Mother of the Redeemer and of the redeemed humanity

Mother of the Redeemer: Mary as the Door to the Redeemed Humanity

Mary is the Mother of the Redeemer and, as such, the mother of the redeemed humanity. Understanding Mary as the Mother of the Redeemer requires placing her at the center of the plan of salvation: it is from her that Christ, the Redeemer, receives the humanity he is to redeem.According to what Peter says, “every person is a slave of whatever has conquered them” (2 Peter 2:19), man, conquered by Satan, is legally subject to him, and Satan has acquired ownership rights over him. On the other hand, God, for whom justice is glory, did not wish to violate anyone’s rights, not even Satan’s. Thus, God, despite his profound desire and irresistible power, does not impose himself on Satan in order not to give the accuser a pretext for accusing him of injustice. Since the war did not occur between Satan and God, but between Satan and man, it is just that the defeated man should obtain the victory. But how could a man, once enslaved, defeat one who, after the fall, rules over the whole world through death?This victory could only be the work of God. “It was necessary, therefore, for God to take up the cause of man, since he is man. And man, without sin, triumphs over sin, since he is God.”Man alone could not prevail against Satan, nor could God alone do so. Therefore, it is the “Word made flesh” who had the opportunity to fight and the ability to win. We can thus understand why, as we mentioned, the flesh, that is, the human nature of Christ, became the strength and power, the “armor” of God against Satan. In fact, if God had not assumed the flesh of man, how could he have died and defeated “death through death“? If he had no blood, how could he “purify the sins of the world“? If he could not suffer, how could he heal wounds and restore the integrity of human nature?However, on the other hand, if a human being had not willingly offered this flesh, how could God obtain it, He who respects even the freedom of the powers of evil? In fact, God asks and awaits, throughout all the time of the Old Testament, a decisive collaboration on the part of man. But no prophet and no saint had been able to offer it before the holy Virgin.She, for the first time, helped God to bring about the salvation of the world. She prepared dignily and deliberately, providing the flesh through which he, the only Almighty, triumphed over death and the powers of darkness. Thus, through the flesh of Christ, human nature was freed from evil and from the slavery of death.From this moment on, every human being who shares in the divinized human nature of Christ participates in his life and resurrection. And if this is true for every human being, it is certainly true for Mary, the Mother of Christ.In fact, there is a mysterious communion between the flesh of Mary and that of her Son. The flesh of Christ is truly the flesh of his mother. That of Mary is, in a certain way, the divinized flesh of her Son. Mary is the first human being to be united in an extremely intimate and real way with Christ. She is truly “christified,” and that is why her body did not remain in the corruption of death, but was raised to heaven through Christ, as the first fruit of the ascension to heaven of the bodies of all the saints.However, the mystery of Mary, the greatest manifestation of human greatness, is closely linked to the mystery of the Church. It is known that the Church, like Christ, is the mystical nuptial union between God and his creation, the closest and most intimate union without confusion between divine and human nature. God, by himself, without the collaboration of man, could not have achieved this union. The Holy Spirit, throughout the centuries, during all the Old Testament, guided and prepared humanity, counseling and supporting the prophets and saints, but always acted from outside, not personally, but through human beings, as they became available to Him. It was only in the blessed womb of the Holy Virgin that one of the members of the Holy Trinity came, made his dwelling, and therefore acted personally in history.

First, when the two natures were separated, man lived in death and slavery, while God was, in relation to creation, a “homeless one” (àikos). With the Incarnation, the two natures were united. Man was divinized, and God made His dwelling in history in the flesh of man. In the constitution of the Church, which is the mystical nuptial union of the two natures, Mary played the central role of preparing the bride for the nuptials. In her person, she prepared, purified, and adorned human nature as was necessary and presented it in a befitting manner to the heavenly Bridegroom. And He loved her and united Himself to her so that they became “one flesh” (Eph 5:31).

