Solemnity of Mary, the Holy Mother of God
Numbers 6:22-27
Psalm 67:2-3, 5, 6, 8
Galatians 4:4-7
Like 2:16-21
Reflection
On this New years Day, we celebrate the feast of Blessed Virgin Mary as the Mother of God.
This feast, as a popular devotion, started in the 4
th
century. In the 5
th
century, the ecumenical
council of Ephesus in 431 decreed that 'our Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of
God, to be perfect God and perfect man, begotten of the Father before all ages in regards to
his Godhead and the same born in the last days for our salvation of Mary the Virgin in re-
gards to his human nature. By virtue of this decree, we acknowledge the holy Virgin to be the
Mother of God, because the Word became flesh and united to himself the body he took from
her as a result of his conception.¯
The Church Fathers, witness to their lively recognition of the sacred truth and great gift of
divine maternity that was bestowed upon Mary, the humble handmaid of the Lord. Hippolytus
wrote, "the prophets preached of the advent of God in the flesh to the world, his advent by
the spotless and God-bearing (
theotokos
) Mary in the way of birth and growth?..¯. Peter of
Alexandria wrote, ? " Jesus Christ our Lord bore a body not in appearance but in truth de-
rived from Mary the Mother of God" (
Letter to All Non-Egyptian Bishops
12 [A.D. 324]). St
Athanasius taught, "The Word begotten of the Father from on high, inexpressibly, inexplica-
bly, incomprehensibly, and eternally, is he that is born in time here below of the Virgin Mary,
the Mother of God" (
The Incarnation of the Word of God
8 [A.D. 365]). Cyril of Alexandria
wrote, "This expression, however, ^the Word was made flesh? [John 1:14], can mean noth-
ing else but that he partook of flesh and blood like to us; he made our body his own, and
came forth man from a woman, not casting off his existence as God, or his generation of
God the Father, but even in taking to himself flesh remaining what he was. This was the dec-
laration of the correct faith proclaimed everywhere. This was the sentiment of the holy Fa-
thers; therefore they ventured to call the holy Virgin ^the Mother of God,? not as if the nature
of the Word or his divinity had its beginning from the holy Virgin, but because of her was
born that holy body with a rational soul, to which the Word, being personally united, is said to
be born according to the flesh" (
First Letter to Nestorius
[A.D. 430]).
Mary, the Mother of God, was an ordinary human being like any of us. She was a poor, sim-
ple girl. She did not do anything heroic in her life other than saying always 'Yes¯ to the will of
God, whether it was at the annunciation, or before that, or in accompanying Jesus in his life
and all the way to his Cross. All through her life she sought God?s will. And her life was al-
ways full of struggles, pain and suffering. But she considered and accepted everything as a
