10th Sunday - Virgin Mary Did God's Will in All Things

 

In the first reading, we have Adam, Eve and the devil, who tempts them. They give in to the temptation and out of disobedience to God’s will, fall from grace. By doing what the devil wanted, they chose to do the will of the devil, rather than the will of God.

In Genesis 3:15, God responds to the Serpent, hinting at his first promise of redemption after the fall of Adam and Eve: “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 heel.” This hints at the cosmic struggle that will ensue, resulting in the Serpent’s ultimate defeat through the seed of the Woman—though her seed will also suffer through this victory (“you shall bruise his heel”). The Christian tradition sees this ultimately as a prophecy of Jesus’ victory over the devil on the Cross. The coming of the redeemer will return fallen mankind to the dominion of God, by the freedom to accept of God’s will for those who desire salvation.

God foretells to the serpent, it will be at enmity with a woman and her offspring in the future. The woman cannot be Eve because Eve who through her disobedience to God gave in to the temptation of the devil. So there must be a new woman (the Virgin Mary) who will come and her child (Jesus) will crush the head of the serpent.

To be at enmity means to be totally against such that they have absolutely nothing to do with each other. The future woman to come will assist the redeemer, in crushing the serpent. Since the woman to come will be totally against the devil, she will be obedient to God in all things. She will be sinless from her conception (like Eve), and so there is an allusion to Mary’s Immaculate Conception. Unlike Eve, She will always do God’s will and will never once commit any sin.

In the Gospel, we have Jesus, the new Adam and Mary the new Eve. Jesus, the redeemer, has power and dominion over the devil and evil spirits, and able to drive out demons. The redeemer, who will crush the head of the serpent, has come to bring salvation to those who accept it.

Sadly, some scribes accuse Jesus of being the prince of demons because He is able to cast out demons. In response, Our Lord speaks about the unforgivable sin (blaspheming against the Holy Spirit). It’s not unforgivable because it can’t be forgiven, but because they will not seek forgiveness for their sin. They attribute God’s work of freeing men from the power of evil spirits, to the action of devil. In another words, their hearts are so hardened, they refuse to recognize God’s action and even attribute God’s work to evil spirits and will not repent of their sin.

Genesis later calls Eve, the Mother of the living, but because of her fall from grace, she is really the mother of the dead. Blessed Guerric of Igny said, “The first Eve is not so much a mother as a stepmother, since she handed on to her children an inheritance of certain death rather than the beginning of light. She is indeed called the mother of all the living, but she is more truly the destroyer of the living or the mother of the dead, since the only fruit of her child-bearing was death. And as Eve was incapable of fulfilling the vocation of her title, Mary consummated the mystery. She herself, like the Church of which she is the type, is a mother of all who are reborn to life. She is in fact the mother of the life by which everyone lives, and when she brought it forth from herself she in some way brought to rebirth all those who were to live by that life.”

Second century writers St. Justin and St. Irenaeus used to call Mary the New Eve. They would say, “death through Eve, life through Mary”. The Catechism says, “The Virgin Mary 'cooperated through free faith and obedience in human salvation'. She uttered her yes 'in the name of all human nature' By Her obedience She became the new Eve, mother of the living." By the Catechism and early Church fathers, we can see Mary is the true Mother of the living because she is the spiritual mother of us all. Jesus gave His Mother to us at the foot of the Cross, when He told John, “Behold your Mother.” He said to Mary, “Woman, behold your son”. The word “woman” is in reference to the woman predicted in Genesis 3:15. In Revelation, Mary is the “woman” clothed with the sun and moon under her feet and on Her head a crown of twelve stars”. The dragon pursues Her and makes war against Her offspring because her offspring do God’s will.

In the Gospel today, when Our Lord’s Mother and His disciples arrived standing outside of the house, one of His disciples said, “Your Mother and your brothers and your sisters are outside asking for you.” Jesus replied, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” And looking at the people said, “Here are my mother and my brothers. For whosever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.” Here it sounds like Jesus had brothers and sisters. But this is not the case. Rather, Mary is a perpetual virgin. She gave birth to Jesus, but in a miraculous manner preserving Her virginal integrity. Jesus did not have natural brothers and sisters because Mary never had other children. The Hebrew language didn’t have separate words for “brother”, “cousin”. The Jews used the word “brother” for a “near relative” without meaning “blood-brothers”.

What did Jesus mean when He said to the people? “Here are my mother and my brothers. For whosever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.”? These words sound like He didn’t want to acknowledge His Mother. But, the opposite is true, He wanted all to know His Mother always did God’s will and was praising His Mother and exhorting them to be like Her. She is the promised Mother of the Redeemer and He is the Redeemer, who will crush the head of the serpent. He is saying, they are to be like Mary, who always did God’s will in Her life.

Since Mary is the Mother of the redeemer, we are of Her seed (Her children) and at war with the devil and his followers, because we do God’s will. In the end the victory is ours because the Redeemer will crush the head of the serpent and cast him and his followers into the abyss. The woman, the co-redemptrix, will assist Him in conquering the serpent.

Since Mary was free of sin and never sinned, She can help us avoid sin and do God’s will. God’s will is found in the ordinary duties and state of life. It’s God’s will we keep the house clean, wash the dishes and mow the yard. It’s God’s will children obey their parents. Spouses mutually submit to each other. It’s God’s will we obey civil laws and authority, such as not speeding or running stop signs. We are to obey our boss and do our job to the best of our ability. We are to be a good mother, father, brother or sister, or parent, or grandparent, or a good religious obeying our superior, living out the vows of poverty chastity and obedience and obeying the rule of life. God’s will for us is how we are mother, sister or brother to Jesus.

Sometimes we want to know God’s will in our life and should ask the Holy Spirit, who dwells in the Heart of Mary to help us know His will.

At times, we can’t understand God’s will, and must go by faith. When the angel asked Mary to become the mother of Jesus, She could not understand how it could be, because She had made a vow of virginity. How could She become a Mother and yet remain a virgin? But because of Her great faith, She told the angel, “Be it done unto me according to your word.”

Sometimes, when we can clearly see God’s will is painful and difficult for us, we are to have the same attitude of Jesus, who said, “Not my will, but your will be done?” trusting God will take care of us.

Today, may we seek Mary’s intercession in helping us to do God’s will, and not our own; to obey His commandments, avoiding sin; to do His will in our daily duties and state of life; and to accept God’s will as Mary accepted His will standing at the foot of the Cross. By doing God’s will, we are His children and the children of Mary (and therefore at war with evil spirts). But if we turn to Mary, the Queen of heaven and earth, the true mother of the living, the new Eve, who always did the will of the Father, we will inherit the kingdom of God, forfeited by Adam and Eve, but made available by our redeemer, who was obedient to His Father, even to death, death on the Cross, and rose from the dead for our salvation.