New Adam, New Eve

In order to understand the Blessed Virgin Mary's (cf. Luke 1:48) role in the Church, we must first understand the role that her son, our Lord Jesus Christ, was sent to fulfill by God.

Saint Paul is the most direct of all the New Testament writers in regard to explaining Christ’s role within what the Church refers to as Salvation History. Specifically, he explains that Christ is the “New Adam” who came to restore the grace that Adam had lost. 

Therefore, just as through one person sin entered the world, and through sin, death, and thus death came to all, inasmuch as all sinned -- for up to the time of the law, sin was in the world, though sin is not accounted when there is no law.  But death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who did not sin after the pattern of the trespass of Adam, who is the type of the one who was to come (Romans 5:12-14). 

Here we are told, in plain language, that Adam was “the type of the one who was to come.”  If Adam was “the type” of Christ - an image, we might say - we would do well to recall that “God created man in his image; In the divine image he created him;” (Genesis 1:27).  And yet Saint John, in the very beginning of his Gospel points out that Christ, as the Word of God, is God, and was therefore the one who created the world “(i)n the beginning.”

In the beginning was the Word

and the Word was with God

and the Word was God.

He was in the beginning with God.

All things came to be through him,

and without him nothing came to be (John 1:1-3).

What we see, then, is that Christ created Adam in his own image, but Adam was only an image, the “type of the one who was to come.”  And when Christ came to earth he perfected the mere “image” that Adam had been, replacing disobedience with obedience, sin with grace, and death with life, as seen in the following passage from Saint Paul’s Letter First Letter to the Corinthians.

For since death came through a human being, the resurrection of the dead also came through a human being.  For just as in Adam all die, so too in Christ shall all be brought to life, (15:21-22).

Jesus Christ can therefore truly be called the New Adam, for He was sent to repair the damage caused by Adam.  Adam brought death; Jesus brought life.  As human beings who accept and follow the teachings of Jesus, we hope that one day we too will share the “divine image” of Christ, as Saint Paul further explains.

So too, it is written, “The first man, Adam, became a living being,” the last Adam a life-giving spirit.  But the spiritual was not first; rather the natural and then the spiritual.  The first man was from earth, earthly; the second man, from heaven.  As was the earthly one, so also are the earthly; and as in the heavenly one, so also are the heavenly.  Just as we have borne the image of the earthly one, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly one (1 Corinthians 15:45-49).

Knowing that Christ is the New Adam, and that part of God’s plan was to make Adam the “type of the one to come,” we would be amiss either to ignore, or to refuse to acknowledge, another essential element of the Creation Story in Genesis, for Adam was not created to live by himself.  God gave him a partner: “The LORD God said, ‘It is not good for the man to be alone.  I will make a suitable partner for him.’” (Genesis 2:18). 

So the LORD God cast a deep sleep on the man, and while he was asleep, he took out of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh.  The LORD God then built up into a woman the rib that he had taken from the man (Genesis 2:21-22).

Upon finding his partner, Adam said, “This one shall be called ‘woman’ for out of ‘her man’ this one has been taken” (Genesis 2:23).  Already we can see that Adam, as the first of the two creations, is able to name his partner, thus showing that he has a degree of superiority over her, just as he exhibited a degree of superiority over the animals when he gave names to all of them.  As we read in Genesis 2:19, “So the LORD God formed out of the ground various wild animals and various birds of the air, and he brought them to the man to see what he would call them; whatever the man called each of them would be its name.”  But despite the order in which Adam and his partner were created, and despite the dynamics of their relationship with one another, both Adam and his partner were both created “in the divine image.”

God created man in his image;

In the divine image he created him;

Male and female he created them (Genesis 1:27). 

