The Salvific Importance of the Mother of God

 Introduction

Mary, the Mother of God, the most holy Theotokos, is widely considered to be the most important figure in Christianity besides her Beloved Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. She is highly venerated in both Eastern and Western historical Churches, that being the Catholic and Orthodox Churches, but was also highly revered by the early magisterial Protestant reformers, most especially Martin Luther himself (Armstrong). Even Karl Barth, in all likelihood the most profound and influential Reformed theologian of the twentieth century, said that affirming that Mary is the Mother of God is the best litmus to see if one understands the Incarnation (Ortlund 1-3). And yet, there remains much division within the Body of Christ around what Chirstians should believe about her. More fundamentally, many Christians are genuinely confused by her since the Biblical sources which mention her are few and far between, and even more Christians are simply ignorant of the patristic record on and reverence for the Blessed Mother.

What I intend in this paper is to explore why Mary should be seen as playing a central role in the Christian story of salvation and, thus, the Gospel itself. This ‘central role’ view of Mary counters the predominant notion of Mary as an ephemeral figure in Christian theology, at least in relation to her Son, a view which finds much currency among many Protestants, but even among members of the historical Churches. 

I will explicate her central role in the Gospel via examining the typology of Mary as the New Ark of the Covenant. First, I will explore, in general theological terms, what theologians mean by calling Mary the New Ark of the Covenant, with reference to some of the relevant Old Testament passages. Following this, I will compare King David’s dance in front of the Ark of the Covenant to St. John the Baptist’s leaping in his mother’s womb when Mary visits Elizabeth. Then, I will explore how Mary’s role as the New Eve manifests in the New Testament during the Wedding at Cana in John 2. After investigating the Biblical sources, I will move on to explore this typology, as I see it appearing, in the apocryphal Protoevangelium of James. Finally, I will present what Pope St. John Paul II says both about Mary on her own, and the meaning of human suffering, which is where salvific importance will be most clear

Ultimately, Mary possesses a unique salvific importance, and thus a central role in the Christian Gospel, because Christ’s flesh is Mary’s flesh, entailing that Mary is not an accidental feature of the Gospel, but a precondition for the salvation of the world.

What does it mean to say Mary is the New Ark of Covenant?

To begin this theological exploration, it is necessary to explain what the old Ark of the Covenant was in order to see how it relates to the New Ark of the Covenant: the Theotokos. The original Ark of the Covenant first appears in Exodus: 

They shall make an ark of acacia wood; it shall be two and a half cubits long, a cubit and a half wide, and a cubit and a half high. You shall overlay it with pure gold, inside and outside you shall overlay it, and you shall make a molding of gold upon it all around. You shall cast four rings of gold for it and put them on its four feet, two rings on one side of it and two rings on the other side. You shall make poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold. And you shall put the poles into the rings on the sides of the ark, for carrying the ark. The poles shall remain in the rings of the ark; they shall not be removed. You shall put the covenant that I am giving you into the ark. Then you shall make a cover of pure gold; two cubits and a half shall be its length and a cubit and a half its width. You shall make two cherubim of gold; you shall make them of hammered work at the two ends of the cover. Make one cherub at one end and one cherub at the other; of one piece with the cover you shall make the cherubim at its two ends. The cherubim shall spread out their wings above, overshadowing the cover with their wings. They shall face one to another; the faces of the cherubim shall be turned toward the cover. You shall put the cover on the top of the ark, and in the ark you shall put the covenant that I am giving you. There I will meet with you, and from above the cover, from between the two cherubim that are on the ark of the covenant, I will tell you all that I am commanding you for the Israelites. (Exodus 25:10-25)

The Ark of Covenant was the sacred box, one could also say sacred receptacle, where the two stone slabs containing the Ten Commandments, the symbol and reality of God’s covenant between God and the Israelites, were laid. This was why it was supposed to be made out of the finest wood and gold. Moreover, the cherubim on the Ark, protecting the Ark with their wings and also bowing before the area just above the Ark, which is where YHWH said He would speak to Moses and Aaron, harkens forward to when Isaiah finds the Seraph angels prostrate before the Lord when he encounters Him. Thus, even in Mosaic times, the Ark of the Covenant was an efficacious sign, a sacrament, of God’s presence and union with the Israelites. The Ark of the Covenant represents a point of contact between the heavenly and earthly, divine and human, dimensions of reality.

