Mary was chosen by God to give birth to Jesus and raise him. By doing this, she also cooperated in the salvation of all people. She was a deeply religious woman who loved her son with all her heart. When Jesus had to suffer, she suffered with him.
When Jesus hung on the cross, he said to his disciple John: “Behold thy mother” (Jn. 19:27). With these words Mary became mother to us all; this means that we can all be disciples of Jesus.
It is Mary who bridges the Old and New Testaments. The Old Testament records God’s plan for man’s salvation in His preparations to make the world ready for the Incarnation.He chooses a woman from a certain preordained family, the house of David. It was absolutely necessary that she be set apart in her purity and virtue so as not to make the Incarnation of the Son of God a sacrilege and so she is conceived without original sin and set apart in a holy state of purity and perpetual virginity.
This is Mary’s role in Salvation History: ever virgin and yet fruitful mother. It is Mary, a daughter of the Old Covenant, who is not only the bearer of Christ in the Annunciation but Mary also “labors” in prayer in the Upper Room with the other disciples for the birth of the Church at Pentecost for the New Covenant believers will become her spiritual children. She stands as the Christian model, which we should all emulate. From her obedience at the Annunciation to the events of Christ’s passion she illustrates for us a model of Christian virtue, faith and obedience as she remained true to Christ and His word. Her fidelity shows us that true faith can be preserved in one individual and down through history the Church has honored her for this by considering her the mother of the true remnant of Israel in the New Covenant Church. It has been as Mary prophesized, filled with the Holy Spirit, “Yes, from now onwards all generations will call me blessed!”
