Mary, the daughter of Zion

Pope Benedict XVI commented on the similarity between the Christmas and Epiphany celebrations (which overlapped in January 2013 in the Roman and Eastern Churches) and observed that the first believers in Christ came from the people of Israel: Mary, Joseph, the shepherds, who were at the manger at Christmas; they were followed by the nations at the Epiphany. This means, as the Church has understood it from the beginning, the universality of the promised salvation:

There was first a nucleus, embodied above all by Mary, the daughter of Zion: a nucleus of Israel, the people that know and have faith in that God who revealed himself to the Patriarchs and on the path of history. This faith is fulfilled in Mary, in the fullness of time; in her, “blessed because she believed,” the Word was made flesh, God “appeared” in the world. Mary’s faith becomes the first fruits and the model of the faith of the Church, the People of the New Covenant. But from the beginning this people is universal and we can see this today in the figures of the Magi who arrive in Bethlehem, following the light of a star and the instructions of Sacred Scripture.

St Leo the Great wrote: “Mary’s faith can be compared to Abraham’s. It is a new beginning of the same promise, of the same immutable plan of God which now finds fulfillment in Jesus Christ… Let the full number of the nations now take their place in the family of the patriarchs... let all people adore the Creator of the universe; let God be known, not only in Judaea, but in the whole world.” (Sermo 3 in Epiphania Domini, 1: PL 54, 240)

Pope Benedict XVI, Angelus, January 6, 2013 Vatican.va