Feast of the Divine Maternity of the Blessed Virgin Mary
To
commemorate in the liturgy of the fifteenth centenary of the Council of Ephesus
(held in 431), which vindicated the title of Theotokos or "Mother of
God" for the Blessed Virgin Mary, Pope Pius XI instructed this feast to be
observed by the whole Church in the year 1931. I include a segment of his Encyclical, Lux Veritatis commemorating this
great Council. It is a longer entry than usual, but contains many truths that
are sadly ignored today, and is more than worthwhile considering.
39. Now from this head of Catholic doctrine
upon which We have touched hitherto, there follows of necessity the dogma of
the divine maternity which We preach as belonging to the Blessed Virign Mary.
"Not that the nature of the Word or His Godhead"-as Cyril admonishes
us-"took the source of its origin from the holy Virgin; but because He
derived from her that sacred body, perfected by an intellectual soul, whereto
the Word of God was hypostatically united, and therefore is said to be born
according to the flesh." (Mansi, I.c. IV. 891.)
And, indeed, if the Son of the Blessed Virgin Mary is God,
assuredly she who bore him is rightly and deservedly to be called the Mother of
God. If there is only one person in Christ, and this is Divine, without any
doubt Mary ought to be called, by all, not the mother of Christ the man only,
but Theotokos, or God-bearer. Let us all, therefore, venerate the tender Mother
of God, whom her cousin Elizabeth saluted as "the Mother of my Lord"
(Luke i. 43), who, in the words of Ignatius Martyr, brought forth God (Ad
Ephes. vii. 18-20); and from whom, as Tertullian professes, God was born; whom
the Eternal Godhead has gifted with the fullness of grace and endowed with such
great dignity.
40. Nor can anyone reject this truth, handed down from the first
age of the Church, on the pretext that the Blessed Virgin Mary did, indeed,
supply the body of Jesus Christ, but did not produce the Word of the Heavenly
Father; since, as Cyril already rightly and lucidly answered in his time (cf.
Mansi, I.c. IV. 599), even as those in whose womb our earthly nature, not our
soul is procreated, are rightly and truly called our mothers; so did she, from
the unity of her Son's person, attain to divine maternity.
41. Wherefore, the impious opinion of Nestorius, which the Roman
Pontiff, led by the Holy Spirit, had condemned in the preceding year, was
deservedly and solemnly condemned again by the Synod of Ephesus. And the
populace of Ephesus were drawn to the Virgin Mother of God with such great
piety, and burning with such ardent love, that when they understood the
judgment passed by the Fathers of the Council, they hailed them with
overflowing gladness of heart, and gathering round them in a body, bearing
lighted torches in their hands, accompanied them home. And assuredly, the same
great Mother of God looked down from heaven on this spectacle, and smiling
sweetly on these her children of Ephesus, and on all the faithful Christians
throughout the Catholic world, who had been disturbed by the snares of the
Nestorian heresy, embraced them with her most present aid and her motherly
affection.
42. From this dogma of the divine maternity, as from the
outpouring of a hidden spring, flow forth the singular grace of Mary and her
dignity, which is the highest after God. Nay more, as Aquinas says admirably:
"The Blessed Virgin, from this that she is the Mother of God, has a
certain infinite dignity, from the infinite good which is God." (Summ.
Theo., III. a.6.) Cornelius a Lapide unfolds this and explains it more fully,
in these words: "The Blessed Virgin is the Mother of God; therefore she is
far more excellent than all the Angels, even the Seraphim and Cherubim. She is
the Mother of God; therefore she is most pure and most holy, so that under God
no greater purity can be imagined. She is the Mother of God; therefore whatever
privilege (in the order of sanctifying grace) has been granted to any one of
the Saints, she obtains it more than all" (In Matt. i. 6).