Mary as the New Ark of the Covenant.

With that in place, I would like to propose a simple Biblical proof of Mary as the New Ark of the Covenant, a proof found when comparing 2 Samuel and the Gospel of Luke. Let us begin by looking at the passage from 2 Samuel:

David danced before the Lord with all his might; David was girded with a linen ephod. So David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of the Lord with shouting and with the sound of the trumpet. As the ark of the Lord came into the city of David, Michal daughter of Saul looked out of the window and saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord, and she despised him in her heart. They brought in the ark of the Lord and set it in its place, inside the tent that David had pitched for it, and David offered burnt offerings and offerings of well-being before the Lord. When David had finished offering the burnt offerings and the offerings of well-being, he blessed the people in the name of the Lord of hosts and distributed food among all the people, the whole multitude of Israel, both men and women, to each a cake of bread, a portion of meat, and a cake of raisins. Then all the people went back to their homes. David returned to bless his household. But Michal the daughter of Saul came out to meet David and said, “How the king of Israel honored himself today, uncovering himself today before the eyes of his servants’ maids, as any vulgar fellow might shamelessly uncover himself!” David said to Michal, “It was before the Lord, who chose me in place of your father and all his household, to appoint me as prince over Israel, the people of the Lord—I will dance before the Lord. I will make myself yet more contemptible than this, and I will be humbled in my own eyes, but by the maids of whom you have spoken, by them I shall be held in honor.” (2 Samuel 6:14-22)

Here, King David dances in front of the Ark of the Covenant in celebration of God’s presence within the Ark, but also in celebration of the fact that it is a symbol of God’s presence among His people: Israel. Furthermore, the Ark of Covenant reminded the people of God’s first promise to Abraham that He would bring forth a gift to all the nations through Abarham’s line, thus making the Ark of the Covenant a symbol of Messianic hope. This hope, of course, finds its fulfillment in Jesus Christ and Mary’s encounter with cousin Elizabeth displays that:

At that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea, where she entered Zechariah’s home and greeted Elizabeth.  When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. In a loud voice she exclaimed: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her!” (Luke 1:39-45)

St. John the Baptist leaps in his mother’s womb as he recognizes the Divine Person in his older cousin’s womb, Jesus Christ. In doing this, the prenatal saint recognizes the Lord for Who He Is, but also acknowledges the importance of Mary who encloses Her Divine Son. What could Mary be in this instance but the New Ark of the Covenant as just as Jesus is the fulfillment of all the promises made to Israel and, thus, the bringer of the world’s salvation, so Mary must be the fulfillment of all that is necessary to store and safeguard that salvific and Divine Presence.

The soteriological importance of Mary, the Mother of God, is present here in two ways. Firstly, the image of the Ark in the Jewish consciousness always brings forth an image of salvation since it was on and through an Ark that God saved Noah, his families, and the animals of the world. Moreover, the Hebrew word used for the basket in which Moses is placed as an infant is the word also used for the Ark of Noah, reinforcing the connection between the Ark and salvation (Eames).