We must not assume, however, that because Adam and his partner were created in the divine image, they are precisely equal in all ways.  Indeed, they were not, not only for the reason that Adam was able to name his partner, but also by the very fact that the woman’s body is physically different from Adam’s.  We can therefore safely state that when God created woman he did not merely want to create a companion for Adam, but wanted to create a companion who would complete Adam’s incompleteness.  As the Catechism of the Catholic Church states, “God created man and woman together and willed each for the other” (371).  Had God intended Adam to be the perfect embodiment of “his image” he might have simply created another man to be Adam’s companion. Considering the nature of the biological differences between males and females, and the command to “Be fruitful and multiply” (Genesis 1:28), we see that in addition to being a companion for Adam (and, we might add, allowing Adam to be a companion for her, since there is much to be gained from serving others), at the very least, Adam’s partner was intended to allow him to carry out God’s mandate.  Though Adam was created first, he needed his companion in order to fulfill the role God had planned for him.  Without his partner, Adam would have been an incomplete person, for he would not have able to fulfill God’s command (which, we might observe, God did not give until the woman had been created). 

Two People, One Flesh

It is not surprising then, after God created woman out of Adam’s rib (Genesis 2:21-22) to hear Adam exclaim, “This one, at last, is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh” (Genesis 2:23).   And shortly thereafter, the narrator of Genesis states, “That is why a man leaves his father and mother and clings to his wife, and the two of them become one body” (Genesis 2:24).  Regardless of which person was created first, and which one was intended to accompany  or complete the other, Adam and his partner are comprised of the same flesh, and are called to form one “one body” with one another (Genesis 2:24).  They are not equal in the sense that they are identical, or in the sense that they have the same roles.  But they are equal in the sense that they share the same flesh, and contain within them the breath of God (Genesis 2:7), and in the sense that they received the same mandate from God (to be fruitful and multiply).  They are also equal in the sense that they must depend upon one another to accomplish the will of God.   

Knowing that the first man had a female partner, and that she was “bone of (his) bones and flesh of (his) flesh” we have no choice but to acknowledge that the only person in the New Testament who could possibly parallel the woman in Genesis (Eve) is the Virgin Mary, Christ’s own mother.  Christ was undeniably conceived in Mary’s womb, and therefore is “bone of (her) bones and flesh of (her) flesh.”  And while the woman in Genesis was created so that Adam would not be alone, it is obvious that Christ -- as an infant incapable of caring for himself -- also needed someone so that he would not be alone.  The parallel between Mary and Eve is not exact, but neither is the parallel between Adam and Christ.  Even so, Saint Paul was right to call Christ the New Adam, and so we are right to call the Virgin Mary the New Eve, as many Church authorities have done in the past.

Though it is immediately clear that Mary, by virtue of the fact that she is Christ’s mother, can rightfully be called the Mother of God, we can also identify Mary as the Spouse of the Holy Spirit, because the Holy Spirit conceived Christ within her womb.  Both roles, spouse and mother, demand the sharing “one body” (Genesis 2:24).  Mary became “one body” with the Holy Spirit as His spouse, and then “one body” with Christ as His mother.  In both situations she mirrored the “divine image” in which God created Adam and Eve. 

While it is the case that Eve was created from Adam’s flesh, we must not make the mistake of thinking that the way in which they parallel Mary and Christ is somehow backwards.  It is certainly true that Christ’s flesh was taken from Mary’s flesh, but because Mary is a human being, and Christ -- the Word of God -- is God, it is He who created her.  Thus we see a beautiful dynamic, in which God created Mary, then conceived Himself within her womb so that she could give Him her flesh, and in doing so give birth to Him.  The fact that Mary was born before Christ Jesus therefore does not contradict the reality that God is truly our Heavenly Father, and of course Mary’s Heavenly Father as well.  This truly intimate, physical relationship which exists between Mary and the Most Holy Trinity reveals the true nature of the intense love with which God loves mankind. 

Two Models of Obedience

To further understand the degree to which Mary fulfills her role as the New Eve -- the “partner” of Christ, who is the New Adam -- we must observe within her the characteristic which is directly opposed to the characteristic which we observe in Eve herself.  That characteristic is obedience.  Adam disobeyed God, and in doing so brought sin and death into the world; Christ was obedient to God, and in doing so brought grace and life into the world.  As the New Adam’s partner, the New Eve must be equally obedient to God’s will.  But despite her obedience, her work is not the same work of the New Adam, and her role is not His role.  Again, Saint Paul tell us that “disobedience” came through one person, not through two: “For just as through the disobedience of one person the many were made sinners, so through the obedience of one the many will be made righteous” (Romans 5:19). 

