Mary is the seat of Wisdom, for from her was born the Logos, the Son of God. In and through her, the sins of the past have been overcome with grace; humanity attained its natural glory and now through her, our humanity can be taken up and assumed by the Logos for its deification. It is proper and just for us to join in together with joy, remembering the conception which brought us Mary, the Theotokos, marveling both at the work of the Logos throughout history which led to it as well as the way it has helped continue and promote God’s ultimate plan for creation.
Mary was a miracle child. Her elderly parents had long desired to have children, but alas, they never had any. Their great and holy love and devotion to each other, and to God, was known by God, even if it was denied by others. They were often ridiculed, being told by others that the reason why they did not have any children had to be due to some great sin on their part. They suffered a great amount of grief, both due to the fact that their holy desire was not fulfilled, but also because of the way they were abused. Their sorrow turned to joy when, long after they had thought possible, Anne, Mary’s Mother, conceived. It was a miracle; indeed, being conceived in this fashion, as a miracle child, we are given a sign of the great and unique nature of Mary herself. Not only were Joachim and Anne vindicated, and those who had ridiculed them shown to be wrong, but the child was special, conceived with a special grace.
Mary was a miracle child. From the very first moment of her conception, she was full of grace, but she was still human, still a person with freedom. Every moment of her life, she had to confirm that grace by affirming her love for God. The grace which she received from her conception did not force her to act in a certain way throughout her life; rather, it freed her from the constraints of sin so that she could freely choose God over all else. Each confirmation of that grace, each deed done out of pure love, developed her further, but always in such a way she would always be full of grace, never doing anything which would diminish it in her life. She was rooted in grace, and so it was in and with grace, she grew in the womb, even as it was with that grace she would grow out of the womb and become a great, indeed, remarkable woman before taking on the greatest grace of all, the grace which would allow her to conceive the God-man and become the Theotokos.
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Henry Karlson, after studying early church history and theology, and talking to a close friend who could answer many of his questions, became a Byzantine Catholic in 1995. Because of his interests, he eventually pursued graduate studies in theology. He has a wide variety of topics he likes to talk about which will be reflected upon here, including, but not limited to, Patrology, Sophiology, Comparative Theology, Theological Aesthetics, Eschatology and Literature.
With thanks to Patheos and Henry Karlson, where this reflection originally appeared.
