Today celebration can be traced back in history to the Third Ecumenical Council called Ephesus in 431. The Council of Ephesus had to address the issue surrounding Mary's role in salvation.
Bishop Nestorius believed and taught that is better to give Mary the title Christotokos (Christ-Bearer). After all, she gave birth to Christ, or she gave Christ his humanity. This teaching was later condemned as heresy. It appears from his teaching that there are two persons: a divine person with a divine soul, and a human person with a human soul. Mary is the Mother of the human person with the human soul, not the Mother of the Divine Person since he had always existed.
On the other hand, the defender, Cyril of Alexandria basically said that Mary doesn't give birth to a nature, but to a person. She gave birth to Christ, who has both natures (Divinity and Humanity). The point seems very clear. Since Mary gave birth to Christ who is also God, henceforth, the Blessed Mother is the Mother of God (Theotokos).
This early controversy dealt with the understanding of Christ especially with the two natures. Certainly, the person of Christ remains a great mystery as to how the two natures are in the one person of Christ. This "Hypostatic Union" is something that we don't fully understand, but revealed for us through Sacred Scripture, and Sacred Tradition.
As the Early Church Fathers wrestled with the understanding of Christ, and tried to correct any wrong teachings, they have clarified certain things that we can know about Christ. As a result of this early controversy, we understand that Christ is one person with two natures (divinity and humanity), not completely separated but fully united (Hypostatic Union).
In other words, before the Incarnation, Christ was already God. He didn't simply borrow a human body, and became human, "Word Made Flesh." This human nature is with him for all eternity.
The title for the Blessed Mother, Theotokos, is the highest honor that any human person can have. Although we have to be certain that the Blessed Mother is not the Mother of God the Father, or God the Holy Spirit. She is the Mother of God, the Son.
The controversy strives to maintain the understanding that God has no beginning. God has no Mother because God already existed at the beginning. But because of the mystery of the Incarnation (Word made Flesh), we contemplate on this great mystery that Christ became human, born of the Virgin Mary. Preserving the eternal nature of God, and understanding the Incarnation is certainly quite difficult. That is why there were so many heresies at the time such as Arianism, Monophysitism, Appollonarianism, etc.
Interestingly, the Church Fathers often see the Blessed Virgin Mary as the one who crushed the head of the serpent. As a metaphor, she is the one who helps the Church by destroying heresies. The Theotokos is one example where she destroy the heresy of Nestorianism.
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