I and the Father are one: Mary and the unity of the Son with the Father

Ego et Pater unum sumus.
Jo 10,30

«I and the Father are one». This brief statement from John 10:30 is, in Christian theology, one of the cornerstones of the doctrine of the Trinity and Christ’s divinity. Immediately, his interlocutors pick up stones to stone him: they understand that Jesus is asserting his equality with God (John 10:33). Mariology finds in this affirmation the deepest foundation for the title Theotokos: if the Son is one with the Father, then Mary, who gave birth to the Son, is somehow connected to the innermost mystery of divine life.

I. «We are one»: the unity of the Father and the Son in Trinitarian theology

The neutral Greek word hen, «one thing», in John 10:30 is theologically precise: it does not say «we are one» in the sense of personal identity, but «we are one nature`, one essence, one divinity, one being.»

The Council of Nicaea (325) formulated this intuition with the term homoousios, «consubstantial»: the Son is of the same substance as the Father. This definition, which might seem a philosophical technicality, has immense practical and spiritual implications: whoever sees the Son sees the Father (John 14:9). Whoever honors the Son honors the Father (John 5:23). And for Mariology, whoever gave birth to the Son gave birth to one who is consubstantial with the Father.

Athanasius of Alexandria, the great defender of Nicaea, was also one of the first theologians to explicitly explore the connection between homoousios and Theotokos. The argument is simple yet powerful: if the Son is consubstantial with the Father (Nicaea’s definition), and Mary gave birth to the Son (an evangelical fact), then Mary is Theotokos, Mother of God.

The Council of Ephesus (431) formally defined the title Theotokos in this context, not to define Mary but to defend the faith in Christ. The issue at stake was not Mary’s greatness, but the unity of the Son with the Father. Nestorius proposed to call Mary only Christotokos, Mother of Christ, thus separating the human Christ from the divine Person of the Son. Ephesus responded: Mary is Theotokos because the Son she conceived is one with the Father, he is God.

II. Divine motherhood as participation in Trinitarian life

# The Definition of Mary as Theotokos

The designation of Mary as “Theotokos” (God-bearer) does not imply that she is the “mother of the Trinity” or that she gave birth to divinity in its essence, which would be absurd. It signifies that the Person she bore is divine: the eternal Son of God took from the Virgin humanity and was born in time as a man, without ceasing to be God. Mary is the mother of the Son as a Person, and this Person is divine, consubstantial with the Father.

# The Implication for Mary’s Dignity

The consequence for Mary’s dignity is immense. John Damascene expressed it eloquently, as tradition has preserved: “The Holy Virgin is exalted above all cherubim and seraphim and all created beings, visible and invisible, because she was constituted Mother of the very Creator.” This “exaltation” of Mary is not a devotional hyperbole but a logical outcome of Theotokos: if the Son is consubstantial with the Father, then the dignity of being the Mother of such a Son surpasses all created order.

# Theological Tradition and Mary’s Role

The theological tradition, particularly the Franciscan school of Alexander of Hales and Saint Bonaventure, and later the Thomistic school revised by Thomas of Aquino (Cayetan and Domingo de Soto), developed the idea that Mary participates in a created but real and analogical way in the intratrinitarian life. Her relationship with the Father (as the elected daughter), with the Son (as Mother), and with the Holy Spirit (as bride) is not an equal participation among the divine Persons, but it is a real participation that elevates her above all creation.

# Saint Louis Maria de Montfort’s Devotion to Mary

Saint Louis Maria de Montfort, in his work *The True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin* (Tratado da Verdadeira Devoção à Santíssima Virgem), further explored these relationships, profoundly influencing modern Catholic spirituality: “God the Father gathered all His waters (…) into Mary, so that rivers of grace might flow from her.” The metaphor points to Mary’s role in distributing the life of the Trinity to humanity: she who received the fullness of grace is the channel through which this grace flows to all children.

## III. “That They All Be One”: Mary and the Unity of the Church

John 17:21, in Jesus’ High Priestly Prayer, expresses His desire for unity among His disciples: “Father, that they all be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, that they also may be in Us.” The unity Jesus seeks is not external uniformity but the unity of love and communion that characterizes the intratrinitarian life, which the Church should reflect in the world.

