Madonna and Child
Berlinghiero Italian,
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 601
Used with permission
How can a mere mortal be the Mother of the Eternal God who has always existed?
Consider how we speak of human motherhood. Our own mothers supply our human nature, our physical bodies; yet, it is God who supplies our spirit and soul. We do not distinguish between the two: a mother gives birth not only to our nature, but to our entire person.
In regard to Christ, the Blessed Virgin Mary supplied his humanity and is thus the Mother of Jesus. But Christ has both a human nature and a divine nature. Nevertheless, she gave birth to the one Person who is Jesus Christ, the Son of God made man. She is rightly called the Mother of God even though she herself is not the source of his divinity. (Cf. CCC 496)
This doctrine is taught implicitly in Scripture, especially in those passages where the Blessed Virgin Mary is called the"Mother of Jesus", or the"Mother of Christ"—perhaps most strikingly when Saint Elizabeth greets her with the following words: "Why is this granted me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?" (Luke 1:43). Her identity as the Mother of God is intimately linked to Christ's own identity as fully man and fully God, the Son of God. (Cf. CCC 509)