Secondly, she is the bearer of salvation since she bears within herself the source of salvation, the Lord Jesus Christ. Moreover, and more deeply, Mary is the culmination of the old Ark of the Covenant because the union between God and His people in the original Ark of the Covenant was through His written word, which was not Him in Himself. To use metaphysical language, the union between God and His people in the old Ark of the Covenant was an accidental one. This is contrasted with the union between God and humanity in the New Ark of the Covenant which is substantial in virtue of the fact that within this New Ark, the Eternal and Divine Word assumed a human nature in a substantial way such that the human nature and Divine nature of Christ inhere in one subject. Additionally, Christ’s human nature is identical to that of Mary’s since He only receives His humanity from her, enabling female humanity to be saved through Him. As a result, Mary is the precondition for the salvation of all humanity, which is why her role as the New Ark of the Covenant does not cease once she delivers Christ into the world since the work of salvation is ongoing. 

This is not the only passage in the Gospels where the authors conceive of Mary as the precondition for salvation, but it is one the most prominent passages of this kind in Luke. One finds, in the Gospel of John, however, another instance of Mary’s salvific agency in the narrative of the Wedding at Cana.

The Wedding at Cana

The Wedding at Cana constitutes a unique passage in the New Testament because Mary is portrayed as the initiator of Christ’s public ministry. Moreover, this passage only occurs in the Gospel of John, most likely because the story would have only been known to someone who was well acquainted with both Mary and the Lord. This person, of course, is St. John the author of the Gospel. Here is the passage:

On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus also was invited to the wedding with his disciples. When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.” His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.” Now there were six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water.” And they filled them up to the brim. And he said to them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast.” So they took it. When the master of the feast tasted the water now become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom and said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now.” This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him. (John 2:1-11)

There are many significant typological elements present here that pertain to Mary. The first thing to note is that Jesus was not being rude or insulting to His mother when He referred to her as ‘woman’, even though this might be the common reading now because of certain cultural contingencies. Rather, He is harkening back to the creation of Eve in Genesis 2, which He created last. As Deacon Harold Burke-Sivers points out in his discussion with Matt Fradd, Eve was created last not because she was an afterthought in God’s creation, but the culmination of everything prior to her. Indeed, this is why Adam is pleased to have her with him as a fitting companion: “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh” (Genesis 2:23). However, in the just following chapter, both Adam and Eve fall from their union with God and are by eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and are, accordingly, expelled from the Garden of Eden. The narrative of Genesis, therefore, leaves itself open to the fulfillment of the obligations and gifts bestowed upon Adam and Eve since they were not able to properly accept these obligations and gifts. Thus, the narrative of Genesis is oriented towards the future, when the proper human response to God’s gift will occur. This occurs in Christ as the New Adam, and Mary as the New Eve and so Jesus referring to His mother as ‘woman’ is really him referring to her by one of her proper titles. The salvific importance here is apparent as she is necessary not only to be the first conduit of Divinity to the world, but also to bring God’s promise of life and a good creation in the Garden to fulfillment.

Secondly, the action of Mary in the Wedding at Cana is a wonderful example of her subtle, but powerful salvific agency. Mary eggs Jesus on, as it were, and encourages Him to fulfill His duty, not through admonition, but through a gentle pushing in the right direction. Of course, she knows that He is God, but, as God, he cooperates with her maternal nudging. Consequently, the narrative, rather explicitly, portrays her as the initiator of Christ’s earthly ministry since His changing of water into wine at the Wedding at Cana was His first public miracle, buttressing her identification as the precondition for the salvation of the world. Moreover, Mary’s encouragement of Jesus here foreshadows her role as intercessor after Assumption into heaven, where she now lovingly nudges Jesus to help us, as any good mother would.

