As we have seen, mary is not only a bridge among faith traditions and theological points of view in and among the monotheisms but an index of much that divides them. In the course of these divisions, new understandings are born but so are profound dissensions, and in them, Mary becomes a destabilizing force as well as a source of hope for peaceful reconciliation. Two current issues among many reveal her in this double light: the debate over the ordination of women and gay people in Christianity and the debate over Mary's role in reconciling Christians, Muslims, and Jews. In both cases, the figure of Mary and her role in the discourse of sacrifice would seem to mandate great restraint in regard to these matters, although, as we shall see, this conclusion cannot be said to be the last word.

Mary cannot easily function as a model for female agency in the priesthood because in sacerdotal orders centered on expiatory sacrifice and sacrificial understandings of the Eucharist, as we have seen, her role is understood to be necessarily ancillary to that of a masculine agency and a chosen son.