Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God—Galatians 4:4-7

In the first few centuries of the Church, Christians developed a language for describing the incredible event of the Incarnation. What does it mean that God became a man? In 451, the Council of Ephesus described this mystery in terms of Mary, calling her theotokos, the God-bearer, the Mother of God. Since at least the thirteenth century, January 1 has been a celebration of Mary’s maternity, and since 1960 we have called this day the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God.

Saint Paul touches upon this deep mystery in his Letter to the Galatians when he speaks of the Son of God being “born of a woman.” Perhaps to emphasize the weight of it, he leaves her nameless. God was born of a woman. The Creator of all that exists experienced fetal development and human birth. He left some of his stem cells permanently within the body of his human mother, as all babies do. And a woman gave birth to her Creator.

How can that even be possible? And yet it must be, if Jesus of Nazareth is fully God. If Jesus were some confused mixture of humanity and divinity, perhaps a 50/50 split, than it could be argued that Mary is the mother of whatever is human in Jesus. But if Jesus Christ is fully human while remaining fully God, one divine Person with a divine and a human nature, then mysterious as it may be, Mary must be the Mother of God, the one whose Creator and sustainer relied entirely upon her to sustain him.

Why would God do such a crazy thing? Why does he make himself so vulnerable on the cross and in the Eucharist and in the manger? As Saint Paul told the Galatians, he did it “so that we might receive adoption as sons.” Humanity it not a mistake of evolution or an interesting facet of creation. We are the one thing in all the world that God made and decided to become. He did not take tree nature into himself, nor did he take dog nature. But he did take on a human nature, kept his glorified human body, and longs for every human being—for you, for me—to be, not slaves, but sons and daughters.

Humanity is called to the divine. Divinity became human, Jesus of Nazareth. And he has a mom, Mary of Nazareth, the Mother of God.