When we read through Genesis, we see something profound. After God created man, it was the first time in creation that God said something was “not good.” The Lord said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suited to him” (Genesis 2:18, NABRE). Then God created woman, and in doing so, he completed the creation of humanity. Man and woman together revealed the fullness of the human person, and only after humanity was created male and female did God look upon all he had made and call it “very good” (Genesis 1:27, 31; Genesis 2:21 to 24).

Then, when sin first entered the world through the eating of the forbidden fruit, the Lord spoke to the serpent and gave the first promise of redemption: “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; they will strike at your head, while you strike at their heel” (Genesis 3:15, NABRE). The Church has long understood this verse as pointing toward Christ’s victory over Satan, and Christian tradition has also seen Mary, the New Eve, in the woman who stands in enmity against the serpent. Older Christian tradition often expresses this mystery with the image of Mary crushing the serpent’s head, but the victory itself comes through Christ, her Son, by his Cross and Resurrection.

How could we ever imagine the suffering of Mary as her Son was crucified? She stood there as the Mother of the Savior, watching him suffer for the sins of the world. The serpent struck at the heel, but Christ crushed the head of the enemy. Satan seemed to wound, but Christ conquered. The garden’s curse was answered at Calvary.

The significance of Mary is not that she is equal to our Lord. We do not worship her. We adore only the triune God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. But we honor her because she is the Mother of God. As Archbishop Fulton Sheen wrote, “Any objection to calling her the ‘Mother of God’ is fundamentally an objection to the Deity of Christ.” In simple terms, if Mary is not the Mother of God, then the one she bore is merely a man, and our salvation is empty. But Christ is not merely a man. He is fully God and fully man. The one conceived in Mary’s womb is the eternal Son of the Father, God made flesh. That is why the Church confesses that Mary is truly Theotokos, the Mother of God. 

When the Lord hung upon the Cross, he looked to John and said, “Behold, your mother.” Then he looked to his mother and said, “Woman, behold, your son” (John 19:26 to 27, NABRE). This is why we call her Our Lady and our spiritual mother, just as we honor her blessed spouse, Saint Joseph, as a spiritual father and guardian. Christ did not speak empty words from the Cross. In that moment, he gave his mother to the beloved disciple, and through him, to the Church.

All mothers, whether perfect or imperfect, have a maternal relationship with their children that cannot simply be erased. Wounds, distance, and barriers may affect the relationship, but motherhood itself does not change. What a sweet thing it is, then, to call the Mother of our Savior and Lord our mother at the word of Christ himself.

This is why the enemy is at odds with her. In Genesis, the Lord said there would be enmity between the serpent and the woman, between the serpent’s offspring and hers. Revelation echoes this same mystery when the dragon goes off to wage war against the woman’s children, those “who keep God’s commandments and bear witness to Jesus” (Revelation 12:17, NABRE). Mary is not a rival to Christ. She is the mother who always points to Christ.

Some may point to the verse that says, “There is one God. There is also one mediator between God and the human race, Christ Jesus, himself human” (1 Timothy 2:5, NABRE). Catholics believe this completely. Christ alone is the mediator of salvation. Mary does not replace him, compete with him, or stand apart from him. Her intercession depends entirely on him. As the Church teaches, Mary’s maternal role “in no way obscures or diminishes” the unique mediation of Christ, but shows its power. 

Just as we ask our mothers, friends, pastors, and fellow Christians on earth to pray for us, we can also ask Our Lady to pray for us. Those in heaven are not less alive than we are. They are more alive in God, for he is not the God of the dead, but of the living (Luke 20:38). If an earthly mother will pray earnestly for her children, how much more will Mary, full of grace, pray for the children entrusted to her by Christ?

This is why we call her Our Lady. She is the Mother of our Lord, and by the words of our Lord himself, she is also our mother. In the Scriptures, in the Gospel of Matthew, in the words of our Lord, we are told not to worry about what we will eat, drink, or wear, for even “Solomon in all his splendor” was not clothed like the flowers of the field. If God so clothes the grass, how much more will he care for his children (Matthew 6:25 to 30, NABRE)? So how much more will our mother care for us?

References

Catholic Church. (1997). Catechism of the Catholic Church. Libreria Editrice Vaticana. Sections 495, 963, 969, and 970.

John Paul II. (1987). Redemptoris Mater. Libreria Editrice Vaticana.

John Paul II. (1997). Mary’s maternal mediation. General Audience, October 1, 1997. Libreria Editrice Vaticana.

Second Vatican Council. (1964). Lumen Gentium. Sections 60 to 62. Libreria Editrice Vaticana.

Sheen, F. J. (1952). The World’s First Love: Mary, Mother of God. McGraw Hill.

United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. (2011). New American Bible, Revised Edition. Scripture passages used: Genesis 1:27, Genesis 1:31, Genesis 2:18, Genesis 2:21 to 24, Genesis 3:15, Matthew 6:25 to 30, John 19:26 to 27, Revelation 12:17, 1 Timothy 2:5, and Luke 20:38.