BVM Series : JACOB’S HEAVENLY LADDER | Pre-figures Blessed Virgin Mary

Patriarch Jacob saw a dream, of a ladder fixed on earth, rising high into the heaven, with the angels ascending and descending on it (Gen. 28: 10-17). This dream signified the One Who is the link between, reconciled Heaven and forgiven Earth. Jacob’s ladder which unites heaven and earth, points to the union of God with men. There is a deep-seated association between Jacob’s ladder and Mary. The ladder is a Prototype of Blessed Virgin Mary that supplied the flesh for the Logos, the God Incarnate, is realized most fully and perfectly in Blessed Virgin Mary, the bearer of God.

The ladder ‘was set up on the earth, and its top reached to heaven’. St. Mary is indeed the ladder that connects the heaven and the earth because the Lord descended and came to the world through her. Mary is seen as Jacob’s Ladder because she intercedes for those here on earth from Heaven. Blessed Virgin Mary is the ladder, by which God chose to enter the world physically. Through the Incarnation of Christ, Heaven came to Earth, and Mary was the means, by which this happened. Thus, Jacob’s Ladder which unites heaven and earth and the place which is named “the House of God” and the “Gate of Heaven” (Gen. 28:10-17) are taken, to indicate fully and perfectly-both spiritually and physically-in Mary the Theotokos, Bearer of God. How awesome is this place! Bethel (the house of God) as Jacob named it. The House of God, our Holy Churches are designed in the form of a ladder.

Lord, God of Abraham and God of Isaac stood above it and spoke to Jacob about His promises. Our Lord descended to save us and ascended to lift man back up to heaven. If the Theotokos was the means of the descent of the Son of God, does she not also help those who desire to climb up, like the angels, to heaven? And what clearer proof would we want than this very Feast of her Dormition and her bodily ascent into heaven! This is the symbol of the Virgin, who by giving birth to Christ, made the inhabitants of the earth reach heaven.

The Mother of our Lord is thus our intercessor with God. She lifts our prayers to heaven. Theotokos is called the ‘Ladder of Jacob’ the link between heaven and earth. She is the passage to heaven and the ladder perceived by Jacob.

Yugakaalangallilokkeyum….. ambranettum sopaanamYacob thaathan dershicha Vaanetthum sreenniye modhi

Let us mount the steps of the Cross-ladder to get elevated to heaven, that the Mother of God connects and link through Him for our Salvation.