Christ defeated the devil by taking the very weapons he had used: instead of Eve, there is Mary; instead of the tree of good and evil, there is the tree of the Cross; instead of Adam’s death, there is Christ’s Death.
Newsdesk (24/03/2025 22:00, Gaudium Press) Adam “called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living” (Gn 3:20). Mother, it is true, but who begot the living according to nature and the dead according to grace.[1] Thus the first Eve did not correspond faithfully to the meaning of her name, introducing death on the earth. However, the second restored this design, begetting those alive to grace.[2] Our Lady can therefore rightly be called the New Eve.
From the time of the Patristics, the Church has seen in the figure of Mary a profound link with that of Eve: “As death entered through a woman, so it was fitting that life should also return through a Woman. One, seduced by the devil through the Serpent, made man taste death; the other, instructed by God through the Angel, gave birth to the Author of salvation,”[3] says St. Bede.
Two angelic spirits communicate with two virgins: the first one causes the expulsion of man from Terrestrial Paradise; the second generates the One who will open the doors of the heavenly Paradise to humanity. What correspondence and what antagonism in these two conversations, which have determined, each in its own way, the destinies of humanity!
Let us consider some aspects of this parallel between the Archangel Gabriel’s Annunciation to the Virgin Mary and the Serpent’s dialogue with Eve in the Garden of Eden.
“Hail, full of grace”
St. Luke’s account of the Annunciation begins with the well-known angelic salutation: “Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with You!” (1:28). These short words, piously repeated down the centuries, have become the inspiration of musicians and artists, the delight of Angels and the terror of the infernal regions; yet when heard by the most humble Virgin, they were the cause of consternation: “What unheard-of praise is this?”
The holy perturbation of Mary, who conferred in her Heart the most profound meaning of that greeting, is contrasted with the fact that Eve easily believed the deceitful words of the Serpent, and did not ask for Adam for help or an explanation.[4]
The Angel continued: “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favour with God” (Lk 1:30). She who did not think herself worthy to be the slave of the Messiah’s mother was, in reality, the only creature who had pleased Him.
Two promises
After the greeting, the Archangel Gabriel told Her the object of his mission: “And behold, You will conceive in your womb and bear a Son, and You shall call His name Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give to Him the throne of His father David, and He will reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of His kingdom there will be no end” (Lk 1:31-33). What a promise!
The serpent had also made a promise to Eve: “your eyes shall be opened: and you shall be as Gods, knowing good and evil” (Gn 3:5).
Two gifts are announced, both very attractive. One is deceitful and deceptive: to be like gods. The other, sublime, true and ultimately far superior: to beget God Himself! After all, what does the vague proposal to be like a god mean in comparison with the possibility of embracing in one’s womb the One who contains the whole universe within Himself?
Faced with this, there are differing reactions. The first Eve was dazzled by the pleasant aspect of the fruit of the tree (cf. Gn 3:6) and wanted to eat it, even though this constituted a transgression of the divine command. Mary, thinking of the obedience to her vow of virginity, asked: “How shall this be done, because I know not man?” (Lk 1:34).
St. Gabriel must have been amazed at the lofty degree of purity – the angelic virtue – that Mary possessed.
The shadow of the Paraclete
“The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God” (Lk 1:35).
While Eve sought in the darkness of sin the light to know good and evil, Mary, wishing to obscure her person, allowed herself to be covered by the shadow of the Divine Paraclete, drawing to herself the Spirit of God – also called Most Blessed Light – and receiving His seven gifts.
At the Annunciation “the cunning of the Serpent was overcome by the simplicity of the dove.”[5] The flight of the dove triumphed over the slithering of the Serpent. God in human form would be born of Our Lady without the help of a man, to restore harmony to the human race.[6]
An entirely divine radiance shines on creation
As a consequence of the first sin, God punished Adam by cursing the ground: “cursed is the ground because of you; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth to you” (Gn 3:17). In Mary, the “blessed and priestly ground,” Jesus “drove out the thorns and thistles. He dwelt in her womb and purified it; He sanctified the place from the pains of childbirth and maledictions.”[7]
“Fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum”: with this response to the Archangel’s announcement, the divinity sought by Eve in disobedience came to dwell in Mary through submission. If in Paradise on earth man wanted to be god out of pride, from all eternity God wanted to become man because He was humility in essence.
“Through her willingness and obedience, it was the Virgin Mary who introduced into the heart of the divine work the supreme creature and archetypical model for everything that exists, from whom everything flows.”[8] Beginning with Our Lady’s holy conversation with St. Gabriel, “creation began to shine with an entirely divine brilliance, through the merits of Mary Most Holy.”[9]
Mary’s “fiat” determined the final crushing of the ancient Serpent and his frustrated attempts at victory. Thus the prophecy was fulfilled: “I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed: She shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel” (Gn 3:15 DR).
By Fernando Joaquim Costa
Text extracted, with adaptations from Heralds of the Gospel Magazine n. 173, March 2022.
Notes
1 Cf. PETER CHRYSOLOGUS. Sermón 140. In: JUST, Arthur A. (Org.). La Biblia comentada por los Padres de la Iglesia. Madrid: Ciudad Nueva, 2006, v.III, p.57.
2 Cf. BLESSED GUERRIC ABBOT. In Assumptione Beatæ Mariæ. Sermo I, n.2: PL 185, 188.
3 ST. BEDE. Homilías sobre los Evangelios, 1, 3. In: JUST, op. cit., p.57.
4 Cf. CLÁ DIAS, EP, João Scognamiglio. Maria Santíssima! O Paraíso de Deus revelado aos homens. São Paulo: Arautos do Evangelho, 2020, v.II, p.232-233.
5 ST. IRENAEUS OF LYON. Contra las herejías, 5, 19, 1. In: JUST, op. cit., p.63.
6 Cf. ANONYMOUS. Himno sobre la Anunciación. In: JUST, op. cit., p.59.
7 ST. EPHREM OF NISIBIS. Comentario al Diatessaron, 1, 25. In: JUST, op. cit., p.61.
8 CLÁ DIAS, EP, João Scognamiglio. Can Mary Re-establish the Order of the Universe? In: New Insights on the Gospels. Città del Vaticano-Nobleton: LEV; Heralds of the Gospel, 2013, v.VII, p.69.
9 Idem, ibidem.
Compiled by Roberta MacEwan
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