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| Source: uncutmountainsupply.com |
As we move through the relatively short Dormition Fast, we have the opportunity to "think hard" about the role of the Virgin Mary within the divine oikonomia. No better guide to assist us in this endeavor than Metropolitan Kallistos Ware (+2022). In a brilliant article of his entitled "The Dormition of the Theotokos," he offers the following insight. His writing is always distinguished by clarity and depth.
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The Holy Virgin's place in the scheme of salvation may be interpreted in two ways. These are to be seen not as alternatives but as complementary; both approaches are needed. And in both cases her role is to be understood as strictly 'under Christ,' who is as much her Savior as he is Savior of the rest of the human race (see Lk. 1:47). First, Mary may be seen as unique, that is to say, as distinct from all other members of the human race, and called to fulfill a vocation never assigned in the whole of history to any other person on this earth. Second, she may be seen as our archetype and representative, that is to say, as the model and pattern of what we are all intended to be, as the fullest and highest example - next to her Son, and solely through his grace and power - of what it is to be human. These two manners of approaching the mystery of the Theotokos - in terms of her singularity and her universality - may be applied to all the main moments of her earthly life, and not least to her final glorification.
