THE VOCATION OF THE BLESSEDVIRGIN MARY

                                         Her Role in Redemption

Nwanyanwu Chris

God has always loved humans from their very first existence. In his love, he created the first set of humans and kept them in the Garden of Eden filled with every good things of life to sustain them. In this way, he entered into a relationship with humans with the intention that this good relationship will last forever. Unfortunately, this relationship was broken by our first parents as a result of their disobedience.

When this relationship was broken, God never abandoned humans; instead he sought another way of reconciling them to himself. He sent many prophets to prepare his people for the day of salvation when he will free them from all their sins and restore that broken relationship with them.

When the fullness of time came for this purpose, God sent his son Jesus Christ into the world, to come and redeem the world from sin and death. Thus, True God became true man. God’s salvific giving of himself and his life in some way to all creation but directly to man, reaches one of its high point in the mystery of the incarnation. It is from this mystery of incarnation that the vocation of the Blessed Virgin Mary is seen, and at the same time, it helps to understand her role in redemption.

Hail, Full of Grace, the Lord is with you... The Angel Gabriel came to Mary to tell her of her vocation. The Angel’s announcement revealed to Mary her task in the world, the key of her whole existence. The annunciation was for her a most perfect light that filled the whole of her life and made her fully aware of her exceptional role in the history of mankind. Mary is definitely introduced into the mystery of Christ through this announcement by Angel Gabriel.

Mary was chosen to give her consent to this mystery of Christ’s life on earth. She consented to the mystery of incarnation. She was free. She freely consented to this mystery, thereby becoming the mother of God. Her response can be characterised as a generous and total readiness, a full consent to God, who realises in her the mystery of the incarnation, calling her to be the Mother of God.

At the announcement that she will give birth to the son of the Most High without knowing a man, by the power of the Holy Spirit, She responded with the obedience of faith, and abandonment to God, certain that with God nothing is impossible: Ecce ancilla Domini; Fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum. Thus, in giving her consent to God’s word, she becomes the mother of Jesus Christ.

This abandonment of Mary to God is what makes Mary’s soul good soil capable of receiving the divine seed. She joyfully agrees to have no will or desire other than that of her Lord and Master, who from that moment on became her Son-who has been made man in her most pure womb. The Second Vatican Council, Lumen Gentium, 56 says:

Thus, the daughter of Adam, Mary, consenting to the word of God, became the mother of Jesus. Committing herself whole-heartedly and impeded by no sin to God’s saving Will, she devoted herself totally, as a handmaid of the Lord, to the Person and work of her Son, under and with him, serving the mystery of redemption, by the grace of the Almighty God. Rightly, therefore, the fathers of the Church see Mary not merely as passively engaged by God, but as freely co-operating in the work of man’s salvation through faith and obedience.

A perfect understanding of the role of Mary in redemption is to be found within the mystery of incarnation. Christ truly became man, like one of us. He received his human nature from the immaculate womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Just as God prepared a good and fitting environment for the first man which was the Garden of Eden, so also did he prepare a very fitting and worthy environment for his Son. This worthy environment is no other but the body and soul of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Mary’s role in redemption is closely related with that of her son Jesus Christ. We find Jesus very closely united to Mary. When the blessed Virgin said Yes, freely, to the plans revealed to her by the Creator, the divine Word assumed a human nature: a rational soul and a body, which was formed in the most pure womb of Mary. The divine nature and the human nature were united in a single Person: Jesus Christ, true God and, thenceforth, true Man; the only-begotten and eternal Son of the Father and, from that moment on, as Man, the true son of Mary.

This is why Our Lady is the is the Mother of the Incarnate Word, the second Person of the Blessed Trinity who has united our human nature to himself for ever, without any confusion of the two natures.

The incarnation of Christ was a manifestation of God’s love for his people. Christ took the human nature to save man from sin and death. This human nature was formed in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Her fiat made the mystery of incarnation possible and hence, she became the Mother of God- her vocation.

Finally, this vocation of Mary reveals her role in redemption which is that she became God’s collaborator in giving human nature to his Eternal Son. Hence, she was the instrument that linked Jesus with the whole humanity. This is Mary’s role in redemption as fully expressed in her vocation.