Maria, as *Mater Ecclesiae*, está no coração desta unidade eclesial. A cena do Cenáculo em Atos 1:14, “todos estes perseveravam unanimemente na oração, com Maria, a Mãe de Jesus”, apresenta Maria como o centro gravitacional da comunidade apostólica antes de Pentecostes. Ela não lidera externamente ou institucionalmente; sua presença cria um espaço de unidade, oração e abertura ao Espírito.

O movimento ecumênico contemporâneo reconheceu progressivamente a dimensão ecumênica de Maria. Não por acaso, o documento ecumênico do Grupo dos Dombes (*Marie dans le dessein de Dieu*, 1998) dedicou um capítulo inteiro a Maria como “*figura da unidade*”: venerada com diferentes modalidades pelas Igrejas Católica, Ortodoxa e por muitas comunidades Reformadas, ela pode ser o ponto de convergência para a reconstrução da unidade perdida da Igreja.

Esta dimensão ecumênica da mariologia não é uma estratégia pragmática, mas uma consequência teológica. Se Maria é a figura da Igreja, e a Igreja é chamada a ser “*uma, santa, católica e apostólica*”, então a veneração de Maria deve ser, por natureza, um fator de unidade e não de divisão. Onde a mariologia divide, é porque foi desnaturada em relação ao seu fundamento cristológico e trinitário. A mariologia autêntica, enraizada em “Ego et Pater unum sumus”, é necessariamente ecumênica.

IV. “*Ninguém as arrebatará da minha mão*”: segurança trinitária e Assunção

Jo 10:29: “O meu Pai, que mo deu, é maior do que tudo, e ninguém pode arrebatá-las da mão do Pai”. A segurança das ovelhas do Bom Pastor tem uma base trinitária: repousa na “*mão do Filho*” e na “*mão do Pai*”, que são “*uma coisa*” (Jo 10:30). A unidade do Pai e do Filho é a garantia suprema da salvação das ovelhas, não porque as Pessoas divinas se confundam, mas porque a sua vontade salvadora é uma e a sua potência é absoluta.

A Assunção de Maria é a realização mais visível desta promessa trinitária para um membro da humanidade. Maria, que esteve sempre nas “*mãos*” do Pai e do Filho, desde a sua Imaculada Conceição até ao seu serviço fiel, recebeu a promessa trinitária em seu corpo e alma: foi “*assumida*” (levada, recolhida) para a vida plena de Deus. Ninguém a “*arrebatou*”, porque estava nas mãos do Pai e do Filho.

A iconografia da Coroação de Maria, um dos temas mariológicos mais frequentes na arte cristã ocidental, representa o Pai e o Filho (e frequentemente o Espírito Santo como pomba) coroando Maria na glória do Céu. Esta imagem sintetiza visualmente o que a teologia formula abstratamente: a participação de Maria na vida trinitária não é apenas funcional ou instrumental, é uma comunhão real, confirmada definitivamente pela Assunção. Maria está “*dentro*” da vida trinitária, não como quarta Pessoa, mas como a criatura que mais plenamente recebeu e respondeu ao amor das três Pessoas.

In the Catholic spiritual tradition, devotion to the Most Holy Trinity and devotion to Mary are inextricably linked. Honoring Mary is honoring the work of the Trinity within creation. Contemplating Mary is contemplating what the three Persons achieved together in the history of salvation. “I and the Father are one,” the statement attributed to Jesus (John 10:30), forms the basis for the Theotokos—the Mother of God—and the full theological and spiritual meaning of her divine motherhood.

References:

– Council of Ephesus, Acts (431).
– St. John Damascene, De Fide Orthodoxa, IV, 14.
– St. Louis Mary de Montfort, *True Devotion to Mary*, nos. 23-25.
– Group of Dombes, *Mary in God’s Design and the Communion of Saints* (1998).
– H. U. von Balthasar, *Theodramatik*, III, “The Action” (1980).