Therefore, if the Word could assume human nature, it was because Mary offered it to Him as was due. This is what the Fathers of the Church mean when they write that Mary prepared a “home“, a “dwelling place” for God in humanity. Before Mary, God was, in relation to creation, “a king without a city“, as Cabasilas writes. But how can a king exist without a city? And conversely, how can a city exist without a king? Thus, Mary became the ambassador of humanity’s city before the sky’s king. And not just an ambassador, but also the path. Through her and thanks to her, God came and took possession of creation justly and freely, without violence, and thus the kingdom of the Church shone.

This explains the central role of the Virgin Mary in the fulfillment of God’s plan for the salvation of the world and in the constitution of the Church. It also comprehends the central role of man in the unfolding of the mystery of his own salvation. It is clear that because man had to cooperate freely and vigorously in the realization of salvation, the Christian must cooperate freely and vigorously to make effective for himself the salvation already accomplished once and for all in Christ.

Jean-Paul Sartre speaks of a salvation given to man by God as a gift. He rejects, in line with the humanist atheist perspective, to accept it because, he says, such salvation is not worthy of man, it is alienation. But what we have said shows that nothing is further from the true Christian doctrine than this conception of salvation. If it is true that, for the thought of the Fathers of the Church, salvation is truly a gift of God, it is also true that, from the human point of view, salvation is conquered.

God gives everything, but leaves man with the possibility, indeed, more than that, He exhorts him, to do everything. God is not the master but the friend of man (philanthropos): “No longer do I call you servants, but friends” (John 15:15). This deep respect of God for man, which constitutes the true greatness of man and which, like all things of God, knows no limits, will be highlighted even more as we proceed.

Let us consider the main Marian dogma, that of Ephesus, which declares Mary “the one who gave birth to God” (Theotókos, in Latin Deipara). It is known that heretics, beginning with Nestorius, argued that the Virgin is “the one who gave birth to Christ” (Christotókos), or the one who gave birth to the man, conceived in Mary and to whom the Word subsequently united Himself. However, the Orthodox insisted firmly on the term “the one who gave birth to God” (Theotókos), because it is only through this audacious expression that the appropriate expression of the fact that in Christ two complete and perfect natures, God’s and man’s, are intimately united and inseparable, without confusion, can be made.

