In this second week of Advent, this year, we have two celebrations that center on “Mary, the Mother of God”. This title for Mary came after a few centuries of discussion and debate over what it might mean. Some theologians were very comfortable with naming her Mother of Jesus but not Mother of God. Other theologians, with whom I would agree, stated that motherhood could not be divided up so tidily. If an Irish man and a Brazilian woman have a child, one would not think that she is the mother of only the Brazilian half while he is father of only the Irish half.
Likewise, theologians felt that you could not talk about Mary being the mother of “part of Jesus“ and so we had to deal with what it meant for her to be the mother of God. I suspect that at its core, this debate was really exposing a much deeper mystery of the Trinity, that as a Church we will never be able to fully and satisfyingly answer. How do we see the unique personhood of Jesus and the other two persons of the Trinity, and yet maintain their oneness?
More importantly, as we struggled with the idea that Jesus was both fully human and fully God we found ourselves a bit flummoxed. Our theology of God is one of complete knowledge, perfection, and the stability that we described as “never changing.“ But Jesus, fully human, comes to dwell among us and is formed by his parents and culture.
We often downplay this second idea and, without actually articulating it, we subconsciously prescribe to Jesus a