Part I Chapter II §1: The Objective Dignity of Mary's Divine Motherhood

Chapter II: Mary’s Dignity as Mother of God and the Graces Attached to Her Divine Motherhood

§1: The Objective Dignity of Mary’s Divine Motherhood

CHAPTER II mary’s dignity as mother of god and the graces attached to her divine motherhood Like the Hypostatic Union of the twp Natures in Christ, the Divine Motherhood of the Blessed Virgin Mary may be regarded from a twofold point of view: (i) ontologically, i. e., in its objective dignity (dignitas matemitatis divinae in se) ; and (2) ethically, in its causal connexion with the prerogatives proper to this exalted office (plenitudo gratiae correspondents dignitati). Christology shows how the Hypostatic Union immediately and substantially sanctified the manhood of our Lord in direct proportion to His infinite dignity as Godman.1 In a similar though not precisely the same manner Mary’s objective dignity as mother of God constitutes both the intrinsic principle and the extrinsic standard of her supernatural purity and holiness. The one postulates the other as a cause its effect. 1 Cfr. PoKle-Preuss, Christology, pp. 224 sqq.

SECTION i THE OBJECTIVE DIGNITY OF MARY’S DIVINE MOTHERHOOD Scheeben2 lucidly demonstrates the unique dignity of Mary’s Divine Motherhood by pointing out, (i ) that it confers upon her a rank vastly superior to that of any other creature; (2) that it constitutes her the very centre of the hierarchy of rational creatures, and (3) that it makes her an intermediary between God and the universe. 1. The Transcendent Rank of Mary as Mother of God. — The Blessed Virgin Mary, as Mother of God, ranks high above all other creatures ; in fact she is in a category all her own, inasmuch as she embodies the most perfect type of created personality, just as the manhood of our Lord Jesus Christ represents the most perfect type of human nature. a) As mother of the Divine Logos, Mary stands in a unique relation to the Second Person of the Trinity. The Logos is the true Son both of His Heavenly Father and of His earthly mother. This double consubstantiality (6/Aoovata), 2Dogmatik, Vol. Ill, § 277, 16 based upon His twofold birth, is strongly emphasized in the ancient creeds and conciliar definitions. The so-called Athanasian Creed 8 teaches : ” For the right faith is that we believe and confess that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is God and man : God, of the substance of the Father, begotten before the worlds ; and man, of the substance of His mother, born into the world.” 4 And the Fifth Council of Constantinople (A. D. 553) defines: “If any one do not confess that the Word of God has two births, the one before the worlds from the Father, out of time and incorporeally, and the other … from the holy and glorious Deipara and ever Virgin Mary, … let him be anathema.” 6 The dignity of Mary’s maternal relation to the Second Person of the Trinity cannot be adequately expressed in human terms. The Fathers try to explain it by applying to her certain passages of the Psalms,6 wherein the beauties of the Ark of the Covenant, the Temple of Solomon, and the great City of Zion are described in exalted terms. In fact they regard the Ark of Noe, the Ark of the Covenant, the Golden Bowl, etc., as types of the Blessed Virgin.7 3 This creed, known also from its first word as the Symbolum Quicunque, is an admirable resuml of the doctrine of St. Athanasius, but is not his work. It is of Western origin, and was written in Spain, against Priscillianism. Cfr. Bardenhewer-Shahan, Patrology, p. 255. 4 ” Est ergo fides recta, ut credamus et confiteamur, quia D. N. Iesus Christ us Dei Filius Deus et homo est: Deus est ex substantia Patris ante saecula genitus, et homo est ex substantia matris in saeculo natus” (Denzinger-Bannwart, n. 40.) 5 ” Si quis non confitetur, Dei Verb* duos esse nativitates (r&s dvo yevvrjaeis) , unam quid em ante saecula ex Patre sine tempore incorporaliter, alteram vero… . de sancta gloriosa Dei genitrice ($cotSkov) et semper virgine Maria, • • . talis anathema sih” (Denzinger-Bannwart, n. 214.) eps. xviii, 6; xlv, 5 »qq.; LXXXVI, 1 sqq., etc. 7 On these types cfr. the first of St John Damascene’s Homilies on b) Mary’s Divine Motherhood entails an altogether unique relation to the First Person of the Trinity. She can claim one and the same Son with God the Father, not, of course in the heathen sense, as god and goddess, but in the Christian sense, as the Divine Father and a human mother. This miraculous relationship on the part of Mary may be technically described as her daughterhood. It forms the theological counterpart of her motherhood and is a prerogative peculiar to Our Lady, resulting in a special kind of adoption. God the Father cannot but look wjth unalloyed pleasure upon the mother of His Divine Son. She is His adopted daughter (filia adoptiva)y who excels all His other adopted children by right of primogeniture. On this prerogative are based Mary’s sublime titles of ” Lady ” (Domina, Kvpla) and ” Queen ” (regina paaiXeia). St. John of Damascus observes that “in becoming the mother of the Creator she became the mistress of all His creatures.,, 8 To emphasize this aspect of her dignity some Fathers and medieval theologians apply to Mary, though not of course in a strict sense, certain epithets ascribed to the sapientia ingenita by the Sapiential Books of the Old Testament. The Church has incorporated a number of these into her liturgy.9 c) Mary’s relationship extends also to the the “Dormitio” (efc r^v koIw ffiv) of the Blessed Virgin (Migne, P. G., XCVI, 699 sqq.). On the rationale of Marian typology see Schaefer-Brossart, The Mother of Jesus in Holy Scripture, pp. 12 sqq., New York 19 13. 