As we await the coming of the Saviour in this Advent season, let us speak about two women who have most influenced the Christian worldview of humanity’s existence on our globe. These women are Eve and Mary. Eve is the first in every respect: she is the first created woman, the first woman to speak with the serpent (which later Christianity began to identify with God’s adversary, the fallen angel Satan), Eve is the first to seduce a man, the first to become pregnant, the first to give birth, the first to fall away. Eve is the one with whom the continuation of humanity begins and with whom God’s daily closeness ends; there also ends innocence, naivety and the overflowing abundance of the Garden of Eden, and there begin the cares, worries and pains of life, that which the French novelist André Malraux described, using the following term – la condition humaine (French) – the human condition.
We have learned the creation story, the story of the fall into sin, well, and have long since come to terms with our la condition humaine. Even more, we have turned la condition humaine into a ‘Christian anthropology’, in which woman is subordinated to man, thereby making an ancient story of the Jewish people (whose literary elements in no way claim to be the description of a historical event) shape our Christian view of anthropology. Because of such a theology, every woman in the world is identified with Eve and every man – with Adam. Accordingly, just as Eve was subordinated to man, so too all women, according to this ‘Christian anthropology’, are subordinated to men.
As we will see in the lines that follow, such a theology is not Christian. At best it is the theology of fallen humanity, which has nothing to do with the Christ event, the light of the gospel and the salvation of humanity. At worst, such a theology is godless, because la condition humaine is the human being’s striving without God. God, on the contrary, has carried out His purposes with the intent that humanity should forget about the first Eve and the first Adam and focus on the second Eve and the second Adam. Eve and Adam are to be remembered only insofar as is needed to be aware that in Christianity there has long been the new Eve – Mary, and there is the second Adam – Jesus Christ. The second Eve and the second Adam begin in Christian anthropology a new era, a new covenant, the potential of a new creation; Mary and Jesus turn over a new, clean page in humanity’s existence.
In the writings of the early Church Fathers, Mary’s personality was often compared with Eve’s personality, with Mary being contrasted to Eve. Both were virgins, both conversed with angels, to both an offer was made. Eve collaborated in disobedience; Mary became God’s collaborator in the coming of the world’s Saviour. Eve gave birth to a son – Cain – a murderer. Mary, on the contrary, gave birth to the Word of God, who gives eternal life to everyone who believes. Mary marked a turning point in humanity’s existence, because the very Son of God arrived upon the earth in physical form, so that we might again behold his face – the face that humanity had not seen since the story of Eve and Adam. Possibly the face that humanity never saw so clearly and would never see again, had there not been such a young woman, Mary, who responded to God’s challenge and to collaboration that could have cost her her own life (Mary could have been stoned for having become pregnant outside of marriage). Mary gave birth to the world to the one of whom the prophets wrote – ‘Immanuel’, or “God is with us”. This became possible thanks to Mary’s obedience. It is very possible that the young girl Mary (who might have been only about 12–14 years old) was not aware that the consequences of her obedience would be not only of global, but also of cosmic scale – the renewal of all of God’s creation.
We like to talk about Jesus Christ, especially about Christ the Child and Christ the Messiah, but we do not feel comfortable talking about Mary, because in Protestantism Mary is merely a means, an instrument, a woman who is not worthy of admiration. Her personality is overshadowed by Christ’s shadow, because He is the main player in the world’s arena. We leave the exaltation of Mary to another confession, which does it much more actively. But in this Advent season let us think about Mary together with Christ. The Christ event begins with Mary in three of the four gospels. The Christ event – that is the birth, ministry, death and resurrection of Christ. In every one of these stages of life Mary is present and supports her son. Mary is the second Eve, Christ is the second Adam. In keeping with these new events in the history of humanity’s existence, which in Latin we can designate with the term novum (a new event – Latin), we Christians must reformulate the anthropology of the fallen human being, from the status quo (the current state – Latin) of Job-worthy laments – why am I not succeeding? why do I live in this accursed world? why was I born? does God even exist, does He notice me? – to a Christian anthropology that begins with Mary, the mother of Christ, who gives birth to the world to a Human Being who is simultaneously God and simultaneously a Human Being. Jesus is the first Human Being with a capital letter, who teaches about God’s love and the necessity of loving one’s neighbour, who encourages the poor, the outcast, sinners both male and female, makes the fallen believe in themselves and rise, leaving the status quo, to look to the Human Being Jesus and to Heaven. The Human Being Jesus Christ raises human self-awareness, makes people notice one another and become better, brighter, perceive in the other person the image of God, remember their roots in Heaven, their origin in God, their portion, their worth in God’s plan, rise up, shake off the dust, the weight of sin, and become the kind of people God has created – like His Son Jesus Christ, who is not only God (this heresy would be Gnosticism) and not only a Human Being (this heresy would be Arianism), but who is true God and true Human Being.
It is not enough to confess that we believe in God. We must see that God believes in humanity. God has chosen to plant Himself in humanity through the event that we theologically call the Incarnation – the birth of Christ in the flesh. There are enough religions in the world that believe in gods, prophets or demigods. But only in Christianity does God believe in the human being. God believes in the human being to such a degree that in the Christ event we, like the disciples and those around who spent time with Jesus, first of all behold a Human Being, one of us. He is like us in all things: he was born with questionable paternity, experienced rejection by other people, he had visible problems fitting into the dominant religion of his time, because the message of his preaching crossed the walls erected by the Pharisees, Sadducees and priests, opened the closed doors and shuttered windows, and invited ordinary people into the Kingdom of God. Organised religion has one powerful feature – it includes ‘its own’ and excludes ‘the rest’. But the preaching of Jesus Christ – God and Human Being – applied to all those who believe, not excluding even prostitutes and lepers from receiving God’s inheritance.
We must renew our thinking in accordance with the description of the New Testament and with the Christ event. We must review our Christian anthropology and ask the question – can the story of Eve and Adam be the foundation of a Christian anthropology? Why, if Mary is a clear example of the obedience of a godly woman, must we drag out the ancient Eve? Why, if we have Jesus, who is simultaneously the Son of God, but also the Son of Man, must we drag out the old Adam?
A Christian anthropology in accordance with the new covenant between humanity and God begins with Mary and Jesus. Accordingly, a Christian view of life must be formed on the basis of the fullness of God’s revelation, the fullness of God’s Word, which has been personified in a Human Being – Jesus Christ of Nazareth.
It is not enough if we say that we believe in God. The essence of the Christian faith requires that we accept the fact that God believes in humanity.
In this sometimes difficult and unstable time, when Europe is experiencing suffering, confusion, human casualties and a financial crisis, Christianity is the only one that has an answer to the question of how its God differs from other gods. To the God of Christianity the human being matters. Our God believes in humanity, and by His active action in the Christ event He has confirmed it. God the Father, before whom every heart and every intention stands open, was not ashamed to send His Son to be born of the woman Mary. In this particular event, momentous for the Universe, God entrusted Himself to a woman! Because God believes in humanity! May God give us the ability and the strength to look with faith and hope upon every human being. The strength of Christianity is its unbreakable bond with the human being. Let us shape our anthropological view in keeping with the new creation that is possible in Christ Jesus, our Lord!
Aļesja Lavrinoviča Photo: “Mary comforts Eve”, drawing. Author: Sister Grace Remington, USA, 2005.