“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” This is the first sentence in the Bible. The first words in the New Testament are: “The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ.” So we read in today’s Gospel.
Why this matching parallel today if not to emphasize that a new genesis took place with the birth of Mary, the new Eve, the mother of Jesus, the Word made Flesh?
Why was there such a long wait between the sin of Eve and the birth of Mary? Was it because of man’s infidelity and constant state of sin? Who knows?
But what I do know is that God remained faithful to his plan. He created man in his own image. Then, at a particular time in history, he sent his son to take on the image of human beings, so that those who remained faithful would “conform to the image of his son.” His divine Son became human so that we could become divine. God is so good, so loving!
The birth of “this first born of many brothers” came about through the cooperation of Mary, the new Eve, full of grace, the bridge between the Old and New Testaments. It is with her birth that the second and final creation took place. Lord, I believe; help my unbelief.