Order of Christian Initiation of Adults (OCIA) Practice Exam

The key idea being tested is the relationship between Jesus’ divine and human natures and how Mary fits into that relationship. Nestorianism proposed two separate persons in Jesus, which would make Mary the mother of the human Jesus while suggesting a separate divine person. The Church responds by affirming one divine Person—the Word made flesh—united to a complete human nature. In this view, Jesus is one person with two natures, divine and human, united without confusion or separation. Because that one Person is God who became human, Mary is rightly called the Mother of God (Theotokos) in the sense that she bore the Person who is both God and man. This title safeguards the unity of Christ’s person and honors the truth of the Incarnation, a stance reaffirmed by the early ecumenical councils.