Mother and symbol of the Church
In Old Israel, only the kings and the priests were anointed. The anointing was powerless, prefiguring but not conferring the seal of the Holy Spirit. In the Virgin, the barren church of Old Israel is reborn as the New Israel, and the royal and priestly lines are recapitulated and become one.
The fruit of her womb is the one High Priest and King of the New Israel Who, in His human genealogy, descends from both the royal and priestly lines of Israel according to the Law. Therefore, the Fathers tell us, in and through the Virgin, God transferred the priestly office from the Levitical order and its animal sacrifices to the Davidic royal house from which the saving blood would pour forth according to the Eucharistic order of Melchisedek:
“This day, a Virgin maiden comes forth from Judah and David, and she insures the advent of the Person Who is of both the royal house and the priesthood, Who served according to the order of Melchisedek and did no priestly service according to the order of Aaron. This day, the mystic doth of the divine priesthood that was woven earlier by the Law for the Levitical seed is made white by grace, and God dyes the royal sash crimson in the Davidic blood. “30
“Through you [O Theotokos], the royal house was enriched with the priesthood. Through you, the transfer of the Law was accomplished, and the spirit hidden beneath its letter was uncovered with the passing of the priestly office from the Levitical to the Davidic tribe.”31
With Christ’s sacrifice on the Cross, the preparatory purpose of the Law, of Israel’s tribal priesthood with its bloody animal sacrifices, came to the end appointed by God. Christ’s priesthood, however, was not prefigured by the Law or anything of the Jews, but by Melchisedek, the Gentile priest-king who blessed Abraham. His name means “king of righteousness.”
The Psalmist presents God the Father addressing His Son: “Thou art a priest forever, according to the order of Melchisedek.”32 The priest-king, as St. Paul says, was a type of Christ, “made like unto the Son of God …. In the likeness of Melchisedek there ariseth another priest, Who is made not after the Law of a carnal commandment but after the power of un-ending life.”33
Melchisedek appears mysteriously in the Bible 34 “without father, mother, or ancestry.”35 Because Jesus’ birth did not spring from a carnal imperative or union, He is the only priest “according to the order of Melchisedek, since He is motherless and fatherless: motherless from God the Father, and fatherless from His mother.”36
“Just as [Melchisedekl is fatherless because his genealogy is not given, so is Christ from the very nature of the matter.”37 Offering bloodless sacrifices of bread and wine to God, Mekhisedek prefigured the priesthood of the bloodless sacrifice of the Holy Eucharist.38
Therefore, prefigured by Melchisedek, the priesthood of Jesus Christ appeared in a mystical type seven centuries before the Levitical priesthood, awaiting the time when the Theotokos would bring forth the Great High Priest in the likeness of Melchisedek.
With the fullness of time, the spirit and purpose of the Law which had long been hidden beneath the letter of the Law is revealed. Fulfilled is the promise that in Abraham’s seed the nations shall be blessed. And Israel is born anew in the regenerating water and blood that flow from the Cross.
~Adapted from George S. Gabriel, Mary: The Untrodden Portal of God
30. Andrew of Crete, Homily on the Birth of the Theotokos, in Μέγας Συναξαριστής, Athens 1963, vol. 9, p. 181,
31. John of Damascus, Homily on the Birth of the Theotokos, ch. 5,
32, Ps. 109:4
33, Heb. 7:3-16
34. Heb. 7:3-16
35. Heb. 7:3
36. Basil of Seleucia, Homily on the Annunciation, PG 85, 4MB.
37. John Chrysostom, Homily XII on Hebrews, PG 63, 97.
38. The Divine Liturgy uses the term “bloodless sacrifices” in the priest’s prayer after the litany for the catechumens, meaning there is no reenactment and re-slaying of the Lamb of God and no re-shedding of His blood at the Liturgy. Jesus Christ was slain “once and for all” (Heb. 9:12, 28; 10:10). The bread and wine are changed into the once slain but never depleted Lamb of God. “Since this [Eucharistic] sacrifice is not accomplished by the slaying of the Lamb but by the bread changing into the slain Lamb, it is clear that, at this time, it is a change that takes place and not a slaying.”(Nicholas Cavasilas, Commentary on the Divine Liturgy, ch.32, in Φιλοκαλία, vol. 22, Thessalonica: ΕΠΕ, 1979.) The Divine Liturgy says, “The Lamb of God is distributed but not dismembered, ever consumed bot never depleted, sanctifying those who partake of it,” and never needing to be re-slain and replenished. The Roman Catholic Mass, however, is regarded as both a reenactment and a re-slaying of the Lamb of God for the perpetuation of the satisfaction of divine justice.
