Can we call Mary the Mother of God?

We begin each calendar year by celebrating the Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God on January 1st. Some non-Catholics are horrified when the Virgin Mary is referred to as the Mother of God. This title, however, is both logically and theologically sound.
 
As Catholics, we know that Jesus our Lord was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. Jesus, born of Mary, is fully God and fully man. He is the second person of the Holy Trinity who has taken on human flesh and a human soul. Jesus is true God and true man. In His person are united both a divine nature and a human nature. We call this the hypostatic union. It is very important to note that Jesus is not a human person, but a divine person. In the one divine person, Jesus Christ are united the two natures of divinity and humanity. These two natures exist in their completeness without mingling or opposition. This is essential to understand so that we can properly answer our question.
 
In order for God to take on flesh he needed Mary to use her free will and say yes to His divine re quest as we hear in Luke 1:38, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.”  Mary humbly agrees to provide God with a human body. St. John tells us, “The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us, and we have seen His glory: the glory of an only Son coming from the Father filled with enduring love.” (Jn. 1:14)
 
The Catechism of the Catholic Church reads in paragraph 495: Called in the Gospels "the mother of Jesus," Mary is acclaimed by Elizabeth, at the prompting of the Spirit and even before the birth of her son, as "the mother of my Lord." In fact, the One whom she conceived as man by the Holy Spirit, who truly became her Son according to the flesh, was none other than the Father's eternal Son, the second person of the Holy Trinity. Hence the Church confesses that Mary is truly "Mother of God" ( Theotokos).
 
It is clear from both Scripture and the Catechism that Mary was, indeed, pregnant with Jesus Christ, fully God and fully man. It is for the above reasons that very early in the Church Mary was referred to as “Mother of God.” Mary is Mother of God, not in the sense that she is older than God or the source of her Son’s divinity, for she is neither. Rather, we say that she is Mother of God in the sense that she carried in her womb a divine person Jesus Christ, God "in the flesh." 
 
To conclude we take counsel from the straightforward logic of St. Cyril of Alexandria, "I have been amazed that some are utterly in doubt as to whether or not the holy Virgin is able to be called the Mother of God. For if our Lord Jesus Christ is God, how should the holy Virgin who bore him not be the Mother of God?" ( Letter to the Monks of Egypt 1 [A.D. 427])
 
Mary, Mother of God, pray for us!
 
Fr. Gross is pastor of the Church of Epiphany in Watford City and Our Lady of Consolation in Alexander. If you have a question you were afraid to ask, now is the time to ask it! Simply email your question to [email protected] with the “Question Afraid to Ask” in the subject line.