Additionally, we cannot ignore the fact that when God confronted Adam and Eve for their disobedience, the consequences of their actions were not the same.  To Adam, he said the following.

Because you have listened to the voice of your wife,

and have eaten of the tree

about which I commanded you;

‘You shall not eat of it,’

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 for you;

and you shall eat the plants of the field.

By the sweat of your face

you shall eat bread

Until you return to the ground,

for out of it you were taken;

You are dust,

and to dust you shall return (Genesis 3:17).

And to the woman, God said,

I will greatly increase your pangs in childbearing;

in pain you shall bring forth children,

yet your desire shall be for your husband,

and he shall rule over you (Genesis 3:16).

It is obvious that the consequences of Adam’s sin is far greater than Eve’s, despite the fact that they both were equally disobedient.  Adam’s sin caused the ground to be cursed, and death to enter into the world.  But the same disobedience, committed by Eve, brought to her consequences that only affected her own person, and through her all other women.  We can therefore understand that Adam’s individual work and actions (as opposed to the work and action of having children with Eve, which we might term their mutual work and action) are of far-reaching consequences, and affect Creation itself.  It is understandable that Saint Paul discusses the role of the New Adam, and not that of the New Eve, since Adam is “the type of the one to come.”  This is in spite of the fact that Eve was the one who was tempted by the serpent, and not Adam.  Though Eve’s actions were pivotal and of great consequence, they are by no means equal to those of Adam’s. 

In examining Christ and Mary as the New Adam and the New Eve, we can therefore expect to find both Christ and Mary acting in complete obedience (as opposed to Adam and Eve’s disobedience) to God’s will -- but we can expect Christ’s obedience to have far greater consequences, and Mary’s to be of much smaller consequence.  Furthermore, we can also expect Jesus and Mary, who share the same flesh, to share a single mutual work and action, which will somehow parallel the command to “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it” (Genesis 1:28). 

Christ’s obedience to God’s will and Commandments is unquestionable, and known to all Christians: “For just as through the disobedience of one person the many were made sinners, so through the obedience of one the many will be made righteous.” (Romans 5:19).  Even when He knew His suffering was imminent, He openly expressed his complete and perfect surrender to the will of God.  While praying in the Garden of Gethsemane before His arrest, He said, “Father, if you are willing, take this cup away from me; still, not my will but yours be done” (Luke 22:42). 

Likewise, Mary is obedient to God’s will and Commandments.  In the Gospel of Luke, when the Angel Gabriel approaches Mary and tells her “(y)ou will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus,” (1:32), Mary is at first confused, and says, “How can this be, since I have no relations with a man?” (1:34).  But after hearing the angel’s explanation, Mary states, unwaveringly, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord.  May it be done to me according to your word.” 

Clearly, Mary was obedient to God in accepting the angel’s news, despite the danger it seemed to bring with it.  We needn’t specify what could have befallen an unwed woman who became pregnant in ancient times.  Mary’s consent to the angel - which was, in effect a consent given to God, since the angel was his messenger - can therefore be interpreted as an extreme act of obedience, thus enabling us to say that she is characterized by the opposing characteristic (disobedience) which characterized Eve. 

Without Mary’s willing consent, Christ could not have come into the world, and could not have accomplished His purpose.  However, it is not the case that it is Mary herself who allowed God’s plan to be completed.  On the contrary, it is only her consent to the plan, which God willed from the very beginning by creating Man “in his image” and “male and female”.  We will recall that God could have created a male companion for Adam -- but instead he created a female companion.  We would also do well to realize that God could have created Jesus out of mud from a riverbank if he had so desired.   When God created Adam’s partner, he created her in such a way that Adam could become one body with her and “Be fruitful and multiply”.  Likewise, Mary shared her body with the Holy Spirit to conceive “Christ, the firstfruits” (1 Corinthians 15:23) within her womb

Aside from her willingness to become the Mother of God, Mary was also obedient in bringing Jesus to the temple in Jerusalem for presentation, and in presenting herself to be purified in accordance with the Law of Moses.  Though her visit to the temple is by no means an extraordinary act, it does help to paint a clearer picture of Mary as an obedient, holy woman. 

