Blessing the great Mother of God, Mary, is not only condoned, but encouraged by the Catholic Church because she is not only the mother of Jesus, but she’s also the mother of the members of Christ. By her total cooperation in the redemptive action of the Incarnation, Life, Ministry, Passion, Death, and Resurrection of Christ, Mary became the New Eve—the new mother of all the living. In the order of grace, she acts as a spiritual mother to every individual, serving as our intercessor, always pointing her children away from herself and toward her divine Son, Jesus.
In fact, the Catholic Church’s teaching on Mary as the great Mother of God is one of its oldest and most foundational doctrines. It is the first of the four Marian Dogmas, or infallible truths, defined by the Church.
Let’s take a deeper look at the title, Great Mother of God. Why does Mary have a maternal relationship with the Church? It’s simple. This is because her role as our Mother is an inseparable extension of her profound, unbreakable union with Jesus Christ.
The Great Mother of God, Theotokos
The official Greek term for the title “Mother of God” is Theotokos; it literally translates to God-Bearer or The One Who Bore God. The Church teaches that Mary is truly the Mother of God because she gave birth to Jesus Christ, who is true God and true man.
The title “Mother of God” does not mean that Mary created God, or that she existed before God the Father. She is a created human being. However, in her motherhood she is bearing Christ who has two distinct natures that are in complete harmony with each other through what is referred to by theologians as a hypostatic union. In more simpler terms, we can say that since Jesus is a single, fully human and divine Person whose two natures are in complete harmony with each other and inseparable. And since Jesus’ two natures cannot be separated, and Mary gave birth to Jesus Christ, true God and true Man, therefore she is truly the Mother of God as well as the mother of Jesus. We cannot separate her motherhood in the same way we cannot separate the human nature of Jesus from his divine nature.
I think it is also interesting to know that science has another proof that adds a layer of biological truth to this theological truth. Scientists have discovered a unique biological process called fetal microchimerism. This is a process where cells from the fetus cross the placenta and migrate into the mother’s tissues. Scientists have learned that these fetal cells can remain in the mother’s body for the rest of her life. Furthermore, these fetal cells act as healing cells within the mother’s body. Mary and Jesus had a unique biological bond as mother and Son, and by giving birth to Jesus, Mary received his fetal cells, and they most likely remained within her body throughout her life.
Mary, Mother of God
The Virgin Mary was present from the moment of Jesus’ virginal conception, she was present at his first public miracle, at his passion, and death at the foot of the cross. During the Crucifixion, Mary the Mother of Jesus faithfully endured the intensity of her Son’s suffering. She united her maternal heart to the Sacred Heart of Jesus on the Cross; just as any other mother who loves her child. Mary suffered interiorly with her Son during his Passion.
The Virgin Mary also had a special indwelling of the Holy Spirit throughout her life. This was evident when the Holy Spirit overshadowed her at the Incarnation in Luke 1:35. We see it as well in the Visitation story from Luke 1:39-56.
And since we know that Jesus is one single Divine Person who possesses two complete, distinct natures that are separate and in perfect harmony, Mary is not only the Mother of Jesus, but also the Mother of God. This is true because Jesus is not half-God and half-man. He is entirely God and entirely man at the same time. The technical term for this is hypostatic union. And if we know this to be true, then Mary is both the mother of Jesus and the mother of God, because you cannot separate the humanity of Jesus from the divinity of Jesus.
We can see confirmation of this theology in Luke 1:43, where Mary’s cousin Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, exclaims, “And why is this granted me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” In the Jewish context, Lord (Adonai) is the title used for God.
Additionally, in Catholic exegesis, the typology of Mary as the Mother of God, or Theotokos, is further revealed through parallels of Old Testament figures, objects, and events that prefigure Mary’s role as the sinless bearer of the divine Word [John 1:1-3].
Mary as the New Ark of the Covenant
We see this coorelation in the Old Testament story of David and the Ark of the Covenant in 2 Samuel 6. King David asks, “How can the ark of the Lord come to me?” When we compare this Old Testament prefiguration to the New Testament fulfillment in Luke 1, we hear Elizabeth ask the same question, “And why is this granted me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?”
We learn in Hebrews 9:4 that the Ark of the Covenant in the Old Testament contained three things. It held the manna that came down from heaven that fed the Israelites in the desert, the Ten Commandments, and Aaron’s rod, alive with buds on it. Symbolically, we say that the manna represents the Bread of Life, the Ten Commandments represent the Eternal Word, and the budding rod of Aaron represents the Eternal Priesthood.
The passage in Luke that describes the visitation of Mary to Elizabeth. Mary is the fulfillment of the Old Testament Ark and we see this when we look at the parallels. Mary carries within her womb the living Manna (Jesus), who is also the eternal Word incarnate, and the eternal High Priest.
Furthermore, the Holy Spirit “overshadowed” Mary (Luke 1:35). This same word is used to describe the cloud of glory that covered the Tabernacle in Exodus 40:34-35.
What was in the Old Testament Tabernacle? It contained the Ark of the Covenant and the Mercy Seat that contained the presence of God. Two solid-gold cherubim with outstretched wings covered the Mercy Seat.
