Today we celebrate this votive mass in honor of Our Lady under the title of the New Eve.
And just as a man and a woman work together for the fall of the human race, the man having
the primary part, the primary role, and the woman assisting, cooperating in that fall,
so it was in God's plan that a man and a woman should redeem the human race.
The man, Jesus Christ, who St. Paul calls the second Adam in 1 Corinthians 15,
has the primary role, the headship, in the work of redemption,
while Our Lady...
the New Eve, the second Eve, has a secondary role, a role of cooperation.
And we see this teaching regarding Our Lady as the New Eve as early as the second century
in the Church, especially in the writings of St. Justin Martyr and St. Irenaeus.
And they note, or they contrast, Our Lady's faith with the disbelief
of Eve, Our Lady's obedience to the disobedience of Eve.
By her faith and obedience, Mary undoes the loss inflicted on the human race
by the unbelief and disobedience of the first Eve.
And this is a quote from St. Irenaeus against heresies.
The knot of Eve's disobedience was loosed by Mary's obedience.
The bonds fastened by the Virgin Eve through disbelief
were united, were untied, by the Virgin Mary through faith.
And so, today, let us ask Our Lady to give us her faith and her obedience to God,
that we may imitate and follow in her footsteps,
and also, in this way, becoming co-redeemers ourselves.
Amen.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.