The Blessed Mother in the Tabernacle of Solomon’s Temple

Now having examined the Biblical texts, it is worth looking at the Protoevangelium of James since it provides us with a look into how Christians of the second century viewed Mary. Moreover, it shows how, from the very beginning of the Church, Mary was not only a highly venerated figure, but also one with unique salvific agency. I think the perfect place to see this on display is the chapter early on in the Protoevangelium, where the reader finds Mary living in the Holy of Holies in the Temple of Solomon:

Her parents went down marveling and praising God that the child did not turn back. Mary lived like a nurtured dove in the temple, and received food from the hand of an angel. But when she reached twelve years old, the priests took counsel saying, “Beloved Mary has biome twelve years old in the temple of the Lord. What therefore shall we do with her, lest it come upon her as with women, and she defile the sanctuary of the Lord?” They said to the high priest, “You stand before the altar of the Lord; go in and pray about her, and whatever the Lord God reveals to you, that we will do.” So the high priest went into the Holy of Holies bearing the vestment with twelve bells and prayed concerning her. And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before him saying, “Zacharias, Zacharias, go out and call together the widowers among the people, and let each one carry his staff, and the one upon whom the Lord shows a sign, he shall have her as his wife.” So the heralds went out into all the countryside of Judea, and the trumpet of the Lord was sounded, and all came running. (Mathewes-Green 45)

The most prominent feature of Mary that the text emphasizes is her radical holiness since she is able reside in the most sacred part of the Temple of Solomon. However, the typology of Mary as the New Ark of the Covenant is rather explicit here, perhaps even more so than in the New Testament, because the Holy of Holies where she resides was the place where the original Ark of the Covenant resided before it was taken during the Babylonian captivity. Until Mary lived there, the Holy of Holies was empty, awaiting the return of the Ark of the Covenant, or the arrival of the New Ark of Covenant. Thus, when Mary lives in the Holy of Holies for the duration of her childhood, she assumes the role of Ark of the Covenant, which entails that she is the point where Divinity and humanity, just as was the case in the Old Covenant. Therefore, her living in the Holy of Holies prepares her for her mission of bringing God into the world. This is why the chapter ends by hinting at her life after leaving the Temple with the call for the widowers of Israel. 

In sum, even in early Christian apocryphal literature Mary’s unique salvific importance was acknowledged, to the point of the Protoevangelium of James going beyond the New Testament in details of her central role in salvation history.

Pope St. John Paul II on Mary’s Salvific Importance

Having looked at the New Testament and early Christian apocryphal reflection on Mary’s soteriological role and importance, I would like to dedicate my last section to the thought of Pope St. John Paul II on Mary as he personally had a deep devotion to Mary, as exemplified by his Pontifical motto Totus Tuus in reference to Mary, but also published an encyclical solely dedicated to the Blessed Mother. A great place to begin is his encyclical on the meaning of human suffering since I will connect it to Mary’s salvific role:

Declaring the power of salvific suffering, the Apostle Paul says: "In my flesh I complete what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the Church"(1). These words seem to be found at the end of the long road that winds through the suffering which forms part of the history of man and which is illuminated by the Word of God. These words have as it were the value of a final discovery, which is accompanied by joy. For this reason Saint Paul writes: "Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake"(2). The joy comes from the discovery of the meaning of suffering, and this discovery, even if it is most personally shared in by Paul of Tarsus who wrote these words, is at the same time valid for others. The Apostle shares his own discovery and rejoices in it because of all those whom it can help—just as it helped him—to understand the salvific meaning of suffering. (Salvifici Doloris 1)

This beautiful passage sums up St. Paul’s idea that the members of the Body of Christ, which are the followers of Christ in the Church, fulfill the salvation that Christ effectuated with His Cross. This is relevant to Mary in two ways. Firstly, Christ’s flesh is solely Mary’s flesh and so the initial sacrifice on the Cross is only possible because of Mary’s being. Secondly, she is the first to suffer as a result of the Cross because it is her very Son who suffers and is put to death for the sake of the world. Thus, she completes what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions through the emotional turmoil she experiences at the death of her Son. Moreover, her initial suffering at the foot of the Cross foreshadows her role as the foremost intercessor on behalf of the Church insofar as suffering unifies one and the Church to Christ. 