But there is more. When the Ark of the Covenant came to David, it remained for 3 months, and this is exactly how long the New Ark, Mary, Mother of God, stayed with Elizabeth.
Furthermore, in the New Testament we learn that John the Baptist leapt in Elizabeth’s womb (Luke 1:41) when in the presence of Christ in Mary’s womb. This directly parallels the story of King David dancing and leaping before the Ark of the Covenant in 2 Samuel 6:14. In both accounts the Ark bears the physical presence of God from within.
The Lost Ark of the Covenant Fulfilled
When we ponder the science of fetal microchimerism within the theological concept of Mary as the new Ark, it also affirms this teaching through biological proof that the Presence of God remains in the Ark that bore it. Layer upon this the mystery of the Lost Ark of the Covenant and you begin to see the fulfillment of Jeremiah’s prophecy. In 2 Maccabees 2:4–8 we learn that the weeping Prophet Jeremiah (who is an archetype of Christ) hides the Ark of the Covenant in a cave during the Babylonian exile:
“The same document also tells how the prophet, in virtue of an oracle, ordered that the tent and the ark should accompany him, and how he went to the very mountain that Moses climbed to behold God’s inheritance.
When Jeremiah arrived there, he found a chamber in a cave in which he put the tent, the ark, and the altar of incense; then he sealed the entrance.
Some of those who followed him came up intending to mark the path, but they could not find it. When Jeremiah heard of this, he reproved them: “The place is to remain unknown until God gathers his people together again and shows them mercy.
Then the Lord will disclose these things, and the glory of the Lord and the cloud will be seen, just as they appeared in the time of Moses and of Solomon when he prayed that the place might be greatly sanctified.”
This is a profound prophetic mystery that points directly to the Incarnation of Christ, the Assumption of Mary, and the Gathering of the Church.
"We believe that the Holy Mother of God, the new Eve, Mother of the Church, continues in heaven to exercise her maternal role on behalf of the members of Christ" [Paul VI, CPG # 15].
Mary, Great Mother of God, Mother of the Church
Now that we understand Mary’s role as both Mother of Jesus and Mother of God due to the inseparable extention of her profound, unbreakable union with Jesus Christ, true God and true Man, we can also come to understand her role as Mother of the Church. As Jesus remains with us and will not leave us orphan, so he has also entrusted his Mother to intercede for us and draw us into His Sacred Heart.
When Mary gave her fiat and consented to offering herself according to the will of God and His divine plan for salvation, Mary received a universal maternal mission. We see this mission clearly when Christ explicitly gives Mary to his disciple and his disciple to Mary.
In John 19:26-27 we read, “When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple there whom he loved, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son.” Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother.” And from that hour the disciple took her into his home.”
The "Woman" - From Genesis to Revelation
God’s plan of salvation always included Mary’s cooperation with grace. Earlier we read John 19, and you may have noticed that Jesus addresses Mary not as Mother, but as Woman. Did you know that this is a deliberate echoing of the word Woman in Genesis 3:15, whose seed would crush the serpent? By telling the beloved disciple, “Behold, your mother,” Jesus establishes Mary as the mother of his mystically reborn believers, as the Mother of the Church.
This title culminates in the last book of the New Testament, the Book of Revelation. We see in Revelation 12:17, that a heavenly Woman is shown to have “other offspring”—specifically, “those who keep the commandments of God and bear testimony to Jesus.” This Woman is Mary, and the other offspring defines the Church.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church outlines Mary’s unique maternal role as a spiritual mother who intercedes for her children to God. This role as the great Mother of God is fundamentally inseparable from her union with Christ and his work of salvation. Mary is an exemplary saint who aids humanity through her intercession, and whose influence rests entirely upon the merits of Jesus Christ, who is our one Mediator and Savior.
Mary's role in the Church is inseparable from her union with Christ and flows directly from it. "This union of the mother with the Son in the work of salvation is made manifest from the time of Christ's virginal conception up to his death";502 it is made manifest above all at the hour of his Passion:
"Thus the Blessed Virgin advanced in her pilgrimage of faith, and faithfully persevered in her union with her Son unto the cross. There she stood, in keeping with the divine plan, enduring with her only begotten Son the intensity of his suffering, joining herself with his sacrifice in her mother's heart, and lovingly consenting to the immolation of this victim, born of her: to be given, by the same Christ Jesus dying on the cross, as a mother to his disciple, with these words: "Woman, behold your son."
Mary Always Points to Jesus
Crucially, Mary’s role and spiritual influence does not diminish, obscure, or compete with the unique mediation of Jesus Christ. Her entire capacity to aid humanity flows directly from the superabundance of Christ’s merits, depends completely on him, and draws all its power from his redemptive work. Just as the single priesthood of Christ or the solitary goodness of God is shared and reflected among creatures in varying degrees, Mary’s cooperative role represents a subordinate participation in the one true source of salvation, Jesus Christ.
To deny Mary is the Mother of God is to deny that Jesus is God. Catholics honor her with this title not because we believe she is a goddess or a deity that is equal to the the Holy Trinity, but because she consented to the Incarnation and willingly carried and gave birth to the Eternal Word made flesh, Jesus Christ, true God and true Man.