A Great "Nuptial Mystery"
Author's note: I wonder how many readers noticed how interrelated were the Mariology and Theology sections of the November 1998 issue. Upon reading the interview with the honorable Howard Q. Dee entitled "Our Lady's Ambassador," I found it quite interesting that my article on John Paul II’s Theology of the Body appeared in the same issue. We both open mentioning the place of the Church at the threshold of a new millennium, go on to outline John Paul II's contributions to the Church's ever-deepening understanding of her own "nuptial mystery" (I focus on the disunited hearts of the first Adam and Eve, and Dee on the alliance of the Sacred and Immaculate hearts of the New Adam and Eve), and we both conclude with virtually the same idea, if not the exact same statement: if we but unite ourselves with this great mystery, we will renew the face of the earth!
Furthermore, much of Dee's interview focused on the messages of Fatima. Surely many Inside the Vatican readers are aware that the attempt on the Holy Father's life in 1981 happened on the anniversary of the first Fatima apparition. What readers probably don't know is that the Pope was on his way to one of his weekly audiences on the "theology of the body" when he was shot. He was also planning that day to announce the establishment of the John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family. It is this Institute (of which I am a proud graduate) that is in large part responsible for the dissemination of Holy Father's profound insights into the great "nuptial mystery." He subsequently entrusted the Institute to the care of Mary under her title, "Our Lady of Fatima. "
Thus, I dedicate this article, which is second in the series, to pondering the relationship between the first Adam and Eve and the New Adam and Eve in light of John Paul II's Theology of the Body and Howard Dee's comments on the "alliance of the Hearts of Jesus and Mary. "
"For this reason a man will leave his father and mother, cling to his bride, and the two will become one flesh. This is a profound mystery, and it refers to Christ and the Church" (Eph 5:31-32). According to the Holy Father, in some sense this magnificent synthesis of St. Paul appears as the summa of all that can be said about God and Man (cf. Letter to Families, 19).
These, then, are perhaps the most pregnant words of all of Scripture. Pregnant with the very meaning of our being and existence—our creation, our fall, our redemption. Pregnant words that speak ultimately of the pregnancy of the Word. This is the great "nuptial mystery" we shall seek to ponder anew, the mystery hidden in God from all ages, foreshadowed in the first Adam and Eve, and definitively revealed in the second.
How does Man's creation foreshadow his redemption? What is the nature of Adam and Eve's sin? How do the new Adam and Eve "undo" their sin? For answers to these questions, we must return to John Paul II's reflections on the body and its nuptial meaning. Indeed, it is here that the drama of our creation, fall, and redemption is played out.
Our Creation: A Nuptial Gift
God created Man out of Love in order to draw him into eternal Life-giving Communion with himself. God's eternal plan is to "marry" us. And this great gift of our creation is revealed through the nuptial meaning of the body. As John Paul II says, the body "was created to transfer in the visible reality of the world the mystery hidden since time immemorial in God.... And this is the mystery of truth and love, the mystery of divine life, in which Man really participates" (General Audience of February 20, 1980).
Much can be gleaned, then, in understanding our communion with God by examining more closely the communion of the sexes. For we face here not an arbitrary similarity, but a "great analogy" written by God into our very being as male and female.
Sexual Complementarity & Its Symbolic Meaning
The marital embrace serves as a paradigm for demonstrating the nature of sexual complementarity. The man, as evidenced by his body, is fundamentally disposed toward going out from himself and giving himself to his bride. Conversely, the woman, as evidenced by her body, is fundamentally disposed towards receiving the gift of her bridegroom into herself.
However, in the very process of receiving her bridegroom, she also gives herself to him, and he, in turn, receives her. As John Paul II puts it: "the giving and the accepting of the gift interpenetrate, so that the giving itself becomes accepting, and the acceptance is transformed into giving" (General Audience of February 6, 1980). This wondrous complementary exchange of giving and receiving inherent in the marital embrace actualizes a true communion of persons, finding its crowning glory in the conception of new life in the bride's womb.