43. Why, therefore, do the Reformers (Novatores) and not a few non-Catholics
bitterly condemn our piety towards the Virgin Mother of God, as though we were
withdrawing the worship due to God alone? Do they not know, or do they not
attentively consider that nothing can be more pleasing to Jesus Christ, who
certainly has an ardent love for his own Mother, than that we should venerate
her as she deserves, that we should return her love, and that imitating her
most holy example we should seek to gain her powerful patronage?
44. Here, however, We would not omit to mention a matter which has
given Us no little consolation, namely that in the present time, even among the
Reformers, some understand the dignity of the Virgin Mother of God better, and
are led and moved to reverence her duly, and hold her in honour. This, when it
comes from the inward and sincere conscience, and is not as sometimes happens
effected to conciliate the minds of Catholics, bids Us hope that by the prayers
and efforts of all the good, and by the intercession of the Blessed Virgin, who
cherishes a mother's love for her erring children, they may at length be
brought back to the one true flock of Jesus Christ, and therefore to Us who,
though unworthily, hold His place and His authority on earth.
45. But there is another matter, Venerable
Brethren, which We think We should recall in regard to Mary's office of
Maternity, something which is sweeter and more pleasing; namely that she,
because she brought forth the Redeemer of mankind, is also in a manner the most
tender mother of us all, whom Christ our Lord deigned to have as His brothers
(Romans viii. 29). As Our predecessor of happy memory, Leo XIII, says:
"Such a one God has given as one to whom by the very fact that He chose
her as the Mother of His only begotten Son, He clearly gave the feelings of a
mother, breathing nothing but love and pardon-such did Jesus Christ show her to
be, by His own action, when He spontaneously chose to be under her, and submit
to her as a son to a mother; such did He declare her to be, when, from the
Cross, He committed all mankind, in the person of His disciple John, to her
care and protection; and as such, lastly, she gave herself, when embracing with
a great heart, this heritage of immense labour from her dying Son, she began at
once to fulfil all a mother's duties to us all." (Encyclical Letter
Octobri mense adveniente. September 21, 1892.) From this it comes that we are
all drawn to her by a powerful attraction, that we may confidently entrust to
her all things that are ours-namely our joys, if we are gladdened; our
troubles, if we are in anguish; our hopes, if we are striving to reach at
length to better things. From this it comes that if more difficult times fall
upon the Church; if faith fail, if charity have grown cold, if private and
public morals take a turn for the worse; if any danger be hanging over the
Catholic name and civil society, we all take refuge with her, imploring
heavenly aid. From this it comes lastly that in the supreme crisis of death,
when no other hope is given, no other help, we lift up to her our tearful eyes
and our trembling hands, praying through her for pardon from her Son, and for
eternal happiness in heaven.
46. Let all, therefore, with more ardent zeal in the present
necessities with which we are afflicted, go to her and beseech her with instant
supplication "that, through her prayers to her Son, the erring nations may
return to the Christian institutions and precepts, which are the firm support
of public safety, and from which arises an abundance of much desired peace and
of true happiness. Let them implore of her the more earnestly, what ought to be
desired above all things by all the good, namely that the Church our mother may
gain and tranquilly enjoy her liberty; which she always uses for the best
advantage of men, and from which individuals and states have never suffered any
losses, but have at all times experienced very many and very great
benefits." (From the aforesaid Encyclical Letter.)
47. But one thing in particular, and that indeed one of great
importance, We specially desire that all should implore, under the auspices of
the heavenly Queen. That is to say, that she who is loved and worshipped with
such ardent piety by the separated peoples of the East would not suffer them to
wander and be unhappily ever led away from the unity of the Church, and
therefore from her Son, whose Vicar on earth We are. May they return to the
common Father, whose judgment all the Fathers of the Synod of Ephesus most
dutifully received, and whom they all saluted, with concordant acclamations, as
"the guardian of the faith"; may they all turn to Us, who have indeed
a fatherly affection for them all, and who gladly make Our own those most
loving words which Cyril used, when he earnestly exhorted Nestorius that
"the peace of the Churches may be preserved, and that the bond of love and
of concord among the priests of God may remain indissoluble." (Mansi, I.c.
IV. 891.)
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