Ask a Deacon: So why is Mary so important?
There are lots of reasons why the Blessed Virgin Mary is so important, but I will limit myself to why she’s important to salvation history. To begin with, all Christians agree that she is the only woman in human history to conceive a child without having “relations with a man.” (NABRE Luke 1:34) That child was Jesus, the son of God, fully divine and fully human. She can rightly be called, then, the “mother of the Lord.” (cf. Luke 1:43). But apart from this, why is it that we Catholics, the Orthodox and some Anglicans, provide her with so much honor? Why is she so important not just to us but to the whole world?
Let’s start first with a central claim of our Christian faith, namely the belief that Jesus Christ is the incarnate God come down to us in order to reconcile all of humanity with the Father, a project made necessary by the Fall perpetrated by Adam and Eve. All of salvation history, all the covenants that God made with the Hebrew people over time, all of them were steps along a path towards accomplishing this reconciliation that allows us to be in right relationship with the Lord. When Jesus talks about his “hour” in St. John’s Gospel, he’s talking about this work of reconciliation. We have heard in the readings during this Eastertide his desire that we be one with him and so with each other and with the Father.
Now, St. Paul tells us that this reconciliation accomplished by Jesus is done thanks to the fact that Jesus is the new Adam (cf. Rom 5:12ff; 1 Cor. 15:21-22, 44-49). A new Adam was necessary because the “disobedience of one person”, Adam, which introduced death into the world needed to be undone through the “obedience of one,” i.e. Jesus, so that “many will be made righteous.” (Rom. 5:19) This is classic Pauline theology and we can find it elsewhere. But if there is a new Adam, what about Eve? Eve was central to the story of the Fall. She’s the one who is first approached by the serpent. If there is a new Adam, shouldn’t there be a new Eve?
The answer is of course, “yes,” and this new Eve is Mary. This is not to say that Mary saved us or that she is on par with Jesus. We do not claim that Mary is divine at all. However, her obedience by saying to the angel Gabriel “May it be done to me according to your word” (Lk 1:38) is what undoes the disobedience of Eve and is what makes it possible for the Savior of the World to be born.
The importance of this is clear in St. John’s Gospel where, right before Jesus begins his ministry, it is Mary who intercedes for a young couple and has her son turn water into wine. It is clear from the text that this is Mary, but in the narrative Jesus refers to her as “woman.” (Jn 2:1ff) Jesus does this in order to make it clear that Mary is not just anyone, but rather THE woman of Genesis 3:15 who will bear a son who will crush the serpent’s head. It seems a bit out of place there in John, but the introduction here in John 2 is paid off later in the Gospel when, at the only other time Mary is mentioned in St. John’s Gospel, we find her at the foot of the cross. There, again, Jesus refers to her as “woman” and then makes her the mother of the beloved disciple right before he accomplishes his task of saving the world. (Jn 19:26-27)
Why is that important? Because the name, “Eve,” means “the mother of all the living.” (Gen. 3:20) As Jesus is completing the purpose of his incarnation and fulfilling his obedience to the Father to undo Adam’s disobedience, Jesus is announcing from the cross Mary’s role as the new Eve, the new mother of all of us who live in Christ through baptism. This interpretation is not just mine, naturally. It is the dominant opinion of the Church Fathers, specifically the second and third generation of Christians. St. Justin Martyr, St. Irenaeus of Lyon and many others called Mary the new Eve.
Add to these Biblical interpretations the fact that Jesus’ genetic material came from Mary and only from her. Since it was Jesus’ bodily suffering and death on the cross that saved us, she contributed to our salvation in a completely unique way by providing the very flesh that saved us. She was also a witness to the crucifixion and, in all likelihood, her presence added to the suffering of Christ who knew only too well how his death would pierce her heart. (Luke 2:35)
None of this means that we think Mary saves us. But just like we can say that St. Paul cooperates with the Lord in the proclamation of the Gospel, and we can say that we as individuals on mission cooperate with Christ in the salvation of others, Mary cooperated with the Lord. But she cooperated in a way totally unique to her and unlike any other Christian in all of human history. Her contribution to our salvation has not been and cannot be duplicated by any other Christian. That’s why she’s so important, and during this month of May we would do well to pray that she draw us closer to her son Jesus whom she teaches us to love so tenderly.