According to the "great analogy" God is symbolically "masculine" in relation to Man, while Man is symbolically "feminine" in relation to God. As the Bridegroom, God freely and gratuitously initiates "the gift" of his Life to Man, who, as the Bride, receives "the gift" from his Creator. Having received such a great gift, Man is called in his freedom to make a gift of himself back to God in thanksgiving, a gift, which God, in turn, receives. This is the Life-giving Communion of Love that Man knew with his Creator "in the beginning" in and through the life-giving communion of love he knew as male and female.
Woman: The Archetype Of Man
What a profound mystery! Just as a bride is made in the very structure of her being for life-giving communion with her man, so too is Man (male & female) made in the very depths of his being for Life-giving Communion with God. Man is called to bear within himself the very Life of God! "From this point of view, woman is the representative and the archetype of the whole human race: she represents the humanity which belongs to all human beings, both men and women" (John Paul II, Mulieris Dignitatem 4). And this humanity is fulfilled in Mary, the New Eve, in whose womb Divine Life became flesh.
All of this is very important if we are to understand the profundity of the Scriptural account of the fall (and subsequently, the redemption). Indeed, the drama of original sin— the breach of Communion between God and Man—is played out in the breach of communion between man and woman. As the Holy Father says, "Sin and death entered Man's history, in a way, through the very heart of that unity which, from 'the beginning,' was formed by man and woman, created and called to become 'one flesh"' (General Audience of March 5, 1980).
Knowledge Of Good And Evil
The Lord said, "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden, but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. For the moment you eat of it you will surely die" (Gen 2:16, 17). Now, it is not to be assumed that Adam and Eve lacked knowledge of good before the fall. Indeed, the knowledge they had of each other in the experience of original nakedness and unity, of which John Paul II speaks, was specifically a knowledge of good. As he puts it, it was a participation in the original good of God's vision when he looked at all he had made and called it very good (Gen 1:31, cf. General Audience of March 26, 1980).
Furthermore, they must have had some concept of evil and death. Otherwise the prohibition not to eat from the tree "lest they die" would have had no meaning. However, they were to be kept, no doubt, from that knowledge of evil which one gains by doing it.
This gives rise to other questions. What kind of fruit was it that the woman ate and gave to her husband? And why did the tempter approach the woman first? St. Edith Stein, in reflecting on these questions, notes that the consequences of original sin give a clue for what the sin might have been. Shame enters their relationship, as does pain in bringing forth fruit. For the man this means suffering in sowing the seed, and for the woman suffering in childbearing.
Stein reflects, "But that the tempter first tempted the woman may signify that he had easier access to her, not that the woman was more easily induced to evil (indeed, both Adam and Eve were still free of an inclination to evil), but because the nature of the temptation was in itself of greater significance for her" (Essays on Woman, p. 62).
Original sin is Man's rebellion against his own status as a creature who, by nature, must receive his being in order to be. Man wanted to be like God but without receiving this likeness from God. Here it can be seen why the tempter may have had "easier access to the woman." She, as the archetype of humanity, embodies precisely what Man rejects in the fall—his receptivity in relation to God.
Our Fall: Rejection Of The Nuptial Gift
But, if God is Love, why would Man want to reject this receptivity? Because a seductive voice, envious of God's gift to Man (his share in Divine Life), convinces the woman that God is withholding himself from them, that he is not gift (cf. Catechism n. 391). God knows that when you eat of the tree you will be like him (cf. Gen 3:5). The implication: God doesn't want you to be like him....
The woman doubts God's Love. And if God is not Love, receptivity in relationship to him translates into fear and vulnerability. She denies "the gift," turns from her receptive position, and seeks to grasp "likeness to God without God" (cf. Catechism n. 398).
