43
mystery of redemption—fulfilled in the person of Christ—are united in the spousal mystery
made Incarnate at the Annunciation and culminating in the sacrifice of Christ.
Reflecting the mystery of the Church, married couples find their exemplar in the spousal
love between Jesus, the New Adam, and Mary, called by the Church “the new Eve.” 183 The man
conforms himself to Christ in his solicitude for his bride, tending to her and caring for her as
Christ nourishes the Church in the Eucharist. In Christ, the new Adam who sacrifices himself for
his Bride, man learns sacrificial love for his spouse, in a way that protects her motherhood and
her feminine dignity, responding to her as a person to be cherished rather than used. Through
Christ, the perfect image of the Father, man learns how to be a father himself in his roles as
progenitor, protector, provider, and leader.
On the other hand, woman finds her perfect model and archetype in the person of Mary,
the spouse of the Holy Spirit and the “figure” of the Church as Christ’s Bride. 184 St. John Paul II
says of Mary that she is “the witness to the new ‘beginning’ and the ‘new creation’ (cf. 2 Cor
45:17).” 185 Expounding on the work of St. Ambrose, the Holy Father continues:
Mary [is] the full revelation of all that is included in the biblical word “woman”: a
revelation commensurate with the mystery of the redemption. Mary means, in a sense, a
going beyond the limit spoken of in the Book of Genesis (3:16) and a return to that
“beginning” in which one finds the “woman” as she was intended to be in creation…
Mary is “the new beginning” of the dignity and vocation of women, of each and every
woman. 186 (italics in original)
However, Mary also embodies the perfect response to God’s love for man as well. St. John Paul
II asks, “Is not the Bible trying to tell us that it is precisely in the “woman”—Eve-Mary—that
history witnesses a dramatic struggle for every human being, the struggle for his or her
183
CCC, 411.
MD, sec. 22.
185
Ibid., sec. 11.
186
Ibid.
184