The council was called to resolve a dispute over a title for the Blessed Virgin Mary; whether she should be called Theotokos (Mother of God) or simply Christotokos (Mother of Christ). However, this was not simply a dispute over a single name of the Blessed Virgin, it was about Christ. To call her only Christotokos would be to imply that she was not the Mother of God, and that this is different from being the Mother of Christ. This would necessitate a differentiation between God and Christ, a division that would give Jesus Christ a human ontology and a divine ontology. The primary argument behind this was that the Blessed Virgin Mary could not have given birth to her own creator. She must have only given birth to Christ's humanity and then the divinity came into the same body alongside it. Of course, this same logic would mean that it was only Christ's humanity that suffered and died in the Passion. As we know from yesterday, the Blessed Virgin Mary was declared to be the Theotokos, the Mother of God. This instance, in which a question of the Blessed Virgin required reflection on Christ and vice versa, is the reason that St. Cyril of Alexandria, in a homily given at the Council of Ephesus, called her "the sceptre of orthodoxy." [1]
And this idea has not faded away. In the early 20th century St. Pius X referred to the Blessed Virgin Mary as "destroyer of all heresies," [2] echoing St. Cyril nearly 16 centuries later. Why? Why is it that up and down the ages the Blessed Virgin has been so often invoked not only as an intercessor but as one whose very being shuts down all arguments against the wonder of Christ's Incarnation? Precisely because pondering her is to ponder Christ. Pondering Christ's mother is to ponder the woman that gave him human life. To ponder his flesh is to ponder he flesh. To ponder the mystery of the Blessed Virgin is truly to ponder the mystery of the Incarnation, because one would not be what it is without the other.
This is perhaps most clearly seen in the massive variety of the titles given to the Blessed Virgin Mary. Each and every one, while saying something about her, also necessarily says something about her son. She is called Cause of Our Salvation because in the Annunciation she gives her consent to conceive and at that moment flesh is joined to divinity. Her "be it done to me according to thy word" [3] begins the work of salvation as it begins the life of Christ. She is called Burning Bush because when looking at her one must wonder, "why the bush is not burnt." [4] She contained the powerful and transcendent divinity of Jesus Christ within her womb and remained not only living, but unconsumed by his power. She is called Mother of the Church because she birthed Christ. She is not only the mother of a portion of him, but of all of him, of head, body, and all its members. Christ is both the savior and the body into which Christians are born, making the Blessed Virgin the mother of all.
Her honor in no way takes away from Christ, it reflects it to us. She says so herself when she visits her cousin Elizabeth and proclaims, "My soul doth magnify the Lord. And my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour." [5] And even in this, her clearest statement that she will bring the glory of God closer into view, she remains dedicated to directing and redirecting all things to God. Her spirit rejoices in her own son and in her creator and she hopes that this magnification will be brought to others and draw them closer to the Lord as well. This is seen later in her life at Cana. She says to Christ, "They have no wine" [6] and is thus the catalyst for his first miracle. She was there at the beginning of his earthly ministry, she was there at his conception and later his birth, and she was there at his death. The Blessed Virgin Mary was present throughout the life of Christ, so is it any surprise that, throughout the centuries, people who have sought to emulate the life of Christ wished her to be there as well?
How could one have Christ without the Blessed Virgin Mary? You simply could not. Similarly, why would one even try to understand and love Jesus Christ without also understanding and loving his mother? To grow in an understanding of the Blessed Virgin Mary is to grow in an understanding of Christ. The Council of Ephesus is a wonderful example of this truth that has been demonstrated up and down the ages. Unsurprisingly, St. Cyril continues to extol the wonders of the Blessed Virgin Mary after calling her the sceptre of orthodoxy:
Hail, the one who contains the uncontainable in the holy virginal womb, through whom the holy Trinity is glorified and venerated throughout the world, through whom heaven is exalted, through whom angels and archangels are delighted, through whom demons are banished, through whom the tempting devil fell from heaven, through whom fallen human nature is assumed into heaven, through whom all of creation, possessed by the madness of idolatry, came to the full knowledge of truth, through whom the churches have been founded for all the world, through whom the nations are brought into repentance. And what more is there to say? [7]
Personally, I can't think of much else.
-Sam Landon
[1] Wessel, Susan. Cyril of Alexandria and the Nestorian Controversy: the Making of a Saint and of a Heretic. Oxford University Press, 2006. http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199268467.001.0001/acprof-9780199268467-appendix-1
[2] Pope Pius X. Pascendi dominici gregis. 1911.
[3] Luke 1:38 (Douay-Rheims)
[4] Exodus 3:3 (Douay-Rheims)
[5] Luke 1:46-47 (Douay-Rheims)
[6] John 2:3 (Douay-Rheims)
[7] Wessel, Susan. Cyril of Alexandria and the Nestorian Controversy: the Making of a Saint and of a Heretic. Oxford University Press, 2006. http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199268467.001.0001/acprof-9780199268467-appendix-1
Excellent point about the way in which Mary "destroys all heresies": she is the proof of the Incarnation. To misunderstand her role as Mother of God is to misunderstand the mystery of the Incarnation, as the Council of Ephesus declared. How does this elevated understanding of Mary fit with the stories that we read about her in Jacobus de Voragine or the prayers that Anselm composed? Could you say more about the titles by which she was recognized in the recitation of the Ave? That is: how does devotion support doctrine? Is there a difference? How is it that so many have argued that the medieval devotion to her was "excessive" if what you say about her doctrinal role is true? RLFB
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