Perhaps the best depiction of Mary’s complete obedience to God can be found at the wedding feast at Cana.  “Do whatever he tells you,” she tells the head waiter when the wine runs out (John 3:5), at which point Jesus performs his first miracle, and turns water into wine.  Are not her words echoed in Jesus’ Transfiguration, by God the Father himself?  “This is My beloved son.  Listen to Him” (Mark 9:7).  Indeed, because Mary truly is Christ’s mother, and therefore the Mother of  God, she could have said those same words herself: This is my beloved son.  Listen to Him. 

Christ’s Mother, Our Mother

As He hung on the cross, pierced by nails, Jesus looked down upon His mother and the disciple John. 

When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple there whom he loved, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son.”  Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother.”  And from that hour the disciple took her into his home (John 19:26-27).

Though it is clear that Jesus intended to have John take care of His mother, the Church has always interpreted John to represent the individual members of the Church.  This is partly because Jesus refers to his mother as “woman,” which is an unusual way to refer to one’s mother.  But the term also allows us to recall that Eve was referred to as “woman” in Genesis.  Knowing that John is identified as a representation all Church members, we can begin to see why the Church identifies Mary as Mother of the Church.

But a more significant and direct  proof of the reality that Mary is Mother of the Church is that Saint Paul identifies Jesus as the Head of the Church, and the Church as His body. 

“And he put all things beneath his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of the one who fills all things in every way” (Ephesians 1:22-23)

“He is the head of the body, the church” (Colossians 1:18).

Since Mary is Christ’s Mother, and the Church is His body, there is no question that Mary is Mother of the Church.  She herself was the first member of the Church, for it was she who gave birth to Jesus, the “head of the body, the church.”  Just as Adam and Eve had the common duty to multiply and subdue the earth, Christ and Mary have the common duty of increasing the number of members in the Church. 

If Mary is the Mother of the Church, and the Church is Christ’s Body, and we are the Church, we have no choice but to regard Mary as our Mother.  We must therefore fulfill the Fourth Commandment (Honor thy mother and father) by honoring her and by obeying her.  What child would disobey his mother?  In fulfilling her role as the New Eve, The Blessed Virgin Mary only asks that we obey Christ, the New Adam.  “Do whatever he tells you,” she commands us.  She knows that her role is secondary to His, and that she is to be His partner. 

But how should we honor our Mother?  We honor in every possible way we can: we thank her for her work; we think about her as we go about our daily lives; we regard her as a role model; and we create works of art that remind us of her.  All of these things are necessary not because the New Eve is in any way equal to the New Adam, but because she is created in the same “divine image” and shares his flesh.  Christ asks us to love one another, but doing so does not cause us to love Him less.  Indeed, following His New Commandment to “love one another” (John 13:34) allows us to love Christ more:  “For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me” (Matthew 26: 35-36).    Likewise, when we worship Christ, honoring His Blessed Mother does not cause us to worship Him less. 

We can therefore join the Angel Gabriel and Mary’s cousin, Elizabeth, in saying, with confidence:

Hail, Mary, full of grace! The Lord is with thee (Luke 1:28).

Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, (Luke 1:42)

Jesus.

And, because she is very much alive in Christ, in Heaven, we can also say,

“Holy Mary, Mother of God,

Pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death.”

The Teachings

The Church has issued several teachings regarding The Blessed Virgin Mary that have their roots in the idea that Mary is the New Eve.  They are not presented in the New Testament in the direct manner in which Saint Paul presents Christ as the New Adam.  But, understanding that Mary is the New Eve allows us to understand the unity of the teachings, which are too often misunderstood. 

