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When it is suggested that Mary is at the pinnacle of the history of Israel, sometimes people object. They say, “Jesus Christ is at the summit of that covenant history.” This sounds like a robust defense of the place of Christ, but it is actually a mistaken opinion. Jesus Christ is the very giver of the covenant: the covenant does not produce him. He is God; and, this, the Jewish covenant tradition never could have envisioned. Jesus Christ transmutes the covenant with Israel into the universal covenant in his blood, leading to eternal life, a new heaven and a new earth.
Mary, on the other hand is the one mere mortal in that Old Covenant whose total being is pleasing to God and who may serve as the portal for his Incarnation. She is pleasing to God by God’s own design, of course, especially in her holy and Immaculate Conception. She is superior to the other miraculous mothers: Sarah, Hannah, and Elizabeth—and she is bound up in the purposes of God more immediately than all the patriarchs: Moses, Isaac, Jacob, and even Abraham himself, for Mary is the second Eve, and there is no role higher than that, outside of a second Adam, which is Christ —and to him, Mary, the second Eve, gives birth.
Ah, the power of the paradoxes of God. Behold! The dwelling of God is with men, and all things are made new. God brings freedom for captive man and tramples down death by death.
By Dr. Ronald Thomas
Truly, Israel’s rose has blossomed, and God has dwelt among us. Why will all generations call Mary blessed? Because Jesus Christ is born of Mary, born for us, his lowly servants!