I actually consider you my #1 fan… thanks for the commitment:thumbsup:
Where is she know as a leader in the NT where she teaches other disciples for example?
You don’t recollect the passage at Canna where she taught the validity of God’s commandments to honor one’s parents when she gave Jesus the moral imperative to honor God and herself by performing his first miracle?
You don’t recollect the passage where Mary taught by example the validity to trust in God and have faith in His word when she said “let it be done to me according to your Word”?
You don’t recollect the passage where Mary taught by example to have courage against one’s own fear and stand by and share in the sufferings of a loved one and in the Divine Son of God?
You can’t recognize that Mary is the co-redemptrix, associated with her Son in the work of ransoming man from sin (Gen 3:15), strong as “an army set in array” (Song 6:9), already prefigured by the “strong”, courageous women of Israel, present at the foot of the cross on Calvary (Jn 19:25-27)?
You can’t recognize Mary is the Mediatrix, who brings Jesus to men and men to Jesus, who cares for things spiritual and temporal (Lk 1:39ff.; Jn 2:1-11) present and active at the birth of the Church on Calvary (Jn 19:25-27) and in the Cenacle (Acts 1:14).
You don’t see how Mary shows by example that she is the woman “blessed” for the faith she placed in the words of the angel Gabriel at the Annunciation (Lk 1:45), for hearing and observing the Word of God (Lk 11:27-28), for her faithful fulfillment of the will of the Father (Mk 3:31-35), as the “poor one of Yahweh” (Ps 9) and “the handmaid of the Lord” (Lk 1:38).
You don’t see how at every crucial point in the history of salvation, from the Protoevangelium, after the fall of our first parents (Gen 3:15), to the announcement of the incarnation of the Word (Lk 1:26ff.), from the beginning of the public mission of Jesus at Cana (Jn 2:1-11), to His redemptive sacrifice consummated on the Cross (in 19:25-27), up to the accomplishment of the very last detail in the universal salvific plan (Rev 12), Mary is the “woman” always present with her Son, never alone, to fulfill her role of “generous companion and humble handmaid of the Lord”.
You don’t see that together with the Son there are “children”, these also brothers and “co-heirs” of Christ (Rom 8:17), who constitute the Mystical Body, the Church. Thus, in Genesis 3:15, the “woman” is presented together with her “seed” (which also has an inclusive sense); at Cana (Jn 2:1-11) the “woman” is with the first “disciples” of Jesus; on Calvary (Jn 19: 25-27), at the foot of the Cross the “woman” has beside her John the Evangelist, who represents all the “disciples” of Jesus; in Revelation 12, finally, the “woman” is found again with “the rest of her offspring” (the Church).
You don’t see in Mary the teaching of The New Eve, the Virgin Mother prophesied in the Old Testament
The embodiment of all the qualities prefigured in the heroines of the Old Testament
The people of Israel, the Daughter of Zion
The Ark of the Covenant: the parallels are too numerous to be ignored
The Church
The exalted Mother of Jesus
The Mother of all the Faithful
Spouse, Mother and Daughter
Even respected Protestants theologian’s like John de Satge can even see Mary all through scripture as integral with it. Why can’t you?
In his Down to Earth: The New Protestant Vision of the Virgin Mary, the Protestant theologian John de Satge highlights Mary’s position with respect to the Old and the New Testaments: “She is the climax of the Old Testament people, the one to whom the cloud of witnesses from the ancient era look as their crowning glory, for it was through her response to grace that their Vindicator came to stand upon the earth. In the order of redemption she is the first fruits of her Son’s saving work, the one among her Son’s people who has gone all the way. And in the order of her Son’s people, she is the mother.”
You don’t see the many examples of the prefiguring of Mary in the Old Testament and think the disciples would not have seen these qualities in Mary and come to realize what her special role was?
Rachael
Jacob is entranced by Rachel’s beauty. Rachel is the mother of Joseph who was sold for 20 pieces of silver. Joseph comes to power in Egypt and is the savior of his family.
Mary
Mary has “found favor with God”. Her Son Jesus is sold for thirty pieces of silver. By His death He becomes the savior of the human race.
Miriam
Miriam the sister of Moses, the liberator of the People of God, and the sister of Aaron, the first priest of the Old Covenant.
Miriam is present with Moses and Aaron at the “Tent of Meeting” in which the Lord descended and spoke to them.
Mary
Just as Miriam was associated with the lawgiver of the People of God, Mary is associated with the Supreme Lawgiver Who Moses prefigured. Similarly Mary is associated with the High Priest of the New Covenant who again is prefigured by Aaron.
etc. etc.
Perhaps you should do a little homework and get rid of the foggy lens of fundamentalism and see things more holistically. Don’t you think its high time to ween yourself off the kiddie pablum you learned in Bible School as a boy and start getting into some real substance?
Mary in Scripture
James
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and he is a God of peace. Jesus is God… John 1:1 No doubt about that! Never has been, never will be.
