Mary, Undoer of the Fall, by Bill Kifer

By Bill Kifer, Catholic Exchange, August 6, 2024

Bill Kifer has been an active parishioner in several parishes in Missouri and Kansas, serving as Lector, OCIA instructor, and Confirmation instructor. He most recently completed a study of the four Gospels at Seven Dolors parish in Manhattan, KS.

Every year about nine months before the Solemnity of the Nativity, we celebrate the Solemnity of the Annunciation. In Against Heresies (Book III, Chapter 22), St. Irenaeus describes Mary’s fiat to the Archangel Gabriel as the act that undoes the knot of Eve’s disobedience. In disobeying God, both Adam and Eve bequeathed to their descendants the three-fold concupiscence St. John identifies in his first epistle: Lust of the Flesh, Lust of the Eyes, and the Pride of Life (1 John 2:16).

During the temptation in the desert, Jesus is among “the wild beasts” (Mark 1:13), just as Adam had been. As the New Adam, Christ recapitulates all humanity within Himself and overcomes man’s concupiscence by rejecting Satan’s temptations (Matthew 4:2-11, Luke 4:2-13). …

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