The Second Eve

Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception 2021

What do Eve and Mary have in common? Both are mothers, mothers of the whole human race. If Eve is the mother of fallen humanity, Mary is the mother of redeemed humanity. Typology is a common feature found in scriptures which helps us see the link between the Old Testament and the New - figures and events in the Old Testament prefigure those found in the New. In the case of Eve and Mary, it is one of a negative typology. Mary is what Eve wasn’t. St Jerome famously taught that if death came through Eve, life came through Mary. Mary's obedience untied the knot of Eve's disobedience.

Similarly, the first reading and the gospel chosen for this Mass also draw upon these parallels. The parallels are obvious: both Eve and Mary were women, both were virgins, both were approached by angels who promised them something glorious should they cooperate with their respective propositions, both stood at the dawn of creation (Christ’s work was a “new creation”). The contrasts, too, are obvious: In the one case, disobedience of God brought misery, while in the other, obedience brought about happiness; the first one was all-too-eager to hear what the evil spirit was suggesting, while the second was “troubled” at the angel’s wondrous greeting; the first accepted the angelic proposal even though it contradicted God’s Word, while the second tested the message by its fidelity to God’s word.

But the readings go beyond just highlighting parallels and contrasting the two figures. We see in the gospel, the story of the Annunciation reversing the effect and the consequence of the temptation of the first Eve in the Book of Genesis. In the Garden, Eve believed the lies of a fallen angel, disobeyed God and so became the cause of Adam's Fall. At the Annunciation, Mary believed the words spoken by a holy angel, obeyed God and so became the Mother of the One who would save us from Adam's Fall! Mary's obedience reversed Eve's disobedience; thus Mary is the New Eve for the New Creation in Christ.

But perhaps the most important parallel which highlights the nature of today’s feast is the place of sin in God’s plan of salvation. There is no place for sin, full stop. God created the first man and woman in a state of sinlessness and it is only through their disobedience that sin entered into the world. Now in the work of redemption, in the work of re-creation that is to be wrought by His Son, God had to begin with a similar and yet far superior state of sinlessness. Jesus, the Sinless One, the unblemished Lamb of God, had to be brought into this world and assume human nature and flesh, from one who was similarly preserved from sin, the Blessed Virgin Mary.

The Son’s unique and irreplaceable role in God’s plan of salvation is intertwined with that of Mary, His mother. For failure to recognise the role of the Virgin Mary, as part of the salvific plan of the Heavenly Father to bring us our Redeemer, would be to reject the obvious - to insinuate that the Son had no mother; that the angel sent by the Father did not come to ask for her free consent; and that she did not morally and physically cooperate to give to the Saviour the instrument of salvation, His human nature.

In the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, we see the fulfilment of the proto evangelium (the first gospel) which we heard in the first reading, that the offspring of the woman will crush the head of the serpent’s offspring. Eve’s moral failure will be undone by God’s victory through Mary, the Second Eve, and her Son. The Immaculate Conception is really the supreme manifestation of God's prevenient, unmerited mercy. After all, the Virgin Mary did not "merit" her Immaculate Conception. Nor could she ask for it. It was something done in her and for her, by the Father of Mercy, and solely on the basis of the foreseen merits of His Incarnate Son, Jesus Christ. By God's prevenient grace, therefore, she was made the masterpiece of the Father's mercy. And in the fullness of time, this special grace enabled her to receive our Saviour into the world.

This is what we celebrate today - the wondrous, the incomparable, the boundless mercy of God. The Feast of the Immaculate Conception is first and foremost a feast of His mercy, shown to Mary, and through Mary to the world. We are children of Eve by the order of nature, a nature scarred by Original Sin. But by the order of grace and God’s mercy, we are now Children of Mary, redeemed, restored, recreated - called to a life of holiness instead of sin, called to be children of God instead of the world, called to be Saints instead of remaining perpetually sinners. In our Lady, we are reminded that we are not irredeemably cursed by sin or the Fall, but we have been incontrovertibly redeemed by the mercy of God.