Remember that, according to the "great analogy," the denial of "the gift" in the Communion of God and Man would express itself in a denial of "the gift" in the communion of man and woman. And it is precisely their communion in "one flesh" that is the fundamental sign in creation—the primordial sacrament—of the Communion of God and Man. St. Edith Stein thus proposes: "the act committed could well have been a manner of union which was at variance with the original order" (Essays on Woman p. 62)—a union that in some way became a counter-sign of "the gift" of God's Life and Love to Man.
According to the biblical significance of the word "knowledge," can it not be said that such a disordered union would be a knowledge of evil—precisely that from which God wanted to keep them in his prohibition?! Before sin they were "both naked and felt no shame" (Gen 2:25). But when they sinned they realized they were naked and covered themselves (cf. Gen 3:7). Does this shame not indicate a different knowledge of the body? The body itself is not evil. But a knowledge of their bodies that denied the gift of God's Life and Love would be.
The Child: Embodiment Of "The Gift"
The gift of God's Life and Love to Man communes with the gift of man and woman's life and love to each other most tangibly in the co-creation of a new human being. As John Paul II says, "Procreation is rooted in creation and every time, in a sense, reproduces its mystery" (General Audience of November 21, 1979). What mystery? The mystery of our creation as the gift of God's Life and Love. A gift we are given to receive and a gift we recapitulate in becoming "one flesh" as male and female. In a sense, the child is the "one flesh" that husband and wife become. The child is the embodiment of "the gift."
As such, procreation illuminates Man's creaturely status, his position of receptivity in relation to God, and, in turn, woman's position of receptivity in relation to the man. Now, if the fall is Man's rejection of his receptivity in relation to God, it would seem that—from the woman's perspective— the fall would be expressed in her rejection of receptivity in relation to the man.
Man wants to be "like God." He doesn't want to receive life from God. Woman wants to be "like the man" (the kind of person that experiences union without conceiving, perhaps?). She doesn't want to receive life from the man.
Could this explain again why the serpent approached the woman? As Stein says, "From the first it was intended that woman's life would be more strongly affected by procreation and the education of posterity. The difference of punishment for the man and woman is also indicative of this" (Essays on Woman, p. 62).
The Silence Of Adam
But where is Adam in all of this? A serpent has penetrated the sanctuary of God (the garden) and is attacking his bride. Was Adam not in charge of guarding the garden? And is not his wife's womb in some sense "the garden" where Adam is to sow the seed of life? ("You are a garden enclosed, my sister, my bride..." Song of Songs 4:12). Is not the womb of the woman destined to be the sanctuary of God? (blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus...). Something profound is happening here—something diabolical (from the Greek "diabalein" which means to break apart, disunite...).
Both the first Eve and the second (Mary) were approached by angels. Lucifer brought to the first Eve a message to deny God's Life and Love. Gabriel brought to the New Eve a message to receive it. Might we describe the fallen angel's message as the "anti-annunciation" (or denunciation), which would be a temptation for Eve to deny life in her womb? Is not Satan's envy of Man rooted in God's plan that the eternal Son should become incarnate, born of a woman, and in so doing divinize Man? It would seem that Satan's goal in approaching the woman is to prevent the Incarnation! In the Apocalypse, the serpent wants to devour the child (cf. Rev 12:4). Better yet if he can prevent him from existing altogether.
Perhaps we can now surmise what kind of "fruit" Eve presented to her husband. It would appear to be the pleasure of a union that denied his call to fatherhood. In Crossing the Threshold of Hope, John Paul II makes this striking statement: "This is truly the key for interpreting reality... Original sin attempts to abolish fatherhood" (p. 228).
To deny the Father is to deny the Son. This is Satan's scheme. And he carries it out "through the very heart of that unity which, from 'the beginning,' was formed by man and woman, created and called to become 'one flesh'" (John Paul II, General Audience of March 5, 1980).
