Mary's Role in Salvation History

This time of year, the Christian world once again takes a look at Mary's role in salvation. I always hope and pray that someone's heart will be open to understand Mary from the Catholic perspective  this time of year. Why is that so important? Because ultimately Mary leads us to her son and by proclaiming her immaculate state, we further glorify Christ. "What the Catholic faith believes about Mary is based on what it believes about Christ, and what it teaches about Mary illumines in turn its faith in Christ." (CC487)  God of the universe made Mary fit for the purpose of bringing the second person of the Trinity, in the flesh, to our world. From the Catechism:


          From among the descendants of Eve, God chose the Virgin Mary to be the mother of his Son. “Full of grace,” Mary is “the most excellent fruit of redemption” (SC 103): from the first instant of her conception, she was totally preserved from the stain of original sin and she remained pure from all personal sin throughout her life.

    509      Mary is truly “Mother of God” since she is the mother of the eternal Son of God made man, who is God himself.

    510      Mary “remained a virgin in conceiving her Son, a virgin in giving birth to him, a virgin in carrying him, a virgin in nursing him at her breast, always a virgin” (St. Augustine, Serm. 186, 1: PL 38, 999): with her whole being she is “the handmaid of the Lord” (Lk 1:38).

    511      The Virgin Mary “cooperated through free faith and obedience in human salvation” (LG 56). She uttered her yes “in the name of all human nature” (St. Thomas Aquinas, STh III, 30, 1). By her obedience she became the new Eve, mother of the living.


(Catholic Church. (2000). Catechism of the Catholic Church (2nd Ed.) (128). Washington, DC: United States Catholic Conference.)