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The Blessed Virgin Mary is the Mother of Christ, and is therefore
truly and properly the Mother of God, as defined by the Council of
Ephesus.[2451] St. Thomas says: "Conception and birth are
attributed to the person and hypostasis in respect of that nature in
which it is conceived and born. Since, therefore, the human nature
was taken by the divine person (of the Word) in the very beginning of
the conception, it follows that it can be truly said that God was
conceived and born of the Virgin Mary."[2452] Hence she is
truly the Mother of God.
The Blessed Virgin Mary was first predestined to this divine
motherhood and then as a consequence of this to fullness of glory and
grace, so as to be worthy of being the Mother of God.[2453]
This is sufficiently clear from the bull of Pope Pius IX in which
it is said: "The ineffable God from the beginning and from all
eternity chose and ordained for His only-begotten Son, a mother from
whom His Son took flesh so as to be born in the blessed fullness of
time, and pursued her with such great love above all creatures, so as
to find the greatest of delight in her."[2454] A little farther
on it says: "By one and the same decree [He chose her] along with
the Incarnation of divine wisdom."[2455]
In other words, the eternal decree of the Incarnation is not directed
toward the quasi-abstract Incarnation, but toward the Incarnation
here and now to be brought into being or, so to speak,
individualized; that is, it concerns the incarnation of God's Son
from the Virgin Mary, as stated in the Nicene-Constantinopolitan
symbol.[2456]
Therefore by the same eternal decree Christ as man was predestined to
be by nature the Son of God, and the Blessed Virgin Mary to be the
Mother of God. But this decree is antecedent to the predestinating
decree of men who are to be saved by Christ's merits, and of
whatsoever other human persons to glory and grace. Therefore the
Blessed Virgin Mary was predestined to be the Mother of God, as to
what was principally intended, prior to being predestined to glory,
just as Christ was predestined to be the Son of God by nature, as to
what was principally intended, prior to being predestined to glory.
That to which anyone is first predestined is called the end, and is
nobler than any other things to which a person is afterward
predestined. From this it is already apparent that divine motherhood
is nobler than fullness of grace and glory, which is a consequence of
the former and which accompanies it so as to render the Blessed Virgin
worthy of being the Mother of God.
This superiority of divine motherhood is evident also for several other
reasons. First, because the Blessed Virgin Mary could indeed merit
eternal life, but she could not merit the Incarnation, which is the
eminent principle of all Mary's merits, just as it is of all men
after the Fall, and hence she could not merit the divine motherhood,
which is closely connected with the Incarnation, and which, like the
Incarnation, transcends the sphere of merit.[2457] From what
has been said it is also apparent that the Blessed Virgin Mary's
predestination is entirely gratuitous.
Secondly, the divine motherhood is a dignity which by reason of its
terminus whereunto, namely, the Word incarnate, belongs to the
hypostatic order, which transcends the order of grace and glory.
Thirdly, the divine motherhood is the reason for all the graces
bestowed upon the Blessed Virgin Mary. Thus it is their measure and
end, and is therefore of a higher order than these. Such is the
common teaching of the theologians.
Fourthly, the divine motherhood is the motive for the cultus of
hyperdulia paid to Mary, to which she would not be entitled if she
were only full of grace and the highest of all the saints, but not
Mother of God.[2458]
Fifthly, it follows from this that the divine motherhood is also
considered in itself superior to the fullness of grace that was granted
to Mary so as to render her worthy of being the Mother of God. So
also in the natural order the spiritual soul, even considered in
itself, because it belongs to the substantial order, is more perfect
than its intellectual faculty, although it is perfected by this
latter.[2459]
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