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144 • Part I. The Creed: The Faith Professed
deepening theological inquiry. In 1854, Pope Pius IX proclaimed this
dogma infallibly: that is, in his role as supreme teacher of the Church,
he declared that this doctrine is divinely revealed and must be accepted
with faith by the entire Church.
It is also the faith of the Church that Mary is to be called the
“Mother of God.”“The One whom she conceived as man by the power
of the Holy Spirit, who truly became her Son according to the flesh, was
none other than the Father’s eternal Son, the second person of the Holy
Trinity. Hence, the Church confesses that Mary is truly the ‘Mother of
God’” (CCC, no. 495, citing Council of Ephesus: DS 251). In the Eastern
Churches Mary is honored by use of the Greek expression
Theotokos
or
“Birth-giver of God” (sometimes translated as “God-Bearer”).
The Holy Spirit’s power made possible the conception of Jesus in
Mary’s womb. There was no human father. The Gospels clearly present
the virginal conception of Jesus as a divine work (cf. Mt 1:18-25; Lk
1:26-38).
Mary was always a virgin, both in conceiving Jesus, giving birth to
him, and remaining virgin ever after. God granted her this privilege to
emphasize that this was a unique moment in history—the birth of Jesus
who is the Son of God and the Son of Mary. The liturgy of the Church
speaks of Mary as “ever virgin.” In the early Church some denied this,
arguing that the Gospels speak of the brothers and sisters of Jesus, and
thus maintained that Mary did not remain a virgin after the birth of
Jesus. But already in the fourth century, theologians pointed out that
the Greek word for brother used in the New Testament can refer also to
cousin. A second explanation was that these brothers and sisters were
children of Joseph by a previous marriage. However, it is the constant
teaching of the Church that Mary remained a virgin even after the birth
of Jesus. In her virginity, Mary lived a life dedicated exclusively to her
Son and his mission. Her example has been followed by some of Christ’s
disciples who have lived lives of consecrated virginity and celibacy from
apostolic times to the present.
In the mystery of her Assumption, Mary experiences immediately
what we all will experience eventually, a bodily resurrection like Christ’s
own. “The Immaculate Virgin . . . when the course of her earthly life was