mariologydogmati00pohl - Carmel Apologetics
mariologydogmati00pohl - Carmel Apologetics
mariologydogmati00pohl - Carmel Apologetics
Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
MARY THE MOTHER OF GOD n<br />
Mary did not bring forth the Godhead as such, but<br />
merely a Divine Person, she is truly the Mother<br />
of God. The fact that she conceived and gave<br />
birth to the body but not to the spiritual soul<br />
of her son in no way derogates from her mother-<br />
hood. "No one will say of Elizabeth," observes<br />
St. Cyril to Nestorius, "that she is the mother of<br />
St. John's flesh, but not of his soul; for she gave<br />
birth to the person of the Baptist, L e., a, human<br />
being composed of body and soul." 31<br />
Mary not only gave birth to the Divine Logos, she<br />
also conceived Him. If it could be shown that she con-<br />
ceived a mere man, even though this man was subsequently,<br />
before his birth, transformed into a Godman,<br />
Nestorius would have been justified in denying her the<br />
title of deoroKos, for in that hypothesis she would indeed<br />
have been a mere avOpwiroroKos, since motherhood is<br />
founded on the act of conception. It was with a view<br />
to safeguard the dogma of the Hypostatic Union that the<br />
Church dogmatically defined the temporal coincidence of<br />
Christ's conception with the Hypostatic Union. 32<br />
The conception of Christ includes three simultaneous<br />
events: (i) the formation of His human body from<br />
the maternal ovum; (2) the creation and infusion into<br />
that body of a spiritual soul; and (3) the Hypostatic<br />
Union of body and soul, per modum unius, with the<br />
Divine Person of the Logos. When Mary said : " Be-<br />
hold the handmaid of the Lord, be it done to me accord-<br />
31 Epist. ad Monach.<br />
32 Cfr. Pohle-Preuss, Christology, pp. 166 sqq.