To understand more deeply the necessity of Mary in our lives, we must turn to the Bible. Many people assume, understandably so, that Our Lady’s first appearance in Scripture occurs in St. Luke’s account of the Annunciation (Luke 1:26-38.). Even though this is the first time Mary is mentioned by name in the Scriptures, it is not the first time she is mentioned in it. Others may suggest that Mary’s first appearance in Scripture occurs in Isaiah’s prophecy concerning the Messiah: “Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:14). However, that is not Mary’s first appearance in Scripture either. Rather, Mary’s first appearance in Scripture occurs in the very beginning, in the third chapter of the book of Genesis when the Lord says to the serpent, “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 heal” (Genesis 3:15). To understand the beauty and depth of this verse we must, as with all Scripture, understand it in its proper context.
Genesis 3 recounts the fall of Adam and Eve. When Adam and Eve sin they realize they are naked and try to hide from God. Once they are “discovered” by God, Adam blames Eve, and then Eve blames the serpent (Genesis 3:12-13). In verse 14 the Lord curses the serpent (the devil) by saying, “upon your belly you shall go, and dust shall you eat all the days of your life’ (Gen 3:14). Then, verse 15 occurs, which I have quoted in the previous paragraph, and which is often referred to in Biblical theology as the “Protoevangelium,” [1] or the “first gospel,” because in this verse we hear the first announcement of salvation for mankind.
The important question at this point is, how is God going to redeem humanity after the fall? He will do so by placing “enmity,” or opposition, between the devil and humanity. Now, this “enmity” and this redemption cannot occur through Adam and Eve, since now they are both fallen. Despite what many would like to believe, a fallen creature cannot redeem another fallen creature. Furthermore, we know that the woman mentioned in Genesis 3:15 cannot be Eve, because in the very next verse, Genesis 3:16, Eve receives her punishment for her sin, and every time Eve is mentioned in Scripture she is always referred to as the cause of our ruin and not as the beginning of our restoration (Sirach 25:24, 2 Cor 11:3, 1 Timothy 2:14).
The only possible conclusion here is that there needs to be a New Adam and a New Eve who have not fallen, and therefore have not been corrupted by sin, which is what Genesis 3:15 is announcing. Obliviously, the New Adam is Jesus Christ which means that the New Eve can only be Mary, the mother of the Redeemer. Commenting on Genesis 3:15, which many Jews regarded as a prophecy concerning the Messiah,[1] Fr. Gabriel M. Pellettieri writes, “With these words God announces to humanity the coming of Christ the Redeemer into the world and that of Mary as Mother of the promised Messiah.”[2] As early as the 2nd century, specifically in the writings of St. Justin (d.163) and St. Irenaeus (d 200), Mary was already seen and called by the Church as the New Eve, the one who is intimately associated with Christ the New Adam in the work of redemption.
We must not conclude that this close association that Mary has with Jesus in the work of redemption is merely a one-time historical reality. In other words, Mary’s purpose is not only to give birth to Jesus and then disappear into the annals of history. On the contrary, it is the will of God that Mary remains a prominent figure throughout all human history by both giving birth to Jesus and remaining intimately associated with him in the work of our redemption. We glimpse these truths most brilliantly in Mary’s Assumption and her Coronation. Hence, Mary now from heaven is Queen of both heaven and earth. Mary the queen mother, works together with Christ the King in the work of our redemption by mothering us in our entire life of discipleship. It is she who forms and nurtures us in the way of prayer, apostolate, and in the particularities of our vocations. Every moment of our life Mary, by the will of God, is attempting to mold us into the image of her son.
In conclusion, here is a basic theological summary of Genesis 3:15 that has direct implications to our spiritual life: You can’t have the fullness of Christ, without Mary. It’s that simple. Pope St. Paul VI summarized this perfectly in a homily when he said, “We cannot be Christian without being Marian!” (St. Paul VI, Homily 24 April 1970.) [3] It is important to add to this that we cannot be Marian merely in our minds. It is not enough only to think that Mary is important. Rather, we must live and act as if she is essential for our relationship with God, since she is just that.
[1] This verse was regarded as a prophecy of the Messiah in ancient Jewish tradition. A Catholic Introduction To the Bible, 108.
[3] Fr. Matthias M. Sasko, FI: Preparation for Total Consecration To The Immaculate According to Saint Maximilian M. Kolbe. Academy of the Immaculate 2023, 32.
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