Mary, the Theotokos, the Mother of God, was conceived and born with special grace in order to prepare her – and the world – for the birth of her son, Jesus Christ. In her, human perfection had been attained, not, of course, entirely on its own, but in and through the providence of God which guided and directed humanity so that Mary, predestined before all time, could come forth and bear within her the one who was God almighty. Thus, she was, as St. Gregory Palamas acclaimed, a gift of God, not only to her parents, but to all humanity
She was a gift from God, and to God, even before she was born – how could she be otherwise, as she was the pre-ordained before all ages as the dwelling-place of the Maker of all world? She was a gift to God and the fruit of her righteous parents’ vow and supplication – O the wings of that prayer! What boldness is found before the Lord! How spotless their hearts must have been to be able to offer up a prayer so far-reaching and effective! [1]
Mary was a gift in which the spiritually sterile humanity found itself giving birth to the Mother of God, even as St. Joachim and Anne, in their elderly age, were finally able to have a child of their own. She was a gift to all, for in her and through her, humanity was called by God and given a chance to fulfill God’s plan for it; her yes to the archangel, her yes to God at the annunciation, was spoken on behalf of us all. Humanity had waited for the one who could speak with and answer God with that yes. Once that yes was given, once that yes could be elicited from them God would come to us, God would reveal himself, not as some sort of impersonal divinity, not as some sort of completely transcendent God, but as the incarnate one, Jesus Christ, who would then deify humanity with grace.
The incarnation was always a part of God’s plan. God intended to give deifying grace to creation, and to do it through the incarnation. But the time had to be right. The time before the incarnation was the time in which God prepared humanity for it, giving various graces to it so that it can slowly bring about the one who could and would give birth to the divine one. It was a woman, the daughter of Zion, who received all the graces that came before her so she could be the perfect representation of humanity, so she could represent us all as she opened herself up to God and receive God into herself. In her, humanity says yes to God, and through her yes, God dwells among us and deifies us.
This was all accomplished with God’s providence, with God’s grace; by itself, humanity could not have come to the great heights of the Theotokos. The people of Israel, the chosen people of God, cooperating with God, following the path established for them by God, engaged God’s graces. It made them a holy people, a holy nation, which had God’s presence among them, a presence giving them such grace that in and through them, humanity could achieve its goal and bring forth Mary, the Theotokos. Humanity could not have done it without God’s grace, but God did not force himself upon humanity, for humanity had to cooperate with that grace in order for it to be effective. The grace was seeded into humanity, it was nurtured by humanity, and then, over time, it was able to grow and develop; then, at last, when the time had come, Mary was conceived, full of that grace which preceded her, so that she could truly represent humanity and its potential. She was full of grace, indeed, always full of grace, for it was only in and through such grace she could have been conceived; it was such grace, as Photius recognized, that allowed St. Anne to give birth to her in a way which seemed contrary to nature:
As for me, if I said, that the birth happened by a natural concatenation, and then invited thee to agree, the woman’s barrenness, her old age, nature itself would rightly have aroused difficulty in reasoning. But if I represent it as an act of divine grace, why dost thou force grace to be subservient to nature, of whom she has always been the mistress? [2]
Mary’s conception and birth was planned by God, prepared for by God through his grace, and so truly, Mary is, as the angel exclaimed, full of grace; her life is a life of grace, from the time in which she was first conceived until the time she died and then was assumed into heaven. How could it not be like this? God’s plan with humanity, God’s plan with Israel, was to establish the Theotokos so that the incarnation can take place. And so, throughout history, God worked with humanity, giving it graces so it can slowly advance in grace and show forth the spiritual fruit of that grace, Mary, so that she could then conceive and give birth to the Word of God.
Mary, the Theotokos, is special because she gave birth to God the Word. But we must keep in mind that special quality, that special nature lies with the fact that she represents all of us to God. She shows us our potential, the glory which is possible for all of us. When she speaks her yes to God, she answers for all of us. We can join her with that yes and receive the same grace which she received. We can conceive the Word in ourselves and gift birth to him in our lives; we can follow after him, listening to him, engage him, love him, mourn him in his death, and then be gladdened by him in his resurrection, only to find ourselves taken up by him and be received into eternal life. Mary’s yes, Mary’s death, Mary’s assumption into heaven, they are all indicative of God’s work with humanity, and so, therefore, is her birth. To think this makes Mary separate from the rest of us is to miss the point, but then again, it is also to miss the point if we do not see how her whole life is connected with and infused with grace. She represents us, but she does so showing humanity in its perfection, showing what is possible in a life full of grace, a grace God shows us was given to her by the miracle of her conception.
[1] St. Gregory Palamas, “On The Entry of the Theotokos Into the Holy of Holies II” in Saint Gregory Palamas: The Homilies. trans. Christopher Veniamin and the Monastery of St. John the Baptist Essex, England (Waymart, PA: Mount Thabor Publishing, 2009), 424.
[2] St. Photius, The Homilies of Photius, Patriarch of Constantinople. Trans. Cyril Mango (Harvard: Harvard University Press, 1958; repr. Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2017), 167 [Homily 9].
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