The early Christians had a lively devotion to the Blessed Virgin. We find evidence of this in their surviving
literature and artwork and, of course, in the New Testament, which was their
foundational document. Their devotion
was based on scripture, and presented in the context of creation, fall,
incarnation, and redemption. For Mary’s role makes no sense apart from its
context in salvation history; yet it is not incidental to God’s plan. God chose to make his redemptive act
inconceivable without her.
Mary was in His
plan from the very beginning, chosen and foretold from the moment God created
man and woman. In fact, the early
Christians understood Mary and Jesus to be a reprise of God’s first creation. Saint Paul spoke of Adam as a type of Jesus
(Romans 5:14) and of Jesus as the new Adam, or the “last Adam” (I Corinthians
15:21-22, 45-49).
The early
Christians considered the beginning of Genesis-with its story of creation and
fall and its promise of redemption-to be so Christological (reflective of Christ)
in its implications that they called it the Protoevangelium,
or First Gospel. For examples, like
Adam, Jesus was tested in a garden-the garden of Gethsemane. Like Adam, Jesus was led to a “tree,” where
He was stripped naked. Like Adam, He
fell into the deep sleep of death, so that from His side would come the New
Eve, His bride the Church.
If Jesus is the
“new Adam” then Mary is the “New Eve,” who reverses the evil done by Eve in
Genesis. Like Eve, “the mother of all
the living,” Mary is mother to all who have new life in baptism. It was Eve who led the old Adam to his first
evil act in the garden. It was Mary who
led the New Adam to His first glorious work (the wedding feast at Cana). In Revelation, Eve faces the evil in the
garden and gives in to the “ancient serpent,” which is cursed by God and given
the promise that there would be “enmity between you and the woman, and between
your seed and her seed.” Mary, “a woman
clothed with the sun” confronts “the ancient serpent who is called the devil.” She gives birth to a “male child” who would
“rule all the nations.” In Revelation
the ancient serpent attempts to attack the “New Eve” and kill her child, but
unlike in the case of the first Eve, he fails.
She, Mary, prevails over evil and gives birth to salvation. (Gathered
from Hail, Holy Queen by Scott Hahn) kvs
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