I agree that Mary the mother of Jesus, as opposed to the mother of God, since God always was and always will be, was a very special person. I’m not sure what you mean by “cavalier”?
Matthew 12:47-49 (New International Version) New International Version (NIV)
47Someone told him, "Your mother and brothers are standing outside, wanting to speak to you."
48He replied to him, "Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?" 49Pointing to his disciples, he said, "Here are my mother and my brothers.
Christ had by far the most special role of all. I think we agree that Christ is God and is the messiah predicted by the Jewish prophets? Would you agree that without the blood sacrifice of Christ that all else is totally without effect to bring about redemption and salvation?
." Everything about Mary, everything that makes her and her place in God's plan different from ours, is only because of God's grace to her. Mary is entirely a product of God's tender, loving grace. I agree. Mary is very special and unique in God’s plan for salvation. Through her physical body God provided the complete sacrifice for our sins. Mary is the mother of the God man who gave his life on the cross so that we may have everlasting life. Those of us who place our faith in Christ and accept Gods free gift of salvation will have everlasting life.
"Men have crowded all her glory into a single phrase, 'the Mother of God'. No one can say anything greater of her or to her, though he had as many tongues as there are leaves on the trees . . ."
Martin Luther .... 1529
The simple gospel fact is that Jesus had a mother and that that mother had a mission in the plan of Salvation. In our human history there would have been no Fatherhood of God without the Motherhood of Mary, for God became man in the normal way of men through a mother. Had He been only a man who lived and died and was forgotten then she too could be ignored and forgotten.
But the Jesus who was born of Mary expanded into mankind, making Mary the mother of mankind. Jesus is Christianity - Mary, the mother of Christianity.
Anyone who honestly considers this basic Christian truth can never say Mary is irrelevant, for nothing that mattered to Jesus can be irrelevant.
And Mary mattered to Jesus. The person who sets his life on being one with Jesus, of following His teaching and imitating Him oftentimes overlooks the very first act of Jesus in the plan of Redemption: He first gave Himself to Mary.
And in the end, from the cross, He gave her to us.
----I agree that Mary the mother of Jesus, as opposed to the mother of God, since God always was and always will be, was a very special person. I’m not sure what you mean by “cavalier”?----
Whoops...
God = Three Persons (Father, Son + Holy Spirit) in One Nature (Divine)
Jesus = One Person (God the Son) with 2 Natures (both Human and Divine)
Mary = Mother of Jesus = Mother of A Divine Person (Son) = Mother of God
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15047a.htm#II"
Cheers!
Frank
Amen, street_lawyer, this is precisely right.
When Catholics say Mary is the MOther of God, we mean exactly what you said, "Mother of the God-Man." We do not mean that Mary is the ultimate "source" or "origin" of the eternal and ever-living God.
This is an except from the Wikipedia, an on-line encyclopedia:
At the Third Ecumenical council, the Council of Ephesus (against the Nestorians), A.D. 431, it was decided that it was entirely appropriate to refer to Mary as the Theotokos, to emphasize that Mary's child, Jesus Christ, was in fact God (Denziger §111a).
That Council clarified that the Church Fathers "did not hesitate to speak of the holy Virgin as the Mother of God" (ibid.), thus affirming what had always been held as true: e.g. St. Ignatius of Antioch, ca. A.D. 110 (Jurgens §42); Alexander of Alexandria, A.D. 328 (Jurgens §680); among other references from similar sources. She is often referred to as "Theotokos" in Eastern Orthodox hymns.
No Christian thinks Mary a "supergoddess" who brings the Trinity into existence. That is not what is meant by the title Mother of God ("Theotokos") It means, precisely, that she is the mother of (woman who gave birth to) a person, Jesus Christ, who is one Being, one Person, God and Man.
What do you mean "mother of Jesus, as OPPPSED to mother of God?" They are innerchangeable. I thought all Christians accept the belief that Jesus IS God made man. Are you saying Jesus wasn't divine?
Of course Catholics says Mary is the Mother of God, because Jesus is God the Son... God incarnate. (and to my knowledge, nobody has ever said Mary gave birth to God THE FATHER.) But if you think Mary ONLY gave birth to some guy named Jesus of Narazeth, I think you'd be Jewish, not Protestant or any other kind of Christian.
The belief of the trinity seems to be a universal Christian idea -- every branch of Christianity should accept that Mary's son was God.