The Good News of Mary

He began with Man and Man was good. But it was not good for Man to be alone. So, He cast Man into a deep sleep. God beheld the Man and thought what sort of partner fitting for him. The partner must be bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh. It would not do to fashion the partner from Man’s head lest this partner be put above Man and lord over him. It would not do to fashion the partner from his foot, lest he tread her beneath his feet. Man needed not a master, for he had God. He needed not a servant, for God had given him dominion over the earth. Man needed a helper, a true partner to walk with him next to God and to be fully united with Man in a love so real and powerful that they could, like God, form new life.

His partner was formed from Man’s side where she was to stand for eternity. So she received the name Woman and Woman was good.

God knew what would happen. In spite of the blessings He had given them, in spite of the earth, the animals, the garden, and most importantly, Himself, it was not enough because they weren’t Him and so they turned on Him. He had given them each other, but it was not enough.

They would say the Serpent had tricked them. Lazy trick it was. More of a suggestion than a trick, a lie that should have never worked if they just trusted God.

The Serpent spoke to the woman first. He pointed to her faults and preyed on her insecurities. He looked disdainfully at her naked, primitive body, and he suggested a quick fix. “You can be like God!” He did not mind the man next to her. Man was cowardly. Man was weak. He would join his partner for it was the easy thing to do. He would not dare face the Serpent.

As he ate the fruit, Man no longer saw the pinnacle of creation that God had saved for last. He saw what the Serpent had indicated. A flawed and sinful creature whose actions had caused him to sin. He used to marvel at her beauty as proof of God’s goodness. He still marveled at her, but now she was something beneath him and could be used. He was not to love and serve her and the rest of creation but to take and possess.

As she ate the fruit, the woman no longer saw a guardian and protector. Why should she? He had failed and allowed her to fail. She no longer liked the way he looked at her. Something was different. She wished she was wearing something. She was so stupid. It was all that stupid Serpent’s fault! Why should God have let him in the garden in the first place?

Perhaps if they had sought God’s mercy immediately, it would have been resolved, but instead, they drew farther away from God and hid themselves from Him, in shame of not only what they’ve done but for who they were; they were stained.

Man blamed Woman, Woman blamed the Serpent. But they were all to blame, and they were all punished not to quell God’s anger, but for the salvation of Man and Woman.

Man was to toil, Woman was to be ruled over by Man and have pain in childbirth, and they were both to die.

But in punishing the Serpent, He gave the Good News, the “Protoevangelium” or first Gospel.

"I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your seed and her seed;
he shall bruise your head,
and you shall bruise his heel.” (Genesis 3:15)

So, from that day onward, the Serpent became the Prince of the World. Soon, there was envy, then murder, slander, adultery, idolatry, rape, enslavement, and all other sins of the world. The name of God, Yah-Weh, was largely unknown except for by a small group of people: the Hebrews, though the stain of sin was prevalent even within them. But it was through them that God gave the law, and the prophets. He promised them the Messiah to free them from their slavery. He gave them the prophet, Isaiah, who affirmed the Protoevangelium, and he spoke the words

Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, a young woman shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Imman′u-el. (Isaiah 7:14)

He gave Himself in small ways to the people. He gave them the Ark of the Covenant containing His Word in the Ten Commandments, the Bread of Life in the Manna from the Desert, and a symbol of the high priesthood in the staff of Aaron. He gave them the temple where they were to worship Him.

The prophet, Daniel, even gave them the time that the Messiah would come.

But while the Jewish people were looking to kings and conquerors for their salvation, likely the Serpent was looking among them as well, an angel came to a young woman.

For the plan had been set from the beginning of time. As it was not just Man through whom sin entered the world, but also Woman, so it would not just be through Man that sin and death were defeated.

God would send His Son, of one substance with the Father, as Man.

