. . . there is never a hint of seeing Mary as something
other than a human being called to an extraordinary mission, a mission and a
vocation that calls her to be in solidarity with the rest of the human race.
Irenaeus gives Mary an exalted position in God's plan of salvation, but he does
so without removing her humanity or putting her on a pedestal as someone
distant from the rest of the human race. A great example of this can be found
in Adversus haereses III. 16. 7:
With him [Christ] is nothing incomplete or out of due
season, just as with the Father there is nothing incongruous. For all these
things were foreknown by the Father; but the Son works them out at the proper
time in perfect order and sequence. This was the reason why, when Mary was
urging [Him] on to [perform] the wonderful miracle of the wine and was desirous
before the time to partake of the cup of emblematic significance, the Lord,
checking her untimely haste, said "Woman, what have I to do with thee? Mine
hour is not yet come"- waiting for that hour which was foreknown by the
Father.
In this passage Irenaeus is describing Mary as someone
who was in "untimely haste", pressuring Jesus to do something before
its proper time. Irenaeus is chiding Mary for wanting to partake in something
that was going to happen later in the Passion. Irenaeus does not show a extreme
censure towards Mary in this passage, just a comment that Mary in Cana was too
hasty in demanding something from her son that was not on the hour and time of
God. Irenaeus in this passage shows Mary as a limited human being who was able
to collaborate in a special way with God by her faith. (Marcos Antonio Ramos, “The
New Eve: The Virgin Mary in Irenaeus of Lyon's Adversus Haereses” [MA
Thesis; University of St. Michael's College, 2008], 70-71)
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