Our first parents were cast out of Eden and could not return there. The cherubim would block the entrance. The image of the cherubim would also block the way into the holy of holies in the Temple. They were embroidered on the curtain, a reminder that the holiness of God could not be trifled with. While the cherubim guarded the holiness of the Lord by closing off access, other angelic messengers would open up avenues of relationship with the Lord. The angels of the Lord would continue ascending and descending as Jacob saw in his vision at Bethel. Often the specific role of these messengers was to announce a son where there was no hope of new life, a son in whom the Lord would begin to deliver his people and restore them. Isaac, Samson, Gideon, Samuel and John the Baptist come to mind, most of whom figure in the readings of Advent, most announced by angels, sons conceived in seemingly impossible situations such as old age or barrenness. Such obstacles made no difference because this was the work of God for whom all things are possible.
Early in Genesis three angels visit Abraham and promise a son. They pose the question: “is anything impossible for God?” This question receives its definitive answer, on the lips of the Archangel Gabriel in Luke’s Gospel when he says: “For nothing is impossible for God” (Lk 1:37). In Genesis it is a question. In Luke, it is an answer, a declaration. It is as though Gabriel is answering the question of his Genesis colleagues back across the centuries, “No, nothing is impossible with God.”
Today’s reading from Genesis gives a glimpse of the loving purposes of God from the beginning. Even after our first parents rejected him, God did not abandon them. While life in Eden was over, God’s care continued. He clothed Adam and Eve. He put a mark on Cain to protect him. He promised them a Savior in the proto-evangelium, the first proclamation of the Gospel, where it is said that the Woman’s seed would crush the power of evil: of sin, death and Satan. The happy fault, the necessary sin of Adam would win for us so great a Redeemer! Our destiny was not to return to paradise but to be enthroned in heaven. What the Archangel Gabriel opened up in his announcement to Mary is much greater than what was closed off by the cherubim at Eden.
It would be impossible to solemnize adequately the events described in today’s Gospel, the purity and faith of Immaculate Mary (Virgo Purissima) and the Incarnation of the Word. Before Mary, the world was bleak, dreary, weary, dark, dank, a land where, as C.S. Lewis wrote: “it was always winter but never Christmas.” The Divine Office speaks of Mary as the white dawn before the rising Sun of Justice. The Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin was already glimpsed by Elijah from Mount Carmel in the tiny cloud that would end the drought in the land. The hymn for Morning Prayer spoke of a new happiness, yet unknown to the world, that came with Mary. On the threshold of Christ’s coming, even fear melts away. The fear that surrounds the first sin and all sin – “I was afraid because I was naked” - is banished by Gabriel’s message to Mary: “Do not be afraid.”
The words of Gabriel that became the “Hail Mary,” are the words that opened up the way for the Lord to come to us. The salvation of each one of us is tied to that holy prayer. When we use the words of the Angelic Salutation, the “Hail Mary,” we invoke and appropriate the salvation announced when first those words were uttered. It is no mystery then why this prayer and its repetition, for instance in the Rosary, is so powerful and efficacious. The Hail Mary, the Rosary, puts us in touch with Mary who draws us into the mystery of Christ. It places us in her Immaculate Heart, that heart where the mysteries of Christ were first contemplated, where Christ is formed, and where we will always find peace.
The last words of the first reading tell us with a note of fatality that Eve became the mother of all the living. Original sin would be transmitted to her children. But Mary full of grace, would be miraculously preserved. “Blessed be her holy and immaculate conception!” we pray every evening in this chapel. The Fathers of the Church were quick to see Mary as the New Eve, the one who is truly Mother of all the living because she is the Mother of Life. They summarized it as “Death through Eve. Life through Mary!” It’s no wonder that great theologians, including Blessed Cardinal Newman, called her “all-powerful” in her intercession. St. Bernard describes the confidence we should have in her when he wrote:
In danger, in distress, in uncertainty think of Mary, call upon Mary.
… that you may obtain the help of her prayers, never forget the example of her life.
If you follow her, you cannot falter;
if you pray to her, you cannot despair;
if you think of her, you cannot err.
If she sustains you, you will not stumble;
if she protects you, you have nothing to fear;
if she guides you, you will never flag;
if she is favorable to you, you will attain your goal.
… that you may obtain the help of her prayers, never forget the example of her life.
If you follow her, you cannot falter;
if you pray to her, you cannot despair;
if you think of her, you cannot err.
If she sustains you, you will not stumble;
if she protects you, you have nothing to fear;
if she guides you, you will never flag;
if she is favorable to you, you will attain your goal.
Death through Eve. Life through Mary!
O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee. Amen.
