St. Mary, the mother of all mankind!

                      i wrote this for the feast of St. Mary, our Mom

         What is the importance of the virgin mother of God? Why do we venerate her and ask her intercession?  Did she really remain a virgin? The importance of our mother resonates from the old testament in Is. 7:14 “ Behold the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and His name shall be called Emmanuel.” Before our mother ever existed, God knew He would choose her as His bride to take flesh from a pure virgin. The church calls mary “the mother of all the living”, “mother of the new life” and “the second eve”. When eve disobeyed God she obtained death, not only for her but everyone else to come, and became the mother not of life but of death. St. Mary by contrast by being obiedent, faithful, humble, and pure took the place of eve as Christ took the place of adam, redeeming us all. By this holy mystery, she is not only the mother of God but the mother of all mankind. Eve believed the serpent, Mary believed Gabriel. That which one destroyed by unbelief the other set straight by believing.(St. Irenaeus) Origen makes a very good point about the virgin in saying “Just as sin began with the woman and then reached the man so too the good tidings had their beginning with women.”  “Eve is called the mother of the human race while Mary is called the mother of salvation” writes St. Ambrose.
Why should we ask her intercession, for all the reasons we discussed, she is the chosen vessel of Christ, the bride of Christ, the Mother of Christ, the ever virgin mother of all mankind. She is the mother of us all, for those with mothers, those who have lost mothers, and those who never knew their mother. When we need comfort as a child we run to our mother, we rush to her embrace for comfort, so too should we do this with our mother St. Mary! When a child runs to his mother crying and sad for what they have done, does his father show him more mercy because of the childs mother? We should ask St. Mary for her intercessions, ask your mother to plead with our Father to take mercy on us and forgive us for what we have done. Will God condemn those who His mother embraced? This is another reason why St. Mary is important for our salvation. Luke 1:48 “for, behold from henceforth all generation shall call me blessed.” St. Mary knew her God given role.
Was St. Mary an ever virgin? In Ezk. 44:1-3 we can read, with the interpretation of the Orthodox church, St. Mary’s perpetual virginity when Ezekiel writes: “When he brought back the way of the gate of the outward sanctuary which looked towards the east, it was shut. Then the Lord said to me: This gate shall be shut, it shall not be opened, and no man shall pass through it, because the Lord, the God of Israel, has entered by it, therefore it shall be shut. It is for the prince; the prince himself shall sit in it.” The sealed eastern gate is St. Mary, and her perpetual virginity. The Lord alone had entered her womb, and no other, for she was sealed. What are we to think of St. Mary if she were to take another man when she is the bride of Christ?  As St. Basil the Great says “ But it is far more shocking for the bride to become an adulteress, and, dishonoring her union with the bridegroom, to yield herself to unchaste indulgence.” It is inconceivable to think that St. Mary was not a perpetual virgin. For her to take another man would be adultery, would that not be blasphemy against God?  I love you mom!