God-bearer

The Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God

Readings: Numbers 6:22-27; Psalm 67; Galatians 4:4-7; Luke 2:16-21

When the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of the woman (Galatians 4:4)

It is no coincidence that we celebrate today’s solemnity a week after Christmas. Both Christmas and today point to the same fact: the Word’s Incarnation - God was born of the woman. Jesus is true God and a true human being at the same time. Mary did not simply give birth to a baby, Jesus, who later assumed divinity, but gave birth to the baby Jesus who is fully God and human. Mary, therefore, may be uniquely called God-bearer.

Why does this matter, one may ask, that the child born of Mary is both human and divine from the very beginning of his life? It does matter, because God saved us by establishing a bond between what is divine and what is human. This living bond is Christ. He united in himself the two natures so that, as Paul tells us, 'we might receive adoption as sons' (Galatians 4:5).