Through Mary, we share in God's very life

Gregory Palamas (1296-1359), a saint of the Orthodox Church, defines the Church as a "communion of deification": baptism and the Eucharist form the Body of Christ and contribute to the deification of the faithful who collaborate with grace. In this way, the saints not only share in God's life, but also communicate Him to others. 

We can thus better understand Mary's greatness and the role she plays now that she dwells in glory. How could Mary's body, which not only received into itself the eternal Son of God but also gave birth to him, not be raised to heaven? She, from whom the sun came forth, appears as a heaven.

And it was of this place that Jacob the patriarch exclaimed: "This is a wonderful place; it is truly God's dwelling and the gateway to heaven! (Gen 28:16-17) (1)

Mary was deified, for at the Annunciation, God manifested Himself to Mary not through the agency of fire or wind, as with Moses and Elijah, but "without a veil", and the divine nature "imprinted His form and likeness on her" (2).

Because of this, there is even more communication between her and us; she divinizes us, she transmits divine life to us: "She stands between God and humanity; she made God the son of man and she made men the sons of God; she made the earth a heaven and she made our race divine". (3)

As in a cascade of light or a chain of grace, she is the "administrator" of God's riches because "Through her alone Christ dwelt among us and was visible on earth and lived among men (...) thus and unceasingly, without her no progress in divine light, no unveiling of divine mysteries, no vision of spiritual gifts can be given." (4)

For Gregory Palamas, it is an eternal law in heaven that the inferior ones, through the greater ones, become partakers of Him who sits in heaven, and as the Virgin is incomparably greater than all of them, it is through her that we will participate in the life of God (5).

Source: Marian Encyclopedia

(1) Homily 37, 4-6 

(2) Homily 37,2 

(3) Homily 37,3 

(4) Homily 37,8 

(5) Homily 37,8