Titles of the Blessed Virgin Mary include such exalted words as Gate of Heaven, Ark of the Covenant, Seat of Wisdom, and others. Why use such titles to describe Mary? This is simply because she is the fairest of our human race, preserved from the first instant of her existence from the stain of sin. She was chosen by God for this privilege. All such titles speak of her destiny as the Mother of God, a destiny which she embraced through her cooperation with grace and the full consent of her will. In her womb, the Incarnation of God occurred, wedding our humanity with His divinity.
We read in the book of Proverbs (9:1-5): “Wisdom hath built herself a house, she hath hewn her out seven pillars. She hath slain her victims, mingled her wine,
and set forth her table. She hath sent her maids to invite to the tower, and to the walls of the city: Whosoever is a little one, let him come to me. And to the unwise she said: Come, eat my bread, and drink the wine which I have mingled for you.” In Hebrew, the word for wisdom has a feminine gender, so wisdom is referred to as “she”. In other biblical books, wisdom is further personified as a great and dignified lady. In the Christian tradition, personified wisdom is first and foremost Jesus the Lord, the Word of God. Hence, we can read a passage like this one from Proverbs and understand it in two ways. First, the Blessed Virgin Mary, Seat of Wisdom, pointing all towards her Son, to feast on the goodness of His banquet. Second, the Wisdom of God, the Son, builds Himself a house when he prepares His first dwelling place on earth, the womb of His mother, the Immaculate One.
Archbishop Luis Martinez offers another theological perspective: “When two things are united, their properties are mutually communicated. God, who is love, felicity, and glory, communicated all this to humanity when he celebrated the eternal nuptials with it in the womb of Mary.”[1] The celebration of “the eternal nuptials” refers to the virginal conception of Christ, also called the Incarnation, in Mary’s womb. It was at that moment that He united Himself to our humanity, and He has remained so ever since.
Lastly, we read from Father Jean Corbon in The Wellspring of Worship, “The miracle that the Spirit works is to reveal [Jesus] to us from within, not by means of a technique reserved to intimates but through the personal commitment of anyone who receives him. That is why the first person to whom the Holy Spirit manifests the body of the Word is his Mother, the Virgin Mary: She recognizes her Son and her God because she conceives him in faith and carries him in hope. In the fullness of time, then, she is the Church in her own person.”[2] Like Mary, Jesus can be revealed to us in faith and hope by our personal commitment to Him.
Mary is the Mother of Christ, the Mother of the Church, and she will help us in every way to become disciples of her Son, Jesus.
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Ingres, Jean Auguste Dominique. The Virgin Adoring the Host. PubHist. Accessed November 7, 2020. https://www.pubhist.com/w3381.
[1] Martínez Luis M. Only Jesus. Edited by Jordan Aumann. Translated by Sister Mary St. Daniel. Vol. 22. Cross and Crown Series of Spirituality. St Louis, MO: B. Herder Book Co., 1963.
[2] Corbon, Jean, and Matthew J. O’Connell. The Wellspring of Worship. 2nd ed. San Francisco, CA: Ignatius Press, 2005.