If the Virgin did not actually give birth to God, if God only “dwelt” in her, if He simply “used” her, then the Word did not truly assume man in his entirety, He is no longer a “perfect man“, and consequently cannot save man. In fact, the Theotókos, from a dogmatic point of view, became the anchor of our salvation, the guarantee and pledge of our true relationship with Christ, the guarantee of humanity’s real and perfect nature in the incarnate Word.But what is the meaning of this expression for anthropology, which is fundamental for both Christology and Mariology?In concise terms, we offer a single, yet decisive, line of interpretation. The Bible teaches that God created the world to unite with Him, or, in other words, for the Church, the body of His eternal Son. In short, the world was created with a view to Christ. “Through him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible; all things were created through him and for him” (Colossians 1:16). Maximus the Confessor, Gregory Palamas, Nicholas of Cydon, the Hagiorite, and a long and respected line of Fathers speak of the mystery of Christ as the ultimate purpose of creation and see Jesus Christ as the beginning and fulfillment, the alpha and omega, of all things.Man, created on the seventh day as the crown and conscience of creation, recapitulates the whole world in his person. He is, according to Maximus, a “microcosm” or, as Gregory of Nazianzus puts it, “a small world that contains the great.” Furthermore, man was created free, and as a fundamental anthropological doctrine, “in the image of God.” This means that, since according to Paul, the image of the invisible God is the Logos (Colossians 1:15), man, created “in the image,” is created to strive towards the image, to unite hypostatically with the Logos, and also to become, by grace, the image of God in the natural image of the Father. In other words, the purpose of man is to become a theandric being, God-man. Basil says indeed that man is a being “who received the command to become God.”But how could this be achieved?Nicola Cabasilas writes on this subject that God created human nature with the purpose of finding a mother within it at the moment He decided to incarnate Himself.How could man overcome the infinite ontological distance between him and God and unite with God, if God Himself had not assumed him?How could God assume him effectively without an intimate, “fleshly,” bond with him?Here we touch deeply on the inspired, and consequently truly inexhaustible, dogma of the *Theotókos*. We have seen that the Holy Virgin was not an isolated and accidental case in relation to the chosen people, Israel. From the perspective we are considering here, likewise, we can understand that, in a certain way, she is not even an exceptional case in humanity in general. Her virginal, exceptional, and extraordinary conception was, however, the pure and simple fulfillment of the purpose for which human nature was created “*from the beginning*.” In the person of Mary, truly and really “*Deipara*,” human nature is revealed as “*Deipara*,” *Theotókos*!In the dialogue between Christians and non-Christians, the implications of this fact can reveal an unexpected usefulness. Throughout the centuries, many non-Christians have claimed that man could become God. However, none of them dared to say that man could give birth to God in human history, as the Fathers of the Church dared to say!No error is more audacious than truth. And no condemnation of atheist humanism is more radical than this fundamental Orthodox doctrine, which sees human nature as a truly and real “*Deipara*.”This doctrine can bring new light and lead to a broader understanding of the title “*Son of Man*,” which Christ attributed to Himself several times. It can also help us better understand St. Paul’s doctrine of the “*new man*.” According to Paul, every human being must “*die*” and “*be born again*.” But the new birth occurs “*in Christ*,” meaning the new man is a “*christified* man,” a teandric being, God-man…ConclusionThe analysis we have conducted reveals why Saint Virgin Mary holds such a central role in the dogma, liturgy, and devotions of the Church. Mary played a pivotal role in the divine economy. She corrected Eve: she showed humanity how it was created, in all its original beauty and splendor. A simple and pure human being, immersed in the situation arising from original sin, yet capable of fulfilling the purpose for which man was created “from the beginning,” that is, to become the path by which God, the Word, would enter His own world as God-man in the history of men, and thus save, or deify, humanity.The same analysis demonstrates that the two major objections of non-Christians to Christianity are unfounded. For Christians, God is in no way a “sadistic father.” He is in no way an “alienation of man.” Rather, God, hidden in all things and in all historical events, needs humanity, the only one capable of revealing Him. This is the heresy of anthropocentric humanism.However, in every heresy, there is always some element of truth that Orthodox theology must discern and adopt. The truth, though distorted, is precisely God’s profound respect for humanity. God respects humanity to the point of remaining inactive, regarding humanity and creation, which depends on humanity, so as not to violate His freedom.In reality, God remained hidden until the moment when a human being, the Holy Virgin, was capable and willing to give Him her flesh, as a garment that would make Him truly visible and accessible to men. The “fullness of time,” that is, the moment God had been waiting and preparing since “the beginning” to fully manifest Himself to men, angels, and all creation, and to assume in His person the human nature, and thus give humanity the possibility of becoming “true” and “perfect” beings (Col 1:28), this central moment in history came with the Holy Virgin. Guided in all her being towards God, the humble daughter of Nazareth, nourished by divine life, revealed both God and humanity in her conception, becoming thus the solid foundation of a true and healthy humanism, a theocentric humanism.Deepen your studies: explore Mariology, Marian theology, Marian apparitions, and the Postgraduate Program in Mariology.To deepen reflection on Mary, Mother of the Redeemer and of redeemed humanity, consult the Encyclical Redemptoris Mater by Pope John Paul II.In summary, Mother of the Redeemer is the title that defines who Mary is and what she does for the redeemed humanity. To delve into Mary as Mother of the Redeemer is to open oneself to maternal mediation in the order of grace. Read more in the document *Redemptoris Mater* (March 25, 1987) by Pope John Paul II.