John Paul II furthers affirms the uniqueness of Mary in his encyclical Redemptoris Mater:

If the greeting and the name "full of grace" say all this, in the context of the angel's announcement they refer first of all to the election of Mary as Mother of the Son of God. But at the same time the "fullness of grace" indicates all the supernatural munificence from which Mary benefits by being chosen and destined to be the Mother of Christ. If this election is fundamental for the accomplishment of God's salvific designs for humanity, and if the eternal choice in Christ and the vocation to the dignity of adopted children is the destiny of everyone, then the election of Mary is wholly exceptional and unique. Hence also the singularity and uniqueness of her place in the mystery of Christ. (Redemptoris Mater 9)

I find the emphasis on the phrase ‘full of grace’ to be a fitting way to conclude the analysis of this paper because, in that singular phrase, the whole of Mary’s role and mission are contained. As Pope St. John Paul II points out above, this phrase reveals Mary’s unique role in the mystery of Christ, and therefore the mystery of salvation, because no other figure in the whole Bible, Old and New Testament, is referred to by this phrase. Mary being ‘full of grace’ refers not only to the fact that she holds within herself the plenitude of all the virtues and Divine grace, but also to the fact that she is the bearer of the source of the grace in her own womb. Mary is ‘full of grace’ because she confers flesh and humanity onto the Eternal Word in order for Him to unite humanity to Himself. But without Mary, this Divine mission of His would be impossible. The reconciled union between God and Man that occurs in Jesus Christ and through His salvific work on the Cross is only possible because of Mary, but this union also first occurs in Mary herself as her humanity is identical to that of her Son.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I’ve explored the salvific importance of Mary, the Mother of God and shown her to play a central role in the Gospel and history of salvation. I’ve done this by first exploring the typology of Mary as the New Ark of the Covenant through comparing Old and New Testament texts. Then, I explored Mary as the New Eve as it appears in St. John’s recounting of the Wedding at Cana, which was my final examination of Biblical texts on Mary. I then explored the Protoevangelium of James and its, rather explicit, portrayal of Mary as the New Ark of the Covenant and also discussed the soteriological importance of this. I concluded my study by drawing on ideas from Pope St. John Paul II’s from his encyclical on the Christian meaning of human suffering, Salvifici Doloris, and his encyclical on Mary, Redemptoris Mater, in order to fully draw out my central point, which is that Mary is a precondition for the salvation of the world and, thus, a critical element of the Gospel.

Works Cited

Armstrong, David. “Martin Luther’s Exceptionally “Catholic” Devotion to Mary.” NCR, 17 Apr. 2019, www.ncregister.com/blog/martin-luther-s-exceptionally-catholic-devotion-to-mary.

Attridge, Harold W, et al. The HarperCollins Study Bible : New Revised Standard Version : Including the Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical Books : With Concordance. San Francisco, Calif, Harperone, 2006.

Eames, Christopher. “Moses’s ‘Ark of Bulrushes.’” ArmstrongInstitute.org, 25 June, 2023, armstronginstitute.org/129-mosess-ark-of-bulrushes.

Fradd, Matt. “Why the Devil HATES Mary W/ Deacon Harold Burke-Sivers.” Www.youtube.com, www.youtube.com/watch?v=gy9JOfj0BO8.

Mathewes-Green, Frederica. Mary as the Early Christians Knew Her : The Mother of Jesus in Three Ancient Texts. Brewster, Mass., Paraclete Press, 2013.

Ortlund, Gavin. “The Assumption of Mary: Protestant Critique.” Www.youtube.com, www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMhlrM8Zb3M.

Paul II, Pope St. John. “Redemptoris Mater (25 March 1987) | John Paul II.” Www.vatican.va, 25 Mar. 1987, www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_jp-ii_enc_25031987_redemptoris-mater.html.

Paul II, Pope St. John. “Salvifici Doloris (February 11, 1984) | John Paul II.” Www.vatican.va, 1984, www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/apost_letters/1984/documents/hf_jp-ii_apl_11021984_salvifici-doloris.html.