Thursday, October 05, 2006
Part two of Lumen Gentium's "epilogue" on the Blessed Mother continues with a section that examines "The Role of the Blessed Mother in the Economy of Salvation." The Sacred Scriptures of both the Old and the New Testament, as well as ancient Tradition show the role of the Mother of the Saviour in the economy of salvation in an ever clearer light and draw attention to it. The books of the Old Testament describe the history of salvation, by which the coming of Christ into the world was slowly prepared. These earliest documents, as they are read in the Church and are understood in the light of a further and full revelation, bring the figure of the woman, Mother of the Redeemer, into a gradually clearer light. When it is looked at in this way, she is already prophetically foreshadowed in the promise of victory over the serpent which was given to our first parents after their fall into sin.(Cf. Gen. 3. 15.) Likewise she is the Virgin who shall conceive and bear a son, whose name will be called Emmanuel.(Cf Is 7, 14; cf.
Hindsight enables the Church to see the pertinent passages in the Old Testament and say they prefigured Mary's role in the gift of the Messiah. We can say that Jesus was not quite what the Messiah was expected to be. And perhaps the role of Mary was also not quite what might have been expected, either.
Anybody want to take on the challenge of the Scriptural witness? Not all Christians see it this way.
