Grace & Peace!
Why yes, she and all the other saints are above the level of a human being, as well as the angels.
What is your point, again?
NotWorthy, I want to disagree with you here in order to make the point which others don’t seem to be getting.
Because of the event of the Incarnation, Mary has a particularly special relationship with the Son. We are all called to have this special relationship, but it is Mary who was first to have it.
What does that mean? Just this:
Humanity, because of the fall,
lost it’s complete human-ness. As St. John of the Cross cautions us, we should not believe, when we are caught up in mystical ecstasies, that we are suddenly becoming angelic. In fact, we are becoming
more human. And it is the destiny of humanity, as Paul writes, to judge the angels.
Jesus restored in his own flesh the humanity which we lost. Mary, as a perfect image of creation, fulfilling the purpose of creation (that is, to BRING FORTH ITS LORD!), shares fully (for all time) and uniquely (for the time being) in the restoration Jesus wrought. This is revealed to us through tradition which says that Mary died, was resurrected, and was assumed, body and soul, into heaven. No other saint has experienced the bodily resurrection. She, more than any other, enjoys fully IN HER VERY BEING the completion of the restoration of the universe. She is truly the eighth day of creation.
And as the mystical eighth day of creation, she is an image of the church which is, in turn, the face of the Holy Spirit in the world. That is, just as the Son reveals the Father and the Spirit reveals the Son (for no one can say that Jesus is Lord without the Spirit), the Church (the renewed creation) reveals the Spirit.
So Mary, in herself, as a
complete human being, who has this completeness by the grace of her Son who shares that completeness with her, is the most perfect image of the restoration of creation because in her we see the eighth day. Furthermore, the symbolism of the church reveals that creation is meant to be the Bride of God (this is the Marriage Supper of the Lamb). As the Bride of God, creation itself is, indeed, meant to be enthroned on high–and the enthronement of the Virgin as Queen of Heaven makes this point. For what is Mary? She is the Child of the Father, Mother of the Son Incarnate, Spouse of the Holy Spirit. And what is creation
meant to be, if not all of these things?
I maintain, therefore, that the language the church uses to honor the Blessed Virgin is not some crazy made up wackiness because the church likes virgin mothers. It is the expression of the theology of a church which takes the Incarnation and the teleology of creation very seriously. We say that Mary has been crowned Queen of Heaven–what greater crown can she receive than the Incarnation, whence all the graces she has received flow?
And knowing that what happens to Mary as the realization in Creation of the work of her Son (who is first in all things) is meant for us to receive by grace as well, what greater crown can we hope for? Indeed, if we deny Mary the Queenship, we deny ourselves what God has meant for us by creating us as human because we see in Mary what the Father has planned for us in his Son Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit. To deny Mary the Queenship, therefore, is to deny our own humanity (which Mary has fully, the Saints have tasted, and we lack–though day by day, the Spirit restores us).
Mary in her completely restored and undefiled humanity is greater than the angels, as the Eastern church proclaims: “More honorable than the Cherubim and more glorious beyond compare than the Seraphim, without corruption you gave birth to God the Word; true Theotokos we magnify you.” We are called to that high summit as well.
Under the Mercy,
Mark
Deo Gratias!