MAY 31st: THE VISITATION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY: MARY AS THE ARK OF THE COVENANT

3 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”
2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”
4 “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realised they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

In the Fall, there were two acts of disobedience, firstly, that of Eve and, secondly, that of Adam.  Adam’s sin was facilitated by Eve’s sin and, perhaps, would not have happened if Eve had not tempted him.   However, according to primitive beliefs, it was Adam as the male that had all his human descendants stored up in seed form in  his loins, so that it was his sin, rather than that of Eve that radically changed the relationship between the human race and God.

Looking at our salvation through spectacles provided by the Adam and Eve story, we must look for two acts of humble obedience that correspond to the acts of disobedience in the story of the Fall.   These are the act of obedience of the Blessed Virgin Mary expressed in the words, “Behold the Slave of the Lord!  May it be done to me according to your Word”, and the act of obedience of Jesus expressed in the words, “Not my will but yours be done.”

Both sentences expressed a life of total commitment which led Jesus to be obedient unto death and which led Mary to the foot of the Cross and beyond to her faithful presence in the Apostolic community  until death and her Assumption.   Jesus is the New Adam and Mary is the New Eve.

The Annunciation

In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said, “Greetings, favoured one! The Lord is with you.” But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favour with God. And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David.  He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”  Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?”  The angel said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore  the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God. And now, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month for her who was said to be barren. For nothing will be impossible with God.” Then Mary said, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.” Then the angel departed from her.

In this story, Mary is a young girl, married to Joseph but not yet old enough to be living with him.  He announces to her the Good News that she is about to become Mother of the Messiah, and she recognises that it is a vocation she simply cannot accomplish, something way beyond her powers: “How can this be since I am a virgin?” The angel’s answer, while giving her the solution, tells her that she cannot do it by herself because the child will be Son
of the Most High: she is to become the Theotokos, the “Godbearer” and can only do so by working in “sinergia” with the Holy Soirit.   The Incarnation reqiires TWO causes, the presence within her of the Holy Spirit to enable her to become Mother of God, and her own humble obedience to allow the Holy Spirit to do his work.  His power and her obedience working as one will bring about the Incarnation and will thus make possible that obedience unto death of Christ by which we have been saved.   As Eve’s disobedience created the context for the disobedience of Adam by which all were alienated from God, so Mary’s obedience created the context for Christ’s obedience by which we are saved.

39 At that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea, 40 where she entered Zechariah’s home and greeted Elizabeth. 41 When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. 42 In a loud voice she exclaimed: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! 43 But why am I so favoured, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? 44 As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. 45 Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfil his promises to her!”