8De Fide Or t hod., IV, 14. 0 For further particulars see Schaefer-Brossart, A c, pp. 102 sqq. Holy Ghost, because He is the product of the joint spiration of the Father and the Son.10 In this capacity she has been aptly compared to a spouse, — an analogy adumbrated by the Apostles’ Creed when it says that Christ “was conceived by the Holy Ghost.” This appropriation excludes the cooperation of a human male and represents the fruit of Mary’s womb as a supernatural product.11 Catholic theologians and the Church in her liturgy illustrate this sublime relation between the Blessed Virgin and the Holy Ghost by quotations from the Canticle of Canticles. The ” Spouse ” is sometimes explained to be Mary, sometimes the Church, and sometimes the human soul.12 Thus we have seen that Mary is the mother of the Divine Logos, the daughter of God the Father, and the spouse of the Holy Ghost. What mortal mind can form an adequate conception of this threefold dignity? Need we wonder that some ecclesiastical writers exalt it as ineffable and compare it with the inscrutability of the Almighty Himself ? Thus Bishop Basil of Seleucia (d. about 459) says in one of his sermons: “As it is impossible to conceive and utter God, so the stupendous mystery of the mother of God transcends every intellect and tongue.”13 lOCfr. Pohle-Preuss, The Divine $ 18, Munster 1876; H. Zschokke, Trinity, 2nd ed., pp. 168 sqq., St. Die biblischen Frauen im Alt en Louis 1915. Testamente, S 41, Wien 1882. 11 Semen divinum. . 13 The passage occurs in the 12 Cfr. B. Schafer, Das Hohelied, thirty-third of the Sermons (X070O MARY’S DIVINE MOTHERHOOD This sublime dignity is not a quality, but a relation, and as such may be termed infinite; for infinitude, applied to dignity, does not involve infinity of person. Albertus Magnus teaches: “The Son endows with infinity the goodness of His mother; if the fruit is infinitely good, the tree too must in a sense possess some infinite goodness.” 14 And his great pupil St. Thomas Aquinas says : ” From the fact that she is the Mother of God, the Blessed Virgin has a certain infinite dignity, derived from the infinite Good who is God, and on this account there cannot be anything better, just as there cannot be anything better than God.” 15 Our Lady’s infinite dignity must not, however, be conceived as separable from her character as God’s favorite daughter with its claim to a corresponding measure of grace and glory. Without this character the dignity of divine motherhood would remain in a sense imperfect. It was for this reason no doubt that our Divine Lord answered the woman who exclaimed : ” Blessed is the womb that bore thee,” by saying: “Yea, rather, blessed are they who hear the word of God and keep it.” 16 2. Mary’s Relation to Her Fellow-Creatures.— The Blessed Virgin Mary is the most eminent member of the human family. With the ascribed to Basil. For a sketch of his life see Bardenhewer-Shahan, Patrology, pp. 531 sq. 14 * Filius infinitat matris bonitatem, infinita bonitas in fructu infinit am quondam ad hue ostendit in arbore bonitatem* (Mariale, qu. 197-) 15 That is to say, there can be no greater motherhood than Mary’s, just as there can be nothing better than God. Summa TheoL, ia, qu. 25, art. 6, ad 4: ” Beata Virgo ex hoc, quod est mater Dei, habet quondam dignitatem infinitam ex bono infinito, quod est Deus, et ex hac parte non potest aliquid melius fieri, sicut non potest aliquid melius esse Deo,” 16 Luke 27 sq. sole exception of her Divine Son, (“the first-born of every creature,” with whom, of course, she cannot be compared either from this or any other point of view), she is undoubtedly the loveliest flower that ever bloomed on the tree of humanity, and we are perfectly justified in addressing her as “Mystic Rose” and “Spiritual Lily.” We show a still profounder conception of her dignity and mission when we venerate her as the human organ specially chosen by the Holy Ghost for the miracle of the Incarnation, whereby she became a most precious “Spiritual Vessel,” for, as we pray in the Ave Maria: “Blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.” How are we to define Mary’s relationship to her fellowcreatures ? She is not, of course, the ” head ” of the human race. That dignity belongs solely to Jesus Christ, the ” second Adam,” who restored our lost innocence. Mary gave birth to her own spiritual and supernatural head in the person of Christ. Her unique position in the mystic body of the Church has been likened to that of the “neck,” 17 but she is perhaps more appropriately compared to the heart, which of all the bodily organs most perfectly reflects the energy of the head and most effectively sustains its vital functions.18 Thus Mary’s Divine Motherhood takes on the character and functions of a spiritual motherhood in relation to all men, especially those who are living members of the body of Christ, 17 ” Co Hum corporis mystici.” i8Cfr. Scheeben, Dogmatik, Vol. Ill, p. 5”.

