1.38 Why is Mary so important?
Mary was chosen by God to give birth to Jesus and raise him. By doing this, she also cooperated in the salvation of all people. She was a deeply religious woman who loved her son with all her heart. When Jesus had to suffer, she suffered with him.
When Jesus hung on the cross, he said to his disciple John: “Behold thy mother” (Jn. 19:27)Jn. 19:27: Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home.. With these words Mary became mother to us all; this means that we can all be disciples of Jesus. Mary is very close to Jesus in heaven. We can ask her to pray for us, which she does gladly.
In what way is the Blessed Virgin Mary the eschatological icon of the Church?
Looking upon Mary, who is completely holy and already glorified in body and soul, the Church contemplates in her what she herself is called to be on earth and what she will be in the homeland of heaven. [CCCC 199]
Why does Mary have such a preeminent place in the communion of saints
Mary is the Mother of God. She was united with Jesus on earth as no other human being was or could be—in an intimacy that does not cease in heaven. Mary is the Queen of Heaven, and in her motherhood she is quite close to us.
Because she committed herself, body and soul, to a divine yet dangerous undertaking, Mary was taken up body and soul into heaven. Anyone who lives and believes as Mary did will get to heaven. [Youcat 147]
Believe that this Only-begotten Son of God for our sins came down from heaven upon earth, and took upon him this human nature of like passions with us, and was begotten of the Holy Virgin and of the Holy Spirit and was made man, not in seeming or mere show, but in truth; nor yet by passing through the Virgin as through a channel; but was of her made truly flesh, and did truly eat as we do, and truly drink as we do. For if the Incarnation was a phantom, salvation is a phantom also. [St. Cyril of Jerusalem, Catecheses, No. 4:9 (MG 33, 465)]
