Mary's election restores women's "admirable dignity"

Tradition teaches that, just as death entered the world through a woman's fault, so the world is saved through a woman's "yes". So it is not the person insofar as she is a woman who had to bear the guilt of the original fault. 

If this had been the case, then women of all generations would have had to bear the stigma, to bear the guilt of the original sin by resemblance to Eve. To be a woman would have meant to be "unworthy", to embody guilt. 

But through the election of Mary, we are kept far from this error, and bound to a just appreciation of the admirable dignity of women. For it was also from a woman that the Son of God, through whom the world is saved, was born, and this a woman who is thus elevated to the highest dignity of creatures, above all creatures.

Not a few of the early Fathers gladly assert: "The knot of Eve's disobedience was untied by Mary's obedience: what the virgin Eve bound through her disbelief, Mary loosened by her faith." (CCC#494)

Joël Sprung - 09/12/13

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