Mary, an icon of creation and icon of the Church, totally glorified and deified

From the essay, "Mary in Byzantine Doctrine and Devotion", by Brother John M. Samaha, S.M.:

Eschatological Perspective

As icon of creation and icon of the Church, Mary is also "the dawn of the mysterious day," the foretaste of the Kingdom of God, the presence of realized eschatology mentioned by theologians. The one who is "virgin after childbearing" is also "alive after death," states the Kontakion of the Feast of the Dormition. Faith tells us that even before the common resurrection and the consummation of all things in Christ, Mary is fully alive, beyond the destruction and separation of death. The Christian East has never rationalized this mystery.

In the East, knowledge of God is not the result of logical arguments presented by theology. Only in worship can human beings obtain knowledge of God. Such knowledge is nonrational; it is contemplative and mystical.

Mary's total unity with Christ destroyed her death. In her, a part of this world is totally glorified and deified, making her the "dawn of the mysterious day of the Kingdom."

Maternal Perspective

Mary was associated in all the mysteries of her Son's life on earth. She stood at the foot of the cross, and a sword of sorrow pierced her heart. Her crucified Son made her our Mother. Each Wednesday and Friday the Byzantine liturgy remembers her mystery of suffering and compassion in the moving stavrotheotokia, Byzantine counterparts of the Latin Stabat Mater Dolorosa. The experience of Mary's protection and intercession is another dimension of Byzantine Mariology.

Mary is identified with all suffering and human tragedy. In this regard she is the icon of the Church as Mother. This theme is emphatically expressed in the feast of the Protection of the Virgin, and in the endless flow of paraliturgical Marian prayers and writings previously mentioned.

The role of theology in Eastern Christianity differs from that in Western Christianity. In the West, theology is symbolized and encoded in liturgical action. In the East, theology flows from liturgy and is subject to it. Theological discussion is always dependent on liturgy, and can be understood and experienced only in the context of the worship of the Church.

Mariology is not an independent and free-standing element in the rich tradition of the Byzantine Church or in any other of the Eastern Christian Churches. It is not studied in itself. Rather, Mariology—doctrine and devotion—is an essential element of Christian cosmology, Christology, soteriology, ecclesiology, and eschatology. It is not an object of faith, but its fruit. Mary is not a nota ecclesiae, but the self-revelation of the Church. Mariology is not a doctrine, but the life and fragrance of Christian doctrine in us. 

Read the entire essay on Ignatius Insight: