comes through the other side of the window pane unaltered, so the Light of the world comes through Mary unaltered—abundantly radiant and radiating. Or, to use another comparison from the tradition of the church, on the mountain of God and in the presence of Moses the bush blazed and crackled with fire, yet was not consumed. So the Lord of heaven and earth tucked and curled into the womb of the virgin, yet the womb did not crack or explode. The Holy Spirit overshadowed this young girl upon whom the weight of God rested, and yet she lived. We step back to wonder how. Even more intriguing, why Mary? Why was she alone chosen from all the women in the world who ever have existed or will exist to be the mother of our Lord? Why did she receive this honor? Did she distinguish herself by her own personal holiness or was she especially designed and groomed by God for this task?
The fourteenth-century mystic, Nicolas Cabasilas, tributes Mary’s own virtue and character. “The incarnation was not only the work of the Father, by His power and by His spirit, but it was also the work of the will and faith of the Virgin.”58 Bernard of Clairvaux goes one step further by saying that without virtue and humility, Mary’s virginity would not have been sufficient for her to be the mother of our Lord. Eve was a virgin when she ate of the fruit and sinned, which proves that virginity is no guarantee of virtue. Mary had both virginity and humility.59 Indeed, she was more than simply a not-yet-married girl, she was a woman after God’s own heart, a model of virtue and character. For this reason it is said Mary conceived in her heart before in her womb. She had faith before she had a baby inside her. She was found by the angel to be pure and unblemished.60 Mary proved herself to be a faithful servant of the Lord and allowed herself to be made the “mother of God.”61
Mary did not initiate these astounding events, of course, God did. Alongside Mary’s personal holiness we should pay attention to God’s grace. Prior to Mary’s virtue is God’s decision. Is it not the case that God selected, prepared, and sanctified the vessel of the Lord for this honor? Her unique privilege as the mother of God came about by a special act of divine will for the sake of salvation history. The Holy Spirit radiated, illumined, and sanctified the soul of Mary as it did Moses’s when he met the Lord God atop Mt. Sinai. Just as the blinding luminescence that glowed upon Moses’s face even after he descended from the mountain was not his own, so her light was not her own. It was a reflection of the true Light. To extend this “light” imagery, we might say that if God incarnate can be called the sun of the world, then Mary is the moon. She does not generate light herself, but as a reflector of the sun she is the brightest object in the night sky.
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