As I stated in the last issue of this article, the election of the Virgin Mary is the culminating point of Israel’s progress toward reconciliation with God and God’s final response to this progress with the beginning of new life that comes with the Incarnation of the Word, Jesus. It is Mary’s unconditional response to God’s will that is critical in our understanding of her as the New Eve. She consent allows for the possibility of a humanity that realizes that the Creator totally understands the challenges of human life and renews His promise to be with humans through all the phases of earthly existence. Through the advent of into the world of an incarnate God, the true meaning and purpose of this earthly life is revealed.

Byzantine homiletic and hymnographical texts often praise the Virgin as fully prepared, cleansed, and sanctified. But these texts are to be understood in the context of the doctrine of original sin which prevailed in the East: the inheritance from Adam is mortality, not guilt. There was never any doubt among Byzantine theologians that Mary was indeed a mortal being. The real preoccupation of Western theologians to find in Byzantium ancient authorities for the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception of Mary has often used these passages out of context. Indeed Sophronius of Jerusalem praises Mary: Many saints appeared before you, but non was as filled with grace as you….No one has been purified in advance as you have been…. Andrew of Crete, another of the great Eastern Church Fathers is even more specific, preaching on the Feast of Mary’s Nativity: When the Mother of Him Who is beauty itself is born, [human] nature recovers in her person its ancient privileges, and is fashioned according to a perfect model, truly worthy of God….In a word, the transfiguration of our nature begins today…. This theme, which appears in the liturgical hymns of the Feast of September 8, is further developed by Nicholas Cabasilas in the 14th century: Earth she is, because she is from earth; but she is a new earth, since she derives in no way from her ancestors and has not inherited the old leaven. She is … a new dough and has originated a new race.

Quotations can easily be multiplied, and they give clear indications that the Mariological piety of the Byzantines would probably have led them to accept the definition of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of Mary as it was defined in 1854, if only they had shared the Western doctrine of original sin.

Again, our liturgical practice reflects our Byzantine theology. There is a difference between the East and the West. One approach, however, does not negate the other or suggest the other is untrue!