Mary, daughter of Israel: dogmatic-liturgical analysis

Mary, Daughter of Israel: A Dogmatic-Liturgical Analysis

Today begins our novena, during which we will explore the truth of the history of the Immaculate Conception of Our Lady of the Conception, or Mary. We have heard many stories about her discovery, miracles, the sanctuary, and the growing mariological art. However, today, amidst all this, we will recover, over the course of the novena, the history of salvation celebrated in today’s liturgy. Mary, the elect daughter of Israel.Mary belongs to a people to whom the salvation was announced. She is daughter of Adam by birth, daughter of Abraham by faith, and daughter of the Church through the joy of the exalted Daughter of Zion. In the fullness of time, God’s divine promise of salvation in history came to pass, and the Son of God became man in Mary’s womb! This is the mystery of our first day of Novena.In the first reading, the Lord takes the initiative to go to Abraham to write with him a sacred history of the Alliance between YHWH and Abraham’s descendants. Who is this descendant? One who preserves God’s blessing, one who journeys through this world guided by God’s Word towards a promise: to keep faith every day of your life, even when you do not understand, and I will give you the Promised Land.In the Gospel, we see from where Mary comes: from Abraham through faith, from David through the messianic promise, and the Messiah is the one who liberates from the idolatrous slavery of Babylon. Throughout Mary’s genealogy, we find spouses, fathers, and four mothers.– Tamar, who receives life from her son-in-law but ensures her lineage. – Rahab, despite her work as a prostitute, saves the Hebrews through faith and works. – Ruth, a widow who in her new marriage will conceive in Bethlehem.Betsabeia, the adulterous woman of David but mother of Solomon who succeeded her father on the throne.At the end of this twisted tale of encounters and misencounters in the sense of the history of the Covenant, appears the last woman, Mary, the definitive times have come. She is the Wife of Joseph from the House of David, and from her alone is born *Jesus, the Anointed One*. After Mary, there is no more genealogy of those born under the promise of flesh and blood, as happened from Abraham, but only those born of God, by the Spirit through Baptism. Thus, the Church, Mother of Sons and Virgin by election, learns from Mary how to live the new and Eternal Covenant.God chose Abraham; God chose Mary.God initiates in the human history of the old Patriarch a new path for humanity; God initiates in the human history of the young Bride a new path for humanity.Abraham is a mediator of a silent and obedient faith journey in dialogue with God; Mary is a mediator of a silent and obedient faith journey in dialogue with the Trinity in the Annunciation and with the Son throughout her life.Abraham is the man who lives from listening to the Word; God speaks and the man listens, God’s words create and make happen the history until it is fulfilled in the perfect covenant. Mary is the woman who lives from listening to the Word; God speaks and Mary listens and questions and receives an answer; God’s words create and make happen in history the covenant that has no end because God became history, man, Word.In the prayers that follow, it will be said about the offerings:Receive, Lord, these gifts and transform them, by your power, into a sacrament of salvation, in which having ceased the sacrifices of the first covenant, the true Lamb, Jesus Christ, born in a wonderful way from the Immaculate Virgin, is offered.And in the preface:You made Saint Mary, the fullness of Israel and the principle of the Church,to manifest to all peoples that salvation comes from Israel and that the new family springs from the chosen stem.By the nature of being a daughter of Adam, Mary repaired the guilt of Eve, the first mother. By the faith descending from Abraham, she conceived in her womb, because she believed. By descent, she is the branch of Jesse, who blossomed in Jesus Christ, our Lord.Here we find the beginning of the Novena to Our Lady of the Conception Aparecida.To deepen reflection on Mary as daughter of Israel and her place in the history of salvation, consult the Encyclical Redemptoris Mater by John Paul II, which analyzes Mary’s faith in the context of the chosen people of Israel.Deepen your studies: explore Mariology, Marian Theology, Marian Apparitions, and a Postgraduate Degree in Mariology.