IMMACULATE CONCEPTION, FROM EVE TO MARY

December 8, 2020
Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Reading: GN 3:9-15, 20; PS 98:1, 2-3AB, 3CD-4; EPH 1:3-6, 11-12; LK 1:26-38.

A Turkish proverb says, “Happy is he whose own faults prevent him from castigating the faults of others.” And a Samoan proverb adds, “The fault was committed in the bush, but it is now talked about on the highway.”

Eve, in the Old Testament, and Mary, in the New Testament, are two prominent Bible Characters we all hear about. Eve incarnates fault and the sinfulness of disobedience and Mary, righteousness and obedience. The first, Eve, is conceived in sin, and we could say, through her, sin came into the world and we became all sinners. Eve is described as the gate through which evil entered mankind. The second, Mary, is conceived without sin, so that, through her will be born the one who will set the sinful humanity free from sin.

Today's solemnity allows us, not only to reflect on the reality of sin but also to ponder the two figures that are Eve and Mary, two women through who the mystery of sin and salvation find their origin and fulfillment. For, in her Immaculate Conception, Mary is revealed to our humanity as the second Eve. She is God's new beginning, his new creation for the human race. If through Eve falling under the seduction of the serpent, we all became sinners, and so brought away from God, in Mary, God himself decides to become close to us (Emmanuel), and save us from sin.

The image of the Immaculate Conception presents a Virgin Mary stepping over a serpent. This is a clear reference to the scene that took place in the garden of Genesis. We read from Genesis 3:1s that the Devil entered into a serpent and tempted Eve. She was therefore brought to doubt in God's word and disobeyed the divine order to not feed on the tree of knowledge. From that disobedience, sin entered the creation, and mankind, descendants of Adam and Eve were punished to live in sin and its consequences. The Lord God said to the Serpent, "I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” Gn 3:15.

In Mary, that curse is taken away and salvation sees the beginning of its fulfillment. Man is brought to defeat evil through her Son, the Son of God our Savior. As Jesus was coming to exorcize the original curse and sin, he could not be born in sin. So, God kept a stainless dwelling for him, the wombs of Mary. She was chosen beforehand, to bear the Savior of the world.

While we are immersed in this solemn day, the word of God given for our meditation emphasizes the identity of Eve and Mary. In the first reading, we hear that Eve is the mother of all those who live, thus the name "Ḥawwāh", from the Hebrew, living, life, or source of life. In Eve we are brought to life, however, to the life in sin. But because God did not create us for sin, he will form a project of restoration to the original beauty, the project of salvation.

St. Paul, in the second reading, speaks of that project of salvation. The Apostle tells the Ephesians, “he (God) chose us in him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and without blemish before him.” There is a need for us to rejoice, because, though we are sinners, born in sin and fated to death, God has never forsaken us. He wants us saved and reconciled to him. To make that reconciliation possible, he sent his Only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, born of Mary. In Christ, Paul says, "we were also chosen, destined in accord with the purpose of the One who accomplishes all things according to the intention of his will so that we might exist for the praise of his glory..."

The will of God, the intention he formed long ago to save us from sin is revealed through the annunciation made to Mary. The Lord has chosen to be with Mary, to fill her with his grace, to make of her his gateway to our humanity. Thus, the greetings of the Angel Gabriel, “Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you.”

If Eve was tempted and became the gateway of sin for humankind, Mary is made, through God’s grace, the gateway of salvation. If by Eve disobedience we all became sinners, by Mary's obedient response to God, "Fiat voluntas tua", we have the foretaste of our salvation, the life in God. The life that Eve the mother of the living lost in sin is restored in Mary, Mother of our Lord. To our humanity, Mary, the Mother of Christ becomes the reparation or the consolation of the original failure of Eve.  Mary consoles Eve and consolidates the human relationship with God, a relationship we lost in the disobedience of sin. The Immaculate Conception of Mary, therefore, becomes not only a great hope for new dawn but also a challenge for you and me to abandon our sinful inclination and walk in the way of righteousness.

God has not created us for sin. Though we are not immaculate by conception, we can and it is a must, to search for holiness. Sinfulness is our choice just as it was the choice of Eve. Holiness also is in our reach and our choice just as it was chosen by Mary. Freedom to sin and freedom to live holy are set before us. But the will of God is our life and happiness. Let us end by imploring Mary’s intercession. As Mother of our Lord and our Mother, she knows all our struggles, sufferings, and hopes especially our struggles between good and evil, between light and darkness, between health and sickness. May she brings our humble repentant tears to her Divine Son and obtain for us forgiveness and purification from our many sins.