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The bishops at the Second Vatican Council (1962-65) decided not to make any new definition about Mary - for example as "mediatrix of all graces", as some of the more extreme Mariologists wanted at the time. Instead the bishops went back to the tradition which saw Mary's greatness in her own act of faith, by which she achieved her true greatness and became "mother of God". Patrick Duffy explains.
Theotokos: "Mother of God"
The title, Theotokos, ("Mother of God") was defined by the Council of Ephesus in 431 AD. It was the inspiration for the completion of the Basilica of Saint Mary Major in Rome during the pontificate of Pope Sixtus III (432-440). And this feast on the octave of Christmas was restored to the Liturgical Calendar in 1970.
The New Eve
The bishops at the Second Vatican Council (1962-65) had deemed it more ecumenical to locate the teaching about Mary as a special chapter within the Dogmatic Constitution Lumen Gentium "On the Church". In this way Mary is seen as the first and foremost of all believers, a New Eve, to reverse the trend to original sin begun by the first Eve.
The Virgin Mary, who at the message of the angel received the word of God in her heart and in her body... is acknowledged and honoured as being truly the Mother of God and of the Redeemer.... Rightly, therefore, the Fathers see Mary not merely as passively engaged by God, but as freely cooperating in the work of man's salvation through faith and obedience.... St Irenaeus says of her in his preaching: 'the knot of Eve's disobedience was untied by Mary's obedience: what the virgin Eve bound through her disbelief, Mary loosened by her faith' (Lumen Gentium 53 and 56).
Mother of the Church
Pope Paul VI showed his solidarity with this position when he declared her Mother of the Church (21-11-1964). And in his encyclical Marialis Cultus (1974) he stated:
This celebration, assigned to January 1 in conformity with the ancient liturgy of Rome, is meant to commemorate the part Mary played in the mystery of salvation.
Old year/New year
However, one has to acknowledge that at this time most people are thinking about the end of the old year and the hopes they have for the new. And since the introduction of a Day of Prayer for World Peace, the liturgy of this day can begin to seem a bit overloaded. So culturally this feast of the Theotokos may not quite hit the mark.
A central theme of our faith
However, we do hold Mary's Motherhood of God as a central theme of our Catholic faith. |
