The Role Of The Virgin Mary In The Salvation Of The Human Race
[simpleazon-image align=”left” asin=”0804141126″ locale=”us” height=”375″ src=”http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/31QwRRelvwL.jpg” width=”281″]Mary the Blessed Virgin is the mother of the church in the order of Grace since she is “full of Grace” and she gave birth to Jesus Christ the son of God, the savior of the world. He is the head of the body which is the church. In his dying breath on the cross, Jesus gave His Mother Mary to his favorite disciple with the words “Behold your mother” (John 19:27).
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Very often, in speaking with others of other Christian denominations, even fellow Catholics, I get the impression that they seem to forget that Mother Mary had a choice. She could have said no to God’s plan for salvation. Just like all of us, when God asks us to do something, we can choose to do what God wants of us or we can choose not to do it. Just like Jonah refused to do God’s bidding in the initial stages but he eventually changed his mind.
Because God is God and He always will be, he knows who will say yes to His will and he knows who will refuse him. He knows who will accept his love and his Mercy and he knows who will reject his love. So when we look around in our world and indeed our church, and we see that there are so many things that are lacking, it is not because God has fallen asleep, nor is it because he has stopped calling others into partnership with him. It is because those he is calling are not responding. Mother Mary responded even though she did not have all the answers. She knew God loved her and that was enough.
The salvation of the human race is not something that just happened. It was a plan that God had in his mind and his heart from the very beginning of time. You see, God loves us very much that he simply cannot leave us alone. God simply cannot see us going the wrong way and not want to interject. God cannot just sit idly back and see his beloved go to hell! And so from the very beginning of time when man turned his back on God – when sin entered the human race, God knew what he was going to do, and he started putting his plan in motion. He was going to send his only Son born of the Virgin Mary, into the world to take our place so that we who deserved death may have life; so that we who deserved eternal damnation may be given instead a place in the Kingdom of God. And so from the very beginning of time, the hand of God was upon the Blessed Virgin Mary. Of all women, she was chosen to be the vessel through which the salvation of the whole world, through which the salvation of the human race would come. She was chosen to be the new ark of the New Covenant – the New Eve.
The proof that the salvation the human race with a preconceived plan in the mind and in the heart of God and that the Virgin Mary was specially chosen by God, can be seen in the prophet Isaiah’s writing. In Chapter 7, Isaiah wrote, “ Listen to House of David! Is it not enough for you to weary man, must you also weary my God? Therefore the Lord himself will give you this sign: the virgin shall be with child, and bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel. (Isaiah 7: 13-14)
A little later on in the book of Isaiah, he again prophesied about the coming of the Messiah. In chapter 9 he starts by saying, “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; upon those who dwelt in the land of gloom, a light has shone.” (Isaiah 9: 1) A bit further on, the prophet Isaiah wrote, “For a son has been born for us, a son has been given to us, and dominion has been laid on his shoulders; and this is the name he has been given, ‘Wonder-Counsellor, Mighty-God, Eternal-Father, Prince-of-Peace” (Isaiah 9:5).
These are prophecies about the coming of the Messiah and about the significant role a normal peasant girl would play in this the most important event in human history. Here’s the interesting thing and the proof that Salvation of the human race was in the mind of God from the beginning of time, and from the beginning of time God chose the Virgin Mary to be the New Ark of The Covenant – these prophecies took place some seven hundred years before the birth of Christ. So some seven hundred years before the Virgin Mary conceived, it was known that she was chosen to be the Mother of God. This is as it were, God reminding his people that he had not forgotten them, and that in spite of how things may have been; no matter how they may have strayed, he was going to hold fast to his Plan of Salvation for the human race because he loves us, and the Virgin Mary was going to play an integral role in God’s Plan of Salvation that forever changed humanity – believer and non-believer.
