The Virgin Mother, historical foundation and guarantee of Salvation

Salvation, explains St. Irenaeus, is the bridge that brings God into man and transports man into God.

Christ is Salvation in his own being, because he became man (God became man so that man could become God). As God, he has the power to save and he does save, and divinizes; as man, he communicates Salvation, that is, divinization, to man.

Mary, the Virgin Mother, is therefore the historical foundation that guarantees that Salvation has truly been accomplished:

- True Mother, she is the guarantee that God took our whole nature, to the point of becoming "Son of Man", so we could be saved;

- Divinely fertile Virgin, she is the guarantee that God was truly born of her, and that he then truly saves.

To profess the virginal motherhood therefore means that we welcome Christ as "the Virgin’s Emmanuel" or Savior. This is why the virginal motherhood is a fundamental article of faith and the indispensable condition for participating in salvation:

"Those who claim that he is only a mere man begotten of Joseph remain in the slavery of the ancient disobedience and die in it, not having yet been mixed with the Word of God the Father and not having had a share in the freedom that comes to us through the Son, according to what he himself says: if the Son sets you free, you will be truly free (Jn 8:36). For they do not recognize the Emmanuel born of the Virgin (Is 7:14), and so they deprive themselves of his gift, which is eternal life; not having received the Word of incorruptibility, they remain in mortal flesh; they are debtors to death, for not having received the antidote of life."(Saint Irenaeus, Against Heresies III, 19,1.)

A. Gila