“The man called his wife 'Eve,' because she became
the mother of all the living.”
Interesting line from our first reading, especially in conjunction with the feast that we're celebrating, the Immaculate Conception.
A quick reminder, when we talk about the Immaculate Conception, we're not talking about Jesus. We're talking about Mary.
In the early church—from the very beginning, as early as the early 100s—the Church Fathers, including Justin Martyr and St. Irenaeus, began referring to Mary as the “New Eve.”
Now, why is that concept of the “New Eve” important for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception?
It's worth noting that when Eve came into the world, she was free from all sin. So God, in his infinite wisdom and mercy, wanted to make sure that Mary, when she was given a choice, would be operating under exactly the same parameters as Eve. So, God prevented her from being marred by the blemish of Original Sin.
St. Paul tells us in the second reading, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavens, as he chose us in Him before the foundation of the world to be holy and without blemish before him.”
Who does that describe better than the Blessed Virgin?
Now, there's another interesting passage in Scripture, and it's from the Prophet Zephaniah. It says, “Cry out for joy, Daughter of Zion. Shout for gladness, O Israel. Rejoice, oh Daughter of Jerusalem. Yahweh is King of Israel in your midst.”
And it's interesting that the word translated “in your midst” should be translated, “in your womb.”
Which brings us to our Gospel reading: We hear the Archangel Gabriel is sent by God to a virgin. A teenage girl. And yet when the angel appears, he greets her as royalty—“Hail,” “Chaíre” (Greek).
Note that he doesn't refer to her by name, in spite of the fact that every time we pray the “Hail Mary,” we say, “Hail Mary full of grace.” Well, the angel did not greet Mary as Mary, but he greeted her as “Kecharitomene” (Greek), which the best translation from the Greek would be, “One who has been and still is the object of divine benevolence.” “One who has been favored and continues to be favored by God.” “One who has been granted supernatural grace and remains in this state.”
Why, with the angel were referred to her as that, if she was not in a state of perpetual grace? Which is why we translate the word “Kecharitomene,” as “full of grace.”
The angel recognized something that we so often failed to recognize: Mary was special from the very beginning.
And it is this fullness of grace which we see in the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, the supernatural Grace that Mary received which kept her from original sin at the moment of her conception. She came into the world free from sin, just as Eve did.
It is this Immaculate Conception which prepares Mary to receive the Son of God in the same way that the Israelites prepared the Ark of the Covenant to receive the Manna, fragments of the stones from the Ten Commandments, and also the staff of Aaron.
If that took so much preparation, can you imagine how much preparation was needed for the Mother of God, who carried the living Word of God, the Bread of Life, and the Power of God? Now, the grace that Mary received at her conception was no different from the grace we receive at baptism—she just received it a whole lot earlier.
Which brings us back to the beginning: the idea that Mary is the mother of all the living, just as Eve was.
St. Paul tells us that Jesus was the “First-born of the dead,” and we will follow in his resurrection. So if Mary is the mother of the first born of the dead, it follows that she is the mother of all those that follow Jesus.
Mary is literally the mother of all the living. The New Eve. This is why we celebrate the Feast of the Immaculate Conception.
As I've said before, everything the church teaches about Mary is intended to tell us something about Jesus. In this case, as we saw in the quotation from the Prophet Zephaniah, Mary received God, which tells us that Jesus was God and Jesus was not just a good person.
Jesus was the second person of the Holy Trinity, and God prepared Mary, before the foundation of the world, to be the new Eve, the mother of all the living, and above all the mother of God. The “Immaculate Conception,” as she introduced herself to St. Bernadette.
May we always strive to live our lives in imitation of the Blessed Mother and keep her reply to the Archangel Gabriel close to our heart. “Behold, I am a servant of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.”