There is so much misunderstanding in the Protestant world concerning the Holy Mother, I wouldn't dare claim to be able to clarify every single aspect of Mary's participation in the Divine Plan. However, Mary is very important in both the Divine Plan and in my personal life, and no treatice on theology--no matter how superficial--would be complete without her.

A common Protestant misunderstanding is that Catholics consider Mary a goddess of sorts, which couldn't be further from the truth. This particular painting highlights the Holy Mother's humble humanity. Godesses do not hang laundry! Mary was and is a human being, just like me, you and every other human being on the planet.

Unlike the rest of us, though, Mary was chosen for a special task--carrying and raising the Son of God. She gave her Son His humanity, and that alone makes her special, "blessed among women," but her role was greater even than that. In giving birth to Christ Jesus, she risked being ostracized at the very least--unwed pregnancy was a stoning offense--and abandoned by her intended husband. She didn't know how all of this would come about, and the mystery of the mechanics would have been frightening. Yet, despite all the reasons she had to say "No" to the angel, she agreed: "Let it be done to me according to your word."

She was a woman of uncommon faith who believed what the angel said about her son even while changing His diaper rags, walking Him in the middle of the night and scolding Him when He reached for a hot pot. What sort of woman could scold God Incarnate? A faithful, devoted woman no doubr.

Mary not only raised her Son, she followed Him until the last. When all but one of His Apostles had fled, she remained at the foot of the Cross, watching her Son die an agonizingly slow death. Yet dispite her sorrow, she prayed for His return as He promised. She belived Him and believed in Him, not like St. Peter or St. Paul or any of the other Apostles who suffered from lack of faith on occasion. She believed wholeheartedly, unreservedly, and continually.

This isn't the place, and I'm not the person, to explain why we believe that upon her death, Mary's body was taken into heaven.To learn why, click here. But I do believe it, just as I believe that she lives with the saints in perpetural adoration of and communion with God. As a heavenly resident, she is in a position to intercede for us with her Holy Son.

As the Catechism states,

964 Mary's role in the Church is inseparable from her union with Christ and flows directly from it. "This union of the mother with the Son in the work of salvation is made manifest from the time of Christ's virginal conception up to his death";[502] it is made manifest above all at the hour of his Passion:
Thus the Blessed Virgin advanced in her pilgrimage of faith, and faithfully persevered in her union with her Son unto the cross. There she stood, in keeping with the divine plan, enduring with her only begotten Son the intensity of his suffering, joining herself with his sacrifice in her mother's heart, and lovingly consenting to the immolation of this victim, born of her: to be given, by the same Christ Jesus dying on the cross, as a mother to his disciple, with these words: "Woman, behold your son."[503]

965 After her Son's Ascension, Mary "aided the beginnings of the Church by her prayers."[504] In her association with the apostles and several women, "we also see Mary by her prayers imploring the gift of the Spirit, who had already overshadowed her in the Annunciation."[505]

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966 "Finally the Immaculate Virgin, preserved free from all stain of original sin, when the course of her earthly life was finished, was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory, and exalted by the Lord as Queen over all things, so that she might be the more fully conformed to her Son, the Lord of lords and conqueror of sin and death."[506] The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin is a singular participation in her Son's Resurrection and an anticipation of the resurrection of other Christians:
In giving birth you kept your virginity; in your Dormition you did not leave the world, O Mother of God, but were joined to the source of Life. You conceived the living God and, by your prayers, will deliver our souls from death.[507]

967 By her complete adherence to the Father's will, to his Son's redemptive work, and to every prompting of the Holy Spirit, the Virgin Mary is the Church's model of faith and charity. Thus she is a "preeminent and . . . wholly unique member of the Church"; indeed, she is the "exemplary realization" (typus)[508] of the Church.

968 Her role in relation to the Church and to all humanity goes still further. "In a wholly singular way she cooperated by her obedience, faith, hope, and burning charity in the Savior's work of restoring supernatural life to souls. For this reason she is a mother to us in the order of grace."[509]

969 "This motherhood of Mary in the order of grace continues uninterruptedly from the consent which she loyally gave at the Annunciation and which she sustained without wavering beneath the cross, until the eternal fulfilment of all the elect. Taken up to heaven she did not lay aside this saving office but by her manifold intercession continues to bring us the gifts of eternal salvation .... Therefore the Blessed Virgin is invoked in the Church under the titles of Advocate, Helper, Benefactress, and Mediatrix."[510]

970 "Mary's function as mother of men in no way obscures or diminishes this unique mediation of Christ, but rather shows its power. But the Blessed Virgin's salutary influence on men . . . flows forth from the superabundance of the merits of Christ, rests on his mediation, depends entirely on it, and draws all its power from it."[511] "No creature could ever be counted along with the Incarnate Word and Redeemer; but just as the priesthood of Christ is shared in various ways both by his ministers and the faithful, and as the one goodness of God is radiated in different ways among his creatures, so also the unique mediation of the Redeemer does not exclude but rather gives rise to a manifold cooperation which is but a sharing in this one source."[512] from the Catechism of the Catholic Church

So you see, the Holy Mother is no goddess--she is the reigning example of Christ's work, and as such she is the exemplary Christian, worthy of emulation and adoration. I only hope that one day I will be as willing as she to say, "Let it be done to me according to your word."

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