Panagia, Theotokos, Parthenos

I write in response to a question Mac posted in a comment to this post.

I have no issue with addressing and praying to Mary, as the Mother of Christ, etc., because I look at it as a sort of Female side of God. As if, due to cultural and gender-based influences, it is difficult to see God as anything other than masculine, and Mary affords a different perspective.

Just to clarify, I'm an Orthodox Christian; Mac seemed to be under the impression that I'm Catholic. I just wanted to clear that up.

I pray that the following if clear and free of errors.

I'm not sure it's a good idea to think about God in terms of masculine and feminine sides. God is a Unity, first of all. He is also transcendent. Masculinity and femininity are biological, and hence physical, concepts. These cannot apply to God.

I'd also caution about thinking of any aspects or characteristics of God. There are two basic ways to think about God. The first, and highest, is to think about God in terms of God, as a way to approach God to whatever degree we can. This is what the Church Fathers would have called true theology, meditations on the Holy Trinity in itself. Here we cannot speak of God as loving, just, what have you. These are all characteristics of the economic Trinity, or God as He relates to His creation. These meditations are in some sense inferior because they view God not through God, but through His creation.

Looking at the God Himself, we find the Unbeggoten Father, Who is neither the Son nor the Holy Spirit; the Begotten Son, Who is neither the Father nor the Holy Spirit; and the Holy Spirit "Who proceeds from the Father" and is neither the Father nor the Son. Thought stands still before the One in Three, and the Three in One.

(I'd like to write more on the Holy Trinity in a later post, and take up the long-dormant Filioque debate that occupied this blog in months past.)

God is unknowable. Yet, mysteriously and defying all human logic, He made Himself knowable to some degree. As the Virgin's Akathist Hymn mentions, the Son of God became the Son of the Virgin. This is a historical fact. Jesus the Christ was both fully God and fully man, born of a virgin. He died on the cross and arose on the third day, according to the Scriptures. Further, though Jesus had many disciples, He chose twelve Apostles who were all also men. God choose to manifest Himself in the form of masculinity, and we honor that to this day by ordaining only men to fill the order that He first created when He chose His Apostles, the men who would become His first bishops.

But again, God is beyond masculine and feminine in that He is not man. God became man so that men might become gods. But God is not a man, and is above and beyond any anthropomorphisms we can use to describe Him.

This was all just as a bit of background. The main point I wish to put forward, in response to Mac's question, is that Mary is not God. She is not at all the female side of God. She has the incredible honor of being God's mother, yet she is still His creation, just as we are. (And, though she is a symbol of many things, she is not a symbol of God's feminine side, but more on that in a moment.)

That said, Mary is the greatest of all saints. She is the only person in all history pure enough to have been able to carry the infant Christ. She is the greatest model of humility and obedience before God. She spent most of her early life in the temple, serving God. When the Archangel Gabriel visited her, Mary submitted herself to God's will and accepted the great task set before her, knowing full well the dangers that she faced as an unwed mother in a fiercely traditional society. God found her a fitting caretaker in Joseph, who refused to cast her out though she was pregnant.

As Mary accepted Christ into her womb, so must we accept Christ into our hearts. As she submitted her will to His will, so must we. She is a symbol and example for all Christians, as well as a symbol for the Church (as the Son manifested Himself into the world through Mary, so does He work in the world through His body, the Church).

Though Mary does not show us the feminine side of God, she does show us the importance of women. Christianity proved very liberating for women. Mary, a woman, is our greatest saint. Women were the first ones to know of the Resurrection, because they were steadfast in their faith when even the Apostles were scattered after Christ's imprisonment and crucifixion. A man can no longer put aside his wife with a certificate of divorce, as under the Mosaic law. The list goes on.

So yes, in some sense Mary is a figure that breaks down old gender norms and helps to establish that women are as fully human as men are. But she is so much more. She is the Mother of God. She was pure enough to bring the Son into the world so that He could fulfill His salvific mission. Her submission to God's will was the first of a series of steps that resulted in Satan's kingship and dominion over the earth being broken, and the shackles of death were shattered. One can't say enough for the All-Holy Mother of God and Ever-Virgin Mary.

But one can never say that she is God, or a female side of God.

Theotokos and Virgin, rejoice! Mary full of Grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the Fruit of they womb Jesus, for thou hast born the Savior of our souls.