As St. Augustine beautifully says: ” [She is] spiritually the mother not indeed of our Head, i. e., the Saviour Himself, from whom rather she is spiritually born … but [the spiritual mother] of His members, i. e., ourselves, because she cooperated in love towards the birth of faithful [Christians] in the Church who are the members of that Head ; bodily she is truly the mother of that Head.” 19 Some of the Fathers describe Mary’s mystic relation to the human race by referring to her as a root (radix) or vine (vitis), — two analogies which, of course, in an infinitely higher sense apply to our Lord Himself. 3. Mary as an Intermediary Between God and the World. — Like her Divine Son, though not in the same sense, Mary is an intermediary between God and His creatures. , Christ’s mediatorship is based on the Hypostatic Union of the two Natures in one Person; that of the Blessed Virgin depends entirely on her Divine Motherhood. Hers is therefore a participated and secondary mediator ship (mediatio participata s. secundaria) y which derives its essence and effectiveness solely from the grace of Christ ; furthermore, it is not an end in itself, but merely a means to an end. Many Fathers and theologians compare the mediatorship of Mary to the ladder which Jacob beheld in his dream, “standing upon the earth, and the top thereof 19” Et mater quidetn spiritu non Capitis nostri, quod est ipse Salvator, ex quo magis ilia spiritaliter nata est, • . . sed plane membrorum ems, quod nos sumus, quia cooper at a est caritate ut fideles in ecclesia nascerentur, quae illius Capitis membra sunt: cor pore vero ipsius Capitis mater,* (De Virg., c 6.) DIGNITY OF DIVINE MOTHERHOOD 23 touching heaven.* 20 She is the ladder by which the Son of God descended from, and by which men ascend to heaven.21 Other favorite Patristic metaphors are a ring (annulus) and a bridge (pons) restoring the lost connection of mankind with God. St. Proclus (+466) combined all these similes in an enthusiastic eulogy. ” Mary, I say, maiden and mother, virgin and heaven, the singular bridge between God and men, the astonishing weaver’s beam of humanity, on which in an ineffable manner was woven the garment of that [Hypostatic] Union, the Holy Ghost Himself being the weaver, the connecting thread the power from above, the wool that ancient fleece of Adam, the woof the immaculate flesh taken from the Virgin, the shuttle the immeasurable grace of the bearer, the artist the Logos, entering through her hearing.” 22 The objection that these prerogatives are not all expressly enumerated in Holy Scripture is met partly by reference to certain Old Testament texts and types, and partly by the statement that the dignity of the Blessed Virgin Mary is sufficiently indicated in the pregnant passage: ” From her was born Jesus, who is called the Christ.” 23 20 Gen. XX VIII, 12 sq. Die Marienverehrung in den ersten 21 Cfr. Zschokke, Die biblischen Jahrhunderten, 2nd ed., pp. 213 sqq., Frauen, p. 448. Stuttgart 1886. 22 Or at. de Laud. S. Mariae, 1. 23 … ex qua natus est Iesus, (Migne, P. G., LXV, 679 sqq.) qui vocatur Christus. (Matth. For further details consult Lehner, I, 16).