In the discussion on the Rosary, a lot of people seem to...well...downplay the role of Mary in God's plan for the salvation of humanity. Many here seem to think that Mary was just some girl who carried Christ in her womb -- they submit her to a sort of mental reductionism that leaves her as just another human girl whose only net value in the greater scheme of things was that she possessed a functional uterus.

Which, of course, not the truth of the matter...indeed, to claim that it is the truth of the matter would seem to be an affront not only to Mary, but to women in general, and to God and His plan for our salvation.

January 1st is, in the Catholic liturgical calendar, the "Feast of Mary, the Mother of God", and it is a time of the year when our thoughts do not turn from Christ, but instead widen to consider also she who was Christ's mother, and those things about her that make her more than just a mere woman, or a walking uterus.

For one, Mary was not just any woman, anymore than the Hebrew people were just one more race of humanity. For as the Hebrew people were, and remain, the first Chosen People of God, so too Mary was was the Chosen One of God -- the one person whom God deemed could be the vessel for His Son, and thus fulfill His plan for our salvation. Through Mary, Jesus -- who, as the Second Person of the Trinity, is one in being with God and is therefore, de facto, God -- was born in human form. But more to it than that, for as Mark Shea notes, through accepting the message of Gabriel, Mary enabled "God [to be] conceived in her womb and thereby made a son of Adam! This means more than merely saying that Mary was an incubator unit for the Incarnation. It means that the Logos, the Second Person of the Trinity derives his humanity--all of it--from her!"

In this sense, Mary became, for a time, the host and container of God, God's plan for our salvation, and God's New Covenant with us in the person of Jesus Christ. In that sense, Mary became the New Ark. Why does that matter, you might ask? "Because the entire reason we are able to call Jesus "savior" at all is because the God who cannot die became a man who could die. And he chose to do it through Mary's free "yes" to him. No Mary, no human nature for Christ. No human nature for Christ, no death on the cross. No death, no resurrection. No resurrection, no salvation. Without Mary, we are still in our sins."

Jesus did not just "put on" the skin of man as one puts on a suit, nor did Jesus possess a man, taking control of another person's corporeal being. God, in the person of Christ, became human, and did so for all eternity. In being joined to us all as our saviour for all eternity, his birth made Mary the mother of us all (in keeping with John 19:27, when Christ from His Cross ordained Mary as the mother of the unnamed "beloved" apostle). For we are all the beloved of Christ. "Moreover," notes Shea, "it means that her remarkable choice to say "Yes" to the Incarnation was not merely a one-time incident, it was an offering of her own heart to God and us. Her heart was pierced by the sword that opened the fountain of blood and water in Christ's human heart, for it was she who, by the grace of God, gave him that heart (Luke 2:35; John 19:34)."

We know the most about Mary from the Gospel of St. Luke, who tells many details about her to us -- the meeting with Gabriel, the revelation about Elizabeth, the meeting with Elizabeth. We also know a little about Mary from the Gospel of St. John, especially in his re-telling of Christ's Passion and death on the Cross. In both these situations, Mary is regarded with reverence by all around her.

It's been said in one discussion in this forum that Catholics honour Mary "too much", but that charge has a flip-side, for if Mary can be honoured "too much", then she can also be honoured "too little". Yesterday was the liturgical feast day commemorating Mary's saying "yes", and her motherhood of our saviour, Jesus Christ. Who here spared a thought for the Blessed Virgin?

Because if one reads carefully, one notes that Mary herself remarks that "henceforth, all generations will call me blessed" (Luke 1:48 ). "Judging from the witness of the early Fathers and even of Martin Luther (who had a very robust Marian devotion and whose tomb is decorated with an illustration of the Assumption of the Virgin into Heaven) it seemed to me that it was we Evangelicals who were excessive in our fear of her rather than Catholics who were excessive in their devotion."

It seems to me, then, that the discussions over Marian devotion and the Rosary are not one of whether Catholics do too much of it, but whether non-Catholics do too little of it. Mary was not just some random woman, she was the woman chosen by God (no other would do). She did not just carry Jesus, she gave to Him his human form, his beating heart, because of her own humanity. And she did not die -- even Martin Luther believed in her Assumption into Heaven.

So in that spirit, I offer this simple devotion, and I invite all of you to take part in your own ways, and with your own reflections.

Hail Mary, full of grace,
The Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou amongst women,
and Blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus

Holy Mary, Mother of God,
pray for us sinners
now and at the hour of our death,

Amen