If God is Eternal and Infinite, How Can He Have a Mother?

Question:

If God is eternal and infinite, how can He have a mother? Why don’t we call Mary just the mother of Jesus?

Answer:

The tile of “Mary, Mother of God” can be confusing. We aren’t implying that Mary existed from eternity or that she is divine herself. We aren’t promoting some kind of Marian superpowers. The Church has fought for this title throughout the centuries for one simple reason: Christ’s identity is at stake.

As the Church grew in the early centuries, theologians wrestled with what it meant for Jesus to be both God and man. Many distortions of his identity began to emerge. One of these was propagated by a man named Nestorius. Nestorius and his followers denied that Jesus’ human nature and his divine nature were inseparable. Following that logic, Mary could have only conceived Jesus’ human nature. But people don’t give birth to a “nature.” They give birth to a whole person. For Jesus, his whole person is both human and divine. In 431 A.D. the Council of Ephesus denounced Nestorius. The bishops affirmed that Jesus is both fully human and fully divine and proclaimed Mary Theotokos. Translating the Greek to English, that means “God-bearer.” Note that this isn’t “God-generator” or “God-creator.” Mary bore Jesus, God and man, in her womb and gave him birth. She is mother to the whole person, the whole Jesus, and therefore Mother of God.

©LPi