The Church teaches that Mary was conceived without sin, and that she remained a virgin her entire life, that she remained sinless throughout her entire life, and that she rose, body and soul, into heaven.  Knowing that Christ Himself was conceived without sin, and remained a virgin, and remained sinless, and rose body and soul into Heaven, we can see how those same teachings apply to Mary as the New Eve: the two share the same flesh, and mirror the divine image, and so we can expect similar (but not exact) parallels in both of their lives.  A full discussion of all four teachings is certainly warranted, but would venture far beyond a discussion of the New Eve. 

God’s Love for Mary is God’s Love for Us

What we, as the Church, can truly learn from Mary is something that has nothing to do with Mary herself, but rather with God’s plan for mankind.  God, who is love (1 John 4:8) wished, from the very beginning of creation, to share His life with us.  That is why he blew his breath into us.  That is why he made us in his image.  That is why he created us male and female, enabling us to participate with him in the very act of creation.  That is why he gave us his only Son.  And that is why he gave us His flesh and blood, the Eucharist, to eat, so that he could be with us “until the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20).  We are accustomed to thinking of love as something strictly spiritual, but that is not the nature of love.  Love is both spiritual and physical.  The love God has for man is no exception.  He yearns for every physical aspect of our being, and wishes to be involved with every physical aspect of our lives.  Mary shows us the degree to which he desires to share his life physically and spiritually with us.  Again, God could have created Jesus out of mud from a riverbank.  Instead, he chose to have Him be born of a woman.

To understand the true significance of the fact that Mary, as the New Eve, carried Christ in her womb and was truly one flesh with Him is to understand what Christ meant when He said,

Remain in me, as I remain in you.  Just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me.  I am the vine, you are the branches.  Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing (John 15:4-5). 

And also,

Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him.  Just as the Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me (John 6:56-57).

It is no wonder that many who heard Jesus’ words said, “This saying is hard; who can accept it?” (John 6:60).  But Christ did not give them an alternate meaning when they protested, for he had already reaffirmed his statement that his flesh and blood were true food and true drink.  He was not speaking in parables when he said,

“Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat of the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you.  Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day.  For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.  Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him.”  (John 6:53-56). 

In both of the above passages, Christ describes the full extent of the relationship He wants to have with us.  It is a relationship of unity, in which Christ physically becomes one with us.  It is a relationship that we find exemplified in the relationship He has with His Blessed Mother, for she is the first human being to share His flesh, and in fact the first human being to offer her soul and flesh to Him.  We, as her spiritual children, are called to the same intimacy, for in the Sacrament of the Eucharist we accept our Lord and Savior into our very bodies, and offer our souls and bodies to Him.  Thus He is able to truly abide in us, just as He abided in His Blessed Mother.  To a degree we already bear God’s physical image in our flesh; we must become united with Christ’s most Precious Body and Blood so that we “shall also bear the image of the heavenly one” (1 Corinthians 15:49). 

If we do not take Christ at his word when he insists, “Amen, amen I say to you.  My flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink” (John 6:53), then we cannot understand the role that Mary fulfills as the New Eve, or the significance of the fact that God created both men and women.  Nor can we comprehend that we, as the Church, are called to be the Bride of Christ (2 Corinthians 11:2), and must therefore become not only one spirit, but also one flesh with Christ Jesus, our Bridegroom (Mark 2:19) through the Sacrament of the Eucharist.  For this very reason, Saint Paul referred to marriage as “a great mystery”.

He who loves his wife loves himself.  For no one hates his own flesh but rather nourishes and cherishes it, even as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body.

“For this reason a man shall leave (his)

father and (his) mother

and be joined to his wife,

and the two shall become one flesh.”

This is a great mystery, but I speak in reference to Christ and the church (Ephesians 5:28-31). 

All of these things can become clear if we understand that Mary, the New Eve, is the physical counterpart of the New Adam.  If we lose sight of the fact that they share the same flesh, we fail to comprehend that our Savior, Christ Jesus, the Word made Flesh, loves us so intensely that He calls us to physical union with Himself. 

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Contact Benjamin Ludwig at ludwig@writeguide.com