Mary in the Midst of Israel's Waiting (I)

"She will crush your head and you will strike her heel" (Gen 3:15) The Virgin Mary certainly understood, better than any other, the promises of God to his people, because she was capable within herself of deeply penetrating God's mystery. She was first and foremost attentive and fully turned to God, following the First Commandment: "Listen Israel, the Lord our God is One" (Deut 6:4). She sought the Lord by praying the psalms: "I thirst for God, the living God" (Ps 42:2). She was also humble, as "God opposes the proud but He lends his favor to the humble" (Jas 4:6). And He especially revealed himself to the Blessed Virgin because her heart was totally free and immaculate, making heaven even more transparent: "Blessed are the pure in heart: they shall see God" (Mt 5:8). She then waited, seeking with love and praying in silence or reading the word of God and "pondering in her heart" (Lk 2:19) all of God's promises to his people, beginning with the first announcement of salvation, in Genesis, shortly after the fall, when God told the serpent, "I shall put enmity between you and the woman; she will crush your head and you will strike her heel" (Gen 3:15).