But it was not good for Man to be alone. Though not needed, as God could do all the good work Himself, but like it is fitting that every man and woman should be co-workers to God in His the world, and just as it is true that through one Man sin entered the world and through one Man it is saved, it was fitting that one Woman, though subordinate to the role of the God-Man, should have a unique role of salvation.

It was fitting that this woman, like the first woman, be unstained by sin, Immaculata, “Full of Grace” as the angel would name her. “Hail Full of Grace.”

Whereas the first Woman sought to make herself like God, this New Woman “did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped” (Jeremiah 2:6), but proclaimed:

And Mary said, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her. (Luke 1:38)

It was her “fiat” or “yes” given to God that overcomes the “yes” given by the first Woman to the Serpent.  

Like the first Woman, the New Woman would be the daughter of the Father.

Unlike the first Woman, she would “know not Man” instead, through the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit, she would become the mother of the New Man.

Thus, she would be daughter to the Father, spouse of the Holy Spirit, and mother to the Son.

Daughter of God. Highly favored spouse of God. Mother of God.

In her womb, she would hold the Son of God, Who was the Word, the Bread, and the Great High Priest. Like the Ark of old, she was “overshadowed” by the Holy Spirit, not to be touched or known by men, even if entrusted to them by God.

Her role was not finished upon giving birth to the New Man. She was to share in the suffering of the New Man in her role as mother.

and Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother,

“Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising of many in Israel,
and for a sign that is spoken against
(and a sword will pierce through your own soul also),
that thoughts out of many hearts may be revealed.” (Luke 2:34-35)

Just as it was from the Woman that Man was handed the fruit from the tree, it was from the intercession of the New Woman that the New Man performed His first glorious work.

On the third day there was a marriage at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there; Jesus also was invited to the marriage, with his disciples. When the wine failed, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” And Jesus said to her, “O woman, what have you to do with me? My hour has not yet come.” His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.” (John 2:1-5)

When the New Man was put to death, as was always going to happen according to the prophecies, the New Man, in one of His dying breaths, gave the Woman another task

When Jesus saw his mother, and the disciple whom he loved standing near, 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 to his own home. (John 19:26-27)

In so doing this, the Woman was not only given as Mother to one disciple, but to the whole Church. Just as the first Woman was “Mother to all the Living” (Gen 3:20) so the New Woman is Mother to all living in Christ.

And she was there on the birthday of the Church (Acts 1:14) when the Holy Spirit came down upon the Apostles at Pentecost.

We are led to believe that she lived out her days in the home of the beloved disciple.

Despite the Serpent’s pursuit of the woman, holy and unstained she remained. At the end of her earthly life, if Death ever had her, it did not have her for long.

And when the dragon saw that he had been thrown down to the earth, he pursued the woman who had borne the male child. But the woman was given the two wings of the great eagle that she might fly from the serpent into the wilderness, to the place where she is to be nourished for a time, and times, and half a time.The serpent poured water like a river out of his mouth after the woman, to sweep her away with the flood. But the earth came to the help of the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed the river which the dragon had poured from his mouth. Then the dragon was angry with the woman, and went off to make war on the rest of her offspring, on those who keep the commandments of God and bear testimony to Jesus. And he stood on the sand of the sea. (Revelation 12:13-17)

Her body was taken from the earth, for she was wholly the Lord’s, so Death could never hold her or keep her from God. And to this day, always below and in service of the King, she reigns in Heaven as Queen, “clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head.”

Then God’s temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant was seen within his temple; and there were flashes of lightning, loud noises, peals of thunder, an earthquake, and heavy hail.

And a great portent appeared in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars; she was with child and she cried out in her pangs of birth, in anguish for delivery. (Revelation 11:19-12:2)

In some ways, she is the Serpent’s most feared enemy. Though all that is glorious in her is but a reflection of the goodness of God, to the Serpent, prideful as he is, it is one thing to be defeated by  “the one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron.” (Revelation 12:3) But it is quite another that God would use the obedience of a lowly handmaiden to crush the head of the Serpent.