When the woman presented the "fruit" to him, Adam should have stood firm in the truth of God's Fatherhood and his call to image God as a father himself. He should have responded: "Be not afraid, my bride. As the Father loves me, so I love you. Remain in my love. Receive 'the gift' of my seed"
Instead we read that he ate the fruit she gave him without a word. He too saw that the fruit was "pleasing to the eye." He, from his perspective, withheld "the gift," shirking his responsibility as husband and father.
God Sent His Son Born Of A Woman
It is not surprising, based on what we've proposed, that after their fall, hope of redemption is immediately linked to the woman and childbearing. "I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your offspring and hers; He will strike at your head, while you strike at his heel" (Gen 3:15).
"Christian tradition sees in this passage an announcement of the 'New Adam'... Furthermore, many Fathers and Doctors of the Church have seen the woman announced in the Protoevangelium as Mary, the mother of Christ, the 'New Eve'" (Catechism n. 411). The New Adam and Eve recapitulate the first Adam and Eve, "undoing" their denial of the gift by restoring the nuptial meaning of the body.
Eve doubted God's Word and rejected her receptivity to life—her status as a creature. But "in the expression '[I am the] handmaid of the Lord,' one senses Mary's complete awareness of being a creature of God" (John Paul II, Mulieris Dignitatem n. 5). She believed God's Word and in perfect receptivity conceived that Word within her. Her fiat is a complete acceptance of the gift, and an unconditional gift of her life to the Lord in thanksgiving—a gift, which will find its fullest expression at the foot of the cross, and a gift that the Lord will show he receives by assuming her into heaven body and soul.
On his part, Adam failed to confront the serpent's attack against life in the Garden of Eden. But in the garden of Gethsemane at "the hour of darkness" (cf. Lk 22:53), Christ took upon himself Satan's attack against humanity. And he comforts his despairing Bride: "Be not afraid" (Jn 14:27). "As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you. Remain in my love" (Jn 15:9). He even compares his disciples' sufferings to the pains of a woman giving birth (cf. Jn 16:21). Something profound is happening here—something symbolical (from the Greek "symbalein" which means to bring together, unite).
The Cross: Restoration Of The Nuptial Gift
At Golgotha, the cross becomes the "tree of life" from which hangs the "fruit" of Mary's womb (which we eat in Holy Communion...). Christ, believing in the gift of the Father, offers his life back to the Father in thanksgiving (eucharistia) —the thanksgiving that Adam refused. The Father in turn shows his acceptance of this gift through the Resurrection and Ascension of Christ into heaven.
At the same time, the God-man is offering his body for his Bride. He addresses Mary at the foot of the cross not as his mother, but as the woman (cf. Jn 19:26)—the archetype of humanity—a reference to Genesis 3:16. What we are witnessing here is the consummation of a marriage! — not in pleasure, but in pain and suffering—suffering that takes away the sin of the world (the denial of the gift).
Again we see the "interpenetration" of giving and receiving the nuptial gift. As the Bridegroom gives himself to his Bride, she receives a sword through her heart. In receiving this sword, she also gives herself to him, and he, in turn, receives a sword through his heart.
John Paul II reflects: "When the side of Christ was pierced with the centurion's lance, Simeon's prophecy was fulfilled in [Mary]: 'And a sword will pierce through your own heart also' (Lk 2:35). The words of the prophet are a foretelling of the definitive alliance of these hearts [of the New Adam and Eve]" (Angelus Address of September 15, 1985).
The alliance of these hearts is the fulfillment of the nuptial meaning of the body. In their self-giving, Christ becomes the revelation of the Father's love, Mary becomes the "mother of the living" in the order of grace, and the "beloved disciple" symbolizes their offspring (cf. Jn 19:26, 27). The New Adam and Eve have restored Life-giving Communion. And— mystery of mysteries—the communion of this man and woman is at one and the same time the Communion of God and Man!
