother. The Evangelist John concludes the brief and evocative account with these words: "Then he said to the disciple, "Behold, your mother!'. And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home". Thus, she is part of his life and the two lives penetrate each other. And this acceptance of her in his own life is the Lord's testament. Therefore, Jesus bequeaths as a precious inheritance to each one of his disciples, you and me, his own Mother, the Virgin Mary.
• Dear brothers and sisters, in these first days of the year, we are invited to consider attentively the importance of Mary's presence in the life of the Church and in our own lives. Let us entrust ourselves to her so that she may guide our steps in this new period of time which the Lord gives us to live, and help us to be authentic friends of his Son. Happy New Year to you all