ON [this day] the Church celebrates the [Synaxis of the Holy Theotokos], the Mother of God, meditating on Mary’s intimate connection with the Incarnation. The feast of the Mother of God is the oldest of the Christian church’s feasts honoring Mary. The placement of this feast within the Christmas season emphasizes its connection to the mystery of Christmas.
Because this feast is about the motherhood of Mary, it helps us to grasp more deeply the meaning of the Incarnation: God himself born to a human mother. This day celebrates Mary’s most important title: the Theotokos, or “God-bearer.” Theotokos is the Greek term from which we derive the name “Mother of God.” This title was attributed to Mary from the first centuries of Christendom, and was upheld at the Council of Ephesus in 431.
Rather than limiting Mary’s title to Christotokos, or “Christ-bearer,” the council agreed on the importance of understanding Mary as the mother of God. To call her the mother of Christ but not the mother of God would imply that somehow Christ’s humanity is separate from his divinity. The title of God-bearer holds Christ’s divinity and his humanity in perfect balance. Thus, in contemplating Mary as “Mother of God,” we are contemplating the nature of the Incarnation: God and man, inseparable in the person of Christ.
Mary’s role in the Incarnation began when she accepted the astonishing news brought to her by the angel Gabriel: that she would bear the Son of God. Her “Yes” to God is a model of faith and obedience. Despite the terrifying prospects of accepting her calling, she yielded her very body to the will of God, saying, “I am the Lord’s servant. May it be to me as you have said.”
The placement of this feast at the beginning of the calendar year reminds us that Jesus’ birth ushered in a new era. This day aligns our Christmas celebration with Mary’s maternal joy at the birth of her son. Today is also the “octave,” or eighth day, of Christmas. According to God’s Covenant with the Israelites, male children were circumcised on the eighth day after they were born. So this day also recalls the outward, sacramental sign of Christ’s consecration to God, along with Mary’s role in the child’s life and in the life of the church.
~Adapted from Eugene Peterson, “Feast of Mary the Mother of God,” GOD WITH US: Rediscovering the Meaning of Christmas, edited by Greg Pennoyer & Gregory Wolfe
Mary, Mother of God. Her place in salvation-history calls forth high compliments and lavish phrases. It is easy to be drawn to the life of Mary. I like to see her as a modest young woman living in Nazareth, friendly, fun-loving, sensitive, devout. I can imagine her sewing, mending, drawing water, making bread; getting to know Joseph, exchanging vows with him; greeting the angel graciously; visiting with her cousin Elizabeth. Finally, I see her in the stable at Bethlehem, adoring the most wonderful child ever born. I like to reflect on Mary’s depth of soul, and on how she pondered amazing things in her heart.
She was not only the one who bore Christ in the flesh. She was also the one who followed Christ, who showed us how to be completely faithful to him. Mary showed us how to contemplate Jesus, even in his last hours of trial. No longer the young girl of Nazareth, this was the Mary whose soul had been pierced by a sword.
~Adapted from Emilie Griffin, “Feast of Mary the Mother of God,” GOD WITH US: Rediscovering the Meaning of Christmas, edited by Greg Pennoyer & Gregory Wolfe