Creation is recapitulated! As Eve was conceived from the side of Adam in the order of creation, so it is through the blood and water flowing from Christ's side that the New Eve is conceived—immaculately—in the order of redemption. Yes, Mary's Immaculate Conception is the perfectly received fruit of Christ's self-giving on the cross. As Cardinal Schoenborn puts it, "Mary is the seal of perfect creatureliness; in her is illustrated in advance what God intended for creation" (quoted by Howard Dee, Inside the Vatican, Nov. 1998, p. 32).
What did God intend for creation? That Man would be impregnated with the gift of Divine Life through the nuptial union of Christ and the Church. Mary, the archetype of humanity, the Model of the Church, is Man's "yes!" to God's marriage proposal!
The War Against The Woman Continues
Despite his efforts, Satan could not foil God's plan to divinize Man. But he continues to try, and always with the same tactic. The war against the woman and her offspring continues to this day, and with particular intensity in our own century.
After the Second Vatican Council, Paul VI remarked that the "smoke of Satan" had entered the Church. Isn't the Church the sanctuary of God and the Bride of the New Adam? We're back in the garden! Or, shall we say, Satan is back in the garden. And once again, the temptation is the same. At the close of the Council, the Church was coming under fierce pressure to accept the denial of "the gift" of life in the womb. But trusting in the love of the Father, Paul VI responded in keeping with the lofty calling of human life— Humanae Vitae!
No encyclical in the history of the Church has been more widely and openly rejected—and none more tragically so. For the culture that rejects Humanae Vitae replays the "dynamic" of original sin ad infinitum: women reject childbearing (contraception, abortion, etc.); men reject the responsibility of fatherhood (contraception, abortion, divorce/abandonment, etc.); women want to be like men (radical feminism); Men want to be "like God" (the pride of life and all its manifestations); and we deny the Fatherhood of God (feminist theology, goddess worship, etc.) and the Incarnation of his Son (denial of Christ's divinity and real presence in the Eucharist, etc.). Is this not precisely what we see in today's "culture of death"—even within the Church, the sanctuary of God? Indeed, the "smoke of Satan" has entered.
It was in response to Paul VI 's encyclical Humanae Vitae that John Paul II developed his Theology of the Body so that the Church might more fully understand and embrace her own "nuptial mystery"—the mystery hidden in God from all ages, foreshadowed in the first Adam and Eve, and definitively revealed in the second. Here, in the earliest years of his pontificate, John Paul laid the sure foundation for the Church to cross the "threshold of hope" into the new millennium and share the great "nuptial mystery" with the world in a new evangelization.
In Conclusion…
At the end of the second millennium, the serpent's attack against the woman and her offspring that began "in the beginning" is raging all around us. We need now, perhaps more than ever, according to the Holy Father, to hear the words of Christ: "Be not afraid!" (cf. Crossing the Threshold of Hope p. 221). We need not be afraid because, as the Father has loved Christ, so Christ has loved the Church. All we need do is remain in his love (cf. Jn 15:9). The sin that entered humanity through the very heart of that unity formed by Adam and Eve in creation has been "undone" by the unity of the very hearts of the New Adam and Eve in redemption. It was for this reason that Christ left his Father and mother and gave up his body for his Bride, so that the Church might become "one body" with him and conceive New Life within her (cf. Eph 5:31-32, Jn 10:10).
We now groan in labor pains as we await this redemption of our bodies (cf. Rom 8:22-23). In these labor pains, Mary is our hope. For in her, Christ has already fully accomplished the redemption of the body. Since this redemption is to be formed into the Body of Christ, on the eve of the 2,000th anniversary of the Incarnation, let us make John Paul II's motto our own. Let us entrust ourselves "Totus Tuus" to the one in whom the Body of Christ was formed. Mary, "Mother of the Living," pray for us!
Christopher West is Director of the Office of Marriage and Family Life in the Archdiocese of Denver, Colorado, USA. He received his Master's degree in Sacred Theology from the John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage & Family in Washington, D.C.
© Dr. Robert Moynihan, Editor, Inside the Vatican Magazine
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