Why do Catholics believe that Mary was the mother of God, when Jesus is clearly depicted talking to his father

Question

It also states at Luke 1.23 that the child is God's son, not God himself.

Answer 1

Mary as mother of God is a Christocentric title. That is we are not suggesting that Mary gave birth to her creator or anything else about Mary in her own right. We are saying that her son was divine.
To really understand this theological development you have to understand the value of the Trinity in Juedeao-Christian development. The defining belief of the Jew was their belief in one God - also important to Islam today. The Jews also beleived that the Messiah would come, and officially are still waiting for his arrival. The Problem with a creator God is that he is distant, looking down on the earth. The coming of a Messiah closes that gap. Man's response was always going to be a second fall. God gives himself to us in creation and then he gives himself to us in his own person and we reject him. Now the problem with this total giving of himself in love is that an eternal God can not die. So God has to become human. Jesus is of God, he is God but not in such an exhaustive way that robs God of his divinity. So we can talk about the father remaining in heaven in his full divinity, not suffering mortal death and talk about him truly suffering, just as we suffer, in the person of the Son. He is not son of God in a physical sense, he is son on Mary at that level. If we rob the Jesus of his divinity to accommodate his human birth we also rob his death of the divine sacrifice. A further development answers the need that God remain with us, other wise we return to the idea that God is a distant God. So we have God with us spiritually in the Holy Spirit.
Why did Jesus talk about God in the third person? Any other language would have been intolerable to his audience. For those who followed him he did make the identity clear; for the father and I are one, to have seen me is to have seen the father.
It is only after the resurrection that the Church sees Jesus as more than a prophet. Son of God can not be understood in a human sense thats why the virgin birth is employed. Not a new idea but one that carries the notion of God joining humanity on earth.
God was always presented as talking about himself in the plural, "Let us make man in our image"; because God is seen, not as an individual but as being in relationship, of being a perfect community. So the idea of the trinity is a development of Judaism but one that was too much for many. You need to remove yourself from our individualistic notion of self to start to understand this Jewish point of view. If you were the only American on earth, what would it mean to call yourself American; I do not think we can sustain the idea of person in an single individual, isolated in space. We can not cope with utter isolation so we can not sustain the idea of God as a single isolated individual. For Jesus to call God, "father" in the intimate way he did, was to say he was of the same stuff, he shared in God's authority and dignity, this was normal in Jewish society - if a man claimed an orphan as his own, he made him his son. It was also acceptable language because the Jews claimed themselves to be God's children. Still, they were disturbed because Jesus used the more intimate form of father, like our 'pop' or 'daddy'.

As I said Mary as the mother of God is a statement about Christ's dignity rather than her's.

Answer 2

Catholics believe that Mary should be venerated NOT worshiped. Any Catholic worshiping Mary does not understand Catholicism! The Hail Mary is a prayer that simply describes how the Lord chose her to mother the Son. The latter part asking for her to 'pray for our sins' is because she was assumed into heaven (as in, didn't die) so she must be close with God. Basically, Catholics pray THROUGH the dead, not TO the dead. Anyone who actually worships Mary is not Catholic... PS Catholics also call the Church 'mother' or the 'bride of Christ'.

Answer 3

I'm no theologian, so bear with me.

If you've read the Bible enough to pick out Luke !:23, you should have also read how Mary gave birth to Jesus. Hence, Mary was the Mother of Jesus.

The Doctrine of the Holy Trinity states that Jesus and the Holy Spirit are part of God. God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are One, NOT three. Three aspects of the same Divine Being that we call God.

Therefore, it is not unreasonable to call Mary, Mother of Jesus, the Mother of God, even though she was not Divine in her own right, and God existed before the birth of Jesus Christ.

I know that is not the answer a priest or theologian would give, but that is my understanding.

BTW, I'm not a Roman Catholic. I'm an Anglo Catholic, i.e. Anglican.

Doc Hudson

Answer 4

We Catholics believe that Mother Mary is Jesus mother not God the Fathers mother

Answer 5

People have two parents, right? In Jesus's case, one was earthly(that would be Mary)and the other would be God, right?You were created using two people, and so was the living Jesus. God used Mary as the earthly vehicle to bring the otherwordly Jesus to life here on Earth.

Answer 6

Good question.

The concept of virgin birth and everything else came about from the complicated refinements to the claims by Paul of Tarsus that Jesus was not Pharoah (the basis of the claim of Son of God), but was literally the Son of God.

Everything else god harder from that point.
See:
http://one-faith-of-god.org/final_testament/end_of_darkness/heresy/heresy_0020.htm

Answer 7

Because they believe in the holy trinity- ie The father, the son, and the holy spirit as one indivisible being- Therefore Jesus is God, as well as being the son of god.
I'm a non- believer, but this concept doesn't seem too daft to me, certainly no more so than the 'details' of any other religion

Answer 8

For unto us a Child is born unto us a Son is given...and His name.. get this.. His name shall be called Wonderful...Councellor.. Mighty God....Eternal Father.. Prince of Peace...
Gives u chill bumps dont' it hehe...
In the Trinity there are definately the distinct three Persons.. but He is One...
Whenever in the Godhead there is a plan.. we see the Father...
Whenever the Godhead is shown or expressed .. He does so in the Person of the Son...
-the Son of God in the furnace with the Three Hebrew boys..
- The Son of God wrestling with Jacob
-The Son of God ministering bread and wine to Abraham...
and many more

WHenever the Godhead is experienced by us .. He does so in the Person of the Spirit...
The trinity .. it boils down to.. is not for us to debate or even defend.. He is who He is.. Triune.. Three yet One... He is here for us to be experienced..
All that God the Father has purposed.. CHrist has attained and obtained.. and all this is experienced and worked into us as the Spirit who indwells our spirit...
The Lord said in the Gospel of John.. that He will not leave us as orphans.. but that " WE" will come to them and make an abode with them... that just as He and the Father are one .. we will be one .. in and with them.. a mutual abode..
And all of this abiding is done in Spirit.. since God is building up a dwelling place for Himself IN SPIRIT..
lovely!!!
Thank you Jesus for such a plan for us

Answer 9

Please be sensible. Jesus had to honour his Mother, because his Father told him to. He has to do as he is told. Catholics rightly believe that, ever since Mary arrived in heaven, all prayers must be referred to Her before she will allow her son to read them.

'Since Mary's Assumption into Heaven no grace is conferred on man without her actual intercessory co-operation.' Dogmas of the Catholic Church

Answer 10

Because it is a Trinity. God the Father, God the Son and God theHoly Ghost. and Jesus was God the Son.